Introduction

• Example: Have you ever been in a thick fog?
  • Literally
  • Metaphorically
    • The psalmist (David) had been.
• His movement
  • Title: The way from Fog Town to Clearview Cit

Prescript

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

• Jeduthun was a Levitical music director appointed by David to lead public worship  and other worship leaders (1 Ch. 16:41–42; 25:1, 3; 2 Ch. 5:12; 35:15).
  • He was responsible for putting the lament Psalms 39, 62, and 77 to music—and each song was a meditative, slow-moving, struggle-towards-what-is-true type song.
    • Example: Jeduthun’s songs in the Psalms are what Evermore is to the Taylor Swift catalogue.
  • This tone is perfect—these are songs for the moments when faith has to do its hardest work.

The Clouded View of the Introspective (1-3)

1 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:

How does the psalmist begin his psalm?

• He felt he need to guard his ways lest he sin with his tongue, so he muzzled himself, becoming mute and silent as he held his peace (1-2).
• The psalmist experienced or saw something that tempted him to speak out against God—so he forced himself to be silent.

What did he see or experience?

• He will eventually speak and show us what clouded his vision, but this first movement of the prayer is not even a prayer, only the clouded words of a man who’d done an introspective deep dive and struggled with what he found.
  • And, at this point in the psalm, we still don’t know what he found.
• His was an especially human experience.
  • He’s in a crisis before God. He is nervous to say what’s on his mind.
    • He worried about what would exit his face.
    • He turned to a muzzle, even when it would have been “good” for him to speak and get it out (2, NIV, NLT, NASB, HCSB).
  • Yet God recorded and preserved his musings and prayer.
    • The Psalms continually endorse honesty with God—while also endorsing the wisdom to let God speak honestly in return.

Was he able to remain silent?

• No. His efforts at composed silence were unsuccessful because his distress grew worse and his heart became hot within (3). A fire burned inside him as he mused over his objections against God, so he erupted in speech.
  • Example: the “swallow it” culture of professional life—Slack messages drafted and deleted, performance reviews where you don’t say what you think, the slow buildup of the unsaid

The Distorted View of Temporal Man (4-6)

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! Selah

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!

What did he think?

First, he wondered if this was the end of his life.

• What he said:
  • Make me know my end and what is the measure of my days (4).
  • Let me know how fleeting I am! (4).
• These don’t appear as the wisdom-loving perspective of Moses (Psalm 90:12), but the desperate cries of a sick and/or aged man.

Second, he bemoaned the brevity of his life.

• It had gone by so quickly—just a few handbreadths (5).
  • Handbreadth: four fingers wide.
• Compared to God, David’s lifetime was nothing (5).
• He was a mere exhale (breath)—just a turmoil filled shadow (or phantom-like) existence (6).
  • Breath: the pointless feeling capture in Ecclesiastes (vanity) is creeping in.
  • Shadow: same word for being made in the image of God—the wrong perspective had reduced this image-bearer to an empty shadow-life.
• Example: the longevity-tech movement—an entire industry.

Third, he questioned the point of life.

• He saw life as wealth accumulation before leaving to those who would gather it all in later (6).
• But we often amuse ourselves to death rather than think on the point of life.
  • Muse: think
  • A: without
  • Amusement: without thinking
  • Example: Netflixing ourselves to death.

The Changed View of the God-Lover (7)

7 “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?

My hope is in you.

He pivoted:

• What From the vanity of life without God.
• To the beauty of placing his hope (confidence, expectation) in God (the Lord).
• This is wisdom.
  • The wisdom of old age or deep trials (such as sickness):
    • You stop waiting on others and begin looking only to God—you know others cannot help you.
  • Having found everything else to be vanity, he finds his all in God (Spurgeon).

The fog broke:

• As everything else lost its value in the psalmist’s eyes, the LORD was allowed to ascend to his proper place—it is all about God.

The Improved View of the Growing Believer (8-11)

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! Selah

His renewed perspective drove him to:

• Request forgiveness.
  • Deliver me from all my transgressions (8).
• Renewed silence.
  • I am mute / I do not open my mouth / You have done it (9).
  • I am spent / Remove your stroke from me (10).
  • Discipline / Rebukes for sin (11)
  • A Tale of Two Silences
    • Silence #1: suppressed, bitter, and building
    • Silence #2: submitted, processing, and trusting

He saw how the LORD was involved in promoting feelings of emptiness and vanity.

• He said: You consume like a moth what is dear to man.
• Moth vs. Lion: Slow erosion vs. quickly devoured
  • Appropriately said if this was an old age or sickness issue.
  • Example: the slow erosion of cognitive function in a parent with Alzheimer’s—the moth-image is brutally apt: not a frontal blow but a quiet, patient consumption of what was dear; many in the congregation are caregivers for parents in this condition.
  • Exhortation: Receive the moth!
• His feelings of disillusionment were God’s Fatherly discipline—Jesus took the judgment so that we could be Fathered by God.

The Clear View of the Sojourner (12)

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.

He began understanding that he was a sojourner with God.

• Sojourner: legally protected but landless in Israel.
• Shock 1: King David felt landless.
• Shock 2: King David felt landless with God.

He grew to understand the LORD as the original sojourner—and now the psalmist joins him.

• Sojourners: The defining historical posture of the people of God.
  • David is landless with God (Ps. 39:12) → the same faith-line dies still landless but city-bound (Heb. 11:10, 16) → Christ, the truly landless one (Luke 9:58), departs and is (the resurrection), so the sojourner’s grave is a homecoming.
    • 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:10, ESV)
    • 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13, ESV)
    • 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16, ESV)
  • 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11, ESV)
• Jesus stands with us.
  • 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. (John 1:11, ESV)
  • He had no place to lay his head.
  • He was driven into the deepest fog while on the cross—My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

Conclusion

13 Look away from me, that I may smile again,

before I depart and am no more!”

The final verse shows us a human prayer—he knew he was a sojourner with God, and he celebrated that, but another part of him wanted to be released from the commitment.

• It leaves us with a question: Do you want to sojourn? Or do you want God to leave you alone? Do we want God to dry up everything else so we can see him better? Do we believe he is worthy?
  • Note: the cross shows us he certainly is!
  • Jesus: Let this cup pass from me…Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?
• From Fog Town to Clearview City—let’s walk with God.