Psalm 40:13-17 “Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD. Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, ‘Aha! Aha!’ Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, ‘Let the LORD be exalted!’ But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.”

Mockers continue to be a problem, and it will only get worse:

2 Peter 3:3-4 “knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.’”

Some make fun of our faith. Some rejoice when we fall. Most don’t understand repentance and restoration. We don’t live for them! We live for God, and it’s okay to ask God for vindication. After all, when we are vindicated, He is vindicated!

For additional worship: I Need Thee Every Hour | Reawaken Hymns

Psalm 40:7-12 “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.’ I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly. Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.”

Reflection is an important part of our relationship with God. We need to look at our lives in light of what God’s Word says. We need to recognize when we fall short. We need to recommit ourselves to putting it in our hearts. We need to share what we know with others. And we need to plead with God for His mercy and help to deal with our own iniquities and the innumerable evils that we face day to day.

James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

For additional worship: Have Thine Own Way, Lord (Megan Parks)

Psalm 40:1-6 “For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies. Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are towards us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted. Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.”

David recognizes that God has heard him, helped him, and established him! In turn, he praises God for His help, His graciousness, and His forgiveness. But why wouldn’t God require offerings and sacrifices? That’s against His law! The point here is that God would rather his people led lives that didn’t need sacrifices and offerings to atone for sin. He wants His people to be holy, but has provided a way to take care of their sin when they aren’t.

We have a perfect sacrifice for our sin. God hears us when we call out to Him for forgiveness through Jesus, and establishes us forever by giving us His Spirit. Once we are His we should know better than to sin, and have the power inside of us to resist sin, but we do still sometimes sin. The glorious, good news is that we are still God’s children because Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is once and for all and for always, and our day-to-day relationship with Him is easily restored. Talk about a reason for praise!

Hebrews 9:12 “nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.”

Hebrews 13:15 “Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.”

For additional worship: He Keeps Me Singing Medley

Psalm 39:9-13 “I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath. Selah. Hear my prayer, LORD, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

In 1 Samuel 13:14 God calls David a man after His own heart. Some wonder if David lost that status later on because of his sin, particularly his sin with Bathsheba. But David wasn’t sinless before God chose him! Sin crops up in all of our lives, even though we try to do our best to follow God. When we sin, it puts up a barrier between us and Him, which is why David says, “for I am a stranger to you.” David continues to be a person after God’s own heart because, when he realizes the full extent of his sin, he turns to God in repentance.

2 Samuel 12:13 “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ “

Psalm 51:3-4 “For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.”

For additional worship: I Need Thee, Precious Jesus

Psalm 39:1-8 “For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David. I said, ‘I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.’ I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burnt. I spoke with my tongue: ‘LORD, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.’ Selah. ‘Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather. Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.’ “

Jeduthun was one of David’s chief musicians:

1 Chronicles 16:41-42 “and with them Heman and Jeduthun and the rest who were chosen, who were mentioned by name, to give thanks to the LORD, because his loving kindness endures forever; and with them Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those that should sound aloud, and with instruments for the songs of God, and the sons of Jeduthun to be at the gate.”

This is very similar to the previous Psalm. David is still experiencing difficulties, perhaps near the end of his life. Here he expresses his desire to not inappropriately express his angst and worry, especially in front of the wicked. He also requests to be reminded of the brevity of life and the weakness of humanity, so that he won’t hesitate to call on God in time of need. After all, our hope is in Him!

For additional worship: Psalm 39 (Show Me My Life’s End) [feat. Nick Poppens]

Psalm 38:17-22 “For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous. They who render evil for good are also adversaries to me, because I follow what is good. Don’t forsake me, LORD. My God, don’t be far from me. Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation.”

We come to God initially through repentance, recognizing our sin. The only way we can continue to have a right relationship with Him is by making sure we acknowledge when we’ve failed and plead for His help and forgiveness.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

For additional worship: Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy | Reawaken Hymns

Psalm 38:9-16 “Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you. My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away. They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long. But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth. Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs. For I hope in you, LORD. You will answer, Lord my God. For I said, ‘Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.’ ”

When we are having difficulty, sometimes our friends and family stay away. Perhaps it’s because they believe our trouble is a just punishment for what we’re experiencing. It might be because they don’t know what to say or how to provide comfort. It might be because they don’t want to experience the trouble we’re having! Regardless, it hurts, especially when others who aren’t our friends are piling on. I think that it’s instructive here that David didn’t respond to those insults, but instead appealed to the one who could defend him.

1 Peter 2:23 “When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.”

For additional worship: Psalm 38 (You Will Answer) by The Psalms Project

Psalm 38:1-8 “A Psalm by David, for a memorial. LORD, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness. I am in pain and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long. For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh. I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.”

How should we respond when we believe our trouble is actually the result of our own sinfulness? When our sin causes us anguish in both body and mind? David shows us the way in this Psalm that apparently accompanied a memorial offering. The memorial offering was an appeal to be remembered by God. After all, God is sovereign and we are completely dependent on His providence in our lives!

For additional worship: Lord, Hear My Cry — A Psalm 38 Worship Song

Psalm 37:35-40 “I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The LORD helps them and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked and saves them, because they have taken refuge in him.”

Generally, if the Israelites followed God as individuals or a nation, they could expect to reap rewards. However, that wasn’t always the case. God did promise blessings for His people, but those blessings were usually tied to their obedience. In addition, sometimes bad things happened to good people and bad people experienced prosperity. The issue of the prosperity of the unrighteous has always been recognized in Scripture. Here we’re reminded that, no matter what happens in life, death comes to all, and only the righteous are promised salvation and a future.

For additional worship: Beyond the Sunset

Psalm 37:30-34 “The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide. The wicked watch the righteous, and seek to kill him. The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait for the LORD, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.”

God’s people should love His Word so much that they marinate in it until it seeps out of every pore! Then our words will be filled with wisdom and righteousness, and we will follow God with our lives.

Proverbs 15:2 “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools gush out folly.”

Psalm 119:11 “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

The “land” we inherit is future. While there are many blessings we experience in life when we follow God, the blessing of a physical kingdom comes later.

Isaiah 62:4 “You will not be called Forsaken any more, nor will your land be called Desolate any more; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD delights in you, and your land will be married.”

For additional worship: Beulah Land (Casting Crowns)