SCRIPTURE: Psalm 39 (ESV)
DATE: 11-12-17
It’s good to be with all of you at Gateway Church this weekend. And one thing I want you to know — no matter if it’s your first time with us or if you’re worshiping at our North Main campus — I want you to know that God loves you and I love you too.
SERIES INTRODUCTION
Today we’re continuing our series in the book of Psalms as we take a look at some very real issues that all of us face.
Last week, we began this series by looking at where we can find comfort when life is out of control.
Next week, we’ll wrestle with what we’re supposed to do when God feels distant. When it feels as if God has pulled away from you — maybe even when you need Him most.
And in two weeks we’ll discover who it is that God blesses.
And this whole series came out of an experience I had in 2014. In the middle of the night, I woke up unable to breath — I thought I was dying. For some reason, I looked at the clock — I guess I wanted to know the exact time I was going to die. I tried to wake my wife up — tried to say her name, but had no breath and no voice — I tried to hit her — but didn’t have the strength.
And then suddenly — like a vacuum seal being released — my lungs filled with air and I sat straight up in bed. A few minutes later, Emily rolled over and asked, “Did you need something?” And I was thinking to myself, “I thought I was dying and you were sleeping through the whole thing.” Well she went back to sleep and I sat up in bed for most of the night.
And because of that experience, I had a whole bunch of tests done and it was discovered that I was born with a heart abnormality — and as I said last week— thankfully — my heart is as healthy as an abnormal heart can be.
And during this time — I turned to the psalms to find peace and comfort. And the psalms in this series were some of the places I turned to. In fact, the psalm we’re looking at today — Psalm 39 — is one of two psalms I read every day for over a month.
SERMON INTRODUCTION
And today, we’re going to wrestle with our mortality — the fact that this life you and I are living, has a limit to it. There’s an expiration date for each of us. And people respond to their time having a limit in all kinds of ways.
- One response is to pretend as if you’re going to live forever. If you ignore death — maybe death will ignore you. But recent news headlines have shown us that — though we try to ignore death — death has a way of unexpectedly showing up in our lives even at country concerts and church services.
- Another response is to become obsessed with death and darkness. Some people are obsessed with death in an unhealthy way.
- Another response to our mortality is to think we’re the best generation of the human race in the history of the world. I guess it’s a way of making our short time on earth seem more meaningful.
But what makes a generation great anyway? Or even better, what makes a generation of people great according to God? And what kind of people would make up this “greatest generation ever”?
Well we find our answer in our psalm for today.
ANNOUNCE THE TEXT
If you have your Bible please turn with me to Psalm 39.
And, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is let you ask questions. So if you have a question during the sermon, you can text your question to the number printed on the bulletin or you can submit it on the Gateway app.
So what makes a generation of people great according to God? That’s the question. And Psalm 39 gives us the answer.
But before we get to our answer — I need you to do me a favor — a little audience participation. I need everyone — on the count of three — no matter which campus you’re at — on the count of three I want you to take a breath in and then let it out. OK? Just breathe in and out. Ready? One. Two. Three. Breath in. And breath out.
That’s your life according to our psalm. A simple breath. And that’s our first lesson about living a great life.
MAIN POINT 1
“Life is nothing more than a short breath.” Your life, my life — no matter how great we want our lives to be — our life is nothing more than a short breath.
Look with me in verse four of Psalm 39. David writes, ““O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! 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! Selah. 6 Surely a man goes about as a shadow!” (Psalm 39:4-6a ESV)
Obviously David’s trying to communicate how short life is. How fleeting — how temporary — how quickly life passes us by. We want to live a great life and David tells us that — before greatness — there’s a reality check. For David knew that life is nothing more than a short breath. An inhale and an exhale.
And David — in knowing that life is nothing more than a short breath — prays something that may seem unusual to us. For David knows that…
Since life is nothing more than a short breath, we must live with our end in mind. If we want our life to amount to anything — we must live with our end in mind. We see this in verse four where David says, ““O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!”” (Psalm 39:4 ESV)
David understood that life is short — so he lived with the end of his life in mind. And when you and I really understand the brevity of life — how short life really is — how unexpectedly it can come to an end — we’ll live with our end in mind too.
The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, preached a sermon titled “Brief Life is Here our Portion.” And in it, he says, “The certainty of your end — try to know [it] by grasping the fact, and letting the truth of it affect your souls. Yes, I must die, unless the Lord should come…I must reach the [end] of this mortal life…I must die. There is no discharge in this war. There is no possibility of your having an everlasting life here. You don’t desire it if you are Christian; neither could you have it if you did desire it; a time will come when you must depart. Let it pass over your soul, that for you the funeral bell must toll, for you the grave be dug…for you “earth to earth, and dust to dust, and ashes to ashes,” are as sure as you are a man. Being born mortal, you must die. [May] the Lord make you to know this! You must die, not another for you…You, though now in the prime of life, or in the gaiety of childhood…When the call shall come…you…must pass away…Forget not, then, the certainty…of it.”
Spurgeon wanted his congregation to know that life is short. And I want you to know that life is short, so live with your end in mind.
Many people think that living with your end in mind will ruin the present, but it doesn’t. Keeping the end of your life in mind actually compels you to make the most of the present. It gives you greater focus and determination to do what’s most important now.
Which leads us to a second observation.
Since life is nothing more than a short breath, we must not waste it. We must not waste our life. In verse five David writes, “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 39:5 ESV)
Once again David is reminding himself how short life is. He says that his days are “a few handbreadths.” And that word “handbreadth” was an actual measurement. Just like we use inches and feet, yards and miles — in David’s time — one measurement was the “handbreadth.” And I’m going to show you just how big a handbreadth is.
Time for some more audience participation. Please hold up one of your hands. Doesn’t matter if it’s your right or left and — again — if you’re at North Main go ahead and hold up one of your hands. And hold up just four fingers like this. (DO IT FOR THEM TO SEE.)
Four fingers — roughly three inches or so — is a handbreadth. And that’s the length of your life. Pretty sobering, huh?
Now for some more sobering news. None of us have a full four fingers worth of life left. Even the youngest child has already started using up their life.
Some of us are down to three fingers. Some have lived about half of the life we’ll live, so we’re down to two fingers. Some of us have lived longer than others and are down to one finger. And some of us don’t even have a full finger of life left.
See how short your life is? It can be measured. Your days are easily counted.
There’s a Latin proverb that says, “As poor men count their sheep.” And what that means is that it’s the poor — not the rich — who worry about counting their sheep. And it’s the poor — us, mortal humans — who worry about counting our days because we know there’s a limit to them. And just like a poor shepherd is obsessed with keeping track of the sheep he has left, we humans are obsessed with wanting to know how many days we have left.
But God — well — He’s very wealthy when it comes to days. He has no beginning and no end. He’s eternally rich when it comes to time and life.
And I know we don’t like to talk about this, but when you think of how little life you have left, doesn’t something in you want to re-prioritize how you live? Make some wiser decisions. Spend more time with family and friends. Complain less and encourage more.
You see it’s actually a blessing to see that life is short, because it reminds us to not waste it.
But let’s not fall into the trap of believing that since life is so short, there’s nothing great we can accomplish. As Spurgeon later says in his sermon, “Life is very short, but a great deal may be done. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in three years, saved the world.
Some of his followers in three years have been the means of saving many and many a soul…time is (as) long or short as you like to make it. One man lives a hundred years and dies a worldling, and yet another man, through God’s grace, puts forth as much energy in two or three years as if he were a thunder-bolt launched from the hands of God, and he leaves his name amongst imperishable memorials. Your life will be long enough to achieve great things, if God will help you…[So] work with all your might…there is time enough for your soul to glorify God.”
I love the phrase “a thunder-bolt launched from the hands of God.” Don’t you want to be that kind of person? For a “thunder-bolt launched from the hands of God” sounds like a person who lives a great life. They don’t waste their life — they live life to its fullest.
And before we move on, notice the word “Selah” at the end of verse five. The word basically means to pause. Reflect. Don’t move on to quickly.
Pause. Reflect. How should this truth — that life is nothing more than a short breath — a mere four fingers thick — how should this truth change the way you live so you don’t waste your life, but instead live as a “thunder-bolt launched from the hands of God?”
(PAUSE FOR A MOMENT)
We also see that…
Since life is nothing more than a short breath, we must follow God. We must follow God. In verse six David writes, “Surely a man goes about as a shadow!” (Psalm 39:6a ESV)
David says that we’re a shadow. Now what’s so interesting about a shadow — why would David describe us this way?
Your shadow isn’t you, right? It’s not the real you. It’s a copy of you, it’s an image of you, it’s the shape of you, but it’s not you. But what does your shadow do? It follows you around, right? It does what you’re doing.
The same is true if it’s a shadow of a tree, a building, a car, or a dog. The shadow isn’t the real object — it’s a copy of the object. It’s an image or outline of the object, but it’s not the real object.
And David says that we humans are a shadow. So…what are we a shadow of? What are we made in the image of? God, right?
We are image bearers of God. We’re not God, but we’re a shadow of Him. We’re not God, but we must follow Him. We’re to obey Him. We’re to represent Him to people. We’re to do what He is doing.
And do you know what a shadow can’t do? It can’t do anything on its own. The only way a shadow does anything significant is if the object it’s imaging does something significant. And the implication for us — then — would be that since we’re made in the image of God, we can’t accomplish anything great on our own if we’re detached from God. We must follow and obey Him because because He’s the One doing great things. If you want to be great — follow, obey, image, be a shadow of God.
And one way we know what God is doing is by knowing His Word — the Bible. In fact, without knowing the Bible it’s nearly impossible to shadow God because in the Bible God tells us the great things He’s doing and how we’re to follow Him.
So here’s where we are. We’ve discovered that life is short, so we must live with our end in mind — we must not waste life and we must be God’s shadow.
And now we find ourselves in a place where we only have two choices. And every person on the planet chooses one of these two options: We can live for God or we can live for ourselves. You can live as a shadow of God — imaging His greatness — or you can live for yourself trying to make your own image great.
Let’s look at what happens when we live for ourselves. Our psalm tells us that…
MAIN POINT 2
“Living for yourself ends in turmoil.” When we live for ourselves, our life ends in turmoil. Look with me in verse one. David writes, “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.” 2 I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. 3 My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue.” Then skip to the last half of verse six where David writes, “Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!” (Psalm 39:1-3, 6b ESV)
When you live this short breath of a life for yourself — by trying to make much of your image — your life will end in turmoil. And in our text we find two ways our life ends in turmoil. First…
Our life ends in turmoil when we live in our strength. Life ends in turmoil when we live in our strength. In verse one David writes, ““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.” 2 I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. 3 My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue.” (Psalm 39:1-3 ESV)
Notice how David is determined to honor God, which is a good thing — a noble thing — an honorable thing — but it appears that He’s trying to honor God in his own strength. Notice all of the “I” statements.
- “I will guard my ways.”
- “I will guard my mouth.”
- “I was mute and silent.”
- “I held my peace.”
- “I mused.”
- David’s definitely doing a lot of the work here.
Now David’s had some tough times and he feels like complaining to God — an emotion all of us experience from time to time — but David doesn’t want to sound like he’s blaming God. He needs to say something, but he’s trying to control his emotions — and his mouth and his actions — under his own strength.
And do you notice what happens? He eventually can’t control his emotions any longer. He says he can’t contain the fire that’s burning within him. He can’t control his mouth or his actions either. He doesn’t have the strength. Can you relate?
- Maybe you’ve been hurt by your spouse because they’ve done something and never acknowledged the pain they’ve caused. And you tell yourself that you’re going to be the bigger person. And maybe that works for a few days — maybe a few weeks — but then your spouse does the same thing again and what happens? Your strength fails you and you let him or her have it, don’t you?
- And this isn’t just a marriage experience, it happens whenever two people are in a relationship.
- It could be a friendship or a work relationship. It could be a relationship you have with someone at Gateway.
- The thing about us humans is that we have an uncanny ability to irritate, sin against, offend, and hurt one another, don’t we?
And what David’s showing us is that when we’ve been wronged against — one thing that never works — is trying to live in our own strength. That always ends in turmoil. It ends in heartache. It ends in chaos and disorder as the fire burns inside and finally reaches a temperature you can’t contain.
And for the person who lives this way their whole life — well — isn’t it obvious what kind of misery must accompany them to the grave? What kind of hopelessness. What kind of despair. Because you and I weren’t made to live in our own strength.
The other way our life ends in turmoil (is) when we live for the world’s treasure. Look with me in the last half of verse six. David writes, “Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!” (Psalm 39:6b ESV)
Our life ends in turmoil when we live for the world’s treasure.
Now this psalm was written thousands of years ago, but look at its relevancy for our day. Are we not a generation who heaps up wealth and toys and the world’s goods and yet all know — that once we’re gone — all of it’s going to someone else or the dump? Because a lot of the stuff that’s important to you is simply trash to everyone else.
And the world’s treasure goes beyond just material wealth. The world treasure’s fame and fortune. Making a name for yourself is very valuable to the world, isn’t it? The idea of doing something really great so everyone will take notice of you.
But how many more movie stars, athletes — famous people who’ve “made it” according to the world — how many more of them will have to show us the turmoil that’s the end result of living for the world’s treasure by taking their life, falling back into drug addictions, depression, you know the stories — how many more of their stories will we need to hear before we realize that a life lived for the world’s treasure always ends in turmoil?
David’s trying to get us to think about the brevity of life. The world — on the other hand — doesn’t want you to think about the brevity of life. The world wants you to be amused with the treasures it offers.
The world wants to distract you from thinking about things like life and death, your eternity, and how to live a great life.
But know that living for yourself ends in turmoil. We think we’re being amused — when in actuality — we’re being led to a place of turmoil.
But there’s a second way to live — a better way. A way that doesn’t end in turmoil, but ends in hope. A way to make the most of this “short breath of a life” of ours. Look with me in verse seven.
MAIN POINT 3
““And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool! 9 I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. 10 Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand. 11 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! Selah. 12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. 13 Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!”” (Psalm 39:7-13 ESV)
Living for ourselves ends in turmoil, but the good news is that…“Living for God ends in hope.” Living for God ends in hope. So how do we live for God? First…
We live in God’s strength. Our life ends in hope when we live in God’s strength.
Look again in verse seven. ““And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool! 9 I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. 10 Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand. 11 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! Selah.” (Psalm 39:7-11 ESV)
Look at how David’s focus has changed. He’s gone from “I, I, I” to “You, You, You.” From “me, me, me” to “God, God, God.” David’s gone from living in his strength to living in God’s strength. And instead of being in turmoil, David now has hope. And when our strength is found in God, there’s much hope to be found.
But let’s be honest — living by God’s strength isn’t as easy as we want it to be. We’ll still rebel against His commands, which means there’ll be times when God will discipline us — He disciplines those He loves. And sometimes His discipline will be difficult. There may be times when it feels like God is crushing you — especially when He’s ripping the treasures of the world out of your grip so you no longer look to them for hope.
And what David’s telling us is that there will be times when God will eat away at our earthly treasures so we find satisfaction in Him alone. And if we’re living in God’s strength — even as things are taken from us — we’ll experience an increased hope in God.
And again, we’re told to Selah — to pause, reflect, and dwell on this truth. The world wants us to move on quickly.
But let’s pause and reflect on this truth: God’s discipline may be hard, but because He loves you — He’s tearing away the things from your life that are prying their way into His rightful place.
(PAUSE)
A second way our life ends in hope (is) when we live for eternal treasure. As we saw earlier, when we live for the world’s treasure — our life ends in turmoil. And we’ve seen that God will eat way at our worldly treasure if we give it too high of a priority. But when we live for eternal treasure, our life ends in hope.
Look with me in verse twelve. ““Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. 13 Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!”” (Psalm 39:12-13 ESV)
See you can…have…hope.
- Hope in knowing God hears your prayer and gives His ear to your cries when life is difficult.
- Hope in knowing you can call out to God and ask Him to not hold back His perfect peace as tears stream down your face when life is hard.
And in knowing that our life is a short breath, what we realize is that this life isn’t all there is. This world and it’s treasures aren’t what we’re meant to live for. We’re sojourners — guests — passing through this world as we head to our eternal home.
And on our journey home, we have reason to smile. We have joy. We have hope. Not because we’ve found a way to ignore the brevity of life — we smile because we’ve found the life after this life. A hope that makes the turmoil of this world seem like a momentary affliction. We discover a treasure worth giving our life for, because Someone gave His life so He would be our treasure.
And the One who is our treasure is described by the apostle Paul as “the visible image of the invisible God. [The one who is our treasure] existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see — such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 [The One who is our treasure] is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossians 1:15b-22 NLT)
That — friends — is Good News. And what we find is that this life — this life that people are desperately trying to hold on to — is a mere shadow of the real life we’ve been created to experience — eternal life. Life that’s found solely in the God who made us in His image — the One who reconciled us by the blood of His Son — so we might live a great life for Him.
So back to our question — what makes a life a great one? What makes your life — my life — our life as a church — great?
PROPOSITION
“A great life is one lived for the glory of God.” As short as our life is — a great life is one lived for the glory of God.
If you and I want to be great people, we must live our lives for God’s glory. This is what Jesus did. He lived His life for God’s glory. And what a great life He lived.
CONCLUSION
If you want your life to matter — if you want to live a great life — if you want peace with the fact that your life is coming to an end — here’s what you do: Live for God. Turn to His Son, Jesus. Believe in Him. Find joy in Him. Find hope in Him. And find life in Him.
Because Jesus is more valuable than any treasure this world offers. And He understands the brevity of life. He died so you might live. And in Jesus’ hands your life will be a mighty “thunder-bolt of God.”
Life is just a short breath — but it can be a great breath — if it’s lived for the glory of God.
Let’s pray.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, help us to receive and respond to Your Word. Remind us often that life is a mere breath — life is so short — please give us the strength to live our lives for Your glory alone. Jesus use us as mighty “thunderbolts” in Your hand so others may see Your greatness as we shadow You. It’s in Your name we pray. Amen.