Rev (Dr) Quek Suan Yew

Psalm 39 – Sin Not with My Tongue! (Part 2 of 2) 

II.  Hope in God Helps (vs. 6-11) – One of the most common weaknesses in a believer’s life is his failure to pray without ceasing, which God has commanded all His children to do every moment of every day when they witness and serve Him. To pray without ceasing means that the believer admits that he cannot do anything without God's help and direction. Those who seldom pray are walking in vanity because they are fighting a spiritual battle using the arm of the flesh. The only outcome is defeat, for the devil is a powerful foe. Without God’s help man’s walk is in vain. It will come to nothing as far as spiritual significance is concerned and it is void of any eternal value! The psalmist confessed, “Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.” To “walk in a vain shew” means that his life is like a phantom or an illusion. It has no substance. It seems to be real and to matter a whole lot but in the ultimate analysis, it is empty! When a person begins life as a pauper and dies a multi-millionaire or even a billionaire, the world might see that he had a great life. Material success and the life of carnal luxury is emptiness to God because God measures all things from the perspective of eternity and He knows what will be destroyed at the end of man’s existence. Since this world is already reserved for destruction by fire, everything on earth that is made by man will be incinerated. Nothing will be left. The grandest structure, the most magnificent bridge, the fastest airplane and the most beautiful building, etc. will all be destroyed. Nothing made by the hands of man will remain! His life is described by God as “disquieted in vain.” This means that man’s life may make a loud sound but it will disappear forever as if it never existed! 

Using synonymous parallelism, the psalmist testified that life is a gigantic emptiness without Christ! Take the life of a very rich man as an example. He accumulates great wealth with multi-million dollars worth of properties all over the world; he jets around in his private jet and sails the world with his luxurious yacht and possesses billions of dollars in all the biggest and safest banks of the world; and then he dies. Who will inherit all these, and what they will do with all these that he has accumulated is beyond his control! All the billions that he spent his entire life to gain can be wasted away and turn to nothing! The great empire of Nebuchadnezzar with his hanging gardens is deemed one of the wonders of the ancient world. But it does not even exist today! This is true of all the great kings and presidents and men and women of the past. Without God and Christ, all which man builds is vanity! It ends when he dies no matter how he tries to make it last. His power and control stops when he stops breathing. All the laws and precautions that he has put in place to keep his legacy alive will come to naught! Man needs to keep his tongue in check, for the direction of his life is determined by his tongue! 

Verse 7 (synthetic parallelism) – The psalmist admitted, “And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.” Without Christ all things are vanity. They perish like the dew. In Christ, all things become eternal and possess eternal value. From vanity they all turn into priceless treasures because of what Christ has done in every believer’s life! Even a cup of cold water given in Christ’s name will be remembered by God for eternity! David said that he would keep on waiting for the LORD’s will to be accomplished in his life. If he had to face numerous enemies who would attack him and make his life miserable, like what King Saul or David’s own son did to him, so be it. He would learn to trust in his LORD under all circumstances in life. David could not pick and choose or demand from the LORD the kind of circumstances in life that he wanted so as to witness for Christ. The LORD alone must decide. David’s duty was to submit willing and keep on trusting in his LORD to always do what was best for him. David needed to patiently wait on the LORD for his difficult circumstances in life to end, and they would end, regardless of how difficult they were. They would end when the enemies were taken away or it would all end with David’s life being taken from him. Either way, the trial would end. No matter what happened David must guard his mouth and trust in God to speak words of wisdom that would glorify God. Careless words would ruin his life and his witness for Christ. 

Verse 8 (synonymous parallelism) – Just because David trusted in the LORD for the trial to come to an end according to God's timing does not mean that he could not pray to God for it to end. Thus David prayed, “Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.” David cried to the LORD using the imperative in his desperate desire for deliverance. The word “deliver” means “to be snatched out of something” and in this context it was for God to snatch him out of all his transgressions. David felt that it was because of his transgressions that he was distressed by his enemies. If that was the reason for his trials, then he did right by crying to the LORD for deliverance. The only way was through repentance in Christ. If the LORD had forgiven him and David knew that the LORD had in Christ, then David asked the LORD to help him so that he would no longer remain a reproach, i.e. a disgrace, to the foolish. These foolish people were vile people like Nabal. It would be under the mockery and taunting of these evil people that believers like David were most prone to succumb to careless words. He cried to the LORD to stop these vile people. Crying to the LORD to take him out of these difficult circumstances was what Joseph did. He asked the chief butler who was with him in prison for a short time to remember him before Pharaoh upon his release as he was truly innocent. Trusting in the LORD in times of trials does not mean that the believer cannot pray to his LORD to deliver him from the trial. This will truly help him to control his tongue when the trial is removed.

Verse 9 (synthetic parallelism) – When the child of God submits himself to the sovereign will of God, it will be easier to control the tongue from murmuring and complaining. To complain is to deny the sovereignty of God in the believer’s life. Therefore David opened not his mouth as he learned to acknowledge the sovereignty of God in His life. The enemies of David could not do anything to him if his LORD did not allow them to penetrate through the hedge that the LORD had placed around all him. David learned that refraining from careless words will lead to a holy life. 

Verse 10 (synthetic parallelism) – The discipline David received from the abuse of his enemies was more than he could bear. He asked the LORD, “Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.” The enemies were the ones hurting him but David regarded them as from the LORD, which is the right way to understand trials. Therefore he asked the LORD to remove them. His reason was that he was consumed by the blow of God’s hand. When trials become too hard for the child of God to bear, which was what David felt here, instead of complaining and thus sinning with our mouths, it is good to imitate David and cry to the LORD to remove the trial because of the inward turmoil from such trials. It is not so much the physical but the mental and emotional turmoil within the soul night and day that wears the soul down. It is during such times that the mouth will sin against God. Confessing the sovereignty of God and recognizing that it is the LORD who is the ultimate source of all believers’ sufferings will help a great deal to control the tongue and accept the suffering. But it does not mean that believers cannot cry to the LORD to stop it as what David did here. 

Verse 11 (synthetic parallelism) – David continued by saying, “When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.”  The LORD will correct His children when they are in sin because He loves them. He does not wish to see His children in sin, for they would tarnish the image of Christ in their lives. The LORD will discipline so that His children will return back unto Himself and begin to live in holiness again. David felt this way in his present circumstances. When the LORD rebukes, it is to correct, i.e. to chastise/to make straight, His children’s path way in life. David understood this and accepted this in his life. However, he also opened his heart to the LORD about his turmoil in the midst of his suffering. In the event that his suffering was for sins committed, he testified to the LORD that his beauty was consumed away like a moth, a destructive creature, crushed in a man’s hands. Man without Christ is worthless in God's sight. He cannot do anything pleasing to his Creator who gave him life and talents to live on God’s earth. He is bound by sin and the god of this world has blinded his eyes so that he cannot see God even though he is surrounded by the presence of God through His creation. 

David also admitted that even God's children are vanity if not for God's grace and mercies in their lives. God’s children who live in sin and not in holiness are of no good use to the LORD. Instead they are a stumbling block and therefore a hindrance to the cause of Christ by their sinful witness. David admitted this. He pleaded with the LORD to deliver him so that he would not be a sinful witness for God any longer. 

III.  Persistent Prayer for Strength (vs. 12-13) – What the LORD desires from all His children is to pray without ceasing and persistently. This was what David did in times of great distress. He did not want to sin with his mouth by murmuring. He cried to the LORD to hear his prayers, i.e. his supplications: “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.” David was pleading with copious amount of tears flowing down his cheeks. He was wailing loudly so that his LORD might hear. He pleaded with the LORD to see his tears and deliver him from his enemies as he had repented and the chastisement was more than he could bear. He testified that he was a stranger in the world that he was living in. David was not a stranger to Christ or to the LORD but he was indeed a stranger and sojourner to the world like his forefathers such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! The suffering they faced on earth reminded them of this truth. They would not be treated as part of this world which is a good testimony of one’s holiness.

David prayed with this truth in his mind and heart before his LORD. “Help me” David cried so that he may continue to live for Christ. Let the suffering end. He prayed and spoke with his LORD as a sojourner on earth in order to keep his mouth from sinning. This is one of the best ways. When praying without ceasing, there is no time to murmur! 

Verse 13 (synthetic parallelism) – Finally, David begged the LORD, “O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.” David asked the LORD to spare his life. He asked the LORD to help him recover his strength before he died and could not serve and witness for Him anymore. David’s desire for deliverance was not for selfish reasons. He wanted deliverance from his suffering so that he could continue to serve and witness for the LORD. This is something many believers forget nowadays. They just ask for deliverance, forgetting to check their motives behind it. David pleaded to be delivered so that he could continue to do the will of God in his life. He had learned his lesson.

Conclusion – The way for believers to control their tongues is to pray for strong self-control (verses 1-5), followed by placing their hope in the LORD and His promises (verses 6-11), and finally to pray persistently for strength to live and witness and overcome (verses 12-13). The tongue does control the life and witness of believers in Christ. What they say, especially outside of church, will reflect how they live. If they often speak words of sin they are walking in the path of wickedness. Children of God need to be more circumspect in the use of their tongues much more so than unbelievers, for the Name of Christ is at stake. The tongue is one of the smallest organs in the human body and yet it plays a crucial part in controlling the entire life of mankind for years to come. Let us as children of God speak to Christ’s glory and hence live for Him as well. Amen.