[Read Psalm 39]
A couple weeks ago I spent some time talking about two different types of waiting. There’s real waiting and there is fake waiting. The same thing is true with silence. There’s real, true silence and there’s a silence that is anything but silent.
Here’s a scenario that happens quite often. Someone close to you does something that frustrates or annoys you, but you know it’s not a big deal, so you keep quiet. Then they do it again and again and again and again. You decide to keep staying quiet. You choose “silence” in the midst of your frustration. But the more it happens, the more frustrated you get about it. You still choose “silence,” but in reality you are not really being silent. You’re not actually saying it out loud, but in your mind and in your heart you are saying A LOT of things, aren’t you? If they leave that dirty dish on the table one more time… If they put this thing away in a ridiculous spot one more time… What kind of … would do something like this? And the more you sit in this fake silence, the more angry you get. And what ends up happening? The fake silence ends up turning into loud yelling. As you sat there in your fake silence, anger and frustration boiled up within you until it eventually explodes out of you onto the people around you, usually about something really small. Fake silence is not a real silence.
We’re going to see two different types of silence in this Psalm, but it starts by describing a fake silence. We read, “I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”” (Psalm 39:1, ESV). He decides to keep quiet and not speak so that he can guard himself. He is especially going to guard the way he speaks around the wicked. Why? I think there are two reasons to this.
First, he knows that the wicked are ready to misunderstand and misinterpret anything and everything he says, so he doesn’t really want to talk around them. I’m sure you’ve been there before. You’ve encountered people who seem to misunderstand and misinterpret everything you say. They twist it and distort it so that you constantly look bad. So, the Psalmist says, “I’m going to be silent when I’m in their presence because I’m tired of them twisting what I have to say. I’m going to guard myself.”
The second reason is that he wants to be careful not to say something he’s going to regret. He knows that in the presence of certain people who frustrate and anger us, it’s easy for things to come out of our mouth that we’ll regret later. So, especially in the presence of these people, he is going to guard his mouth, so that he doesn’t say something he’s going to regret. He’s just going to keep silent.
But, as we see from this passage, it’s not a real, true silence is it? It’s a fake silence because we read, “I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:” (Psalm 39:2–3, ESV). I love the progression of these two verses. I was mute. I held my peace. I mused. I spoke. You can feel the progression of events. He committed to being silent, but it was a fake silence. The entire time he guarded his mouth, he wasn’t also guarding his heart or his mind. So, while his mouth was quiet and still, his mind and heart were racing. He kept stewing on things and stewing on things. And the more he stewed on them, the hotter the fire became in him, and his heart inflamed to the point that he had to open his mouth and say something. So, it just comes out.
However, what comes out of his mouth isn’t exactly what we would expect. We would expect that he would open fire on the wicked or on the people who are his enemies. We would expect that he would finally say all of the things that he’s been wanting to say while he kept his mouth shut—and I think he does to some extent, but it comes out of his mouth in a more helpful way.
It comes out of his mouth as a prayer to God and he says, “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!” (Psalm 39:4–6, ESV).
By reading this prayer, we begin to understand what he was thinking while he kept quiet. It’s the second part of this passage, where he says, “Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!” (Psalm 39:5–6, ESV). As he kept quiet, he was fuming about the foolishness and frailty of humanity. He sees people running around and chasing after foolishness. They are shadows chasing shadows. They arew all in a tissy, running around like crazy people, and accomplishing nothing. They are completely focused on fame and power and money and all kinds of other things that will fade away and disappear. And he kept stewing on these things and stewing on them, becoming more frustrated as he watched people running around in foolishness.
But, what’s powerful about this is, when he speaks, because he’s opened his mouth to God, he sees things differently. If he had opened his mouth to those around him, to the wicked and foolish shadows chasing after shadows, you would have expected him to say something like, “You fools! Why are you wasting your lives like this? Why are you chasing after things that are fading away? What’s wrong with you?”
But, since he opens his mouth to God, he is forced to look at himself in relation and he says, “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah” (Psalm 39:4–5, ESV). Rather than blowing up at the world around him, mocking them, he is forced to look at himself and say, “Lord, help me not fall into this same trap. Help me to know that life is fleeting and fading away. Help me not to pretend like I am a god.” Because it’s a prayer, and because he has entered into the presence of a holy God, he is forced to look at himself and his own sinfulness and his own sinful temptations. And when he looks there, he finds that he is faced with the same temptations as the rest of the world. So, he asks God to help him realize how small he is, how fleeting his life truly is, and how he should live as a result.
Then he gets to the theme of this series…waiting. He says, “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” (Psalm 39:7, ESV). In the midst of a fleeting life and world, he will wait. Doesn’t that seem to be the opposite of what you hear regularly? I regularly hear people say, “Life is short, make the most of it” basically saying suck every ounce out of life before it’s done. That’s not what he says here. He says, “Life is short, so I will wait on my God.” Some may say that is foolish. Some may say that it’s wasteful to wait when life is short. But he says he will wait on God because he hopes in God.
Why does the Psalmist put his hope in God? Because God is the opposite of the things he just spoke about—his frustrations with the world around him. Life is short, but God has existed from eternity and will continue for eternity. Life is frail—like a breath—but God is firm and solid like a rock. Humanity runs around in turmoil, accomplishing nothing, but while God is always at work, he is also always at peace, and always accomplishing his will. So, because God is much more than the things of this earth, the Psalmist says, “I will not put my hope in the things of earth that are frail and fading away. Rather, I will put my hope in the God who is firm and eternal and will accomplish his will. That’s where I’ll put my hope.”
And he can hope in God because he can trust God—he has faith in God. That’s really important to recognize. Faith and Hope are deeply connected and both are necessary for us to truly wait in this life.
Look at this description of Abraham: “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”” (Romans 4:18–22, ESV). Notice how hope and faith are connected. Abraham was given a promise that he would become the father of many nations, but he received this promise when he was very old. But because he had faith in his God and trusted his God, he had hope that God would fulfill his promise. He was fully convinced that God would come through on his promises. That’s why he trusted him, that’s why he had faith, that’s why he had hope, AND that’s why he was able to wait on God—even when it looked like it was impossible.
And, as we go through the rest of this Psalm, we can see how this faith and hope work together as he continues to pray to God. And we can see his hope working itself out in two different ways. We read, “Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!…Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand…Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears!” (Psalm 39:8–12, ESV). On the one hand, just like Abraham knew some things about God, the Psalmist knows some things about God. He knows that God is a God of deliverance. He knows He is a God who cares for his people. He knows he’s a God who hears our prayers and acts. He knows he’s a God who gathers our tears into bottles. And because he knows these things about God, he trusts his God—he has faith in his God—and because he has faith in his God, he has hope that gives him strength to keep on waiting in whatever situation he faces.
Then the second aspect of hope kicks in, because he knows these things about God, and trusts in God, and hopes in God, he then asks God to do these things for him. Since I know you are a God who delivers, deliver me. Since I know you are a God who hears our prayers and acts on our behalf, hear my prayer and act. Since I know you are God who lifts up your people and cares for them, do that for me now. I ask you to do these things because I trust you and hope in you AND I will wait for you to do these things because I trust you and hope in you.
And in the midst of all this, there’s one important line we must not miss. He says, “I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.” (Psalm 39:9, ESV). Notice a few things about this. This time, he doesn’t say, “I will keep myself silent,” rather he says, “I am silent because you have done it.” After he spends time in God’s presence, being reminded of who God is and what He has done, then he is truly silent—body and soul. Spurgeon has a great one-liner on this topic, saying, “Nature failed to muzzle the mouth, but grace achieved the work in the worthiest manner.” (Spurgeon, 218).
This has a similar ring to it as a passage from the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is five chapters of crying and mourning and suffering, with a few chapters of hope in the middle. And in the middle of all that trial and difficulty and grief we read this, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:21–26, ESV). It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. And how can we wait quietly—truly silent—for the salvation of the Lord? We remember who our God is and what He has done. We remember that his steadfast love is new every morning. We remember that his faithfulness is great. We remember that the Lord is our portion. We remember that he is firm and eternal and never fading away. Therefore we can trust him. Therefore we put our hope in him. And therefore we wait for his salvation in silent trust.
Christmas is a season for us to remember these things. As we remember the birth of Jesus Christ, we are reminded that there is more to this life than life itself. And we’re reminded that Jesus was not born into this world to save us from every difficulty in this life. In fact, he told us that in this world we will have trials and difficulty. Rather, Jesus was born into this world to overcome the world, to remind us that there’s more to life than this fleeting and fading life, to save us from our sins so that we could spend eternity in heaven with him.
Jesus’ birth in the world, and the salvation that he offers, is a reminder that the things we think are our biggest problems are not our biggest problems. We can spend our lives like shadows chasing shadows with death on our heels, running around in turmoil, chasing after fame that will fade away, money that will fade away, prestige that will fade away, power that will fade away. We can spend our lives putting our hope and trust in things that will let us down over and over again and will eventually fade away. If we keep trying to put our hope in these things, we will eventually realize it’s not hope at all because there’s no firmness to any of it.
Rather, true hope has roots and a foundation. True hope comes when we put our hope and trust in the eternal, unshakeable, unchangeable God who sent his son to be born in a manger, to live and die and rise again for the forgiveness of our sins. And since we know that God has done these things for us, and like Abraham we are fully convinced of these things, we have hope in this life and in the life to come. We have hope because we know that God has dealt with our biggest problems and needs—our sin and death—of course he’s willing and able to take care of the much smaller needs we have in this life. And because we are fully convinced of these things and we have hope in our God, we can say, “It is good for us to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord, both now and when he comes again.”