You can turn to Psalm 38 while you're turning there. Brought a smile to my face when we said that number, 316, because when I have filled out the order of service, I send it to the people who are playing and the people that are directing, and I got a question of, ha ha, 316. Okay, what is it? And in the process of typing it out, I guess I had a Pauline moment. You go, what is it? It's typed it out and it was, oh, to be like me. And I was like, that is not going to be accurate on that. And I don't think any of us would ever want to sing that, oh, to be like me, but oh, to be like thee. A much nobler standard to be going after in life. And yeah, so. Be careful what you type. I mean, we were talking about it this morning and you know how oftentimes you sing hymns and you're so familiar with it and you stick in a me for thee and, you know, my and thy, you know, and then you're like, wait a second, that's horrible theology. It's not even accurate and the like. And so sometimes that happens. There are events in life that have an impression upon you and are something that you don't easily forget. You can remember it was either first or second grade, I don't know which it was, but when it was about this season of the year, about a month from now, but it was an Easter season, You remember we were at church and then there was an exciting time because we invited all sorts of people over for lunch. And so for me as a, either a six or seven year old, there was all sorts of kids there and all afternoon, all sorts of activity, good food. And it was Easter, so there was a lot of candy around so you could run by and grab candy, you know, and you weren't being told, no, don't eat the candy because parents weren't paying attention to you and whatever. So, I mean, it was just a good time. And I can remember that we went back to church that night, and then we came home, and the next day I was sick. And my mom was like, you ate too much candy yesterday. You were sneaking too much candy, and this is why. But then she took my temperature, and she goes, well, I don't know. I doubt if that's the case. And she goes, you know, we're gonna keep you home from school. And to top it all off, after a few hours, it was more than just a fever. It was more than just not feeling right when all the little red dots began to appear. And if you've ever had chicken pox, you know that's been an experience of life. It's an experience of endurance. How long can you endure with the agony of wanting to itch but being told don't do it, and trying to find comfort for a week's time, and it's a life experience that most of us have gone through, but it's not one you really wanna repeat. You don't wanna go through that again. What we have here is an individual in Psalm 38 that is faced with a sickness that's on a scale that's really hard to forget. You see at the beginning the title there, and as you read through the Psalms, these titles are a part of the Psalms themselves. We don't give them a verse reference, but the titles are with the Psalm itself to give direction. And this one says just simply this, a Psalm of David to bring to remembrance There's only one other psalm that has that, I believe, attached to it. I think it's Psalm 70 that has that statement attached to it. And when you have a call to remembrance, it's usually a calling to the Lord, not just to pay attention, but to respond. And so this is a psalm right from the start, from the title, you're beginning to go, okay, you're wanting something from God. You're wanting a response. But what we're gonna find is that it's not necessarily because of the sickness that he's looking for a response. It's gonna be for a different reason. I wanna read through this psalm, it's 22 verses, and it is one of, you know, I thought about this where I went looking for psalms and as we're getting ready to get to Psalm 40, our song of the month is Psalm 40. I don't know that I could really find a whole lot of psalms about Psalm 38. I mean, it would not be a, you know, you can imagine it being played in a minor key, you know, rather sorrowfully with, you know, agony every once in a while, but I mean, you can't imagine a psalm being written like this that a congregation would sing, but it was written for our help and for us to learn something. First one says this, O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head, as in heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there's no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth, my strength faileth me. As the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from me, far from my sore. My kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. But I as a deaf man heard not, and I as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God." For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me. For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. But my enemies are lively, they are strong. They that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. They also that render evil for good are my adversaries. because I follow the thing that good is. Forsake me not, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord, of my salvation. As you read through this, I'm just gonna put the theme out there. Sometimes with the Psalms, I don't give you the theme to the end and let you work through what the Psalm is, but I'm gonna give you the theme here at the beginning. It's just simply this, the Lord, sometimes allows bodily difficulty to get us to return to Him. God sometimes allows bodily difficulty to get us to return to Him. Or we could say, to turn from sin. As you read through this, you find the sickness described. I mean, there's a whole bunch of different terms and people have tried to figure out what this is. There is some indicator that there may have been open sores. It talks about they're running from my sores and the like, but it's also got pain on the inside, so you're not really sure exactly what this disease is, but whatever it is, you don't want it. The description of it, it goes this way. The sickness is described, first of all, as just simply penetrating and pressing. You see this in verse two, that it's like hot, or it's like the arrows that are stuck inside of me. I mean, I've got wounds and it feels like they're internal. The pain is great and it's inside me. And it's this, not only that it's penetrating, it's pressing me sore. It's like God's hand is like just like some sort of press machine is just making him smaller and smaller and compacting him so he's feeling everything. It's also that you see this disease is weakening and wearying. Verse three, there's no soundness in my flesh. I mean, he can't get up, really, is what we're talking about here. He's not able to get around on his own. Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my, now he's saying this, there's no rest because of my sin. He's realizing there's a connection between the two here. And we'll get to this in a second. But he's going, I've got no rest. That's the thing. I always am humored by the fact that when we were sick as children, mom would be like, okay, you've got to spend the whole day resting. And it's just like, you know, I don't want to rest all day. Now as adults, you're like, you know, just for a day of rest, you know, it'd be fantastic. But even this sickness is not allowing him truly to rest. He's not getting rest, even though he's attempting to rest because he's so weak. You find also that this disease almost is like this to him. It's drowning and heavy. My iniquities, verse 4, have gone over my head. He feels like he's drowning in many ways. And then he has got a burden on his back that's too heavy for him. And this may be in reference to the sickness, but he's going to connect the sickness with his sinfulness as you go along. It's disgusting. You know, when you're sick, there's oftentimes things you put up with that you'd never put up with in life on a regular basis, but it's just the nature of being sick. Verse five, my wounds stink. I mean, he's got wounds that people can't handle being around him because of the stench. You find that he is bending, verse number six, I'm troubled, I'm bowed down greatly. You just imagine a person that can't even stand up full because of the pain of what's going on for him. Verse seven indicates the fact that this disease is burning. A loathsome disease, it's got the indicator that he is feeling a burning fever, and it may be connected somewhat to the fact that he's burning with shame over sin. But the sickness is that way. It's in feebling, verse eight. I'm feeble and sore broken. We talk about people being broken health. They have no broken bones, but they're broken in health. For David, as he has this disease, for him, he thinks this is something that's going to end his life. Verse 10, the middle adverse, as for the light of mine eyes, it is also gone from me. It's like this, the light's being turned off. Life is going away. So you go through all of this and you go, okay, he's not in a good state. He has something that is oppressive to those around him and to himself as far as disease. It's stomach turning. And you say, what's the psalmist response? Well, the psalmist, and think about this, when you're sick, it's a problem you can't get away from. Think about this. If you have problems with people, you can get away from them for a time. If you're having problems with other things in life, you can get away from them, or it relaxes, or you know what? You can just go to sleep and you can get away from it for a few minutes. But when you're sick, this is something that's with you all the time. You can't get away from it. There is no relief from it. You go to sleep and you're feverish. And even in your sleep, you're just toiled and tormented by all that goes on and the like. And for the psalmist, he has carried this thing around. And what sickness allows you to do is allows you a lot of time to think. And when you're sick, you're like, oh, I can watch things or read things or that type of thing. And he's not in that state. You know, I can do other things, no, and so basically it's you and your thoughts for hours and hours and hours. Can't get away from them. And it seems that David, as he's gotten this sickness, is beginning to consider certain things, and he begins to ask himself the question, am I just sick because I'm sick? or is there a purpose in this that God has for this sickness? Okay, now all sicknesses are allowed by God, and I say that, but there are some sicknesses that are not because of sin, and we'll talk about this at the end. But there are some sicknesses and some diseases that are either the result of sin or because of sin that God wants to get our attention. We'd say this, He's chastening us. He's giving us something that's looking to correct something. Okay, that's how punishment should be given, especially to children. It's not merely just to punish them with just the fact that you're going to make them pay for what they've done. No, there is hopefully a corrective to that punishment. So it is, sometimes God gives sickness, and the purpose of it is for us to change our path, to change our course, to change our thinking, which is what repentance is, is to change your thinking and thus change your activity. You see in the psalm that the psalmist does respond to this and recognize the fact that this has got something to do with something he did that was wrong. I mean, verse one, right off the bat, you're told this. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. He's going, I know what I've done. It wasn't right. And I'm asking for, and what he's asking for in verse one is this, mercy. What's mercy? Not getting what you deserve. And so it's a cry of mercy to start off with because he knows he's done something wrong and he's deserving of punishment, but there's this thing that he's going, Lord, could you lay off the punishment a little bit because I know why this is here. And as you read through the psalm, I mean, the first few verses, he's acknowledging his sickness, but he's connecting it with sin. I mean, as one has put it this way, what is clear is that the illness opened David's eyes to his own spiritual plight. Something wasn't right. There's a psalm that you might wanna put next to this as far as a reference. It's in the midst of the largest psalm that we have, Psalm 119, verse 67. It makes a statement. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now have I kept thy word. Even that Psalm, he's recognizing the fact that he was doing his own thing and it was the sickness or whatever difficulty he was going through that finally got him to go, oh, I'm gonna pay attention to God now. That he really does have a say in my life, that I ought to be living for him. And because of this, as he recognizes, okay, this is chastisement from God. You see in verse five that he is troubled by this. or excuse me, verse four or six, excuse me. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. He recognizes that the sickness is added to it now that he's troubled over a sin. That's added to his difficulty. And so what does he do? He begins calling upon God. He may have been living his life. He was, at this time, may have been king, I don't know. And as a king, you have nobody that's really telling you what you need to do and what you're supposed to do. You get to do whatever you wanna do. And it may have been that there was one of these aspects of life, it may have been connected to the great sin that he had with Bathsheba, but there doesn't seem to be indicator that he was sick during this time. There's gonna be another occasion in his life where he's done something and the Lord's just getting his attention, not through any other means other than the fact that he was sick. But he starts calling upon God. It says, one has said this in verse number eight, it says, I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Here's an individual, as one has said, this person who's making the prayer is numb yet shouting out, crushed yet growling. I mean, he's in so much pain that he can't possibly find the energy to talk. But when he's talking to God and he's realizing this is about his sin, he's crying out. He's in agony over that. Now, as you read it, he goes through and he gets to verse 9, and there's kind of an unusual phrase that he uses there. I mean, it might seem that he's accusing God, but look at verse nine, you have this statement, Lord. It's not the normal word for Lord. Normally we would expect to see capital L-O-R-D, all caps. But here it's that term Lord that just simply means this, master. One who's got a right. One who's got a right to do these things. And so, David, though it seems like he may be upset with God that he's going through these things, he is actually, in this section, going, you're my master. You have the right to do these things. You have a right to call me back. You have a right to do this. And so in the middle of the psalm, he begins the whole process of recognizing this is from God and it's troubling his soul and that he's not right with God, but that God has a right to do these things, to chastise him, to chasten him, to bring him back. You see that the people around David aren't really helping him out any. See in verse 11 and 12, My lovers, my friends, people who love me and my friends stand aloof from my sore. My kinsmen stand afar off. They're just kind of like, you know, we don't want to get near him. Some have suggested the fact, in reading this kind of a comment, that maybe David had leprosy. But, you know, it doesn't seem that any time in David's life that he had this, any indicator of that. But it seems like the people are treating David as they would a leper. He's unclean. Don't come near him. You don't want to get ceremonially unclean and you don't want to have any other defilement that you might have. So let's just stand off from him. So the people that would be the ones who would normally comfort him are the ones who are going. I'm not going to have anything to do with him. But on the other hand. It seems like not his friends, but his foes are coming close, but they're not coming to help him. They're coming to make the misery worse because they look, in verse number 12, they also, that seek my life, lay snares for me. They seek my hurt, speaking mischievous, mischievous, there we go, things, and imagine deceits all the day long. I mean, they're coming along and they're saying all sorts of things about him that aren't necessarily true. and are making his burdens even more difficult because they're going, okay, now that he can't take care of certain things, let's make his life more difficult. Let's set up things that make him and box him in. His foes are planning, they're plotting. They're probably suggesting things about David, and in this case, David's probably got some concern now that they're saying things about him, but they're also saying things that aren't right about his God. Because when bad things happen to Christians, what does the world do? Oh, their God's not capable of taking care of them. He can't watch over them. Look at what they have. My guess is that's what's kind of going on here with the statements that are being made that are hurtful towards David. So his friends are distant, his foes are near, they're plotting and planning. And you say, what is the psalmist response? Well, you have that in verses 13 through 22. His first response is this, is to ignore his foes. Don't pay attention to what they have to say. It says that I was as a deaf man, I heard not. I was a dumb man that opened not his mouth. He's not listening to what they have to say. He's not bothering the energy to respond to what they have to say because it's really not important that he solve that problem. That's not the issue at hand. It means you have the busyness of tongues of the enemies in verse 12. You have a silent and a stillness in David's statement. He's got some faith here because he's just simply saying, okay, I'm trusting in a God to take care of those individuals. I'll let him handle them. I need to take care of things with him personally. You get to verse 15 and 16, and he makes his focus God. For in thee, O Lord, Jehovah God, the one who gave me that name that said, you're a God who is one who's caring about me. That's what that name Jehovah, capital L-O-R-D meant, to the nation of Israel, that he was one that had a care for his people, that was concerned for his people, that watched over them. David says, for in thee, O Lord, do I have hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord, my master, my God. For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they shall rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me." He's going, God, I'm not gonna answer him. You take care of those individuals there. You're my only hope. I can't do anything about it. I'm not strong enough to even take care of myself. And you have to focus on the Lord. But then David goes through and recounts his situation to the Lord. And this is what prayer is sometimes. What do you include in prayer? Well, sometimes it's just you talking to God and going, here's the situation. God already knows it, but he wants us at times to recount it to him, for us to put it into words. He wants us to state what the situation is so that we recognize it. I mean, this is what parents do. Parents want their children to respond and give them an answer more than just yes and no. They want you to say, what did you do wrong? I sinned. No, no, no, what did you do? What did you do wrong? David goes through and kind of does what we would do with children. He goes, I'm ready to halt, verse 17, and my sorrow is continually before me. I'm not doing very well, but you know, I understand this. I am going to declare mine iniquity and I will be sorry for my sin. This sickness is not just merely sickness that I'm praying for you to take care of. I realize that it is designed to bring me back to you. I'll be sorry for my sin. You think about that, that word sorrow or sorry is different than being prideful. When we're prideful, we're stubborn, set, not gonna move. And what David says here, I will be sorry for my sins. I will sorrow over my sins. You've got me to the point where I'm sorrowing over my sickness, but I realize the sickness is because of my sin. And I'm not sorrowing that in one way that you get rid of my sickness. I know this is about my sins. Do something about my sins. Forgive them. He does acknowledge these enemies again. I mean, it seems to bother him. My enemies are lively. They're strong. They hate me wrongfully. They render evil for good because I follow the thing that good is, or we would say that is good. I mean, the situation here is they're mocking him. He knows he's done sin. It's between him and God, and he's taking care of the sin, but the world's looking at it and going, oh, look at that horrible individual. And David goes, I understand they're attacking me, but I am going to continue to pursue that which is good. That means he's gonna start pursuing his God. He's been away from him. So you get to the end and you have the prayer request, okay? He's just laying out, I'm gonna repent of my sin, there's things going on in my life, and the worst of it is that my enemies are making a mock of me. But verse 21, this statement, forsake me not, O Lord. When you're sick, you feel like God has, what? Forsaken you, that's your feeling. And what David is just asking God for here in his sickness, but also because he's a sinner, he's got two things going against him. He's just saying, don't abandon me. In fact, if you were to read what this passage says, where it says, forsake me not, be not far from me, make haste to help me, we could just simply make this statement and put it in modern terms. Don't leave me, don't go far away, and don't delay. And it may feel like for when David's going through this that God is far from him, but he's talking to God as if he's near, though his feeling is that he's far away. And he's saying this, don't delay, make haste. I mean, if you were to shorten it up, you'd say now is what we would like. And for us, when it comes to sickness, there is an element of going, could you take care of this now? Not 20 minutes from now, not two hours from now, take care of it now. But David's talking about, and it's the combination of the two, both his sickness and his sin. But for him, it's the sin that's more important to be taken care of. Lord, take care of my sin. Forgive me of my sin. Take away your wrath for my sin. And so as we get to this, there is some consideration of sickness. And some of you may be going through sickness right now. you know, a long-term thing that's not as bad as this, obviously you can show up and you're here in a service this evening, and so it's not something that's completely debilitating, or you may go through certain sicknesses and you have to judge what God is doing. Not all sin, or excuse me, all sickness is due to the fact that a person has sinned. I've got two main examples that you ought to just write down for this if you want to think through this subject, that not all sickness is due to sin. Job is one of them. We are told in the courts of heaven why it's happening to Job. He loses everything. He doesn't lose his health. Chapter two, he loses his health. He doesn't lose his life. And you go, why? His friends are suggesting the fact you are a horrible sinner. They'd come to the wrong conclusion. They didn't have their Bible yet, but they may have been thinking along this line, oh, he's done something wrong because he's got this great sickness. And they're trying to press him on that, but we know in the courts of heaven that God was merely doing this to bring glory to himself, that Job would prove something to the devil, that the devil wouldn't learn without going and observing what God did to Job and the response that Job had. There's a second passage that you ought to keep in mind on this, and it's in John chapter nine. And it's a passage where Jesus is in Jerusalem and he passes by an individual and he saw a man which was blind from his birth, which would indicate the fact that perhaps he didn't have eyes, or it was obvious by the eyes that this was something that was a birth defect. But whatever the case was, as they go by, Jesus sees him, and his disciples see him too, and they ask him this, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Which I'm sitting here going, you know, the man's born blind, what, he sinned in the womb? I mean, okay. This is what they're suggesting. But verse three, Jesus answered and said this, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents. but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh when no man can work." And then he proceeds to go about healing this individual who becomes a testimony to the leadership of the nation of Israel and brings glory and fame to Christ because people knew what happened. And you go, well, that man hadn't sinned, his parents hadn't, but he had sickness. Was that man with sickness because he sinned? No. And so you go, okay, so not all sickness is due to sin. But we looked at this, I want to say about two and a half months ago, maybe three, that we looked at a passage in James chapter five, where it talks about the fact of people that are sick in the congregation. James 5.14 makes a statement. Is there any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. And then there's the challenge for the sick person. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. What James seems to indicate is this, is that there are occasions, even in modern times, this is not Old Testament thing, this is modern times, where there's sometimes sicknesses that we have. And in this case, it kinda seems like there's a sickness there, and it's not necessarily that this person got it because of sin, but they've had a chance to contemplate their life and the sins in their life. And James goes, well, here's what the person does. Yes, you pray for healing. That's an okay thing to do. But there's something more important than just physical health. It's what? Spiritual health. Spiritual health is more important than physical health. And so when you're praying for this healing, there ought to be, for the person who's sick, a real soul searching and going, what's my spiritual health like? and to take care of anything that is in their life that might be something that has been a hindrance to their relationship with God, and that this is to be done. One thought on this is that sickness may not be due to sin, but it can serve as a reminder to keep short accounts with God. You're thinking of things and you're going, oh, you know what? I've just let that sin go right by without me even paying attention to it. Lord, forgive me for that. That's not right. That's not a good reflection of who you are, what your character is. So for all of us, we need to be careful not to take sickness as a sign of sin. Go through that Wednesday prayer sheet and go, oh, what great sinners those are. No. But if you are sick, it's time to do some soul searching because God's given you a chance to stop, to slow down, to think. And that he's given you that opportunity. You may say sickness is a bad thing. No, it's in this case, you know, we talk about good and bad things happening to us in life. Sometimes sickness are a good thing because why? We take care of the things that we're supposed to. we should be taken care of. And so sometimes God lays us on our back, staring at a ceiling with us and our thoughts and Him. And He gives us a chance to review our life, to take account of what's gone on and to think through and go, is there anything between me and my God that I need to take care of? God may be chastening me. We will still pray for the healing of your body But for an individual, sometimes it's just the healing of soul that needs to take place. And I would say sometimes that's why God doesn't take away the sickness. We pray for the healing of somebody, and it may be that God's still got a work that they're still needing to see. Things that need to be taken care of. And so that's sometimes why prayers for healing aren't answered quick, swift, taking care of sickness. It may be that God's got some more work to do with that person, but it may be on the other side, that person may remain sick for the glory of God. God's got them someplace to encounter somebody, to be a testimony to Jesus Christ that they would never run into if they hadn't been sick. I think I can give an account on this one, and I think they'll be okay with me actually giving this. But we've got some people with some long-term sicknesses in our congregation. I can think of one lady in our congregation who is not here, who is, because of her body, failing her. And I can remember one Sunday morning, she was in a facility where she was being taken care of. Her husband was there. And it was one of those times where she was clearly doing the things that, you know, thinking and all these things. And her question is, why does this keep going on? And her husband made the statement to her, well, we've been sitting here watching the church service, and do you realize we've had three different people come through and listen to the sermon and the service as it's gone on and have had a chance to hear those things? He goes, could very well be that we're here as an opportunity for people to hear about Christ, to have to think about this, consider it, that you're just one of those individuals that's a part of this person coming to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, coming to these understandings. It could very well be for that, that you're just merely sick for what? God to be glorified. And to be magnified. And so, Sickness gives us a chance to evaluate what's going on. And sometimes it's just merely God's got something going on. He's got a purpose in this. It's not because of sin. But if he points to sin in your life, well, take advantage of the time that you've got on your back to think, to get right with your God. Come back to him, reflect on who he is, and follow him with all of your heart. Lord, we thank You for passages like this. You deal with different subjects, and this is one of those that isn't oftentimes talked about, but it is a reminder to us. You chasten us in many different ways. We run from You. We do our own thing, and You can mess with our finances, mess with our family, our job, our company. mess with us as far as events in our life, and it's designed for us to be aware of our sin, be alerted to this, to confess our sins. But you seem to use the instrument of sickness a lot to get people to think about their relationship with you. So Lord, as we go through life and we think of times that we've gone through sickness and we may, in this week ahead, come to a time where we're on our back, may we use that time to evaluate our relationship with you. And if there is something there that's between us and you, would we take care of it? That you extend grace and mercy to us that we don't deserve. and that we would see that at times the bad things like sickness are actually the very things that we need. So Lord, help us to have a mind of this passage, an understanding of this passage, and then live it out in those times of sickness and do the searching that we need to. In this we pray in Christ's name, amen.