My Transgressions ...

Thursday, Aug 6, 2015. What is the cause of trouble? It is a widespread tendency to make other people responsible for your trouble. They are not doing, what they should do or they hurt you, and indeed there is a lot which is like this - we find crime and terrorism and suppression and war in the middle of this world. But in the Psalms, we also find another perception of trouble. David starts to speak about his own transgressions! Let us look into this …

When you discipline a man …

1 To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”

2 I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. 3 My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: 4 “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!

5 Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!

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6 Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

7 “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.

8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!

9 I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. 10 Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand.

11 When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath!

12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. 13 Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!” (Psalm 39)

Discovering your sin …

David starts with some grief about the difficulties of life, about the wicked. But it is a consistent feature of the biblical texts, that they do not stop with the complaint about “the others”. Evil is not just the others, it is also us, it is also within us. We are part of sin, part of the separation from God, which has reached all creation.

So David starts to see God's hand in his trouble. He starts to see God himself doing this, as a reaction to his own sins and transgressions. He discovers the full power of the Lord, which can be quite scary if it is against you!

But in all this David also finds to the grace and mercy of the Lord. And he fully realizes how short his life is, and that he is a mere guest on this earth. Wisdom comes from this important insight: you cannot keep what you have earned in this world, except for the mercy of the Lord and your acts of love, they are counted towards eternity. (RWEP) ... more texts