Rev (Dr) Quek Suan Yew

Psalm 38 – Repentance! (Part 2 of 4) 

     II. Conviction in Heart (38:9-14) – Repentance has to come from a heart of one who has sinned that is convicted that he has sinned against the LORD and not just man. He hides nothing for the LORD. In repentance we sometimes see the sinner try to save his own face because of pride. He will ask if others can help him hide his sins. The sincerity of such repentance is doubted! If his repentance is genuine, his only concern ought to be how to repair the damaged image of Christ in his life because of his sin. He must be prepared to do whatever it takes (and if it requires absolute public confession to accomplish that he must do it) to restore back the damaged image of Christ in the eyes of the people that he sinned against or are aware of his sin. This was David’s heart. He opened his heart before the LORD. All of David’s desires, i.e. his longing, are in front of the LORD. Using synonymous parallelism to capture the intensity of his inward feeling, David said that his groaning, i.e. mourning, is not hid from the LORD. The LORD knows all that was in his heart. He acknowledged that the LORD knew the sins he committed and his desire to repent and return to the LORD. He had suffered enough and the guilt and shame he felt for sinning against the LORD had become unbearable. He pleaded with his LORD to bring it to an end.

     Verse 10 (synthetic parallelism) – David continued to admit that his heart “panteth”, i.e. palpitated. He was like a peddler peddling in circles and drained of strength. David added that his strength, i.e. vigour, was failing him. He was getting weaker from exhaustion due to the emotional turmoil that he endured. There seemed to be no more life left within his soul. This is what true repentance will do to the believer’s heart. His realization of his sin and how he failed the LORD his God after the grace and mercies he received from Him through Christ will fill his heart with anguish and great sorrow of soul. He will lose his joy. David described it as “for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.” Everything he saw used to bring joy and hope and gladness of heart and soul when he was walking in godliness and righteousness according to Holy Scriptures. However, when he sinned against the LORD darkness covered his eyes. Failing the LORD by sinning and ruining the holy image of Christ, which all believers like David bear, broke David’s penchant for life and everything on earth had lost its taste and a deep sense of sadness and remorse covered everything in his life. He felt like a blind man walking in darkness. 

     Verse 11 (synonymous parallelism) – David’s “lovers and friends”, referring to the people on earth dearest to him, stood aloof, i.e. stood apart from him, because of his sin. To them, David was like a man with the plague to be avoided. His sin had disappointed the people he loved and who loved him. They were disappointed by what David did. They expected much more from the man who was supposed to be after God's own heart! Using synonymous parallelism, David added that his kinsmen stood afar off from him. This was unbearable to him. The reaction of David’s loved ones was right. If his kinsmen really loved him and wanted the best for him they needed to stand afar off from him and not near him until he had truly repented of his sin. Very often family love is misguided when family condones and tries to help the sinner to justify his sin. This is doing more harm than good to the sinner. What the sinner needs from family and loved ones is the truth. The sinner needs to truly repent of his sin instead of defending himself and trying to justify his sin. If he does not repent of his sin, they need to stand afar off from him, on the side of righteousness, until he repents! God’s people need to think and look at life from the perspective of eternity and measure their relationship with Christ. A believer in sin needs to show sincere repentance. Loved ones who encourage him by diminishing his sin are hurting and not helping the transgressor. Many lives have been ruined because of this misguided sympathy where family blood is more important that the blood of Christ. The face and name of the transgressor seems to be more important to salvage than the Name of Christ! Parents must rebuke and admonish and distance themselves from their sinful children if they do not truly repent. This is also true of husbands and wives. If the wife is truly a helper suitable to her husband, then she must help him repent if he is in sin and not indulge him and his justification of his sin! David felt the pain and hurt when his loved ones distanced themselves from him because of his sin. They wanted him to repent and return back to the LORD! 

     Verse 12 (synonymous parallelism) – Then there were the enemies who loved to see God's servant and child in sin! To fall into sin was bad enough for a man like David but to have his enemies lay snares to trap him into sinning more was unbearable to say the least! The enemies of God’s people have only one purpose in mind and that is to kill God’ holy witness. They cannot allow the light of Christ to shine brightly on earth through the lives of believers like David. Even the believer’s true repentance can be a light in itself to shine for Christ. All believers fall into sin. Psalm 38 teaches all believers how to repent in sincerity in order to experience the forgiveness of God in their lives. David’s enemies hated even this form of testimony! They laid snares for David hoping he would sin again! They hated to see true repentance. David described what these evil men did, “They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.” They sought David’s hurt by getting him to react in sin when they spoke mischievous, i.e. perverse, things that would bring ruin in a person’s life. Some of the mischievous things would include slanders, lies and false accusations, name calling. They would invent ways to bring down God’s servants. There was no limit to what these evil men would do. Their evil hearts were not controlled by any morality or ethics. They had no rules as their obsession to destroy by hook or by crook would only result in imagining deceits all the day long! David must hold his ground and not allow these evil men to succeed. They could tempt all they wanted but David must not sin any more. He must not stoop to their level and retaliate in sinful words. He must remain in holiness and be beyond reproach in all he did in the face of these unceasing verbal attacks.  

     Verse 13 (synthetic parallelism) – David said he “as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.” This was the best way to respond to these evil verbal assaults. Be like a man who is deaf and ignore their evil lies and slanders. Be like a dumb man and not say a word! Verses 12 and 13 are related to each other in antithetical parallelism. The evil enemies of David could not stop attacking him with their deceits and lies, but David’s response was complete silence, he heard nothing and would say nothing! No one, not even the devil, can make a person sin, especially a child of God. The devil and his minions can taunt and mock and say all kinds of lies and make all false accusations against God’s child but none of them can make him sin, unless he chooses to sin. David had already sinned and was in the process of receiving and experiencing restoration when his enemies came after him again, when he was most vulnerable. Thank God David responded well by not hearing and not speaking! This is what all believers need to do as well to keep from sinning with their words. Let the evil ones say and write whatever they want and, like David, believers must refrain from responding and must trust in the LORD to deal with these evil men in His time. 

     Verse 14 (synthetic parallelism) – In this brief conclusion David said that he was “as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.” There was no need to justify himself before these evil men whose end was to see his destruction. He simply ignored them. This is one of the best ways to deal with any false accusers of God’s servants. 

[to be continued]