Well, if you would turn back to our last scripture reading with me, Psalm 39 is our text for this evening. We find the psalmist in a case that we are often finding him in. He's a man afflicted. He's a man under the cross. And he's a man who has experienced pinching, pressing persecution, That's the way in which we find our psalmist tonight. David, a man after God's own heart, a king anointed by God out of God's great liberality, also a man deeply afflicted. But we also find a man in this text whose heart as it were is laid bare before us. We see the motions of his soul. Now we see not only that he is a man oppressed, but we see how he thinks about that suffering. We even see in this text how he intends to bear up underneath it. We also see how he fails and how he's recovered. We see a man who makes conscience of his sin, even under affliction. And we see a man who is renewed in that resolve as well at the end of this text. In the short, in a short composition, we have a picture of a godly man in a case that is all too well known to all of the godly. A people who make conscience of sin even under suffering. A people who make resolutions to live in a godly way. A people who often break those resolutions. who must be recovered by God's grace. That is our text this evening. Really, our text centers, even from the very first verse, on a particular experience of the psalmist and his resolution. He says here, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. So you have both there. There's a very particular moment in the psalmist's life where he makes this resolution. And this resolution, of course, is to lead a godly life under affliction. And what you see as we work through this text is really the Psalm divides into two sections, in which we see both the experience and resolution of David. In verses one to five, we have something of an initial resolution. Those words I've already read to you. And then we have his experience following, verses two to five. Then in verse six, you have that old resolution renewed, followed by his experience. As we've already said, in the midst of all of that, we see a man under duress in the furnace. A man who resolves in this way, who endures these experiences as a man also under great affliction. But you and I have in this text is an intimate depiction of the heart of a godly man, whose resolution in this life is to live godly. He makes that resolution. He breaks that resolution. And by God's grace, he is renewed. Now, I don't know friend, if you've thought of Psalm 39 that way, and it might surprise you to know that in the history of the church, This psalm enjoys probably the greatest number of very different readings and interpretations. Some see in this text that the psalmist hasn't sinned at all. Others see in this text, there's only one instance of the psalmist sin. Others see practically the entirety of the psalm as an expression of the psalmist fall. But with a view to God's help, I trust we will see this much. that in this text, we find that the godly renew their resolutions to live as pilgrims. The godly renew their resolutions to live as pilgrims. Firstly, we will see his resolve. Then we will see his sad relapse. It's all too common to the godly. And finally, we will see that which is his renewal by God's grace. So take first of all, his resolve. And again, that takes us back to the very first verse. The psalmist tells us that he will take heed to his ways. He will keep his mouth and so he will act. And principally in this text, he will speak in a godly way, or even more particularly, he's saying he will not speak at all. Remember how it's there in the text. He will keep his mouth even, as he says in verse two, from good. A friend, that's not sinful of itself. You remember that the prophets of old, and of course the Savior himself, often answered his accusers, they often answered their accusers with silence. There's a time where that's altogether appropriate. The psalmist's resolution is that he would not speak in a way that is sinful, as he says in verse one, while afflicted. And you even notice the occasion is given to us. As I've already mentioned, it's while the wicked is before him. That word before there, you shouldn't understand that as merely being as it were a place marker, a description of location. It's not just that they are physically standing in front of him. That word is also translated through other scriptures as being against someone. And in the book of Job, it's the idea of witnesses standing against a defendant. In the book of Daniel, it's used to describe evil forces withstanding the good. The evil angels withstanding the angel Michael. Even that text, it's translated the word withstood. The sense is friend, that these are not just wicked men who are in David's presence. They are withstanding him directly. They are personally set against him. And in the midst of that, the Psalmist says that he endeavors, he has resolved not to speak sinfully. He's resolved, let alone not to act sinfully, but not even allow a sinful word to pass from his lips. In other words, to bear up under the affliction patiently. What you have in this text is not terribly unlike what you and I have seen already in Psalm 38. In fact, the parallels between Psalm 38 and 39 are ample. Verse 13 of Psalm 38 reads thus, he says, I was as a deaf man, I heard not, and as I was a dumb man and opened not his mouth. Perhaps it's the very self-same affliction. We don't know, but the same sense is there. This is a man who is resolved in patience to live under affliction in a way that would honor God. He's resolving to live patiently in the midst of adversity. Now, you may say to me, that doesn't seem altogether profound. Really friend, The man here is telling us pointedly that notwithstanding the fearfulness of his oppressors, notwithstanding the pinching and the pressing affliction that he is undergoing, none of that can distract him from still fearing sin more. He feels the fear of sin more, even more in this moment than he feels his oppression. Oh, friend, that is the mark of a godly man, isn't it? What you have in this text is one who is striving for faithfulness in the midst of affliction. And why? Well, for in the godly, they make conscience of such. They, as it were, don't give themselves an easy out. When afflicted, they recognize that they are still accountable to God and they must bear through faithfully. So they make such resolutions themselves. Friend, they do so because they recognize, well, they recognize, friend, if they fail to live faithfully in such a case. Friend, they are reflecting on God's dealings with them, aren't they? If they make the occasion of oppression, really the occasion of their sin. As it were, friend, by their actions or by their words, they are striving against God's dealings with them. The godly make conscience so that they are not replying against God. They recognize that they are called to live patiently, called to live as men and as women who bear quietly, even under affliction, and guard themselves from sin. Friend, here you have a good resolution. A resolution of one who says, even in the midst of affliction, even in the face of the greatest and nearest of oppressors. I am to fear sin more than them. I am to be resolved against sin more than I am, even in the seeking of deliverance." Don't make light for any of these first two verses. This is the mark of a godly man that's utterly impossible for a natural man to replicate. This is the work of a man made new by God's grace. So that is his resolve. A man who says he will prefer suffering in this case, over indulging in sin. But secondly, what of his relapse? Now, as you look at verse three, you notice what the psalmist is warming to. He's warming to a very particular moment, a very particular moment in this otherwise very particular experience. He says, upon making this resolution, he says, his sorrow was stirred at the end of verse two, then my heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned. A friend, all of those descriptors there describe for us the inward workings of intemperance. So very important that we grasp this for the entirety of the Psalm really is only understood if we grasp the meaning of the language here. In context, what this means is that under the oppression, the psalmist felt himself growing more and more out of control. This is the language of intemperance. And in this moment, he says, then I speak with my tongue. It's important to note in verse four, he's describing for us what he has spoken out of this moment where the heart was hot as it were with fire, where he was stirred, that is deeply moved, even more deeply moved by his affliction. Calvin puts it this way, the severity of his affliction had at length overcome him. and allowed foolish and unadvised words to pass. And so verses four and five are the words that pass in this moment of heat, in this moment of his impatience and intemperance. Verse four, make me to know my end, he says. Now friend, the godly will ask this question rightfully. There's a godly way to ask the question. But again, remember the context. These are words that flow from his burning. These are words that flow from his moment of impatience. In fact, friend, the idea there is this, some of our other forebears put it thus, that he even has an impatience for deliverance expressed here. Make me to know when these things will come to an end. Others would see this as even a reference that the psalmist is longing for death. Then he goes on. He says to God, he says, my days are as a hand's breath. And man, he says, is altogether vanity. And all of that's true. And the godly man in a godly way can say all of those things. But when it is said out of intemperance, what does it amount to? Well, friend, when spoken rashly and without control in such a context, this is a complaint. This is a complaint against God. Again, one of our forebears puts it thus, he takes occasion from these truths to complain of God's dealings with him. And what you see here is a man who's resolved and the resolution was good and the man himself was endeavoring to live faithfully, but that resolution was broken. It was broken by his inordinate desire for relief, his impatience under the rod. In fact, friend, as you look back at this text, you notice that even within this, there is, it doesn't come clear in our translations, but even in the margins, you might see it. In the end of verse four, there's even annexed to this cry, something of a sinful curiosity. The words that we have rendered there for us is that I may know how frail I am, The words in the original amount something to this effect. Give me the number of my days. Tell me when. Give me the date and the time when I will be finally removed from all of this. That's the idea. He has grown so impatient and his desire for relief has grown so inordinate. that he is, as it were, longing to pry into the secret counsels of God. Now friend, take what you have in the psalmist experience for a moment and compare that with another. A man who is incredibly afflicted, the apostle Paul. We think of the apostle, of course, as a fruitful man. We think of his ministry as being especially blessed by God. We think of his religious experiences as being really unparalleled. The friend at every turn you encounter as it were another scar for every one of the apostles labors. Every time his ministry is blessed, you see as it were another burden attached to it. And so from start to finish of his ministry in the Lord Jesus Christ, he lives as a man afflicted. And not only is he afflicted, of course, outside by those who are not professors of the Lord Jesus Christ, but how many afflictions came to him from within the church. And moreover, as you read throughout the scriptures, you encounter that the apostle not only felt those external pressures and oppressions, but the man himself felt inwardly the burdens of the churches. He was a man afflicted, as it were, from start to finish in the day. He's a man, in other words, who you would expect could say something like what you have in the text. A man who says, just let me be free. But what do we find instead? The church in Philippi, he writes, he says, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. A friend, that's a fact, of course, but you also need to read in there a resolution. or more accurately, a resignation to the will of God. Oh, what does he say? He recognizes, friend, that it is far better to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, that even that desire he subordinates to the will of God. Oh, friend, the godly in the history of the church, when they're afflicted, they will cry and they can rightfully cry, oh Lord, how long? But when the godly pray that way in a godly way, annexed to that request, is nevertheless thy will, not mine be done. Annexed to that request is that of Job. Blessed be the name of the Lord. When asked, friend, in a fit of intemperance, friend, it's really a question, more an accusation against God's dealings with him. Surely I've suffered enough. Surely God's dealings with me are too harsh. Friend of the psalmist is asking how long? His sense in this text is actually the Lord has too long suffered me to be afflicted. It's very different, Christian, than what you find in the apostle Paul and even in the psalmist himself, otherwise in the scriptures. And secondly, very briefly in this moment, friend, he's an afflicted man. So what is the godly supposed to do under affliction? And we've thought about this already from the 38th Psalm. Friend, an Orthodox doctrine of affliction leads the Christian to say that even if this affliction is not for a particular sin, it is still dealing with indwelling sin. And that makes friend, every affliction an occasion for deeper humiliation. And yet, where do we find that in the psalmist here? Rather than a use for humbling. No, no friend, you have a man here who, as it were, has grown impatient under the rod, who has now an inordinate desire for relief. And what I want you to notice in this text as well, friends, it's really striking. What he says in verses four and five, they're not false. He's not speaking theological error. Just like Job's friends, they speak the truth, but they make the wrong application. These truths the psalmist applies instead, as it were, to complain against God's dealings with him. So friend, remember this, that even truth can be misused by an intemperate heart. We must be so careful, must be so careful to make sure not only do we hold the truth, but we apply it right. But thirdly, and finally, friend, I want you to notice the renewal of the psalmist, because that certainly is in the text. In verse there, verse seven, you notice, sorry, verse six, you have the word surely, and the word surely there, of course, is tied to what has gone before. And the psalmist is saying, what has already been said, what I spoke, even when my heart burned, that was truth. It was true. But look at verse seven. And now, friend, literally that is, but now, but now what wait I for? What am I stretching and straining for? Asked the psalmist. In other words, friend, the psalmist is saying, but what? What am I so taxed by? What so stretches me in this moment? What makes me burn so? And here's his reply. My hope is in thee. Their friend is his recovery. Mark it in your Bibles. This is the moment of transformation. Before he was inordinately trying to pry into the secret counsels of God, seeking deliverance most of all, complaining as it were against God's dealings with him. But now what does he say? As he takes himself in hand, he says thus, he says that that truth which I've spoken in rashness and impatience should have actually led me simply to rest and to leave my case with God in whom is my hope. Now look at verse eight. Now he does make a request for deliverance, but note, friend, the text. And this is so very different than what we saw in verses four and five. Deliver me, he says, from what? From his oppressors, from his afflictions, from all my transgressions. Friend, have you detected the difference in the psalmist himself now? Before he was longing to come out from under the hand of the evil men about him. Before he longed to come out from under the pinching and the pressing affliction, but now what does he crave deliverance from? Beloved, it's sin that he finds his greatest oppression. Here you have a man transformed. I was dumb, he says. Now that's his resolution. So he resolved to be, so he intended to be toward the wicked. Again, in our text, we have the words, I opened, originally it is, I will not, I will not open my mouth. Being in the imperfect tense, friend, this is the renewal of his vow from verse one. He's saying, I was dumb toward the wicked. I resolved to be so, but now he says, I will not open my mouth. This is the renewal of verses one and two. And then in verse 12, friend, as you come to the end of this text, as he reflects upon his life, you recognize now he's also going to identify himself as someone who should expect to be under the rod. I, he says, am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. He says, hear him because he is so. He says, hear me because I am a stranger with thee. Friend, what he's saying there is hear my cries because my cries are of one seeking a better country. I'm not looking for rest now. I'm not looking most of all for deliverance now. I will live, and I am content to be a sojourner, as all of my fathers were. Now friend, as we leave this text this evening, though there's so much that we could say, allow me just to distill three points further from what I've just covered. First friend, I want you to notice in this text that the psalmist recovery consists in this, and even says it to us very directly in verse seven, He's a man who has changed his view of his suffering because he now recognizes that the God of the promise is also the God of providence. One cannot say they hope in God and not also submit to God's providence. He sees the two must go hand in hand. Secondly, friend, I also want you to notice this, that again, you see in the psalmist, even a man under great duress A man who still fears sin more than suffering. Where are the great cries of impatience in the last portion of this text? Where are the great cries that his oppressors fundamentally would be those who are removed? As though that was his only affliction. You don't find it. Yes, he is praying that God would deal mercifully with him, but in our texts, when he cries for deliverance, it's from his transgressions. And then friend, I also want you to notice this, that even now in his pleas for mercy, it's not mercy for his sake, it's so that he would not become the reproach of the foolish. And friend, if he were to become the reproach of the foolish, a man of God, a man singularly called of God to a very unique role in redemptive history, if he were to be the reproach of the foolish, the foolish would in fact be reproaching the name of God. which makes for even this request for mercy, a request fundamentally for God's sake. Beloved, as we leave this text, what do we see? We see that the godly, they renew their resolutions to live as pilgrims. Their resolve is to live faithfully under affliction, such that after their relapses into impatience, God's people renew their endeavors to live patiently as pilgrims indeed. And friend, I want to leave on that last note, the idea that they live as pilgrims, because there's something in this text that probably is among the sweetest phrases in all of this altar. I, he says, am a stranger with thee. What he says there pointedly friend is this, after his recovery, the psalmist says, if God has no place among the wicked, if he is maligned and his name mistreated among them, then I'm content to be a stranger with God. Striking the Lord, God calls himself a stranger and a sojourner with his people as they go through the land of Canaan. Or the psalmist says, as he is a recovered man, he says, even if it means I endure longer under this rod, I'm content to be a stranger so long as I am a stranger with thee. God is not welcomed with the ungodly. So the godly are pleased to be unwelcomed with him. It's exactly, friend, actually the theme that you leave the end of the epistle of the Hebrews on, isn't it? You go with Christ out of the gate. To be a sojourner with God is to say that I would rather be with him and under affliction than to be in comfort now, but without him. Friend, this text then leaves us with a number of exhortations. First of all, we need to make conscience of impatience. We don't, seldom we don't. We are people who forget that it's not only that you and I are to bear affliction, we are to bear it in a certain way, with a resignation to the will of God. with a very real care over our lips and over our conduct. The psalmist exemplifies that for us, both in the beginning and in the end of the psalm. He has renewed his vows after breaking them to do this very thing, to live patiently. Friends, so you and I are called. Secondly, this text gives to us an exhortation again to be those who are submitted to God. not to impatiently ask how long. If we ask how long to ask it in the right way, nevertheless, thy will, not mine, done. We're not to ask friend in such a way as to try to see into the secret counsels of God. No, we are to be submitted to God, his dealings and his time. But then finally friend, the exhortation to us is that with which we closed. Beloved, you and I should be pleased to live as those seeking a better country, to be as those who suffer the afflictions of pilgrims, because we are sojourners with him. He does not call us to go pilgrims, to go as sojourners alone. He would have all of the godly say as the psalmist does in this text. I am stranger with thee. Let us be pleased, friend, to go with Christ in such a way. Whatever affliction he calls upon us, may we be a people who long to honor him under it. Amen.