a man after God's own heart. It's the LifeSpring One Year Bible Rewind. Coming to you from
Riverside, California, this is Steve Webb, your OG podcaster. I've been podcasting since 2004.
This is the podcast that comes to you every single day, and we're reading the whole Bible together in
a year. I'm so glad you're here, and I welcome you. The website is lifespringmedia.com.
This is Psalms Wednesday. We'll read Psalms 39 through 41. I'll have a brief introduction before
reading each Psalm, then a few comments after the reading, and I have a shortage of time today,
so we won't do an on this date in church history, but we will have a time of prayer. Let's begin.
Our Heavenly Father, we love you, and we thank you so much for your faithful and enduring love.
We pray, God, that as we read today, you would teach us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
The title of Psalm 39 is To the Chief Musician, To Juduthan, a Psalm of David.
It's thought by some that the chief musician is God. Others believe that it could be a leader of
choirs when David wrote this. Perhaps Heman, the singer, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6.33,
or Asaph, mentioned in 1 Chronicles 16.5-7. Juduthan was one of the musicians appointed
by David to lead the public worship of Israel. We read his name in 1 Chronicles 16.41 and 1 Chronicles
25.1-3. This psalm, as the title makes clear, was written by King David, but we don't know at what
point in his life. Psalms 39. I said I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue. I will restrain
my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me. I was mute with silence, I held my peace even
from good, and my sorrow was stirred up. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire
burned. Then I spoke with my tongue, Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days,
that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths, and my ages as
nothing before you. Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Surely every man walks
about like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up riches and does not know who
will gather them. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my
transgressions. Do not make me the reproach of the foolish. I was mute. I did not open my mouth,
because it was you who did it. Remove your plague from me. I am consumed by the blow of your hand.
When with rebukes you correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty melt away like a moth.
Surely every man is vapor. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be silent
at my tears, for I am a stranger with you, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Remove your
gaze from me, that I may regain strength before I go away and am no more.
The title of Psalm 40 is, To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David. Again, we don't know for sure
when David wrote this, but G. Campbell Morgan guessed that, in this case, the reason for the
song, in all probability, was that of the deliverance of David from all the long experience
of outlawry and suffering, and the fact that he had been brought to his coronation.
Psalms chapter 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord
his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied,
O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us. None can compare with you.
I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering
you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have
not required. Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. I have told the glad news of
deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and
your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great
congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love
and your faithfulness will ever preserve me, for evils have encompassed me beyond number.
My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head.
my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life.
Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, Aha! Aha! But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually,
Great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God.
The title of Psalm 41 is, To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David.
Of this psalm, Alexander McLaren wrote, The central mass of this psalm describes the singer
suffering from two evils, sickness and treacherous friends.
Psalms chapter 41
Happy are those who think about the poor.
When trouble comes, the Lord will save them.
The Lord will protect them and spare their life and will bless them in the land.
He will not let their enemies take them.
The Lord will give them strength when they are sick, and He will make them well again.
I said, Lord, have mercy on me.
Heal me, because I have sinned against you.
My enemies are saying evil things about me.
They say, when will he die and be forgotten?
Some people come to see me, but they lie.
They just come to get bad news.
Then they go and gossip.
All my enemies whisper about me and think the worst about me.
They say, he has a terrible disease.
He will never get out of bed again.
My best and truest friend, who ate at my table, has even turned against me.
Lord, have mercy on me.
Give me strength so I can pay them back.
Because my enemies do not defeat me, I know you are pleased with me.
Because I am innocent, you support me and will let me be with you forever.
Praise the Lord, the God of Israel.
He has always been and he will always be.
Amen and Amen.
Well, beloved, I have a few comments on each one of the Psalms.
In Psalm 39, verse 7 says, And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.
When, like David, we understand the frailty and how fleeting is our life,
where else can we put our hope but in the eternal God? How foolish we would be but then
to place ourselves in His strong, loving, merciful care. In chapter 40, verses 7 and 8, David said,
Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart.
O beloved, may this be written of you in his book.
And then in verse 16, David said, But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
May those who love your salvation say continually, Great is the Lord.
Beloved, when we consider the great works of God, especially how he saved us,
How can we not proclaim again and again, Great is the Lord?
In the 41st Psalm, David moves from writing about the blessings that will come to the person who is mindful of the poor and weak,
to asking God for mercy when he has sinned, deliverance from those who tell lies about him and wish him dead,
the anguish he feels because of the betrayal of those he trusted,
and then another plea for God's mercy and finally an offering of praise to the God of Israel.
David poured out his heart in this psalm, didn't he?
This seems to be a time when he was very sick, physically and spiritually.
He said to the Lord,
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
Sin, beloved, is not just something that sits in solitude.
It isn't just a vague idea or a nebulous general breaking of a meaningless random rule.
It's an act of rebellion against the God of the universe.
David realized that, and because of his sin,
He knew that his soul needed the healing touch of a merciful God.
David lived about a thousand years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
yet he believed that God would forgive the repentant heart.
He made no excuses, no defense, no flowery language,
just a simple, truthful admission of guilt before a holy God.
I think this is one reason that he is called a man after God's own heart.
The last verse, the offering of praise, is thought of by many scholars to be not only the end of this
psalm, but the end of the first book of psalms. Yes, psalms actually contains five books.
The first book ends here with chapter 41. Book 2 is psalms 42-72. Book 3 is psalms 73-89.
Book 4 is psalms 90-106. Book 5 is psalms 107-150.
Bible commentator Derek Kidner wrote,
Each of the five books ends with an outburst of praise,
clinched by a double Amen, here in Psalm 41 and at the end of 72.
An Amen and Hallelujah at the end of Psalm 106
are finally what is virtually a double Hallelujah at the end of Psalm 150,
indeed a whole psalm of doxology.
And, beloved, when David wrote the phrase,
from everlasting to everlasting,
he was referring to eternity past to eternity future,
Or in the words of Jesus, I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning
and the end.
Jesus was saying that He always existed and always will exist.
Beloved, what a mighty God we serve.
Amen and amen indeed.
What are your thoughts?
Our reading tomorrow will be Job 27 and 28.
Here's the verse of the day.
Psalm 40, verse 4.
How happy is the man who has put his trust in the Lord and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies.
Psalm 40, verse 4.
Today we're going to go straight to the prayer requests.
John sent in a prayer request with some praises mixed in.
He said, and I'm condensing it because it was a very long one.
He said, please pray for my family.
We're still very broken.
My daughters, 19 and 17, won't speak to me and are pushing me away.
I'm not sure how to fix it, but I know God can.
I am seeing Him work in my sons, 14 and 12, and I'm so grateful for our weekend time together.
Regarding my personal walk, he continues,
God overcame pornography in my life a year ago, but I still struggle with lustful thoughts.
Please pray for total surrender and that I wouldn't fall into despair or discouragement,
trusting that He is working even when I can't see it. And he says, I also need prayer for my work.
There is so much change, and I often feel inadequate in this new role, especially
with the weight of my personal life. Despite the struggle, God is abundantly good. I'm so
thankful for His faithfulness, my home, my church community, and the supports He has provided.
It's amazing how He is working through it all. Well, John, you are in the midst of so many trials,
my brother. But you have made it through a year. And from our earlier conversations, I know that
by God's grace, you have made tremendous progress. So praise the Lord and hang in there. And Joy
Kurtz called the LifeSpring family hotline this past Monday. You probably remember that she was
in an automobile accident some time ago and suffered some kind of brain injury. Here's Joy's
voicemail.
How do you see
this is Joy
and I have
a request.
Yes, thank you.
I ask that we pray
for
lovely hands
I say
and
our needs I say
also.
And you do too.
Thank you, Steve.
Thank you.
And have a glorious day.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye, Joy.
You have a glorious day, too.
Thank you so much.
Very sweet that you would ask us to pray for Leanne's eyesight.
And I did not know that you needed eyesight healing as well.
Leanne did say to tell you thank you so much for your prayers.
And, of course, we'll pray for your eyesight.
And then this afternoon she sent in this email.
I think Christians should pray about the upcoming elections.
Our country and local governments need help.
We need grasswork leadership like we had with Charlie Kirk.
God bless his soul.
Yes.
And God bless you and lovely Lady Leanne.
Oh, my mom just told me that she now can see some light shine in her eyes in the morning.
Wow.
So both Joy and her mom have vision problems.
Well, praise the Lord that her mom is beginning to see some light.
Thank you, Joy, for the voicemail and for the email you sent.
God bless you, my sister. Let's pray.
for the progress with his sons, and we pray, God, that you would continue that good work.
We thank you for the victory he's already won over pornography, and in moments of temptation
and discouragement, please, Lord, remind him that he is a new creation, and give him the strength
to surrender daily to your purity. We pray that you would grant him peace and clarity at work,
and when he feels inadequate, remind him that your grace is sufficient and that you have placed him
there for a purpose. Thank you for being a provider and for the community that surrounds him. We trust
that you're working in the silence. And now, Lord, we thank you for Joy, and we ask you once again
for healing for her brain and her eyesight as well as for her mom's. Joy loves you, and we pray that
you would just surround her with your comfort and peace, and may her friends be an encouragement to
her as well. We just lift up our sister to you now and leave her in your hands, knowing that there is
not a better place that she can be. And yes, we do pray once again for Leanne that the glaucoma
would be stopped in its tracks and that she would not lose any more eyesight. The pressure in her
eyes is less than it was, according to the doctor, so we praise you for that. Thank you.
And Father, I thank you for the Lifespring family, Lord. I pray for them today that you would give
them opportunities to praise you and to share your saving message with someone around them.
I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Beloved, when you send in your prayer requests, I'll pray for you in my daily prayer time,
and I'll pray for you just like I did here for these others on the show,
so we can all agree together as we take our requests to God.
Well, beloved, in our frailty and in our triumphs,
Let us delight to do His will and keep His law within our hearts.
Until tomorrow, keep seeking Him and continually proclaim that great is the Lord.
And now may God bless you richly.
Thank you so much for being here.
I'm Steve Webb.
Bye.
All the programs in the Lifespring Media family are made possible by your value for value support.
Thank you.
The Lifespring One Year Bible Rewind
is a Lifespring Media production
hosted by Steve Webb,
the OG Godcaster since 2004.
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