1
THE VANITY OF LIFE WITHOUT GOD.
Psalm 39: 1 – 8
New Year’s Eve Sermon by:
Rev. C. Pronk
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(November 2006)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 274
Scripture Reading: Psalm 39
Text: Psalm 39: 1 – 8
Psalter 342: 1, 4
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 247
Sermon
Psalter 104: 3, 4, 5, 6
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 441
Doxology: Psalter 243: 5
Text: Psalm 139:1-8
To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1. I said, 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.
2. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good: and my sorrow was stirred.
3. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue.
4. LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee; verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6. Surely every man walketh in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.
8. Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish”
Introduction
On this last day of the year we come to God’s house to reflect on the period that lies behind us. The occasion calls for serious thought. While the world spends this night partying, in hopes of squeezing a few more pleasures out of the few remaining hours of this year, let us redeem these same hours by seeking God’s face in prayer and listening to His Word.
There are many passages in Scripture we can turn to for an occasion like this. The Bible has much to say about the brevity of life and the swift passing of time. But it is not only Scripture that tells us that life is short. All religions have commented on this fact in their sacred books and drawn some morals from it.
But it is only the Bible that teaches us to draw true and spiritual lessons from life’s brief span. God’s Word urges us to seek the Lord while He may be found and to call upon Him while He is near. The Bible advises us to pray to God that He may teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
There is much work--spiritual work-- to be done, and so little time to do it in. The one great task and duty God has placed before us is to repent of our sins, to believe on His Son Jesus Christ and to serve Him with all our heart.
This evening we take our text from Psalm 39. Dedicated to Jeduthun, one of David’s three chief musicians or choir directors, this psalm speaks of the poet’s experience while passing through some very heavy trial. What that trial was we are not told. It may have been the death of a loved one or a dear friend that occasioned these reflections on mortality and the vanity of life. There are indications that David at the time was weak and ill and very discouraged, even depressed. His mind seems to have been perplexed about the ways of God. He could not see the wisdom or the justice of some of the divine dealings of God with His servant. David had dark thoughts on the matter, which he dared not express in words, lest his enemies, hearing his complaints, would blaspheme God. He decides therefore to keep quiet under his affliction: “I said, 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. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred” (vv.1,2).
But as it turned out, David found it impossible to keep quiet. His grief was too great for him not to give vent to it. As he pours out his complaint, he says things that not only give us an insight into the soul-struggles that David and all God’s children go through in life, but he also makes some very valuable comments on the brevity of life, our duty in it and especially on where to go with the problems we all face in this vale of tears.
Our theme is David’s Frustration With God’s Providential Dealings
and we see
- the passionate expression of his frustration;
- the wise observations born from his frustration;
- the sure remedy provided for his frustration;
1. The Passionate Expression of David’ Frustration
Dear congregation, all great emotions require expression. Sooner or later, they must be given utterance. We need to let off steam or the boiler will explode. The over-taxed brain will reel into madness and the over-charged heart will burst. “My heart was hot within me,”: David says; ”while I was musing the fire burned.” The more he thought about his problem, the greater the turmoil in his mind became.
David here was in a similar situation as Asaph in Psalm 73. He felt the Lord was treating him unfairly. From verses 10 and 11 we gather that he had been made to feel the rod of God’s anger. “I am consumed with the blow of thy hand.” And this while the wicked were flourishing and enjoying prosperity.
You may wonder what evidence I have for this last statement. I believe this may be inferred from verse 3, where David says: “While I was musing the fire burned.” I realize that these words are often taken to mean that David here is stirring up some noble thoughts in his heart. But I see it differently. I think these words refer to David’s frustration building up and finally exploding. Like steam in a kettle, the pressure finally blew the lid off. David just had to give vent to his pent-up emotions. “Then spoke I with my tongue.” And what did he say? “Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am,”
Seen in this light, these words of David are not so much a prayer as a complaint, and a bitter complaint at that. What we have here is the impatient utterance of a child of God who is at his wit’s end. David doesn’t know it anymore. Lord, he complains, make me to know my end. Tell me how much longer I have to live.
David is tired of it all. He longs for death. His experience is like that of Elijah who when he fell exhausted under the juniper tree also asked to be released from his duties: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers!” he said.
We find similar expressions in the book of Ecclesiastes and Job. But no matter in what frame of mind David was when he uttered these words, they are true and very instructive for all who read them and reflect upon them.
2. The Wise Observations Born from David’s Frustration
Let us look more closely at David’s complaint and let us learn some lessons from it, relative to the brevity of human existence and consequently the necessity of preparing for eternity.
“LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days,” David asks. He knows that his days are determined by God. This is affirmed in many other Scripture passages as well. Man’s days are determined, Job says; the number of his months are with thee; thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass” (Job14:5). Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Job asks (7:1). All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come, he says later (14:14).
Not only has the Lord determined the exact number of days we will spend on this earth, but He has also determined that our days will be very few. “Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee” (v.5). A handbreadth—that isn’t very much. A handbreadth is one of the smallest measurements. Compared to the foot, for instance, the length of the foot, or the cubit--which is the length of the arm to the elbow—the handbreadth is quite small—a mere 4-inches or 10 centimetres, at the most.
But the psalmist is thinking of eternity here. Compared to God’s life, his own life shrinks into nothing. “Mine age is as nothing before Thee,” he cries out.
When we are young, we think we have a whole lifetime in front of us. Isn’t that right, boys and girls, you can hardly wait to grow up. But you will, soon enough, until you start to realize that there are more years behind you than ahead of you. Even then we are often foolish enough to promise ourselves that there are years to come. Especially today, with all the emphasis on extending our lifespan through proper diet and exercise, vitamins, etc., many dream of living to a very high age.
But what if you do? What if you do live to be 100 years old? It’s still only a handbreadth. Compared to the endless ages of eternity the oldest person on earth has spent only a very brief time here. He appears for a few seconds on the stage of life and then quickly vanishes again.
“Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity,” David concludes. Every man—I’m sure David includes himself—amounts to nothing. The poet here uses the divine scales and puts in them the lives of all men and together they cannot move the scales in the slightest. Isaiah says, “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles as a very little ting” (40:15).
This is true of both the weak and the strong. David says this about man at his “best state.” The healthiest and the strongest, the athlete with his body in top-shape, the toughest soldier with nerves of steel, the respected philosopher with his vast intellect, the powerful politician with his charismatic appeal—all are together vanity and no more than a speck of dust that clings to a weigh scale.
Some of you may have seen the effects of a tornado. Then you know that not only thin flower stems, but also tall trees are pulled up and thrown down like matchsticks across the street. Just so, death mows down young and old, weak and strong. How does the Psalter put it?
Time long an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
And another Psalter says:
The flow’r is withered by the wind
That smites with blighting breath.
So man is quickly swept away
Before the blast of death.
How many of our friends and acquaintances have passed away! Knowing that this is so, that the longest life is but a handbreadth, should we not spend our time better than we do? In the brief time that God gives us here on earth, much work has to be done. Our souls must be saved and the Lord is to be served. We must do good to our fellow man. There are all sorts of duties and responsibilities that need to be taken care of. Children must be nurtured in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The church and its ministry must be supported and the cause of Christ must be promoted wherever possible. All these things and more have to be done in this brief span of time allotted to us.
How valuable is our time! Every minute, yes, every second counts. Jesus says, “Work while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4).
Yet what do we see? People everywhere are spending their time foolishly. “Surely every man walketh in a vain show,” David says (v.6). Shakespeare compared life to a play in which we all have a small part:
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.
Signifying nothing.
Man without God pursues goals that have no real substance. He walks like a traveler in a mirage, chasing shadows, and grasping at soap bubbles. He thinks, however, that these empty nothings are worthwhile objects. He lives for them, expending all his energies upon them.
But sooner of later he will come to realize that they are indeed vanities. Then he will be very disappointed and fear will take hold of him.
“Surely they are disquieted in vain,” the psalmist remarks. Men fret and fume and worry, lay awake at night, planning and scheming—and all for nothing. They are shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them.
“He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” (v.6). He who toils and wearies himself for material possessions finds at the end that he has laboured in vain. How often it happens that a man who made a fortune by hard, long work, dies without knowing who will inherit his hard-earned money and possessions. Not seldom does it go to people with whom we could not get along at all. Yet, he slaved all his life, just so they could spend his fortune. O, the irony!
Congregation, what about us? Do we live for shadows too? No, we don’t necessarily have to be misers to qualify as shadow-boxers. Even if we are content with what we have, we can still live for shadows. There are people who are easy-going and not very ambitious. As long as they have a fairly good income and can afford a few pleasures in life, they are happy as larks. After a I to 5 day at work they come home, throw their feet on a table and turn on the TV. They have no interest in spiritual things; no desire for Bible study. On Sunday morning they go off to church, of course, and even to a second service. But that’s the extent of their involvement in God’s church and His kingdom.
Am I talking to you? Is this your life? Then I have to tell you that your life is also a vain show. Basically, it is no different from the life of worldly people who never go to church.
Let us look back on the year that is almost gone. How have you spent this brief time? Seeking the Lord? Have you grown spiritually? Are you closer to the Lord now than a year ago?
Maybe you have been very busy, but with what? Trying to get ahead in life? I realize we have to make a living and to the extent this involves working and planning—I’m thinking of businessmen and farmers especially—of course, such activities require effort, diligence and zeal. Maybe some of you are suffering economically and have a hard time. This may be a problem and a worry right now, but you must be very careful lest what our text says is true of you, that is, “Surely they are disquieted in vain” (v.6).
3. The Sure Remedy Provided for David’s Frustration
It would be far better if your worries were about your state before God. That would not be in vain. David could say that he was concerned about spiritual things. This comes out in the next statement, where he says: “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee” (v.7).
We have seen that in verses 3 to 6 David gave vent to his frustration and he was deeply perplexed and complained that he was tired of life. As far as he could tell, life is vain and the sooner he would be delivered from this world in which everybody chases shadows and pursues dreams, the better. David did not pour out his heart before his friends, although there is a place for that too. But David poured out his heard before the Lord! What a blessing it is if we go to the Lord with our frustrations and complaints! David went to his God and as he did so, a change came over him. A different tone of voice and a different attitude begins to emerge. Having reflected on the vanity of life without God, spent in pursuit of shadows, David asks, “And now Lord, what wait I for?” (v.7) What is my expectation from life? What do I live for? The same things the world is seeking for? No, Lord, the wicked may prosper and things may go their way, but it is all vanity. All the money in the world, all the pleasures of the flesh, all the honour, fame, applause, which the world can offer fails to attract me. No, I do not wait for these things. I wait for Thee, Lord! My hope is in Thee.
David renounces everything that is not God and severs all ties with the world of shadows and turns to the only One who has substance and reality: God! “My hope is in thee.” My hope is in the Lord who is self-existent and true, and therefore worthy of total confidence. He is the eternal One who will live when all His creatures are dead. As the poet of Psalm 102 says: “My days are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grass. But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations” (102:11,12).