All My Longing Is Before You

Introduction

I’m glad that we were able to sing and have such wonderful things as Tony said this morning, and that Bobby did such a good job. He actually asked him to lead a specific song for the invitation and forgot to ask him to lead healing in its wings, which he did anyway. So it was quite providential. We’ll be talking about that here in just a few moments. But I’m happy to be able to speak to you for a few minutes tonight and give Tony a little bit of a reprieve after his five-day meeting. That’s like unheard of anymore to have a five-day meeting anymore. So I’m sure he’s happy to be on the bench tonight. If you would open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 38. Psalm chapter 38.

We’ll study from there for just a few minutes this evening. As I said, of course, I’m I’m very much into music and songs, and I get a lot of ideas for my sermons from them. And the idea for the sermon actually came from the song, Bring Christ Your Broken Life. Which talks about the things that Christ can do for us if we allow him to, by bringing him our lives and all the cares that we have or struggles, laying them at his feet. Verse 1 of that song says, Bring Christ your broken life. So marred by sin. He will create anew, make whole again. Your empty, wasted years he will restore, and your iniquities remember no more. Bring him your every care, if great or small.

Whatever troubles you, bring it all. Bring him the haunting fears, the nameless dread. Thy heart he will relieve and lift up thy head. Blessed Savior of us all, Almighty Friend, his presence shall be ours unto the end. Without him, life would be how dark, how drear. But with him, morning breaks, and heaven is near. Wonderful thoughts. I hope to expound upon this evening. This verse, the verse that’s quoted at the top of the song is actually in your songbook, Psalm 38, verses 8 and 9, that says, I am feeble and sore broken. Lord, all my desire is before thee. And that’s what should be up there right now.

The ESV actually states this. I am feeble and crushed. I groan because of the tumult of my heart. Oh Lord, all my longing is before you. My sighing is not hidden from you. Psalm 38 is a psalm of lament or of penitence. And the Psalms have different genres, of course, different authors presenting them in different ways of praise, lament, imprecatory psalms, penitential psalms, messianic psalms of thanksgiving. But Psalm 38 is one of penitence and lament. Which is to say that the writer, in this case, David, is experiencing great sorrow for sin. He laments that sin and repents of it. The ESV study Bible says that this is a limit that lays a person’s troubles before God. When that person realizes that these troubles are the results of one’s own sin.

How often do we fail to realize that? That the troubles that we are often experiencing are the results of not some outside factor, something that I can’t control, although sometimes that is the case. But a lot of the times, if I’m having trouble in my life, it’s because of a mistake I probably made. It goes on to say the Psalm describes anguish of body and mind, desertion of friends, and how the singer’s folly has made him vulnerable to enemies ready to pounce. Because the Psalm acknowledges that the singer’s sins lie behind these troubles, it is called a penitential song. He is repenting of his sins. He is turning away from them. He is admonishing readers who are in the same situation to turn away, to run, to flee from the grasp of Satan and the call of this world.

Indeed, that’s the attitude we all ought to have when confronted by our own sins. Keep that in mind as we read this Psalm together this evening. Read with me beginning in verse one of Psalm chapter 38. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath, for your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head. Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness. I am utterly bowed down and prostrate. All the day I go about mourning, for my sides are filled with burning, and there’s no soundness in my flesh.

I am feeble and crushed. I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you. My sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes it is also gone out from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares. Those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long. But I am like a deaf man. I do not hear. Like a mute man who does not open his mouth. I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes. But for you, O Lord, do I wait.

1. Rebuke Me Not in Your Anger

It is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. For I said, only, let them not rejoice over me who boast against me when my foot slips. For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity, and I am sorry for my sin. But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good. Do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me. O Lord, my salvation. First thing that the psalmist writes in verse 1 is he asks the Lord, Rebuke me not in your anger. We don’t want the Lord rebuking us in his anger.

In fact, here, the writer is begging him not to.

Just ignore that. You know what? It’s gone. It’s been bother me too much. We don’t want to be rebuked in the Lord’s anger, because let’s face it, if we were rebuked the way that we deserve to be rebuked, when God is angry at us about our sin, we wouldn’t stand a chance. We wouldn’t last very long. And as you already saw up, there are some examples. Nadab and Abaihu, and their offering of strange power before the Lord, and they were destroyed instantly. And we, of course, think of David and his sin with Bathsheba, and all of the turmoil that resulted in the rest of his life because of that sin. It says there in 2 Samuel chapter 12 that the sword would never depart from his house because of that sin.

And later on in that same chapter, the child that is born that David is praying to God over that it would be spared, it dies. And the very next chapter in chapter 13, this prophecy of the sword never departing from his house, that story begins with a vengeance in his own household of Amnon and Tamar and Absalom, killing Amnon. It was an ugly scene. They’re in his own house. That’s what happened was when the Lord rebukes us in his anger, and David here displays this sentiment please, Lord, oh Lord, I beg you, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.

We should want to serve him out of love, not fear. And because we are serving him out of love, we do what’s right. We do what’s pleasing unto him. But sadly, that’s really the case, isn’t it? All too often we, if we are serving the Lord at all, it is out of fear.

We have to come into his presence with singing. Luke chapter 1, verses 68, 74, and 75 said that we ought to serve without fear in holiness in righteousness. 1 John chapter 4 says that we should that perfect love casts out fear. In other words, if we are serving God the way we ought to, if we have a love for him that we ought to have, that we would have no fear of judgment. If we are abiding in God, we have no fear of his judgment. But I think the problem all too often today is we don’t love God enough to just serve him out of that love. We have no fear, on the other hand, of immediate rebuke. We’re too short-sighted to have a fear of hell.

And so all too often we’re caught in the middle. We don’t do either one. We don’t serve God out of love. We don’t serve God out of fear, and we’re just content to live our lives the way we want until things get hard. Or until some reason we do start to fear the end, fear death. And all the while we should be walking in the light. We should love God enough to serve him out of that love and not for fear of punishment. We shouldn’t need to be rebuked in God’s anger. Because as the psalmist says, God’s word should convict us. I think the reason he begs God not to rebuke him in his anger is because God’s word has convicted him of his sin. He knows that he has done something wrong.

2. Your Arrows Have Sunk Into Me

He says, Look, I it’s okay. No need for punishment here. I know I’ve sinned. I’m repenting of that sin. I’m turning away from it. He says there in verse 2 for your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. You have this image of the heavy hand of the Lord and his rat, his discipline coming down onto the writer. But especially this image of the arrows that have sunk deep into him. I mean, this is it is a mortal wound. They’ve gone in deep, they have pierced his heart. David loved the Lord. He loved him and he knew his law. He knew his law well enough to that law so that law convicted him of his sin. We need to be the same way, brethren.

We need to have a love for the Lord and a knowledge of his word and his will, that when we sin and transgress against his law, that his arrows sink into us. We are convicted when we transgress that word. We are hurt severely.

Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and the marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

They don’t want to handle it. Makes them uncomfortable. But that’s exactly what it should do. Because it is sharper than a two-edged sword. We have the hearts that we ought to have, it should convict us, it should pierce us. Cut us to the Hebrew writer writes there in Hebrews 4, it’s piercing to the division of the very soul and spirit of joints and marrow. Those are powerful words.

3. I Am Feeble and Crushed

The word of God doesn’t beat around the bush. It gets right down to the nitty-gritty, some might say. It gets right down to what matters. It gets right down to what God expects of us. There’s no mistake about if we’re not living according to his will, what is wrong in our lives, the word of God is going to convict us of that. And so the writer says in verse 8 that he is feeble and crushed.

And verse 17 and 18, and Jesus is speaking there, and he says, Luke chapter 17, or rather Luke chapter 20 and verse 17. What then is this that is written?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

We are bringing him our broken life as we ought to be.

When it falls on anyone, that heavy hand of God, his judgment, it will crush him. That’s what the writer is getting across here. I’m feeble and I’m crushed. We’re convicted. The guilt should make us feel very small in the presence and the sight of an almighty and all righteous God. We are so feeble that we cannot stand on our own. It is only through the strength of God that we can stand before him, and only through his forgiveness and his grace and his mercy and his love that the guild is taken away.

I’m feeble and crushed.

Brethren, our sin ought to crush us. The very soul, our very hearts.

It leaves us broken like David was in Psalm 51. Again, after he is confronted by Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba.

He was a broken man.

And that takes me to her song that we sang earlier, Healing in Its Wings, which is taken from that song. You know, when Glenda wrote that song, she didn’t think anyone would sing it.

And I’m not really surprised why she felt that way. She felt that way because people don’t like to think about their sin. They don’t like to confront their sin. They don’t like to confess their sins. They certainly don’t want to sing about it. At least that’s what she thought. But I think it’s to the credit of many who have embraced it. They’ve embraced it because they’re doing just that. We’re getting to a point where we are willing to talk about our sins, sing about it, confess it, be convicted by it. That’s exactly what this song is about. We need to talk about and confess, and be convicted by our sins.

And when we do that, we can find the healing that is there in the wings of God.

Our sins take us to a place that we ought not like to be. And that is separated completely from our Savior.

4. Like a Heavy Burden, Too Heavy for Me

We need to be eager and willing to talk about what it is that’s separating us from Him, that’s keeping us out of His arms. And ready to rectify the problem. Because our sins weigh down on us. They are a heavy burden. The writer writes in chapter 38 and verse 4. For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. He explores the effects of sin here in this section. He gives us lack of health, chapter 38, verse 3.

Because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sins. Again, there I’m reminded of what we read this morning in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 8, but specifically in verse 8, if you want to turn over with me there, Proverbs chapter 3. Verse 5 through 8, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. But specifically, verse 8, it says, will be healing to your flesh, and a refreshment to your bones. He’s talking about physical issues here. He’s talking about spiritually saying.

If you’re admired in it, there is no health in your bones. There is no soundness in your flesh. But the Proverb writer says that if you acknowledge God in all your ways, it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. In other words, I’m in a good spot. I’m feeling well because I’m living right and I’m in communion with God. The effects of sin is this lack of health spiritually. In verse 7, for my sides are filled with burning. Again, this phrase, there is no soundness in my flesh. Verse 4, the heavy burden that is there. My sins, my iniquities have gone over my head, he writes. Like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. And I kind of get a double meaning there.

One, our sins, when we get into that, we are in over our heads. But two, of course, it’s like we are lifting this heavy burden overhead, and it’s too much. It’s too much bear. We have to lay that down. It festers because of our foolishness. Verse 5. We stink to other people. Verse 6, it brings us low and causes us to go about mourning. The penitence that we ought to have. Verse 8, it crushes us, as we mentioned, in God’s judgment. We fall under its weight. Verse 11, our friends and family are driven away. We are like a plague to them. We are contagious. It is disgusting. It is this is strong language. This is vivid language about how our sin makes us look both to God and to those around us who would wish us to follow God’s ways.

Verse 16.

5. I Confess My Iniquity

Those burdens are too much to bear. Can we afford to carry those things around with us? Do we really want to live a life like that when there are better alternatives of living righteously and confessing our sins, getting it off of our backs, handing our lives to God, loving Him, trusting Him, serving Him, letting others help us in that. Galatians 6 and verse 2, bearing one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. Confessing our sins, Psalm 38 and verse 18 says, I confess my iniquity. I mean, it does. There are very few things that aren’t very figurative in the Psalms and Proverbs, but this is. I confess my sin. There it is. I confess my iniquity. I’m sorry for my sin. James 5, 16, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you might be healed.

It’s not until we do that God will lift them from us. We need to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us up. James 4 10 and 1 Peter 5 and verse 6. We need to put away that sin and that burden of sin and take on the easy yoke that is Christ. Matthew 11, 28 through 30.

The wonderful thing about being a Christian of putting on that yoke that is Christ is that no matter how many times I mess up, I can still come back to Him. God’s grace will abound. And we can be forgiven if we’re truly penitent, like we see David is in this Psalm and in many others.

Through the watery grave of baptism, Acts 2 38. 1 Peter 3 and verse 21.

But we can only make it there if we confess our sins and lay them down before God. Consider Isaiah 1 and verse 18. It says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. None but God can perform so great a task as to cleanse us from our sins. To take away our troubles and our temptations. But in order to do that, we must wait on him. We must be patient. We must allow him to do all things in his time. Psalm 38 and verse 15, the writer says that we must wait on the Lord. He says, But for you, O Lord, do I wait?

6. All My Longing Is Before You

It is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. He has confidence in God’s willingness to answer his prayers. He’s displaying patience and contentment in the Lord. Reminding of Paul in Philippians chapter 4, verses 11 through 13, explaining that he’s content in whatever situation through Christ who gives him strength. And then we get to verse 9. Where he says, Oh Lord, all my longing is before you. And this is really what I’m trying to get at tonight. All my longing is before you. My sighing is not hidden from you. God knows exactly what it is that plagues us. He knows exactly what it is that we’re going through. He knows exactly what sins are on our account. He knows long before we ever bring it to him.

But he wants us to bring it to him anyway.

No, our sighing is not hidden from him. But are we laying our desires before him?

Is our longing before him? Is our longing for him? That is absolutely essential. We have to lay it out there before God. We have to let him know. We have to let ourselves know. That it is him and him alone that we trust implicitly and completely. This laying our desires before him is that’s for us. Because he already knows. But we need, as Christians, to come to that place of dependence and reliance upon him. We need to wait on him to do things in his will, in his time. A lot of times we get impatient with God. And we think, why things aren’t going on my schedule? Well, that’s just God just not doing what I want him to do. He’s not doing things on my schedule.

We need to wait on him. We need to understand that he is the sovereign Lord, that he is in control. We need to desire for him to be our guide, to vindicate us, to forgive us, and to save us.

The reason that he doesn’t have to rebuke us in his anger, as we spoke earlier, is also the same reason that our sighing is not hidden from him. It’s because, one, we can approach his throne, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13 through 18. We have access to him. He hears our prayers and answers him and answers them. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us, Romans chapter 8 and verse 26. And because we have Jesus as our mediator of the new covenant, 1 Timothy 2.5 and Hebrews 9.15. We need to take advantage of that avenue that we have of approaching God in prayer through our mediator and Savior, Jesus Christ. Because as the psalmist writes in verses 21 and 22 in conclusion, do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, do not be far from me.

Make haste to help me. O Lord, my salvation. God will make haste to our salvation. If we do all these things that we’ve talked about tonight, there’s no doubt about this. He will not forsake us. We must be patient and wait on him. And we must trust that there is no other force that can accomplish our salvation than him. He will renew those who wait on him. Isaiah chapter 40. Verses 30 and 31. Isaiah chapter 40. Popular passage. Even you shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Paul writes in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 that we need to be renewing ourselves, transformed by the renewal of our minds, living our lives daily as a sacrifice unto him.

How do we do that?

We do that by being convicted by his word. By conforming ourselves to it, by being sorry and sick over our sin. By ridding ourselves from it and fleeing from it and allowing God to lift our burdens. After we’ve laid it all out before him.

Holding back nothing, hiding nothing.

Conclusion

Let me ask you a few questions in conclusion this evening wholly for him. If you’ve been convicted by God’s word tonight, do you lament over your sin? Do you have the penitent heart that David had?

Does the word of God convict you? Are your sins a burden weighing you down? Won’t you cast them off this evening? Won’t you wait on the Lord? If this psalm of lament and penitence is spoken to you, it’s pricked your heart, then as we’ll sing in a moment, we ask you to bring Christ your broken life, so marred by sin. And he will create anew and make whole again.