"Good endings come from prayerful beginnings and if trouble drives you to prayer, prayer will drive the trouble away."
There was a time in David's life when unconfessed sin manifested itself in bodily ailment and a troubled conscience. He wrote this psalm to remind himself of that unforgettable episode in his life. He will not again tread that path of unrighteousness.
Watch how David dealt with his troubles. He looked upward. The first word of this psalm is addressed to His LORD, Yahweh, the covenant keeping God of Israel. There is redress with God.
He poured out the distresses of his heart in the words of this psalm. He described the distresses in his body (verse 3 , 5 , 7 ). He expressed the loneliness of his soul when his loved ones and friends distanced themselves from him (verse 11 ). He lamented how his enemies rejoice over his calamity (verse 12 , 19-20 ). But most of all, he described the disciplinary hand of God pressing sore upon him (verses 1-2 ). David bore his sin plagued conscience before the LORD.
The pain was most acute as he struggled in the flesh until he yielded himself to God. He described how his heart panted, his strength failed for the way ahead seemed so bleak (verse 10 ) as a result of a sin burdened soul.
Truly, this is the experience of every unrepentant sinner, the weight of sin, weighing him/her down (verse 4 ). The disquietness (verse 8 ) and groanings (verse 9 ) of a broken heart, broken not from contrition but from resisting God. He testified "My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness." We are often unrepentant until God literally put us in a corner where we can no longer justify our sins. We face the stark reality of being confronted with God's wrath (verse 1 ).
"If prayer does not drive sin out of your life, sin will drive prayer out." But David will prevail because he prayed through with God. Such is the rich spiritual journey of this "man after God's own heart". He recorded it for his soul's benefit and ours.
"For there is hope with God" (Verse 15 ) must be the victory cry of every sin stricken soul. And the sweetest words of the sinner in the ears of His God must be this, "For I will declare mine iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin" (Verse 18 ). Truly godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation (1 Corinthians 7:10 ). There is no regret in the confession of our sins to God for it always leads to forgiveness, restoration, salvation and deliverance from God. David mourned for his sins all the day long (verse 6 ). It was the beginning of his salvation. Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." There is genuine penitence and sincere resolution to live in obedience to divine law, he said "I follow the thing that is good" (verse 20 ). This is the meaning of having contrition of heart. He expressed a deep sorrow for sin; grief of heart for having offended an infinitely holy and benevolent God.
Make haste is the urgency plea of the repentant sinner (verse 22 ). Will he not be delivered? He will surely be delivered! Jesus came precisely to rescue the perishing sin stricken soul.
I was sinking deep in sin,
Far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply strained within,
Sinking to rise no more;
But the Master of the sea
Heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me
Now safe am I.
Love lifted me,
Love lifted me,
When nothing else could help,
Love Lifted me.
For His anger is only for a moment;
But His mercy forever shall endure;
Though our tears flow down all the night long,
Dawn breaks forth with song.
(Psalm 30:5 )
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
(Abraham Lincoln)
On March 30 1863, Abraham Lincoln led the nation of America in proclaiming a day of national fasting, prayer and humiliation. He said in his address to the nation "And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."
Dear brethren, God send us this stark reminder in peaceful Singapore not to take our peace, prosperity and opportunities to advance the kingdom of God for granted. Recently, we experienced again echoes of Sumatra's earthquake when buildings shook for at least 30 seconds. Jesus will return as a Judge for every unrepentant sinner.