Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Introduction
The purpose of an anchor is to keep a ship safe and secure at a desired location, or to help control a ship during bad weather.
We all need anchors as well.
Adversity and deep sorrow can come as a great storm to blow us off course and threaten to cast us against rocks, drag us out to open sea.
The danger isnt only when the storm hits, sometimes the danger is present even when everything seems safe, the winds are soft and the water is calm and smooth.
We can in fact be drifting and the movement is slight and we might not even notice it.
It is the nature of things to drift and without a set anchor we are in danger.
This Psalm is a lament Psalm and comes from a place of great sorrow in David.
David was much acquainted with troubles, trials, griefs and sorrows — how did he keep from drifting off course?
What kept him so near to the LORD?
David like ship captains laid anchor to keep the ship where he wanted it.
Understand Life is Fleeting
As David opens up his Psalm he starts with the phrase “I said...” This is a statement of a previous vow made.
He isnt saying it now, he is declaring that he had already said and already determined.
What was it he had determined and decided to do?
David had determined to guard his ways.
To protect or keep his ways or also known as his conduct or way of being.
He also states that the end goal in sight was to not sin with his tongue.
This would be to sin in speech — gossip, slander, lying, backbiting, cursing, etc.
He even says he will guard his mouth with a muzzle — as long as the wicked are in his presence.
David’s motive and intention was right as was his silence.
The issue we will see is that his resolve was not deep enough.
He resolved at the mind and the tongue, but both of these fall short of the source of speech.
It is the heart that must be dealt with to silence the mouth and the mind.
Maclaren said “To build a dam across a torrent without diminishing the sources that supply its waters only increases weight and pressure and ensures a muddy flood when it bursts”
David recounts the events - he was speechless and quiet.
He kept silent even from speaking good, but now in silence his pain intensified.
His heart grew hot within him.
He says as I mused a fire burned.
To muse is to sigh, but this phrase takes all of the discontent and irritable sighing as a whole event all together.
This lit a fire within and the fire burned and it lit a fuse and the fuse when it burned out blew open the dam.
David says I spoke with my tongue.
The more David nursed the bitterness of his soul, the greater the pressure increased.
After time even the most dammed up frustration and feelings will burst forth.
The wise man knows the difference between the time to speak and the time to be silent, as well as whom to speak with when it is time.
When David spoke he spoke to the right one - the one who can handle our frustration and pains.
God can handle our emotions and our sufferings.
David didnt speak with critics or enter into vain arguments with those who had strong opinions about his suffering and sorrows.
Job had friends to comfort him in his trouble and they were miserable friends at that.
David spoke to the LORD.
David as he speaks to the LORD asks the LORD to give him knowledge and wisdom through awareness.
Awareness is walking around with your eyes open and your mind apprehending.
David desires to have the wisdom from God to be aware of his end, and the number of his days.
David says with this understanding, and with this wisdom I will know how short-lived I am.
David continue and says in fact you have made my days inches long, and my lifespan as nothing to You.
In fact every human being stands as only a vapor.
The lifespan of men in comparison to the eternal ongoing span of God is a mere blip or mark that is quickly gone and barely seen.
How quickly time passes is an issue for all of us, not just the elderly.
Wisdom on the quickly passing of the sands of time coupled with a heart for God allows us to be mindful of eternity.
Our culture is steeped in the denial of time marching on and the aging process.
We rename things - old folks homes are retirement villages - the golden life acres, we employ a myriad of cosmetics, potions, and dyes.
Cosmetic surgeries to reverse the aging process — but in the end it is all VANITY.
David compares the vanishing life to that of a shadow.
Rushing around in vanity gathering possessions.
This is the idea of accumulating and building up vast quantities.
In this conquest of accumulation there is no thought given to who will inherit or receive them after.
The writer here knows the vanity or futility of the accumulation of stuff - for there has never been a U-haul towed by a Hearst when the life is laid to rest.
David tells us human life is frail - comparing it to vapors and shadows.
Time is fleeting seeds of sand in the hourglass of life.
The length of which is a few handbreadths - surely then accumulation of wealth is not the goal - we must live for something greater and for something beyond this life.
Armand Nicholi a Harvard psychiatrist says that “Only when we are ready to die are we ready to live.”
If we can accept both our death and our life in light of death then we can be anchored in our sorrows to live beyond ourselves.
Trust the Only Solid Hope
David asks an incredulous question of the LORD - what do I wait for?
For what do I look forward to the occurrence of or the arrival of?
In what is my trust?
David already concluded that with life as a vapor that the goal of accumulation is a dead end.
David says in light of death I cannot trust in what I have accumulated or what I have amassed.
The length of life cannot be trusted in either as it is fleeting.
David knew his trust needs to be in something outside of the reach of death and so he says my hope is in You! Maclaren “What should earth’s vanity teach but God’s sufficiency.”
David decides that instead of losing hope, and drifting out further he is going to set his hope - not in this world or this passing life but his hope is set in the LORD.
The LORD is the only solid hope as He is the foundation of all that is real and lasting.
With our trust firmly anchored in the hope of the LORD we are no longer concerned with how long we live instead we are focused on how we are living.
Life is no longer measured by the world’s values but by eternity’s values.
With eternity in mind David becomes hyper aware of the need to deal with his sins, and his transgressions.
When eternity is in view we realize we need the LORD’s help from our sins more than we need His help from our accusers.
David declares his speechlessness - this means he has no defense no argument for what has transpired in him and around him.
David acknowledges it is from God.
We would do right to keep our mouths closed as we remember that God allows whatever is happening around us, instead trust in His mercy, grace and His goodness.
C.S. Lewis aptly wrote in his book The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.”
David’s awareness of the transitoriness of life is heightened by his sickness.
With his health gone he sees himself and his life for what it is in light of things — a vapor and a mere shadow.
David calls on the LORD to rescue him from his trangressions and to remove His resulting torment.
We can gather a few view points from David’s time and understanding here.
Life is passing and any illnesses and weaknesses is a reminder of one’s mortality
Sin often leads to sickness, and when forgiven the root of many ills is broken.
Sickness is viewed in the Bible as a sign of God’s judgment or a result of Satan’s work
David simply saw God bringing the “plague” of His wrath upon him and cried out for deliverance.
When we come to Christ, we receive God’s forgiveness, knowing that He has borne the wrath of God on the Cross
This means that in Jesus God comes to heal us rather than to punish us.
One can say with even more assurance than did David, “My hope is in You.”
The LORD has sent Christ to redeem and heal.
In Christ our lives go from vapor and potentially wasted to being in the LORD’s hands and He allows nothing to be wasted.
It is not that the life of the Christian has no meaning, but rather that our meaning is tethered to the Lord.
Such an honest realization drives us to anchor our hope in God alone (v. 7).
Too often, we anchor our hope to certain outcomes, only to be disappointed - and left adrift.
Sometimes a marriage collapses.
Sometimes loved ones die.
Sometimes a job is rendered redundant.
Sometimes a friend becomes a foe.
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