What's Good For David

Song: Count Your Blessings

Scripture: Psalm 39

It’s hard to take your punishment. David was dealing with that in Psalm 39.

David had been whipped by God and is enemy was making faces at his tears. They rejoiced at his suffering. But David was learning. “I do not open my mouth,” he said, “because it is Thou who has done it” (v. 9). David was learning to accept the consequences of his crimes, one of which was the pleasure the wicked took in his humiliation. That’s hard medicine to take, but if it was good for the king of Israel, it’s good for me.

David’s punishment made him reflective. He realized that his life was short—it spanned no more than a handbreadth. So temporary is his existence in the scheme of things, that he’s like a mere phantom, or a shadow cast on wall. Reflection is good. Trouble makes us reflect. It makes us ask the hard questions that nobody asks when they’re laughing and in the company of friends. Reflection is hard, but if the king of Judah’s life was but a span, what must mine be?

God’s discipline made David pray. He pouted at first. “I was dumb and silent, I refrained even from good…my heart was hot within me.” But alas, he said, “I spoke with my tongue.” If it takes calamity to make men pray, then may God send us rain. If it was good for the king of Jerusalem, it’s good for me. God help me be like him, when I’ve done wrong.

Jason Moore