Psalm 38 (The Struggle: Psalms for Lent) Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Fourth Sunday in Lent Sunday, March 14, 2021 “The Struggle with Guilt”
If you open your Bible to about the middle—and of course that only works with a physical book (I know a lot of people read the Bible on their phones or computers)—if you open to about the middle, you find the book of Psalms. And in that book, you find 150 Psalms. In the course of 150 different poems and songs, they cover a lot of topics. If there is one overarching theme to the book of Psalms as a whole, it is probably: “Praise the Lord!” Many of the Psalms start or end, or both, with that phrase, but not every Psalm is a song dedicated to that expression. Many Psalms teach us doctrine. Many Psalms are Messianic Psalms that speak very directly of Jesus Christ. Some Psalms are prayers. Some offer comfort. A number of Psalms express thanksgiving. And, it is fair to say, many Psalms fit more than one of these descriptions. And there is another description or classification of Psalms, one that has been used since 250 AD and perhaps even earlier. This classification is specific to seven Psalms. These seven Psalms are known as the penitential Psalms. They are songs of repentance. They speak about sorrow over sin, and they pray for the mercy of God. Psalm 38, our Psalm for today, is the third of the seven penitential Psalms. You have it printed in the worship folder, and I would like to read it now. The Text: Psalm 38 (EHV) A psalm by David. To bring to remembrance. 1Lord,
do not rebuke me in anger. Do not discipline me in wrath. 2Indeed, your arrows have stuck in me. Your hand has come down on me. 3There is no health in my flesh because of your rage. There is no wellness in my bones because of my sin, 4because my guilt has gone over my head. Like a heavy burden, it is too heavy for me. 5My wounds stink and ooze because of my folly. 6I am drooping. I am completely bent over. All day long I go around mourning. 7Even my back burns with pain. My whole body is unhealthy. 8I have become numb. I am totally crushed. I groan loudly because of my anxious thoughts. 9Lord, all my needs lie before you. My sighs are not hidden from you. 10My heart beats quickly. My strength leaves me. Even the light of my eyes is gone from me. 11My loved ones and my friends stand far away because of the blow I have suffered.
My neighbors stand at a distance. 12Those who pursue my life set traps. Those who seek to harm me talk about my ruin. All day long they plot deception. 13I am deaf. I cannot hear. Like a mute person, I cannot open my mouth. 14I am like a man who cannot hear. No response comes from his mouth. 15Yet I wait for you, Lord. You will answer, O Lord my God. 16So I said, “Do not let them celebrate because of me. Do not let them gloat when my foot slips.” 17Look! I am about to fall, and I am always in pain, 18so I declare my guilt, and I am troubled by my sin. 19My aggressive enemies are numerous. Those who hate me for no reason are many. 20Those who repay evil for good slander me because I pursue what is good. 21Do not forsake me, O Lord. My God, do not be far from me. 22Hurry to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
King David, the Spirit-inspired writer of this Psalm, was clearly dealing with a difficult time. In fact, based on the description here, it is a challenge for us to fully grasp all that he was facing. He had physical issues that he begins to describe by comparing it to being struck with arrows. He talks about oozing wounds, a back burning with pain and hunched over, and eyes from which the light has gone.
David also describes what was going on in his heart and mind, the spiritual anguish he was facing. “I groan loudly because of my anxious thoughts.” “All day long I go around mourning.” And as if that were not bad enough, David additionally mentions how people close to him have turned against him or at least left him alone in his suffering. My loved ones and my friends stand far away because of the blow I have suffered. My neighbors stand at a distance. Those who pursue my life set traps. Those who seek to harm me talk about my ruin. All day long they plot deception. It is a challenge to explain the depth of suffering, the depth of struggle David describes in this Psalm. And we don’t know exactly what part of his life he is describing. There are a number of Psalms that record for us the specific context in the life of David when the Psalm was written. That information can help us appreciate certain details. We don’t have that sort of description for Psalm 38, but we do know a number of details about the life of David. We know that he was a great and powerful king of the Israelite nation. We know that at the height of his power he gave into temptation and committed adultery and tried to cover it up with murder. We know that he struggled mightily and quietly, privately, with that sin for a time before the prophet Nathan rebuked him and led him to repentance. And we know how his son Absalom tried to usurp his throne and how later in his life another son, Adonijah, tried to become the king to succeed his father, even though Solomon had been chosen by God for that role. We can’t speak with certainty, but that last event, the rebellious actions of Adonijah, described in the first chapter of 1 Kings, seems to fit very well with what is described in this Psalm. David had some physical struggles in his old age. He struggled with the rebellion, the way even his son and previously loyal followers were turning away from him. And he struggled with guilt. His actions when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, and perhaps other sins as well, still caused David anguish and soulsearching. He writes this: “There is no wellness in my bones because of my sin, because my guilt has gone over my head. Like a heavy burden, it is too heavy for me.” Whether we have correctly identified the context of David’s life from which this Psalm came or not, it is abundantly clear that David describes a serious struggle with the guilt of sin. He feels the power of guilt. He connects it to the pain his body is experiencing, the agony of his soul, and the issues with rebellion and rejection from those close to him. That’s David’s experience. What is yours? It’s hard to really try to answer that question for anyone in particular, but I will try to speak in some generalities and you can try to determine how your life fits what I describe. I think we can all agree that there is a sliding scale if you will when it comes to suffering. None of us have always been perfectly content or happy, but our own personal experiences vary in how much they challenge us and force us to struggle. But I guess we can use kind of two extremes to help us consider applying this Psalm to our lives. The two extremes are either “yes, I can appreciate what David went through. I have felt much the same way.” Or on the other hand, “I’ve never really had an experience like David describes. Let’s begin with that end of the spectrum. Perhaps you have a hard time relating to or connecting to the words of this Psalm. Perhaps you read these words and think, “I can’t relate to that sort of suffering and struggle and pain.” Thank God for that sort of blessing. And in that context, we probably also need to ask ourselves whether we have fully appreciated the depth of our sin. Have we really looked at our lives and seen them for what they are? Have we looked at our actions and seen how selfish and self-serving they have been? It is easy for us to say, “I have never murdered someone. I have never gone out and committed adultery.” But would we be comfortable laying out for public observation not just all our actions but also all our thoughts and all our words? How do you think the people around us would respond if they knew what we really thought all the time? How do you think they would look at us and react to us? How do you think we would feel if we knew that everyone was aware of our darkest secrets? Might we feel a little more like David? Maybe if we haven’t really felt the struggle with guilt in our own lives we should look at little more closely at those lives and at the expectations of our holy God, who does see all those sins.
On the other hand, there are many people who have felt that struggle and have felt it deeply. There are many who carry around a heavy burden from one particular sin or from a particular period in their life. Maybe they feel like they want to stop doing a certain sinful behavior, but they keep returning to it. Maybe they are haunted by a sin that no one else knows about but them and they are terrified that someone else might find out about it. Maybe they have sleepless nights thinking about the crushing weight of sin and wondering whether God could really ever love someone like them. And maybe they read a Psalm like the one in front of us and know exactly what David was feeling. And maybe that is your reaction to hearing this Psalm. Whether we have been there before or not, God would like to take all of us to this place, a place of acknowledging our sinfulness and God’s judgment. God would have all of us struggle with the reality of guilt. And he would have us deal with it in the way this Psalm does, the way our Psalmist David does. He doesn’t say, “I am going to work harder.” He doesn’t say, “Well, sure, I have been bad, but I know people who have been worse.” He doesn’t say, “Look at all the good things I have done also!” No, he says, “Lord, do not rebuke me in anger. Do not discipline me in wrath.” He says, “[S]o I declare my guilt, and I am troubled by my sin.” David reaches the point not of total despair where all hope is lost, but the point of despairing of himself. Without someone else helping him, all hope would be lost. But he has a God who has made amazing promises. He has a God who has amazing love. He has a God who forgives sin, who forgives real sin and real guilt. And David’s God led David to turn to him for forgiveness and for salvation. We have that same God. We know the only true God. We have gotten to know him in his Holy Word and through the gifts he gives in the sacraments. And so we know what we can do when we struggle with sin and when we are weighed down with guilt. We can turn to him. We can turn to the one who loves us. We can turn to the one who sacrificed himself for us. We know the one true God who came into our sinful world in true human flesh and blood so that he could suffer for our sins and die. We know Jesus Christ who bore the weight of the guilt of our sins and the sins of the whole world, who carried them to the cross, who was punished by his Father for that guilt and sin, and who gave us the gift of his perfect, holy life. God leads us to struggle with our guilt so that we can cry out with David, “Do not forsake me, O Lord. My God, do not be far from me. Hurry to help me, O Lord, my salvation.” And God promises to answer that plea. He has answered it. He is our salvation. He is our Savior. To everyone who believes in him he promises a place in heaven where the struggle will be no more. Christians have long classified these penitential Psalms as a special category not because that’s an interesting side note or because they just felt they needed to group Psalms together in some way. They have done it because they have known that every person struggles with sin and that every Christian may struggle with guilt. They have pointed to these Psalms as ones to which we can turn for Spirit-driven guidance in dealing with sin and guilt. They have pointed to these Psalms because the Psalms don’t point us to our own struggle, but to the God who solves our struggle, who forgives our sin and takes away our guilt, who is our salvation.