“You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah”
– Psalm 39:5
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever become seriously ill? If you have become seriously ill, what were you thinking would happen to you? If you have become seriously ill, what were you hoping would happen to you? If you have become seriously ill, what were your dad and ma doing to help you get well? When your grandpaa became seriously ill with malaria, your grandpaa did not want to do anything except to stay in bed. When your grandpaa became seriously ill with malaria, your grandpaa did not think about anything other than how his head was fiercely throbbing, how his teeth were constantly chattering even though he was sweating profusely and how painfully uncomfortable that his back was because of his kidneys being infected. When your grandpaa became seriously ill with malaria, your grandpaa did not care who was watching him as he climbed onto a clinic’s gurney where he curled up into a natal position because he did care anymore what might happen to him. David scribed a psalm song prayer – which is Psalm 39 in the Psalm Book, during the time after he had become seriously ill. David scribed this poignant psalm song prayer for Jeduthun to lead the music choir to sing in the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. Jeduthun was one of David’s three music directors who led the singing in the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. Because of having an apparent serious illness, David’s soul appears to have become deeply troubled by the fragility of human life. David implies in this psalm song prayer that his serious illness is how God is rebuking him for the sins that he has committed. David uses this psalm song prayer to once again confess his transgressions to God and to reiterate his undying trust in God despite what God is at that moment taking him through.
Being seriously ill will bring to the surface underlining emotions such as the feelings of apathy, depression, frustration, anger, etc. David to your grandpaa sounds frustrated and angry in this psalm song prayer that he scribed. David knew that he had to keep his mouth muzzled in order to keep his tongue from saying something that it should not say. David did not want to say something that was critical or condemning about God for having him go through the illness that he was suffering that would be understood negatively about God by any nearby guy who was dealing with an evil infused heart. David scribes in his psalm song prayer that keeping silent and staying still only increased his feeling of anguish – as there is the sense here that David wants to do some serious yelling at God for making him at this time feel physically seriously yucky. David scribes that making himself keep his mouth shut was making his heart hot – that the more that he thought about what he wanted to verbalized, the more the fire of wanting to blurt out something was really burning inside him. David does not seem to have the patience to keep his mouth shut for long as he was soon expressing his deep frustrations to God of what was really bugging him. David wanted God to tell him when his life on planet Earth was going to come to an end. David wanted God to know that he feels that his life on planet Earth has been really fleeting. David in what is now verse 5 says to God, “You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah” David then scribes that he sees guys as phantom beings who vainly bustle here and there doing whatever they can do to accrue wealth with no idea what will happen to their wealth while he is at the same time putting all his hope in God’s grace which he knows is the only thing that can keep him from becoming a guy who is a fool who other guys will scorn.
Do you always thank God for allowing something good to take place in your lives? Do you always blame God for allowing something bad to take place in your lives? It is easy to thank God for a life lesson that brought hope and joy. It is easy to blame God for a life lesson that brought despair and anger. After David thanks God for being his hope, David tells God to remove from him the scourge or illness that he has feeling like God has just given him a right hook to his stomach. David reminds God that he knows that He will discipline guys and gals for their sins and that He will consume any accumulated wealth that a guy or gal has as he knew that every guy, gal and kid who gets embedded on planet Earth by God has a lifetime that is no longer than a simple breath that God might take. David ends his psalm song prayer to God by asking God – after begging God to hear his heartrending prayer, to listen to his distressed cry for help and to not be deaf to his agonizing pleading, to please look away from him so that he can have a short time of rejoicing before the predestined moment arrives when . . . your grandmaa now is seriously ill. Your grandmaa has a bacterial infection. After going to a doctor – who gave your grandmaa a cortisone shot that is supposed to help break up the infection, the doctor prescribed some pills that your grandmaa is to take for ten days. After taking one of the pills and knowing that she was experiencing a reaction to the pill, your grandmaa called the doctor who told her to go to the emergency room. Your grandmaa did not go to the emergency room. After being prayed for specifically, your grandmaa is beginning to feel better. Even though it is okay when God unfolds on you a serious illness life lesson that you respond as David did but . . . a better move for you to make is to thank God for allowing a serious illness to take over your life as God is giving you the chance to grasp His mercy as He heals you.
Psalm 39 (1078)