PSALM 39:12-13

We look one last time at the 39^th Psalm of Remembrance.  We have looked at three stanzas of this song; David’s Ponderings (Vs. 1-3), David’s Perception (Vs. 4-6), and David’s Prayer (Vs. 7-11).  This week we turn our attention to verses 12-13 which says, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.”   I have called this stanza “David’s Peace”.

            In verse 12 we find the ‘Confidence Of Peace’.  There are several things in this text that brings great confidence to David.  There is the ‘hope of confidence’, which is magnified in the phrases “Hear my prayers…give ear unto my cry;” Why is David so concerned about an audience with God?  Why is he so concerned with the thought that God will hear his cry?  We know from I John 5 that if we have the confidence that God hears our prayers we have the petition we desire of Him.  Prayer was instituted in order for it to change us and not change situations.  If we make our will His will then our Lord will let us have our way.  O how this gives us the hope of confident expectation that things will ultimately come out as God desires and not as we desire.  I notice in verse 12 that there is the ‘Confidence Of Importunity Or Fervency’.  We see this in the phrases ‘hear my cry’, ‘see my tears’, and ‘hear my prayer’.  It seems like in these phrases David gets louder and louder.  James tells us the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  Our God is always touched with the feelings of our infirmities.  Our tears move him.  Tears are a language that only God understands.  David tells us in Psalm 56 that God bottles up our tears. O my friend He is aware of every tear we shed in grief.  He said that He took our griefs and our sorrows upon Him and to the cross. There is ‘importunity’ in these phrases as well as fervency.  The night visitor in the New Testament was given bread by the sleeping neighbor because of his importunity. (Much knocking or continual knocking on the door) 

            We see also in this verse the ‘Confidence Of Faith’.  My how faith builds us up in the most holy confidence of our walk with God.  Where do you find faith in verse 12?  The book of Hebrews said, ‘without faith it is impossible to please Him for he that cometh to God must believe that ‘He is’ and that ‘He is’ a rewarder of them that diligently seeks Him.  There is no better place to come in a time of great grief, heartache, or distress than the Lord.  It is the acknowledgement of believing that ‘He is’ that gives David the confidence of faith to see that weeping will endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.

            In verse 13 we see ‘The Contrition Of Peace’.  David humbles himself before the Lord when he asks God, “…spare me,” His desire is that God not bring the blunt of His judgment upon him.  He desires mercy from God.  He wants God to withhold from him what he deserves.  This is a great step of bowing contrition.  God is drawn to such acts of contrition.  David asks God to ‘strengthen him’.  I feel that he wants to glorify God with his last days but sin has taken all the strength of life from him.  He asks for the Lord to ‘sit me’ in the phrase “…before I go hence,” David has confident peace of an upward place where he will be no more here but seated with him there.  It is in that heavenly place that David will no longer feel the thought of being a stranger and sojourner, which are mentioned in verse 12.  This thought alone should give us the confidence of peace and cause us to come to a contrite position of bowing before Him and confessing My Lord and My God.

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