Hear the word of the Lord from Psalm chapter 38. A Psalm of David for a memorial. O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath, and chasten me not in your burning anger. For your arrows have sunk deep into me, and your hand has pressed 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 are gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they weigh too much for me. My wounds grow foul and fester because of my folly. I am bent over and greatly bowed down. I go mourning all day long. For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am benumbed and badly crushed. I groan because of the agitation of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before you, and my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me. My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my kinsmen stand afar off. Those who seek my life lay snares for me, and those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction, and they devise treachery all day long. But I, like a deaf man, do not hear. And I'm like a mute man who does not open his mouth. Yes, I'm like a man who does not hear and in whose mouth are no arguments. For I hope in you, O Lord, You will answer, O Lord, my God. For I said, may they not rejoice over me, who when my foot slips would magnify themselves against me. For I'm ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I confess my iniquity. I'm full of anxiety because of my sin. But my enemies are vigorous and strong, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. And those who repay evil for good, they oppose me because I follow what is good. Do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, do not be far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Almighty God and merciful Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we come now before you With hearts eager to receive your word and your truth, we ask, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit you would help us to receive what you have revealed and graciously given, that we might leave here treasuring the Lord Jesus Christ more deeply, following you more faithfully, and embracing the costly path of discipleship that pleases you. God, as we look at this text before us, we thank you that you are our Heavenly Father who disciplines us for our good. We thank you that you do not leave us in our sins until that day of judgment. O Lord, we ask and pray that if any are here who do not know you have not come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, that today by your spirit they might be born anew, born again, the new and living resurrection hope that we have in Christ alone. For the saints who are here, God, who are weary and discouraged, build up their faith and their hope and their love to the praise of your great name. We entrust this sermon to you in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Well, friends, the psalm before us today is arguably one of the most offensive psalms in the entire Bible. You may be wondering, how is that possible, Pastor Brandon, that this psalm is one of the most offensive psalms in the entire Bible? That's a bold claim. Well, especially, perhaps I should say and qualify that with these words, in our nation, in the day we live in, when sin and guilt are dismissed by so many, even by so many friends, neighbors, and family, even by some professing Christians as a primitive concept, an oppressive concept, a subjective concept, and even a harmful concept to our self-image and self-esteem. This psalm does something where few will go. It connects suffering with sin. It connects the sorrow of a believer and the consequences of a difficult life, even a life filled with physical pain, to sin and folly and iniquity. When you suffer or feel something bad today, even in the slightest, many people around you and me are very quick to come and to relieve us of any sense of guilt or shame or condemnation. We can't have that. And if you speak the words that David speaks here, I've sinned. I was foolish. Quickly, not only will you have the old man pulling at you to suppress that thought and move on, but you'll have a host of people there ready to agree with that old man, that old sinful man. This is not to say, by the way, that all of your suffering is because of your personal sin all the time. I want to be abundantly clear on that. Some of you have affliction that is not due to any sin of yours. Sometimes it is due to the sin of others. or just as a result of being in a fallen world where there are curses still. And so to be clear, not every ounce of suffering, not every occasion for suffering and season of suffering is a result of your personal and direct sins. But, dearly beloved brothers and sisters, recognize this. Psalm 38 says that there are seasons of sorrow when your personal sin is the reason for your suffering. And if you reject this idea that your sin, your personal sin, can result in this kind of suffering and anguish, this kind of sorrowful soul, then you reject the living God of heaven and earth who has revealed this truth. In a day and age when so many people would prefer to feel good rather than be good, this text is vital for us. It is vital for our discipleship. It is vital for us to lean into this text and to take away the lessons that God has revealed for us therein. And let's not be so prideful and self-righteous as to quickly act as if we would be those who would never connect or disconnect, I should say, our sin from our sorrow and our suffering. Far too often we have done that, and probably too quickly in the lives of some around us. I want you to consider a few statistics in the life of our country today. In 2020, alcohol consumption among adults increased over 30% in the U.S. as people remained isolated in their homes. Connected to this was not only more drunkenness, more drunk driving accidents, more offenses when it comes to DUI, but you have all this self-medication as well when it comes to drug abuse. In 2022, around 55.8 million adults in the United States received treatment or counseling for their mental health within just the past year alone. And that treatment included inpatient or outpatient treatment, counseling, and very often the use of prescription medication and even the abuse of prescription medication. And we should not wrongly presume or condemn each and every occasion where someone would seek out counseling and be desperate to go to a therapist. But what I think is undeniable, friends, is that in this nation, our neighbors, our friends, our family and loved ones, the co-workers that you work with, many people seek to self-medicate. They don't want to be told that there's sin in their life, that there's guilt, that they'll stand before a holy God. and that there could ever be a connection between that sorrow and that suffering and their own personal sin. And so we're going to try to walk through this text today and see how the Lord has graciously given us this text. Matthew Henry said of this psalm, If we have not such troubles as are here described, we know not how soon we may have them. And therefore we must sing of them by the way of preparation, and know that others have them, and therefore we must sing of them by the way of sympathy. And so, friends, you might think, I don't have that in my life, some suffering or sorrow due to my own personal sin. The truth is, though, every Christian has experienced at one time or another deep anguish in your soul, seeing how your sin and your folly has led to sorrow and shame and even physical pain. Before us today is what some have called a penitential psalm, an individual lament. Interestingly, as a point of history, Galileo was required to repeat as penance this psalm and the other seven or six penitential psalms every week for three years. These psalms are meant to inspire repentance, deep-seated, heartfelt change in us as Christians. William Van Gemeren noted that the composition of Psalm 38, 39, 40, and 41 are united by these common themes of sin, transgression, guilt, and consequences. I would urge you to read all four of those Psalms together, 39 through 41, today, maybe on the Lord's Day. Read them and see these themes connected beautifully and woven together. so that we might, as Christians, as those under the Lord Jesus Christ, be blessed by this reminder. Notice at the beginning of this psalm, it says this in the superscription there, a psalm of David for a memorial. As Brother Jeremiah pointed out to us last week, this is a part of the inspired text. It is not like some of the verses and chapters that came much, much later. These superscriptions are actually found in all of the manuscripts that we have. A psalm of David for a memorial, for a time to remember, to recall and bring to mind. And what exactly is David bringing to mind? Well, here's the main point, you might say, of today's sermon text before us. If I had to put it in a nutshell statement, it would be this. In seasons of severe sorrow, remember the Lord your salvation, and boldly direct your cries to Him. In seasons of severe sorrow, remember the Lord of your salvation, and boldly direct your cries to Him. Look there at Psalm 38, 1 through 4 with me now. O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath, And chasing me not in your burning anger, for your arrows have sunk deep into me, and your hand has pressed down on me. There's no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. Now, we'll finish off the last part of verse 3 in just a moment, but consider how many times David is focused upon the Lord. O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath, your burning anger, your arrows, your hand, your indignation again and again. In just two verses you have mentioned of the Lord's hand of disfavor, of displeasure upon David. And notice here what he does. He does not attribute anything wrong or unjust of what the Lord has done to him. Not at all, not in the slightest. In fact, at the end of verse 3, he says, there is no health in my bones because of my sin. There are three occasions, we might say, three seasons of sorrow. that I want to present to us today that David declares we can also use, I would argue, as a memorial in our own lives. The first is this, when you face seasons of severe suffering due to your sin, remember, remember to intensely describe your pain while fully confessing your sins to the sovereign and disciplining Lord. Remember to give voice to exactly the pain that you are experiencing here. Notice that again, David is directing this to the Lord. He knows the Lord is punishing him, not eternally, but in an earthly sense because of his own sinfulness. The Lord is gracious to us. and does not allow us to continue in those sins until the day of judgment. Recognize, beloved brothers and sisters, that there are many who walk on this earth and their conscience is not troubled by their sin. No one around them is telling them that that is sinful, what they are doing or saying or thinking. And one day they are dead and they stand before a holy God whose truth they have suppressed in unrighteousness whose wisdom they have ignored, and they stand condemned forever. Yet that's not what we have here in Psalm 38. Here you have a temporary earthly time of anguish that David is bringing to mind as a memorial. He is recalling this season of suffering that he endured, and he is giving intense description to his pain. Look in verse 2, "...for your arrows have sunk deeply into me." Arrows are often associated with the displeasure of the Lord, the indignation, the righteous indignation of the Lord towards His people, but also towards His people's enemies. You see this many times throughout the Scriptures. Job is one of those where we also see this. But there are other texts as well. But the idea there is not that a literal, physical error has come. Rather, though, there is such deep soul anguish, deep sorrow that David is experiencing, that it carries on all the way to his feelings in the flesh. Verse 3, "...there is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation." No soundness, no health, that's the idea there. I have no health in my body because of the Lord's indignation. And there's no health in my bones, any of them, because of my sin. Notice what David does is, after quickly identifying that the Lord is sovereignly disciplining him, he quickly runs to, or goes to, his own sin. His own personal sin. Notice that qualifying word. My sin. And then in verse 4, For my iniquities are gone over my head. And then verse five, my wounds grow foul and fester because of my folly. Without attributing an ounce of injustice to the Lord, he describes the pain he's experiencing that he knows comes from the Lord's hand. And he knows the reason that it has come is because the Lord is a God of justice and the Lord is a disciplinary good Father in heaven. David recognizes that all these things have happened because he has sinned and the Lord has told his people graciously, if you go down this path, if you follow your sinful desires, if you reject my wisdom and choose the path of folly, you will experience sorrow. Maybe not right away, maybe not in the moment, maybe not even over a few years, but there will be deep sorrow that you will face, and praise be to God, it will not be eternal if you are one of God's children and have entrusted in Jesus Christ. It will be here in this earth. David brings to mind this memorial, this remembrance of a time when he experienced the Lord's displeasure. And it's a model for us to recognize that there are occasions when we ought to confess our sins, not partially, but fully. We do that as we come to the Lord's table. We invite the Holy Spirit to convict us concerning sin we have in our lives. Lord, if I have wronged you, first and foremost, a brother or sister, even in a small way. May I not diminish it, may I not move past it, may I confess it openly, knowing that I have been forgiven and justified by you in your heavenly courtroom, and you are my God, and you are my Savior. So brothers and sisters, when you face seasons of severe suffering due to your sin, remember, remember to intensely describe that pain, absolutely, but also fully confess those sins, all your sins, to the Lord who is sovereign over them and the disciplinary Lord of heaven and earth. We have seen in other texts even earlier how there's a connection between physical pain and confession of sin. Psalm 32, 2 and 4 says this, how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose spirit there is no deceit. Listen to this. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. If you're wondering, what, Pastor Brandon, is the evidence that the Lord disciplines his children for their good? There's multiple texts I would direct you to, but if perhaps you're new to the Bible, or perhaps you're unfamiliar with some of these texts, these are important texts. I know we have some newer believers here, and so recognize that this is in the scriptures, and may it encourage you. Proverbs 3, 11 and 12 says, my son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves. even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. In other words, don't miss that. If the Lord did not love you, he would not discipline you. Have you experienced this? Times when your soul is sorrowful because of your sin? If you have, and if it's driven you almost mad, praise be to God. He's the evidence of a disciplinary Heavenly Father's hand in your life. Hebrews 12 quotes the exact same proverb and then goes on to say this, they, that is earthly fathers, disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them. It's always wonderful whenever you see that text in the scripture because it's like the Lord subtly saying, as seems best to them. We know fathers, you didn't get it always right all the time. So probably you had a father here who did not get it right all the time. Maybe it was a horrible father. Recognize though, the Lord doesn't say he did it perfect, he did it right. Rather, your earthly father disciplined you for a short time as seemed best to him. But God, the Lord, disciplines us for our good, so that we may share his holiness. There is a greater end, a greater purpose, an eternal one, when it comes to the discipline that the Lord in heaven inflicts upon us. Verse 11 of Hebrews 12 says, All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who've been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." So this is a temporary kind of sorrow. David is calling to mind the fact that though in the moment it seemed intense, it seemed like it would never end, it seemed brutal, he is calling to mind that it did end, that the Lord did bring him through it. And it was linked to his confession of all of his sin. Friends, you will not find earthly healing, you will not find it, if you are a Christian, if you continue in your sin and you do not repent and confess your sin. You'll be miserable, and it will affect your physical body. Much has been studied in recent years. Many studies have connected the idea that we are holistic beings. Now, as Christians, we're not surprised by that at all. But we can't silo ourselves off and compartmentalize. That's not the way things work. It's not the way God designed us. Wilhelm van Gemmeren, again, Old Testament scholar, previously of Trinity, said this, suffering is a form of God's discipline in the school of righteousness. The psalmist does not question God's justice. Throughout the lament, he recognizes his own sinfulness. And so, yes, describe the pain you are experiencing. Recognize the Lord's hand, but also confess your sin and do not charge the Lord with injustice in your life. I wonder, friends, are you in what Van Gemeren calls the school of righteousness? Have you experienced the discipline of the Lord? And praise be to God if you indeed have. So when you face seasons of severe suffering due to your sin, remember, brothers and sisters in Christ, to intensely describe your pain to the Lord and also fully confess your sins too. our great God who is sovereign and is disciplining us. Second is this, when you face seasons of severe weakness and loneliness, remember to fervently voice all of that, that loneliness, that weakness to the all-knowing Lord. Look at verse 9 and 14. David, after continually describing how his wounds have grown foul and fester because of his folly, he's bent over, greatly bowed down. You see him saying in verse 6, I go mourning all day long. This is not a short period of time where he goes out and nothing else fills his mind. This is one of those occasions, and maybe you've experienced that, where nothing else is on his mind. Everything else gets burned in the background. And this sorrow, this anguish, this pain is on the forefront of his mind. It's the only thing he can think of. It is all-consuming. It is something that has wounded him and affected him so greatly and so severely that not even his friends want to be around him. Look in your Bible there at verse 9. Verse 9 says this, Lord, all my desire is before you. and my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me." What David is describing here is severe weakness. He has no words. He has no voice. He's in such disarray. that his strength has failed him. I wonder if you've ever been there, you can hardly move. And David says, I groan because of the agitation of my heart in verse eight. In this word we don't use anymore, I am benumbed and badly crushed. That means I am frozen. I'm frozen, I'm paralyzed. There's a sense in which I can't even move. I don't know if you've been around someone who's gone through something like that in their life. They hear news, they receive shocking news, they can hardly speak, they can hardly move. You have to help them sit down. The sad reality, friends, is that's often not because of their hatred of and understanding of the vileness of their sin, but because of something else that happened in their life that they want to get out of, something else that was real and painful. We're not dismissing that at all. But friends, would it not be so glorifying to our great God and Father? Would it not bring great praise to our King, Jesus Christ? If we were those who, like David, were benumbed, frozen, badly crushed and recognized, that there was a vileness to our sin that was even worse than the consequence of that sin. Charles Spurgeon once said, there is nothing we can endure, nothing we can experience, no pain we can undergo that is more vile or worse than the smallest sin. We have things very backwards where the consequences of our sins, those things bother us. I got caught, oh no. Our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, may you pray for, ask the Lord for, and seek to have a heart that is so sensitive to God's Spirit and God's truth that you do come more and more with the Spirit's help to a place where you recognize the vileness of that sin and you flee it and repent it and turn it over to the Lord. because it will lead to a weaker and weaker life. David, again, here, is crying out, not because of something disconnected from his sin, but very much connected to his sin. It's a consequence of his sin. This season of severe weakness, and also loneliness. Look in verse 11. My loved ones, my friends, they stand aloof, remote from, distant from my plague. And we don't know the occasion exactly that David was writing this. Some have suggested perhaps it was leprosy. That's why the mention of plague is there. Others would say it was the end of his life. First Kings make mentioned the fact that David was so cold he could not be comforted or made warm because he was sick with something. There were times where David was actually given a choice by God and the Lord said, here's your options, David, because of your sin, you can have an enemy army come. and your enemies can overpower you and overrule you, or you can be inflicted with the plague, with sickness. David chose the sickness, he chose the plague. We really don't know the exact nature of what's going on, and though many have speculated and tried to make arguments for this point or that, we recognize that David in his life has experienced great suffering time and time again. So it could have been a real plague as a result of his sin. We see that again in 1 Samuel 12 in particular. But the larger point for our purposes today is simply this. David experienced severe weakness and severe loneliness. He was abandoned. He was left alone. My loved ones, my friends stand aloof from my plague. And then he goes on and reinforces it again. My kinsmen stand afar off. We're talking friends. We're talking his wife. We're talking his children. We're talking those warriors who fought against giants and were with him in battle. King David who killed Goliath. King David who was Israel's king and champion. King David who wrote so many of these wonderful psalms inspired by God's Holy Spirit. This King David is again bringing to mind a memorial of a time when he had no words. When the psalmist, the hymn writer had no words. and he had no friends. There was no one who wanted to be near him because of the consequence of this suffering for his sins. So when you face seasons of severe weakness and loneliness, remember to fervently voice that to the Lord who is all-knowing. Look at verse 9 again. It says, Lord, all my desire is before you. That just means all my desire is known to you. You know it. But notice this, God has glorified brothers and sisters in Christ when we give voice to the desires of our hearts. So many people want someone to talk to. So many people go to therapists, they go to other people around them. They want someone to listen. But have you gone to the Lord? Have you cried out to Him? It can be a very helpful thing to write out prayers to the Lord. It can be a very helpful thing whenever you are at a loss of what to say. You're so weak you're not even sure what to do. Just to describe it and fervently voice to the Lord who is all-knowing and already knows your desires exactly what's happening. Say to God, I'm benumbed, I'm badly crushed. I groan because of the agitation of my heart. You can pray this psalm verbatim if you need to and you have no words. But note that the Lord is not here encouraging us even to go to fellow Christians first and foremost. He wants us to go to Him. Lord, Lord, all my desire is before You. My desire for relief from pain, my desire from the consequences of my sins to be avoided, my desire for this sin to be gone, this temptation to be gone, all my desire, anything David wanted. Lord, even lift your heavy hand. of indignation from me. It's all before you. You know it all. Brothers and sisters, when you face seasons of severe weakness and loneliness, remember to fervently voice that all to the all-knowing Lord. Third and finally, when you face seasons of severe threats, remember to faithfully rehearse where your hope lies. Where does it lie? It lies in the Lord your God, who alone will answer, who alone will save, who alone can help, who alone can forgive, who alone has drawn near to sinners like us in Jesus Christ. In Psalm 38, 19 and 20, we read, but my enemies are vigorous and strong. Many are those who hate me wrongfully and those who repay me evil for good, they oppose me because I follow what is good. Earlier in Psalm 38, 12, the same idea is there. Those who seek my life lay snares for me. Those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction. They devise treachery all day long. So notice David has inner anguish, soul turmoil, that kind of suffering. His friends have abandoned him and betrayed him, his family is away from him, and there are enemies who are trying to hunt him down, maybe even former friends, former family members. As you know, Absalom, his own son, went after him. There are people seeking to destroy him. A lesson for us is when we face seasons of severe threats, we must remember to faithfully rehearse where our help comes from. It comes from the Lord. There's not a person who can save you or forgive you or rescue you from the earthly consequences of your sins. They can relieve you for a moment, they can pat you on the head, they can make you feel better for a few moments, but you will not find lasting long-lasting, earthly, and certainly eternal hope or peace at all, trying to go at that without the Lord. And so that begs the question, of course, today, have you, not someone else in your life, but you, Sitting in this pew, Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church on August 25th, year of our Lord 2024, have you trusted in the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins, your personal sins? Have you cried out to him for help? Have you called upon him in dependence and recognize you're at your wits end, you can't sneak out of this one? Maybe you're just like David, you're benumbed, your agitation in your heart, it is overwhelming. Like He says in verse 4, my iniquities are gone over my head. Maybe you know you've got all this sin in your life, you think if you sin one more time, that's it. Maybe you wake up in the morning or you hit your pillow at night and you look at what you did, the sins you've committed. And you think, if I died right now and stood before God, the Creator, and had to give an explanation for this, there would be no hope for me, I'd be lost. Does that describe you? Or can you say confidently, not arrogantly, but confidently and appropriately, my help comes from the Lord and I know that he will answer. Look in Psalm 38, I love the way that David has this confidence that he encourages all of us towards. in Psalm 38, verse 15, it says this, for I hope in you, O Lord. You will answer, O Lord, my God. Notice he doesn't say you might answer or perhaps you'll do something, God. He says you will answer. David is rehearsing the faithfulness of the character of God, and he is saying to himself, as he's wrestling in his heart and his mind, here's my sins, here's my suffering, here's my pain, here's my sorrow, and here are you, Lord, the one who will answer, the one who will help me, the one who has helped me in the past, the one who has saved me and rescued me and put me on firm ground, as David puts it in another psalm, I'm recalling not all these things that I've done that were wicked and sinful and shameful. I'm recalling not just those consequences, but you, the Lord who will do this, and the Lord who will answer. In the New Testament, there are a few texts that some of us especially love and appreciate, especially in times of seeing our own lostness, our own confusion, our own sin. Two in particular that I have cherished and loved, and no doubt many of you have as well, who are brothers and sisters in the Lord, are Luke 19 and 10. It's worth memorizing this one. For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. Mark 2, 17, Jesus said to them, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Both these texts remind us that the great physician, Jesus Christ, who rules heaven and earth, is the same God of Psalm 38. The same God who has graciously said, I will heal, is the same God who says to you, will you call upon me during times of severe suffering and sorrow. Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, may you set as a memorial in your life this great reminder that since the Lord is your salvation, remember this when you are desperate, that you can direct all your sorrows. You can cry out to the God of forgiveness and grace and mercy, knowing that he will receive you and he will gladly forgive you and rescue you, not because you deserve it. but because he is gracious and merciful and kind. Let us pray. Almighty God and merciful Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I thank you and praise you for your holy word that reminds us of the pardon and assurance that is ours found in Christ alone. God, as we think about our great salvation, as we think about your matchless mercy, As we go through this earth and we do foolishly give ourselves to sins, may we quickly repent and flee those sins. Lord, we ask that by your Spirit you would lead us increasingly to be a church that glorifies you, that walks in holiness and integrity. We need your help for this. We recognize we would fall short and fail every single time apart from your mercy and love and grace. So we thank you for Jesus, our Savior, who is able to sympathize with us, who knows what it is to be abandoned by friends and family. And we thank you for Jesus who took the charges against us on himself, gladly and freely and fully, so that we might find forgiveness for all of our sins and the freedom to call upon you, the Lord of lords, the Lord of our salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name and all God's people said.