- “For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me” (Psalm 38:7-10)
- What’s happening here?
- He’s in agony because of his sin. You should not be able to just live in unrepentant sin. If you get a disease, if you get anxiety or depression, if you get into lack, etc., ask the Lord if there is sin that needs repenting. Not every trouble is because of sin, but it can be. We shouldn’t just not even consider the possibility. Just ask the Lord and see if something or someone comes to mind. Have you forgiven everyone that needs forgiving? Have you confessed what needs confessing?
- In Psalm 39, David recognizes that all his agony is from the Lord’s hand because of his sin. He prays: “Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool! Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand. I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it (Psalm 39:8-10).
- He asks God to remove His hand from him, while waiting quietly and patiently under His hand. He recognizes that the Lord is behind what’s happened to him.
- He prays for God’s hand to be removed, but he also prays to be delivered from his transgression. He asks to be saved from his sin, not just the consequences of his sin. We have trouble and just try to get out of it any way possible without looking to God to get rid of the source of the trouble. There’s no point in getting out of the trouble if the cause of it remains. The trouble will just come back.
- Jesus came to take away our sins, not just forgive them (1 John 3:5).
- Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
- His works are the sin and the consequences. They go together. Even when the trouble isn’t a consequence of our own sin, it’s a consequence of someone’s sin. Sin is the culprit behind the evil in the world.
- Jesus came to destroy it all. Let’s help Him out in spreading the blessing of freedom from sin instead of helping spread the curse!
