All right, well, it's great to be here.
Let's grab our Bibles at this point.
Maybe you can share with the folks sitting to your left or to your right.
I'm going to try and get a handle on looking at folks over here and over here.
That's not going to be easy.
But we want to all be moving in our Bibles to the 38th Psalm.
And when you get there, you'll see it's a Psalm of David, the 38th Psalm.
The Psalms are these great sections in our Bibles that I think all of us are really glad that God has left for us.
I'd say most of us this morning are probably in love with the Psalms.
The Puritans, if you've ever read those men, they used to call these Psalms God's great medicine chest for our hearts.
In the sense that when we're opening them up, we find that there's things in there that soothe us.
And much the same as myself this morning when I woke and there was this croak in my throat and I was rummaging around for Beecham's and so on.
And often when we hit crisis point in our homes and lives, we turn to the Psalms and we find that there's things in there that soothe, I suppose, these answers to queries that we have that God knows that we need.
And so maybe, for instance, I don't know, we've been watching the news, there's no doubt we've been doing over the course of the last number of weeks,
and we're thinking of all of these bombs that are raining down from a great height on IS.
And there's this sense, at least in my heart, that it's not making a button of difference at all.
There's still all of these threats like last night on the London Tube or even over in the west coast of the States.
And so suddenly, you see, we're maybe climbing the pole and we're getting worried for our kids.
We're thinking of their lives.
We're wondering if all of this is going to come to these streets.
And yet, do not be fretting, Psalm 37, this is a great text,
you're not to be fretting, Psalm 37, over men that are evil or be envious, as he adds, of all of those who do wrong,
for they are like the grass, and they wither, and they're gone, and just like green plants, they will die, as he says.
And so straight from the throne, you see, when we get into the Psalms,
and even in this instance of fear, as we're saying, there's this wonderful, rich perspective
that our Father knows that we need, as if we came for the medicine, you see.
And the Father, as it were, he delved all the way into his cabinet of truth.
That's the sense that this gives to us.
And then maybe much the same thing when we're getting a little too big for our boots,
some have lost a sense of, I don't know, a sense of perspective,
or a sense of wonder over the interest of the Father.
And for once, we were so staggered that one so great and out of this world could love me
and shower over me his interest and his affection, and his mercies, and his time,
and all of his interest even in our families and our homes.
And we remember some Sundays when that thought on its own made us praise.
We were sitting in our seats saying,
this is amazing, I have a Father and he loves me.
But maybe not now.
And we've moved on from those times, and the years have been passing,
and we've kind of been rolling in on Sundays and growing up in the church.
And if we're being honest, the wonder is kind of a way, and it's gone.
There's no more sense of amazement in his kindness and his care,
mainly maybe due to the crises that have risen up and stolen our minds.
I don't know what's going on in your lives,
but we would concede, wouldn't we, that life's events end up stealing our minds.
Or maybe we've been thinking about all of the things that are just transient and passing,
like our houses and exams and our pensions and our mortgages and our interests and our sports teams
and all of these things.
And God, if we were being honest, is kind of shunted to the side.
And this is the way that it is.
We would know this.
And then maybe one night, who's to say, over the course of the winter,
when you're walking under the stars and there are all of these lights,
even millions and billions of them,
and the moon is just hanging there.
Or maybe there's a sunset and it gets you.
And suddenly you see the doors to the medicine cabinet have kind of swung back on their hinges,
because when I consider your heavens, we will say,
and the moon and the stars that you have set in their place,
well, hold on.
What is man that you are mindful of him?
Or the son of man that you would be caring for me?
That's the eighth psalm.
And suddenly you're away and your spirit is lifted and the medicine from the psalmist just hits the spot.
Do you see what we're saying?
And on and on in that kind of sense,
we could go exploring all sorts of different medicines that the psalmist has kindly left
for our churches and our lives.
And actually here it's the same this morning.
It's basically the same for us in the 38th psalm,
because Lord, David is saying,
don't rebuke me in your anger or discipline me, he says, in your wrath,
which we could say is a shot of medicine for those who've kind of wandered away from God's ways
and they've been up to their ears in all kinds of pursuits,
which is maybe the case for some of us this morning,
or maybe a psalmist that we're to tuck away for the future and keep in our minds
when all of your closeness with the Father is gone.
Don't rebuke me, he says,
for your arrows have pierced me, he says,
and your hand has come down on me,
and because of your wrath there's no health in my body
and even no soundness in my bones because of all of my sin.
My guilt has overwhelmed me, he says,
like a burden too heavy to bear.
My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.
I'm bowed down and brought low,
and all the day long I am mourning.
My back is filled with a searing pain.
There's no health in my body.
I am feeble and utterly crushed.
I groan in anguish of heart,
and all of my longings lie open before you, Lord.
My sighing isn't hidden from you.
My heart pounds.
My strength fails me.
Even the light has gone out from my eyes.
My friends avoid me because of my wounds.
My neighbors stay far away,
and then those who want to kill me set their traps.
Those who would harm me talk of my ruin,
and all the day long they scheme and they lie.
Oh, I'm like the deaf, he says, who cannot hear,
and like the mute who cannot speak,
and I become like one who doesn't hear
and whose mouth can offer no reply.
But Lord, I wait for you,
and you will answer, Lord my God.
For I said, do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me
when my feet slip, for I'm about to fall,
and my pain is ever with me.
I confess my sins.
I'm troubled by them.
And many have become my enemies without cause,
and those who hate me without reason are numerous.
Those who repay my good will,
with evil, lodge accusations against me,
even though I seek only to do what is good.
Lord, do not forsake me.
Do not be far from me, my God.
Come quickly to help me,
my Lord and my Savior.
Psalm 38, one of seven penitential Psalms
that are all over the Psalter.
We've got Psalms 6 and 32.
51 is another one.
103.
130 is the fifth one,
which of the seven in the cluster
is probably the most famous of all of them,
because if you, Lord, kept a record of our sins,
who could stand?
And so out of the depths,
I cried out to you, Lord, for mercy,
and with you there's forgiveness,
and so you're to be feared.
Psalm 130.
Psalm 143, then, is the seventh.
And all seven, as we're saying,
are often labeled as Psalms of penitence,
where there's this sorrow in his heart,
and there are even tears in his eyes,
this sense of contrition and sadness,
because of all of his failures and his sins.
As if, as one writer puts it,
the psalmist's whole life, he says,
is like a bruise, a bruise,
which is surely an analogy which helps us along
in at least some of our minds,
maybe some of us thinking back to football practice
last Tuesday when someone kicked us in the shins,
or they ran their studs over our thighs,
or maybe they stamped on our toes,
and now there's this throbbing pain in our toes,
and yet here's a man bruised, Psalm 38,
from his head to his toes.
That's what he's saying.
And every which way there's this soreness
and this grief and all manner of discomforts
that are all over his mind,
and even his body, he says,
and on into his soul,
and the cause, as he says,
is his sin.
It's his sin.
And hence this psalm that we're in
gets a place in the cluster of seven,
where we're shown in this text
the true state of our hearts
and how Christians,
who are real Christians,
are going to feel about that inside.
Now, let me ask you,
where do we go when God himself is offended?
What do we do in those days?
And the reason he's offended
has got nothing to do with anyone else,
but it's me.
We've come out here to church this morning,
and no one around us can see it,
and yet hidden away in your heart
there's this pile,
this whole pile of if-onlys.
If only, Graham,
if only I had kept myself pure,
or if only I could change
the whole story of my life
till this point,
if only I could get back
all of the years that I've wasted.
We look back in our teens,
and maybe all of the times
when there wasn't a closeness with Jesus,
and your conscience is seared,
and there's this sense of your guilt.
I mean, when I was driving here this morning,
I was thinking about the state of my prayers,
the inconsistency of my prayers,
the lack of endurance at times
in my own prayers.
And so what have you got, David,
for me in this psalm?
Well, in terms of your sin,
he'd say, Graham,
there's a need, firstly,
to feel, he says.
Now, if you're taking notes,
you can just scribble these down.
A need to feel it,
which is the sense that he leaves,
you'll see this literally all over,
the psalm as he writes,
though the occasion itself isn't mentioned.
And probably no bad thing in a sense,
given if we knew it for sure
that this came after Bathsheba,
well, we would be saying to a man,
wouldn't we, David,
is it any wonder you were feeling it?
I mean, that was a sin
that ended in the loss of a life
and the child and all the mess
and your family and the shame
that came down in the name of the Lord.
And so surely we'd be looking
from a great height down our noses
and saying in our pride,
listen, surely it's obvious
we're not the same.
We're not the same.
This is a guy who is not in our league.
He did things that disgust me.
His sins are worse than our own.
And so God in his providence,
you see, he just sets the sin to the side.
We don't know.
And now it might well be,
who's to say,
a loss of temper in his marriage.
It might be.
He got up in the morning,
he just blew a gasket with his wife
or a failure to rear his kids
as he ought to have been doing in his home.
Some thoughts that were lustful
or maybe like me,
a loss of passion in his prayers.
Maybe a love in his heart
for all of his money.
As in all of the things
we're seeing all the time
in our own lives.
And because there's this silence,
well, the psalm is now saying
something like this.
Graham, now listen to me.
Is it the case
that you are so close to the Lord
and you're living your life
all the time in his ways
and living in submission
to the work of the Spirit
and you're passionate about big things
like being holy for Jesus,
that sin,
your own sin,
any sin,
is so serious to you
that it leads you
to a brokenness?
Do you feel?
In verse 1, we might say,
you'll see this sets the tone
for the psalm
where he's clear on his standing.
He's worked it all out
in his thoughts
that intellectually
and theologically speaking,
he knows the Lord is offended.
Verse 2 starts to come.
Not only he knows it,
but he feels it.
There are symptoms of a conscience.
I mean, could we say it this morning
as a truism?
I don't know you.
As a truism of this church
and all of our lives,
that we've got more than theology
and a bunch of thoughts
in our minds
because we're so tender
to the Spirit
that we've got a conscience
that feels.
Do you feel it?
He thinks and he feels.
It's in his mind,
but it's also in his heart.
He's been studying the Scriptures
and those same Scriptures
are now shaping his life.
And so clearly he knows
in verse 1,
God is offended.
And now here is an insight
he's saying
into how that truth
made me feel.
That's what he's saying.
Or this is how
the whole experience
of this sinfulness
made me feel.
We could put it in those terms.
Like when you're pursuing it
and from a distance
it looks to you
like it's amazing.
Much the same as the fruit
in the Garden of Eden.
And David is saying to us,
no, no, no.
No, listen to me.
Because sin,
in the first instance,
he says,
it was so draining for me.
Now there are three things here.
This is the first one
we're going to see in our Bibles
in Psalm 38.
And verse 4.
Jesus' yoke,
of course,
being easy.
His burden is light.
And how we're thankful
this morning,
aren't we,
if that's the experience
of our lives.
We're living with
this sense of freedom
and this peace
in his ways.
And sure,
there are all of these rules,
but God,
we know,
has given them to us
for our good.
But David says,
now,
life apart from all of that,
it was draining for me.
And in what sense?
Well,
in this sense,
he rules it all out
in verse 4
for our minds
that he did
whatever it was
that he did
and then he gets up
in the morning,
he was probably
sitting over his Cheerios,
eating his breakfast,
and he was mulling
over the events
or maybe some of the words
that he exchanged.
Maybe it was the day
that he looked
from the roof
from Bathsheba
and Nathan has been
and clearly he knows
it was me
and so does the Lord.
I mean,
he saw it all
from his throne.
That experience,
David is saying,
it was like a burden
too heavy for me.
It's in the fourth verse.
It's this image,
we could say,
if this makes sense to us,
of what happens
in gyms.
Maybe some of you
young lads
are pumping iron
in the evenings
and there's this weakling
in the corner,
which was probably me,
and he's over there
lifting weights
for what,
the first time
in five years
and he's so conscious
of others
so he's piling the discs
onto the bar
and then he goes
for the lift
and he takes the bar
in his hands
and his knees
are going sideways
and both of his eyes
have popped out
and much the same
as he says up the page
in verse 2
where the hand
of the Lord,
he says,
it's come down
upon me.
You see what he's
saying there?
Which is different
from the hand
of a mother,
say,
who guides.
Like, say,
after the service
and there's danger
from cars
and so out comes
the mother's hand
and she leads
and she guides.
That's a great experience.
Or maybe
an arm on the shoulder
from your friend.
You've been living
your own nightmare
and there's this arm.
What is it saying?
Well, probably it's saying,
hey, I'm here for you.
We can pray about this.
And to a man
we would all say,
that's a great experience.
Or even the hand
that comes out
on a Sunday
because this is
your first time
in this church
and there's a steward
at the door
and he greets you
and he looks you
in the eye
and he welcomes you.
It's great to see you.
And again,
we would all be saying,
that's an amazing experience.
But right here
in this text,
God's disciplining hand
is in view.
And down it comes
from his throne.
Look at verse 8.
I am crushed,
he says.
It's like a weight.
My God is against me.
My sin is exposed.
I've offended the Lord.
Oh, my guilt
is so terribly heavy
and wearisome to me.
That's what he's saying.
Number two,
he says,
it's gross.
My experience
that I thought
would be the best
of all thrills,
it turned out
in the end
to be massively draining
and really gross.
Given the image
he leaves in verse 5
of a wound.
It may be much
the same thing
as the one
I've got this morning
tingling away
on the back of my leg.
For I too
was playing football
last Tuesday
and someone
kicked me good and hard.
You could call it
a lack of respect
for the pastor
and he just came
right through me
and this wound
has been weeping
and it's been scabbing
and so on.
And so what David
is saying, you see,
is probably something
like this.
That this sin
in my life
and all of this guilt,
this shame
that I'm experiencing,
when you compare it
to God's sweet ways,
oh,
it was loathsome
to me.
That's what that means.
Number three,
he says,
it was depressing
and constant.
This experience
of guilt
was draining.
It was gross.
Here in the sixth verse,
it was depressing
and it was constant.
For I'm bowed down,
he says,
and brought low
all the time,
all of the time,
morning,
mealtimes,
times with the Father,
especially in the evening
when he was away
in his bed,
times with friends,
the journey to work,
even here on a Sunday,
and all the while,
it's just in there.
I'm not in step
with the Father.
I know this just
is not his will
for my life.
And not by the way
that this is the way
that it always is
in our lives.
You know these Christians
who are always dejected
and they're miserable
and they're glum
and they're negative
and I mean,
you speak to them
and it's like
the Schumer gene
has been taken out
and so we never have
Cayleys
and we can never
tell any jokes
and we can never
let our hair down
and come to think of it,
how could we?
Because we're always
crying into our coffees.
That's not what this is,
but do you ever
mourn?
Like, ever.
Do you feel it?
Have you a conscience
that speaks to you?
Are we finding
that the longer
we're walking with Jesus
we're more tolerant
or possibly less tolerant
men of our wandering eyes?
Or your words
and your sentences
that are harsh,
your tones,
and maybe the whole
of the day
you've just been
letting fly at your wife.
And to you,
this is normal.
There's no sense
of conviction.
David would say to you,
you need to know
that's not right.
Something is wrong.
This is Spurgeon.
He says this to us.
I wish I could write
this stuff,
but I can't.
He says this to us.
Beware of light thoughts
of sin,
he says.
I think this is a paraphrase
of what he said.
For at the time we're saved,
the conscience is usually
so tender,
and many of us
are scared of,
even the slightest
of our sins,
a holy timidity,
lest we should ever offend
the great God
of our lives.
But time,
he says,
brings change.
And where once
we were scared
by the sin of our hearts,
we can get to a point
of being completely unmoved,
like the ear,
he says,
of a soldier
in which the cannon
has been booming.
But then gradually
through time,
he rarely picks up
on that sound.
That's a great statement.
Now also,
as David says,
number two,
it just might be,
it might be
that we suffer.
It might well be,
it's both,
he's saying,
that we feel it
and we suffer.
For,
because of your wrath,
there's no health.
In verse three,
now what is he saying to us?
My bones are lacking
a soundness
because of all of my sin.
My back is filled,
in verse seven,
with pains.
My heart pounds,
the tenth verse.
The light has gone out
from my eyes.
My pain,
in verse 17,
he says,
it's ever before me.
Now we know,
John's a good teacher,
so he'll have told you this,
we know in our Bibles
that illness and disease
are not always a result
of our wanderings
and our sins.
We would know that.
I mean,
we're getting a sneeze
or maybe something
that's worse.
What are we saying?
That if we're sneezing
in church this morning,
oh,
he's been guilty of something,
he's done something
in his home.
A little cough in the corner,
he seems to have a rash
on his arm.
He's been up to no good.
He's been sinning.
That's not what this is.
No one was sinless
like Jesus,
but no one suffered
like him.
Job,
another,
a man who was righteous
as it says,
few men in our world
ever suffered
like him.
And then even Jesus
and the blind man
and John 9,
who sinned,
was it him or his parents?
It was neither of them.
And so clearly,
we just can't always say
that a dose of sickness
means sin.
But here's the point.
It might be.
Which is probably
one of those thoughts
that doesn't easily sit,
does it,
with our minds.
We don't like that.
Paul's letter to Corinth,
for instance,
some of you have got sick,
he says.
Some of you,
some of you,
he said,
even have died,
and all because
they were messing around
with the bread
and the wine.
A lacking of a love
for Jesus,
a reverence,
a sense of reverence
and worship
and an honor
for the Lord.
And so suddenly,
there was this discipline
in the form of sickness
and even death,
which is one of those texts
we can hardly even believe
it's in here.
I picked this up
a few months back
from Kevin DeYoung,
and he picked it up
from James Montgomery Boyce.
This is good for us.
Four questions to ask
his boys
in a season
when there's a sickness
that's come.
Now listen to this.
Number one,
have I sinned
and wandered away
from what I ought
to be doing,
and is this setback
God's loving way
of drawing me back
to the fold?
Now, again,
that's a good question.
Although,
as we were saying
at the start,
not in the sense
of tying ourselves
up in knots
and, you know,
what on earth
did I do?
I've broken my arm.
Graham was saying
on Sunday,
this is a punishment
from the Father.
It's not that,
but rather more
in the sense
of keeping a check,
a good check,
on your soul.
Is there anything?
Maybe there's not.
In which case,
that's okay.
Move on.
Number two,
is God using
this illness
to deal with
rough edges in me
in order that in time
a Christ-like character
might come?
Again,
a great question.
Three,
is God using
my suffering
as a kind of a stage
in which
his wisdom
and his grace
and his name
might be praised?
It might be.
Four,
is this season
a time for me
to finally prove
that I love him
for who he is
and not the gifts
that he gives
and not even
the wonderful,
amazing gift
of my health?
That's a test.
David says in this psalm,
and aren't we grateful
that he is so raw
and honest with us here
that our Father in Heaven
brings discipline
into our lives.
And often when we're off,
we're just off
and we're away
in the world
and there's sin
and he's Father
and so he picks up
on these dangers
and so suddenly
he comes
and sometimes
even into our bodies,
even our bonds
with other people
as he says
in verse 11,
relationships.
And so maybe,
you know,
there are some of us
sitting here in church
as we speak
and a hardness
in recent years
has come all the way
into our hearts
and we're far
from the Lord Jesus
and we're wandering away.
We've long since
forsaken all of his teachings
and his rules
and yet here is this psalm
that comes right out
of the lips
of David the sinner.
God isn't mocked.
And painful
and serious suffering
from the throne
might be known
and all in the shape
of a discipline
from the Father
who loves you.
He loves you
because he really,
really cares.
And so this is a man
who felt contrition
over his sin.
Surely he was also a man
who ended up suffering
due to his sin.
Thirdly,
and we see this,
he clearly responded
well to his sin
which is obviously
the climax
that David is building to
as he writes
and probably the ending
if we were being honest
that we're glad
is in this psalm.
I mean,
how would we feel
if we just wandered off
now with our tails
between our legs
to our homes?
And so,
if it is the case
that there is sin
or there will be
maybe next week
or into next month
or next year,
whenever it is,
well then,
here's three prayers
that we can pray
at that time
as we finish.
Prayer number one,
this is the first one,
it was me,
which is the statement
that he makes
at the end of verse 3,
isn't it?
I have no soundness
in my bones
because of what?
Because of my parents?
No,
not my parents.
He doesn't say that.
Okay then,
I have no soundness
in my bones,
Lord,
because of all
of my genes.
He doesn't say that.
Or because
there were pressures
coming at me
from every corner
of my campus,
my school,
my office,
wherever it is,
it isn't in here.
No,
I have no soundness
in my bones,
he says,
because of all
of my sin.
That's a good prayer.
It was me,
Lord.
No verbal gymnastics.
There's no fancy,
vague-sounding formulas.
My life,
my sin,
my rebellion,
my shame.
It was me.
Prayer number two,
I'm sorry,
the 18th verse.
It was me.
I'm sorry.
I confess to you.
I'm sure in my mind,
Lord,
you must be offended.
I'm coming to you.
This word here for sin,
just to quickly comment
on it in the passing,
this is a word
that refers to
our natures
being bent
out of shape,
twisted,
iniquitous,
a perverseness.
It's that sense,
like,
when you career
into a lamppost
on your bike
in a dark night
and so you walk
to your house,
you bring the sorry bike
into the garage,
you switch on the lights,
you can see the whole thing
is twisted.
The frame,
the spokes,
all of it,
it's iniquitous,
it's twisted,
and not quite in the shape
it was intended to be.
David's just saying here,
that's me in this text,
I'm sorry,
Lord,
I'm not what I ought to be.
Thirdly,
I need you,
which is clearly
the conclusion
that he gets to
at the end.
It was me.
I'm sorry,
Lord,
what I really need
is you.
Come close to me.
Don't forsake me.
Lord,
I'm needing your help here.
This is not good.
I need you,
not on Monday
or Tuesday
or next week,
but quickly,
as he says,
even now in these,
right now in these moments,
come,
Lord,
forgive me.
Give me the grace
that I need.
Wash me again
so that I might be clean.
I want to walk with you.
I want to obey you.
I want to honor you.
Be close to you.
I want to live my life
always,
Father,
for the praise
of your name alone.
You can pray that prayer.
If we confess our sins,
says John,
he is faithful.
He's a good God
and he is just
and he will forgive us
all our sins
and cleanse us
from literally
every last remnant
of unrighteousness
so that,
just like David,
we can experience
his grace
and live our lives
for him
again.
This is the 38th Psalm.
Well,
just pray briefly
and then you can come,
John.
Father,
we praise you
for the Psalms.
We thank you,
more importantly,
for your fatherly love.
Thank you that you are for us,
that you are with us.
Thank you that your love
remains even when we stray.
We pray that you would be good
to us today
and you would draw us
closer to you
than we have ever been
and may we give
everything
that we have
back to the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords
that from this point on
you might have our best.
And we pray this
in Jesus' good name.
Amen.