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Psalm 38
TITLE: “Come Quickly to Help Me”
In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text for tonight is Psalm 38, which we prayed earlier in the service. We will also be examining the explanation of the office of the keys as we prayed from the Catechism earlier as well.
Last week we heard about some of the harm to the soul that does not confess its sin. This week we have a flood of problems that weigh us down. No health to the body, overwhelmed by guilt, festering wounds, bowed down, searing pain, feeble, crushed, failing strength, the list could go on and on. Our Psalm presents the picture of a man who has been deeply wounded and crushed by his sinfulness. But David’s problems (and ours) get worse: his friends abandon him, and his enemies use David’s weakness to try and destroy him.
What a true picture of life under sin! Sometimes with sin, it sticks out like a festering sore that the entire world can see but yourself. Your pride won’t let you see the plank sticking out of your eye. Peter cannot see in our reading that his pride led him to a great fall by denying Christ to the world. In the same way, we are all by nature spiritually blind and dumb and incapable of seeing our sin for what it truly is.
God then has His way with us through Law and Gospel. David in our Psalm has God’s Law heavy upon Him. The arrows of God’s Law has pierced him. The Law has awakened in Him the knowledge of His sinfulness. As Saint Paul said, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20b). David sees how his sin has destroyed his life. His health his gone, his friends have abandoned him; his enemies are at the gate.
Yet at the bottom of all of this is the reality of sin and forgiveness. Saint Augustine once said regarding this Psalm, “But happy he is who is wretched after this manner!”[1] Augustine echoes the words of Jesus, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5:4). David mourns and laments his sins. He recognizes the depth of his sinfulness, and the harm that his sinful nature does to him, in both body and soul.
So the question tonight is this: do you? Do you see yourself in this Psalm? Has God’s Law had its way in your heart, so that you mourn your sinfulness and fear God’s just wrath? We live in an age where no one is responsible for anything. It’s my parent’s fault. That’s the way I was raised. It’s in my genes. Whatever. But God’s Law will not let you or I pass the buck. As David prays, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sins (Ps. 38:18). Confession is saying the same thing about yourself that God says about you. You are a sinner. Notice in this Psalm that David never tries to pass the blame. These troubles of body and spirit weigh heavy upon him, because of his sin, and not someone else’s.
This is what the catechism has in mind when we speak of the office of the keys. Hear again the explanation from the catechism:
What do you believe according to these words?I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord deal with us Himself.
Notice the two sides to this coin. God’s Word has two sides, Law and Gospel, and therefore the called ministers of Christ must deal with God’s flock by Law and Gospel. God crushes with the Law, but builds anew with the Gospel.
Through the lens of the Law you see yourself in this Psalm. Crushed, broken, alone, forsaken, apart from God. You have only the cry of the beggar: Come quickly to help me, O Lord, my Savior (Ps. 38:22).
Now look at this Psalm through the eyes of Jesus. Look at this through the eyes of the Gospel. Isaiah said of the suffering servant that he was bruised for our iniquities, he broken for our sins (Is. 53:5). And again Saint Paul wrote that For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (I Cor. 5:21). Christ cried out from the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Ps. 22). This same Jesus who shed tears of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane prays this Psalm for you.
So pray this Psalm again in light of Individual Confession and Absolution. Remember what Jesus gave up for you. He took your sin upon himself. He groans, He suffers, He bleeds, He has no health in His body, He is abandoned by His friends, betrayed by His disciples, His enemies rise up around Him. His back is filled with searing pain. His strength fails. The light left His eyes in death. The One who had no sin bore that sin, that wretched pain and death for you on the cross.
This is the gift of Holy Absolution. When you come before the pastor and confess your sins, all of Christ’s work on the cross comes to bear for you, personally and individually. The words of absolution ring out with words of sweetest Gospel:
Receive the forgiveness Christ won for you by his Passion, death, and resurrection. By the command of our Lord Jesus Christ I, a called and ordained servant of the Word, forgive you your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Those words were bought with a terrible price: the death of God’s Son. But God gives this forgiveness to you freely with joy! Jesus died on the cross so that your life can be remade in His image.
So we pray with David, with Jesus, and with all the hosts of heaven: Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior. We pray this with repentant joy, because we know that God will come, and He will forgive your sins and make your life anew. In the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
[1] Saint Augustine, On the Psalms: Psalm 38 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
This page was created on 02/02/2007 and last edited on: 02/02/2007