MUZZLED?
Key Verse: “And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.” (v.7)
Key Theme: Reduced to hope in God by the vanity of life.
Key Descriptive of God: God of Hope
We are already on day 39 of our 67-day journey of His face shining upon us in The Summer of His Love. How rich it has been to focus on HIM in one of the most critical periods of our existence as a nation. Everything seems at risk and so what a perfect time to be secured in the only guarantee of our lives— HIM! This essentially is what Psalm 39 is about. There seems to be leftover processing from Psalm 38. An interesting pattern in our journey through the Psalms is that whenever David is focused on God it is quite an uplifting Psalm and whenever he is in a lot of introspection we get dragged down a bit. Yet, even then or perhaps especially then, crucial lessons are being taught us. This is such a chapter.
SILENCED
Psalm 39 starts with a recurring priority for David that we should all heed, stewardship of the mouth. “I said to myself, “I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me.” He wants to talk less not more when the “ungodly” are around him. In other words, as he gets on social media, he is not wanting to engage more but rather less with those who seem to oppose righteousness (JRV— Johnny’s Revised Version). The next two verses in the NLT are actually hilarious. “But as I stood there in silence— not even speaking of good things— the turmoil within me grew worse. The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words.” (v.2,3) So David goes from the ideal of “I will not sin with what I say” to a torrent of fiery words in three verses. As I have often said, there is a lot more in common between President Trump and David than people would like to acknowledge. Reading the Psalms straight through as we are doing connects us with David’s best moments but also his worst.
5780: YEAR OF THE MOUTH
In the Hebraic calendar, we are 28 days from the new year of 5781. Much attention was given last year about this time to us entering “the year of the mouth” based on the various symbolisms of 5780. How ironic (or not) it has been that in the year of the mouth (PEY or PEH, spelling doesn’t quite work out the same in Hebrew) that the whole world has been required to wear a mask and dissent across all social media has been muzzled as never before. Most of that of course is connected to a sinister agenda to try to stop President Trump from fulfilling his Isaiah 45, “Cyrus’ assignment”, of removing the world “deep state”. However, as God is prone to do, He will take what the enemy is attempting and have His own objectives to go after. Mouth accountability has been high on His list for us in this year. While He, and we, don’t want the enemy muzzling our worship it doesn’t mean just a torrent of words is the goal. “Life and death is in the power of the tongue”. PEY is listed twice in this chapter (v.1 and v.9) and SAY, MOUTH, SILENT, TONGUE, MUZZLE, MUTE are throughout this Psalm. If we jump down to verses 8-11, “Rescue me from my rebellion”, “I am silent before you; I won’t say a word, for my punishment is from you”, it seems David is again confessing sin and taking some negative circumstances in his life as being the discipline of the Lord.
STOP STRIKING ME? LEAVE ME ALONE?
We need to remember that not all of David’s raw processing is designed for soundness of doctrine. Verse 10, is again almost hilarious, “But please stop striking me! I am exhausted by the blows of Your hand.” Seems this would have been a good time to keep his muzzle on. He is reaping the consequence of some sin but he is processing it as a direct “strike” from God. In the last verse David one-ups himself with, “Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more.” This “man after God’s heart” uses Psalm 39 to say “God, stop hitting me” and “leave me alone”. Perhaps some you out there have said or thought the same thing about God? Good news!! You might still be considered BY GOD as an individual after His heart.
VANITY OF LIFE LEADS TO…?
The rest of David’s processing in this chapter sounds a lot like Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. In verses 4-6 David is bemoaning how short life is (said very creatively), how being busy gets you nowhere, “all our busy rushing ends in nothing”, and how, even if you succeed in gaining some wealth, you have no guarantees it will be properly stewarded by those you leave it to— or even if it will get to whom you planned. This reality check of life, that is hard but important for us all to get to, reduces David to what I have listed as the key verse of this Psalm. “And so, Lord, where do I put my HOPE? My only HOPE IS IN YOU.” (v.7)
HOPE IN HOPING IN GOD
Even now, man tries in every way possible to control how long he or she will live. Yet, the older you get, or the older your parents or friends get, the more you realize this is not really working. Whatever extensions of life we make through exercise, diet, reduction of stress etc. only prolongs our breath by relative microseconds. That morbid proposition doesn’t initially lift our spirits— nor did it Davids. In his continued introspection David also concludes that in all the wealth he is accumulating he has no real control of how it is going to be used. Perhaps he has already had a couple of sons greatly fail him (Absalom, Adonijah). Perhaps it is just a pattern he has observed. He has come to the conclusion that he can’t control life in any significant facet. This “reality check” initially depresses him but then finally secures him to the only sure thing of this life— GOD. He turns his HOPE in other outcomes to HOPE IN GOD. What a vital lesson of life! We have no other earthly guarantees. Family can fail us. Mates can fail us. Children can fail us. Our money can fail us. Our health and quest for longevity can fail us. How depressing? Or how important a revelation? That is why David frequently refers to Him as My Rock, My Refuge, My Hiding Place, My Strong Tower. No other relationship or outcome guarantees what He does. Not just “eternal life” but accompaniment in “this life”. Today, as His face shines upon you, put your hope in hoping in God. It will lead us to where it led David in the next chapter, “Oh the joys of those who trust the Lord.” (Ps. 40:4)
Written by: Johnny Enlow
Featured Image by chris ganser on Unsplash
67 DAY COUNTDOWN SERIES
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The 67 Day Countdown Series is brought to you by Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow, founders of Restore7 ministry, as well as international speakers and best-selling authors. Among Johnny’s books are The Seven Mountain Prophecy, The Seven Mountain Mantle, Rainbow God, The Seven Mountain Renaissance, Becoming A Superhero, and RISE. Elizabeth serves as CEO and penned Rainbow God: The Seven Colors of Love and God in Every Season.
