Psalm 39 - A Complaint to God

Have you ever been angry with God? David is and Psalm 39 is the written record of his complaint to God. It is one of the darker of the psalms and it reminds us that life is sometimes very dark as well. About what is David angry? It appears as if David is angry over some rough chastisement he has received at the hand of God because of some sin that he has committed. See his complaint?

Remove your stroke from me;

I am spent by the hostility of your hand.

When you discipline a man

with rebukes for sin,

you consume like a moth what is dear to him;

surely all mankind is a mere breath.

Psalm 39:10-11 ESV

What David says here about the span of our lives is profound. We need to be reminded of it. God is eternal and our lives are very short indeed. While God is taking the long view, ours is but a very short horizon. God does eternal things, who are we to question what we are not even capable of comprehending? Look at verse 5:

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!

Charles Spurgeon wrote about this verse:

“Think of eternity, and an angel is as a newborn babe, the world a fresh blown bubble, the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity. Before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and a man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust.”

Think of the vanity and emptiness that sums up almost all human activity. We live our short, dramatic lives for what? At the end what is there to show for it? What is its purpose? Most lives are lived purposelessly.

Knowing this, knowing how weak and frail and insignificant we are apart from God, who are we to question him or become angry with him over anything? But David does. And oftentimes so do we.

Below is a link to an audio recording of the sermon I preached from Psalm 39. I hope you will take the time to click and listen. And I hope you will take inventory of your own life. What do you consider valuable? Are you okay with God being God?

Click here:
Psalm 39 - A Complaint to God



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