O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
     nor discipline me in your wrath!
For your arrows have sunk into me,
    and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh

     because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

     because of my sin.

For my iniquities have gone over my head;

     like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

My wounds stink and fester

     because of my foolishness,

I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;

     all the day I go about mourning.

For my sides are filled with burning,

     and there is no soundness in my flesh.

I am feeble and crushed;

     I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

O Lord, all my longing is before you;

     my sighing is not hidden from you.

My heart throbs; my strength fails me,

     and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,

     and my nearest kin stand far off.

Those who seek my life lay their snares;

     those who seek my hurt speak of ruin

     and meditate treachery all day long.

But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,

     like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

I have become like a man who does not hear,

     and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

But for you, O LORD, do I wait;

     it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me,

     who boast against me when my foot slips!”

For I am ready to fall,

     and my pain is ever before me.

I confess my iniquity;

     I am sorry for my sin.

But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty,

     and many are those who hate me wrongfully.

Those who render me evil for good

     accuse me because I follow after good.

Do not forsake me, O LORD!

     O my God, be not far from me!

Make haste to help me,

     O Lord, my salvation!—Psalm 38 

Fill These Cities Update

1. Financial Update

I want to share with you the latest numbers in our Fill These Cities initiative. Expectation management is necessary. This is an interim, in-process report. We know that this is a process, and I have personally talked to many who are still praying for God to make it clear what they should give. But it is helpful to give a snapshot of where we are today:

• 1,118 unique households have made a total of 1,208 Fill These Cities commitments (the difference is commitments from minor and adult children with some households)

• $16,262,985 in commitments from these 1,118 households

• Our strong encouragement and desire for at least another 1,000 Bethlehem households to complete their Fill These Cities commitments—from every household that considers Bethlehem to be their home church.

I want to thank God for these 1,118 households who have turned in their 25-month commitments, and the approximately 50% increase in generosity (on average) over the amount given to Church & Missions by those same 1,118 households in the previous 25-month period (from October 2014 through October 2016).

2. Why do we care about this?

Do we just care about money? No. We are not a church that is devoted to nickels and noses—we care about souls. We care about giving because giving shows that someone understands the gospel.

Example: Soccer. If you saw someone pick up a soccer ball and run to the other end and throw it into the goal, you would question whether or not he understood soccer. If someone was going to do a bunt in baseball and they tried to hit the ball with their head, you would question whether or not he understood bunting, or baseball for that matter. The helmet is to protect you in case you get hit by the ball, not so that you can try to hit the ball! In the same way, if people don’t give, the Bible questions whether or not you really understand and believe the gospel. Generous people are gripped by the generosity of God. Giving is a test of knowing the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us! Do we see how much he has given? Do we believe his promise to supply our every need (Philippians 4:19) or do we believe that we have to provide security for ourselves with our money?

3. Where are we going from here?

November, December, January: Let me explain what will happen in the next three months: (1) November focuses on intended giving, (2) December focuses on actual giving, and (3) January will focus on looking at the intended and actual giving, and prayerfully proposing a plan for the congregation to vote upon at the January All-Church Quarterly Strategy meeting.

Here is example to help picture the way forward. As a family, we believe that God has called us to drive to San Diego. Our GPS has an estimated arrival time, but we know it is dependent on many factors—how fast we go, how many times we need to stop and use the bathroom, etc. We are stirred with conviction that we are called to these four things: strengthen the core, build a permanent facility South, plant 25 churches, engage 25 unengaged people groups. When we talk about building the South Campus, we know we are going there, we just don’t know how long it is going to take. In part, it will depend upon December giving and how fast we accelerate. Our prayerful aspiration has been $7M. We want this to be the biggest month of giving we have ever had in Bethlehem’s history. We want God to work it into your hearts to step on the gas—pedal to the metal. We are trusting God, joyfully trusting God with all of that.

Advent Introduction

The theme for advent this year is the “Dark Before the Dawn.” That phrase is the name of a song by Andrew Petersen. Here is the chorus of the song:

This is the storm, this is the storm

The storm before the calm

This is the pain, the pain before the balm

This is the cold, the cold

It's the cold before the warm

These are the tears, the tears before the song
This is the dark …

Sometimes all I see is this darkness

Well, can't you feel the darkness

This is the dark before the dawn

We see the storm and hear the winds howl around us. We feel the pain. We shiver at the cold. The tears fall. We look into the darkness and we feel it surround us—it seems like it swallows us. But this song testifies to a powerful biblical truth. Darkness and pain and tears and cold and storms are all real, but they are temporary. These things are not only passing, they are preparatory. They are setting the stage for something. The storm precedes the calm; the pain comes before the balm. The cold gives way to the warm, and the song will replace the tears. So much of what we experience in this fallen world is dark, but it is the dark before the dawn.

Dear friends, Advent is a season of hope. We need to name the moment in which we live. Don’t reduce it all to darkness; call it the darkness before the dawn. Every day we see this rhythm. The night may seem longer than usual in these winter months, but we know that morning will come. The darkness always gives way to the day.

Once again I would like to encourage you to invite your friends and neighbors to church during this Advent season. There is still a surprising seasonal willingness to attend church during the Christmas season. Redeem the time and make the most of this seasonal openness. I try to enter more fully into the mind of unbelievers and I give more space in the sermons to consider and answer their objections. I work harder than ever to use language that any non-churched person could understand. If you are here checking out Bethlehem and are not a follower of Jesus, let me speak to you directly for a moment.

The Bible addresses life where it is—not just where it should be. It is the most realistic book in the world. It doesn’t glamorize its authors or try to hide their warts and their weaknesses and their imperfections. In fact, the next four Psalms we will look at all deal with hard struggles that came because one of the heroes of the Bible acted so miserably against God that he had to humble himself and confess that he was in the wrong. He pleaded with God to rescue him from the pit he dug for himself.

The structure of the Psalm is very straightforward. There is an initial plea (v. 1), a lament (vv. 2–20), and then a final plea (vv. 21–22).

Outline:

1. Stop the Discipline (v. 1)
2. See the Pain (vv. 2–20)
3. Save Me Quickly (vv. 21–22)

The logic here may catch you off guard. Let’s try to follow it together. The psalmist has sinned against God and has received a discipline from God as a result (sickness). He fully acknowledges that he deserves this discipline. But his enemies have taken this sickness and twisted it to say something that is not true: The King is a pretender and God is not on his side. This is unfair, undeserved, unjust opposition. So he is caught between a rock (sickness that he deserves) and a hard place (persecution that he does not deserve). How should he respond? He asks God to stop discipline (that he deserves) in order to rescue him from the persecution (that he does not deserve). He prays like this: “Lord, take note of my sufferings I don’t deserve so you will see them and mercifully put a stop to the sickness that I do deserve. He asks God for a total rescue: Reprieve for himself and a rebuke for his opponents.

Stop the Discipline  (v. 1)

O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!

The Psalmist makes this same exact point in Psalm 6:1 (in English, it is translated as identical in the ESV): “O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” Look what he is saying and what he is not saying. He is not telling God that his discipline is unfair and that he should not be angry or full of wrath. He is not shaking his fist at God and saying, “How dare you discipline me?” Verse 1 is not a command, it is a prayer—a desperate plea asking for the discipline to cease. Enough, please!

See the Pain (vv. 2–20) 

I think this long lament divides naturally into two sections. The first one is a long description of David’s physical condition (like telling the doctor all of your symptoms, verses 2–10). The second one describes how other people have responded to him (both friends and foes, verses 11–20). I think we are struck right away by verse 2. The words themselves are like arrows that stick into the reader:

For your arrows have sunk into me, 

     and your hand has come down on me.

God is a warrior that goes to war against David. He has taken aim at David. His arrows found their mark and then he came over with mighty hand and landed a heavy blow on David—like hand-to-hand combat. David makes it very clear why this attack came.

Verse 3:

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; 

     there is no health in my bones because of my sin.

Verse 4:

For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

Verse 5:

My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness.

One commentator says that the word here for “foolishness” means a “fat head,” or a “ceaselessly flippant person who can take nothing seriously” (Alec Motyer, Psalms by the Day, p. 100).

These verses are so important. It could be that David knows that he sinned and then God sent the sickness. But it is far more likely (especially with the word about being a foolish fat head) that God sent the sickness in order to wake David up to his sin. In other words, the sickness was like a smelling salt that jolted David back to his senses to see his sin. We are all slow and thick-headed like this, and sometimes we need God’s very direct intervention.

This is not a psalm about how mean-spirited God is; it is a psalm about how thick-headed we are. Good news: God will do whatever it takes to get through to thick-headed, hard-hearted sinners who don’t take their sin seriously! This is love.

This is important because no one should draw the conclusion that all sickness is a punishment. Most sickness is not a punishment. It is not as if you have to become morbidly introspective every time you get a cold or break a bone or something more severe like being diagnosed with cancer. This is a real danger because physical sickness often has an effect upon our mental state. James Montgomery Boice wisely warns that sickness can lead to depression and in that depressed state we can imagine connections between our past sins and our present sickness (Boice, Psalms 1–41, p. 332).

Sickness came into the world because sin entered into the world. But that doesn’t mean that sickness and sin are always directly connected as explicit cause and effect in every instance. Remember the Bible’s teaching about Job (people tried to convince him that he was suffering because of sin, and he was not). Job was proof before Satan that someone can love God the Blessed God for who he is, not just for the blessing that God gives in terms of material blessing.

We see the same thing in John 9. The disciples see a man born blind and they assume the blindness is because of sin, so they ask if he sinned or his parents. Jesus said no. “Who sinned?” is the wrong question in this case. The right question is how is God going to use this blindness to display his glory?

Therefore, my pastoral counsel to you would be to avoid the two ditches here. The one ditch says God never uses sickness as a discipline. You are rejecting Psalm 38. The other ditch would be to say that all sickness or even most sickness is a direct discipline from God for a specific sin.

What is the biblical path of wisdom here? If God is using sickness to wake us up to our sin, then he will make it clear to you. He will get through to you just like he did to David. You don’t need to play a game like “Where’s Waldo?” with your sin. I know there is sin somewhere—I am going to keep looking until I find it. But neither should you be closed-minded and say that God never uses sickness to get our attention and draw our attention to our sin.

This long lament leads to a prayer that pokes a hole in the darkness like a beam of light in a mineshaft.

O Lord, all my longing is before you;

     my sighing is not hidden from you.
My heart throbs; my strength fails me,

     and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.—Psalm 38:9–10

David says, in effect, “I am not telling you these things because you don’t see them. I am bringing them to you precisely because I know that you do see them. My pain is not hidden from you. My heart is throbbing in my chest like a thumb throbs when hit by a hammer. My strength is giving out. The light of my eyes – the light is flickering, and look … there it goes.”

The human eye can be one of the best places to see the effects of strain. It is hard to hide. Your eyes are red and watery and tired looking. You can tell when someone has been crying. When the joy is there, the eyes show it—there’s a twinkle in your eyes. When there is no twinkle, a flickering light just died out.

The second half of the lament now focuses on how people respond to David’s sickness. Verse 11 talks about friends avoiding him (isolation) and verse 12 says the only people that have drawn near are his enemies:

My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, 

     and my nearest kin stand far off. 

Those who seek my life lay their snares; 

     those who seek my hurt speak of ruin 

     and meditate treachery all day long.

These two verses testify to a profound hurt. David does not merely lament the actions of his enemies, but the silence of his friends. Martin Luther King Jr. said the same thing in his struggle against racism and segregation: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Verse 12 picks up something David said in Psalm 37. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom (37:30), but those who seek my hurt speak of ruin (38:12). Verses 13–14 say that he has become unresponsive, almost numb and comatose, like a deaf and mute man. But there is a beam of light again in this dark place as David turns to God again with a prayer of waiting.

But for you, O LORD, do I wait; 

     it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.—Psalm 38:15

Though different Hebrew words are used, the concept of waiting is an important connection theme. “For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land” (Psalm 37:9). “Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off” (Psalm 37:34).

David also gives arguments for why God should answer his prayer.

First, God will answer because it is wrong for his enemies to gloat over him (v. 16).

For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, 

     who boast against me when my foot slips!” 

Second, God will answer because he has reached a critical condition (v.17).

For I am ready to fall, 

     and my pain is ever before me. 

Third, God will answer because God’s discipline has had its intended effect. He has confessed his sin and his sin has pained him, not just its consequences (v. 18).

I confess my iniquity; 

     I am sorry for my sin. 

Fourth, God will answer because David is far outnumbered and overpowered by his enemies—it is not a fair fight numerically or morally (v. 19).

But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, 

     and many are those who hate me wrongfully. 

Fifth, God will answer because David has not sinned against his enemies—quite the opposite (v. 20).

Those who render me evil for good 

     accuse me because I follow after good.

I wonder if you ever argue with God like this. You know the only people who do anything quite like this: children. Children know that it is not within their power to decide something, but it is within their power to sway their parents’ decision. Now we come to the final plea.

Save Me Quickly (vv. 21–22)

Do not forsake me, O LORD! 

     O my God, be not far from me! 

Make haste to help me, 

     O Lord, my salvation!

Verses 21–22 ask the Lord not to forsake him or be far from him. The opposite would be God’s nearness. God draws near to help and save. This word in verse 22 is a rare word for salvation. In fact, it is the same word that occurs at the end of Psalm 37: “The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD” (Psalm 37:39).

Salvation is clearly the theme of the Psalm. David is out of his depth by far. He is saying that it was his fault that the plane crashed and now he is in deep water, and the sharks have gathered around him and they smell blood. He needs salvation—quickly!

Transition to Main Point and Application

Main Point: Bring all your pain to God in prayer. It doesn’t matter if it is pain that you brought on yourself or pain that comes to you unfairly. Here is the underlying doctrine that supports the main point. Why can you bring all your pain to God? Answer: because God disciplines his children, but does not reject them. 

David has found a profound truth: The same hand that brings discipline also brings salvation—both acts come from the same loving heart. Someone that crashes his plane into the water and is surrounded by sharks does not in that moment make a distinction between whether the plane crashed because of a mechanical failure or a pilot blunder. Either way, rescue is needed.

The problem with many people is that they think they can make it on their own. I read somewhere that people burn the most calories when they are swimming from a shark. I am not sure how anyone did trial and error to determine that calorie expenditure. I am not signing up for that trial run. It is foolish to try to do it on your own. You can’t outswim or outmaneuver your sin and the trials in your life—you would be foolish to wave off the rescue boat.

Conclusion: How Advent Changes Everything

Tim Keller is a pastor in Manhattan. He talked about how often his pastoral duties would include going to the hospital to hold people’s hand and pray with them while they were lying there on the hospital bed. He had been in the hospital facing suffering and death many times.

But everything changed when he was the one on the bed—with thyroid cancer. It was different. It was deeper. It was all so much more real and in his face. He knew about it before, but now he was experiencing it and thus came to know it with much greater depth.

Someone might wonder what Advent has to teach us in this situation about facing sickness and suffering and pain. It teaches us that Christianity is utterly unlike any other religion in the world. All other religions speak about suffering and about how God deals with it. But that is like God coming and holding our hand during suffering while we are on the hospital bed. Christianity says: Christ came into the world. He was tempted in every way like we are, yet without sin. And then he took our place. He sat on the bed and carried our sickness, our sorrow, and our sin. He died there—with no one to hold his hand—on the cross, in a way difficult for us to fathom. Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He was forsaken so that we could be accepted. He carried our sickness so that we could be eternally healed. He conquered death so that we would not need to fear a defeated foe. God disciplines his children, but he does not reject them—because Christ purchased your eternal acceptance with the cost of his own precious blood.

Do you believe that the light of the world really came into the world? A bright beam of light forever pierced the darkness? Do you believe that Jesus really died?

The light of his eyes really went out—he really died. Darkness swallowed him up. 

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior.

Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord.

But up from the grave he arose …

Heaven’s light defeated the darkness. Have you received Jesus? Are you resting in the truth that God accepts you completely in him? How does that change the way that you will deal with the darkness that you face today or on the horizon? Don’t wave away his rescue today in your life! Lift your voice and sing, “Lord I need you, O I need you, every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, O God how I need you.”  

 

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline & Overview

• Stop the Discipline (v. 1)
• See the Pain (vv. 2–20)
• Save Me Quickly (vv. 21–22)

Main Point: Bring all your pain to God in prayer. It doesn’t matter if it is pain that you brought on yourself or pain that comes to you unfairly. Here is the underlying doctrine that supports the main point: Why can you bring all your pain to God? Because God disciplines his children, but does not reject them. 

Follow the logic here because it may catch us off guard. The psalmist has sinned against God and has received a discipline from God as a result (sickness). He fully acknowledges that he deserves this discipline. But his enemies have taken this sickness and twisted it to say something that is not true: The King is a pretender and God is not on his side. This is unfair, undeserved, unjust opposition. So the psalmist is caught between a rock (sickness that he deserves) and a hard place (persecution that he does not deserve). How should he respond? He asks God to stop discipline (that he deserves) in order to rescue him from the persecution (that he does not deserve). He prays like this: “Lord, take note of my sufferings which I don’t deserve, so you will see them and mercifully put a stop to the sickness that I do deserve.” He asks God for a total rescue—for reprieve for himself and a rebuke for his opponents.

Discussion Questions

• How do sickness and sin relate?
• What is the main point of the sermon? How do the points of the outline unpack or develop that main point?

Application Questions

• In terms of your prayer life, what are some specific “lessons learned” from Psalm 38? How will this prayer (Psalm 38) impact the way you pray in the future?
• What pains you today? Are you hurt by the silence of your friends? Are you hurt by opposition or people who feel like adversaries? Does it feel like God is distant from you?
• Are any of your friends dealing with pain or sickness? How can you come alongside of them so that they are not suffering in isolation and would be hurt by your silence?
• When do you find yourself foolishly waving away the rescue boat instead of receiving the rescue?
• Do you believe that the Light of the World really came into the world and took on the darkness? Do you believe that he rose again—the light bursting forth from the darkness of death? How does this belief change the way you will deal with the darkness that you face today or that you see on the horizon?

Prayer Focus

Pray for a grace to bring all of your pain to God. Pray for a grace to praise God that the Light of the World has come and the darkness has not overcome it. Pray that we will be more than conquerors through him who loved us.