3/30/03 -- L4 INI Psalm 39

Dear Fellow Redeemed by the blood of God,

What is more pleasing to the eye -- a tic-tac-toe board, drawn on paper or the portrait of the human face? -- a straight line or a curved line? The answer is obvious. So also, wood-workers recognized long ago that furniture, cabinets, and woodwork are made more attractive by curves carved and cut into the wood.

Years ago I to built a deacons' bench out of old fur and oak. My jig-saw burned out and I had to finish cutting the curved end-pieces of the bench with what is called a "coping saw." The coping saw has a narrow blade in a U-shape frame for cutting curved lines. Looking ahead to the finished product, I had decided that curved end-pieces would be more attractive than straight lines. So the coping saw became necessary to "cope" or manage the desired curves.

Our Lord God has designed our Christian lives to bring us to Himself in heaven. If the wood-worker or the artist knows that curves are better than straight lines, then He Who is designing us for heaven will certainly fill our lives with more difficult curves than with simple, straight lines. So Paul tells us in Acts 14:22: "We must through much tribulation enter inter the kingdom of God." Our text this morning teach us



HOW TO "COPE" THE CURVES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

I.

God gave David the words to this Psalm during one of David's many trials in life. Perhaps he was suffering some physical distress. Possibly David felt betrayed by long-time friends who were not speaking against him. Maybe he was having trouble accepting the fact that the wicked seemed to prosper in all they did, while he experienced one sorrow after another. Whatever David his experience was at this particular time, he was being plagued by unbelieving thoughts and tempted to complain against God.

We all are familiar with David's experience. We've also been tempted to complain to God in unbelief as we try to manage the difficult curves of our earthly lives. How shall we get safely around them? David's first concern in coping the curve was to guard his tongue.

He didn't want to grumble about his problems in the presence of the wicked or the unbelieving. Tongue-sins are great sins, especially when what we say leads sinners away from God. If we go on about our problems and sorrows, do you think the weak or the unbelieving will want to get to know our Lord better? Hardly! They will rather think, "What a fool this Christian is; his God and his faith make him miserable, yet he clings to it!" And if God's own children speak against His treatment of them, will not God's enemies mock Him even more? So let us also guard our tongues, lest we lead others to mock our God and be driven from their only Savior!

On the other hand, may God keep us from the extreme mentioned in v. 2. David held his peace 'even from good." In trying to avoid one sin, he fell into another. Perhaps David thought if he quit speaking altogether, he would avoid the sin of the tongue against God. And yet, if we become sullen and completely silent to those around us, how shall we do good by speaking of our God and His Word to our neighbor?

David's extreme silence did nothing to help his situation. Instead, with every moment David tried to keep his conflict to himself, he was increasing the temperature within, until the pressure mounted and the gag was blown away from his mouth-- "then he spoke with His tongue." Total silence in affliction is awful and unnecessary for the Christian. We have free access to the throne of grace where our Lord waits for us to unload our burdens!

But more important than merely unloading our burdens to God, is our attitude. Did David finally explode in a sinful and ungrateful complaint against God? No. His next words are a humble prayer that the Lord would cause him to

II.

Know what is really "nothing" in this life. David prays that he may be convinced of the foolishness of those worldly concerns that had been burning him up inside. In vs. 4-5, he asks for help in remembering how mortal and frail he is. If he could only remember that god had made all his days on earth to be no more than "handbreadths" -- the width of four fingers -- then he would not be so bothered by his loss of this world's things, which must be left behind anyway. Isn't this often the reason we have so much trouble coping the curves of our Christian lives? O that the Lord would make us know how frail and passing we truly are?

Surely we all should say with David, "My age is nothing before You." Compared to the eternal God, the age of frail man is less than one tick of a clock -- man is nothing!

"And certainly, every man at his best is but vapor." David doesn't say that man at his worst, or the average man, but man at his very BEST is nothing but gas! Everything about man from the best of his race to the worst has as little substance as the calmest wind. This is sad news for those whose treasures are on earth, and who think that by their hard work they can "have it all." Those who glory in themselves ought to hang the flag at half-mast, for that self in which they trust is no more than a vapor. For "surely," David says, "every man walks about as a shadow (phantom)." (v. 6)

Worldly people fret and fume -- all for nothing! "Surely they busy themselves for nothing" David says. They are nothings pursuing nothings -- phantoms pursuing phantoms -- while the phantom of death pursues them! What could the Christian possibly lack in this world of vapor and shadows that should cause us real or prolonged distress? If man is nothing, and the world is nothing, the Christian needs only one thing to cope the curves of his Christian life:

III.

Hope in the Lord! . . . "What am I waiting for?" David asks. -- A good question for us to ask ourselves. What do we wait for so impatiently in our troubles? Is it our great hope that the Lord will get busy and restore financial prosperity, or our health, or perhaps shut the mouths of our enemies? This is not hoping "in the Lord." This is hoping in the thing itself, which is no way to cope the curves of our Christian lives.

But to ask our Lord for forgiveness or deliverance from all our transgressions -- this is hoping in the Lord! To recognize as David says in v. 9, that God is the One "who did it," and God is the One who must "remove" the misery -- this is hoping in the Lord. To accept the truth that when God sends some trouble or misery upon us, He desires to correct us and turn us from sin (v. 11) -- this is hoping in the Lord.

We may regard ourselves as full of beauty and goodness when compared with others. So we are in danger of forgetting the grace of our God. But as a moth eats away at a beautiful piece of cloth, leaving it worn and worthless, so God uses various chastisements and trials to eat away at our foolish pride and make us see our nothingness, and to make us feel like worn out, worthless garments. So He did with David, with Job, and countless others before us. Our Lord's design for us is that through our suffering we may learn the more to cast ourselves and our care upon Him in faith's hope.

That's why David prays in the closing verses: "Do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with You, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Remove your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, before I go away and am no more." David uses the fleeting nature of his earthly life as an argument for the Lord's mercy. This is the argument our Lord loves to hear from us: "Help, Lord! Unless you spare me by turning your angry face from me and giving me some breathing time, I will perish!"

We, like David, and every Christian before us, are all passing through the life of this world -- We are not here to stay. In this world, we are "strangers with the Lord." Our real "citizenship is in heaven" (Phil. 3:20) Rejoicing in this certain hope, we will guard our tongues in time of trial. We will recognize the "nothings" of frail, human life and passing riches. So may our gracious Lord help us all to cope the curves of the Christian life, that He may complete His beautiful and heavenly work in us to His own glory and our eternal joy. Amen.