Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Psalm 38
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  March 14, 2021

Have you ever heard the song “Hurt” by Johnny Cash?  It was actually first written by a man named Trent Reznor of the band “Nine Inch Nails” in 1994. Johnny Cash covered it in 2002 and it became a hit.  At the time, he was 71 and his health was rapidly declining. The song’s obvious references to depression, sickness, and addiction clearly resonated with Cash. He was a devout Christian but he struggled with drug addictions, alcohol, and broken relationships his entire life. As it happens that this would be his last song, recorded just a year before his death. Trent Reznor would later say that the song wasn’t really his anymore. And you can sense it too when you listen. There’s something undeniably authentic about the way he sings it which affects anyone who hears it. The way he expresses regret and guilt is as painful as it is universal. 

Today we continue our theme of “The Struggle” by looking at Psalm 38, another song by an old man in the midst of great pain and sickness. It was written by King David, and the Lord lets us hear indirectly, as if listening in a closed room, to this prayer of a godly man and his struggle with guilt. I’d like to draw out three lessons for us as we struggle against guilt in our own lives.

The first lesson is this: The struggle against guilt is rarely just a spiritual battle.  The bulk of the psalm is King David’s lament over his many afflictions, including not just guilt over sin, but physical and mental anguish as well. During times of bitter suffering, the body, mind, and spirit all work on one another. Mental anguish, like stress, affects the body. Physical pain confuses the mind and can shake our faith. And a troubled conscience, our guilt, increases the pain of body and mind. We see that interwovenness reflected clearly in this psalm: Psalm 38:1-8 “Lord, do not rebuke me in anger. Do not discipline me in wrath. 2 Indeed, your arrows have stuck in me. Your hand has come down on me. 3 There is no health in my flesh because of your rage. There is no wellness in my bones because of my sin, 4 because my guilt has gone over my head. Like a heavy burden, it is too heavy for me. 5 My wounds stink and ooze because of my folly. 6 I am drooping. I am completely bent over. All day long I go around mourning. 7 Even my back burns with pain. My whole body is unhealthy. 8 I have become numb. I am totally crushed. I groan loudly because of my anxious thoughts.  

We don’t know exactly what kind of physical affliction David is dealing with. Some commentators believe it was leprosy, some think a problem with his kidney, others think it is a lesion that has become infected. But it doesn’t do much good to play doctor here. Because if we could diagnose his problem we might be able to dismiss his words. We might say, “I’m not struggling with that, so this doesn’t apply to me.” But we all deal with guilt—maybe we suppress it, maybe we confess it—but we all experience guilt over sin, and quite painfully at times. We need to remember that it affects our whole beings. The struggle against guilt is rarely just a spiritual battle. 

The fact is that we can’t separate our lives into neat boxes of spiritual, physical, and mental, as much as we might like to. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a Welsh doctor who became a minister, wrote about the interwovenness of the mind, soul, and body in his book Spiritual Depression. He does a great job of avoiding a reductionist’s view of suffering, which says “Oh this is a physical thing, just get medicine and you’ll be fine.” Or “This is just a spiritual problem. Just pray and it will get better.” Or “This is all in your head. All you need is a good psychiatrist.” No, Dr. Lloyd Jones understands that the whole person—mind, body, soul—are connected and must each be considered.  Our Savior knew this as well, as he struggled in prayer when shouldering the guilt of humanity’s sins. He felt weak and sweated great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. The struggle against guilt is rarely just a spiritual battle.  We need to be aware of this. The Lord sent an angel to strengthen Jesus in Gethsemane and he will sometimes send us friends in our dark moments who may encourage us to do simple things like eat, and get some sleep, or take medication. We would do well to listen to them.

The second lesson about struggling with guilt is this: Guilt likes to linger but your forgiveness is sure. Again, we think that Psalm 38 was written by King David towards the end of his life. David has pangs of conscience caused by his sins of murder and adultery which he still felt years after he had committed them. This anguish became especially sharp during the conspiracies of David’s son Absolam and Adonijah. David knew well that his sin had led to turmoil, treachery, and even death in his family and as he traced the tracks of his sin through the lives of his children, rivers of guilt began to flow. This brings up a sobering insight into the struggle against guilt. A person will often struggle with guilt over sins that have long since been committed and even forgiven. Guilt likes to linger.  I know that many times people come into church and hear that they are forgiven with their ears, but they somehow are able to convince themselves that this forgiveness doesn’t apply to them. They think, “Ya, some people are forgiven, but you should see what my sin has done. You should trace the tracks of my iniquity.” 

In times like this we need to remember that our forgiveness does not depend on how we feel or even how we think sometimes. I love how we include John 1:9 in our confession of sins each Sunday. Do you remember saying this? “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Stop and think about that for a second. Because Jesus gave his life for you. Because he bore your sin and took the consequence of your guilt on himself on the cross, God must declare you forgiven! In other words, if you truly regret your sin, if you confess them, then your forgiveness doesn’t depend on how you feel, it depends on God’s faithfulness. You can doubt yourself, you could doubt other people, but don’t doubt the faithfulness of God. You might still feel guilty, but that doesn’t change the fact that God is faithful. He will forgive your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. King David, in his great pain, says this in verse 18: “I declare my guilt, and I am troubled by my sin.”  Even though he is in the pit of despair, David is forgiven. Guilt likes to linger but your forgiveness is sure.

The final lesson we learn in the struggle against guilt is this: Remember that you are God’s child. That may sound super simple, but it is something we often forget in times of deep pain and guilt. Listen to how David addresses God in this psalm: “Lord, do not rebuke me in anger. Do not discipline me in your wrath.” David calls his pain discipline. Now this is not to say that every bit of suffering that comes to us is discipline. Sometimes it is simply a result of living in a sinful world. Someone might get cancer and we shouldn’t immediately assume that God is disciplining them for some sin. We live in a fallen world where mortal bodies break down and accidents happen. But David clearly connects his physical suffering to his sin. He knows that he is being disciplined. And the Bible is very clear that discipline is something parents do because they love their children. The writer to the Hebrews says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves…7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:4-11)

Our fathers may not have gotten it right every time they disciplined us. They did what they thought was best, ideally, they did at least. But God disciplines us for our good, in order that we might share in his holiness. In other words, so that we turn to him and remain part of his family. He wants to be near us forever and so in the course of our lives, there may come times when he disciplines us in love. Can you imagine where you’d be today if your parents never said “No” to you? I shudder to imagine where I’d be. I doubt many of us would be in this sanctuary right now. You are only disciplined if your parents love you. And deep down David knows this even in the midst of his struggle with guilt. He says, “Yet I wait for you, Lord. You will answer, O Lord my God.Do not forsake me, O Lord. My God, do not be far from me. 22 Hurry to help me, O Lord, my salvation.” David is confident that he is still God’s child. Though he is being disciplined he is confident that God will answer him and that God will come to be with him. He calls the Lord his salvation.

As a parent when you have to discipline your child it is never something enjoyable to watch them be disciplined, even if it’s just a timeout or something small. It is not something you enjoy. But after they have been disciplined is a special time. It’s when they come and apologize for what they did and then you get to remind them that you forgive them and that you love them. You get to hold them close and just for a moment that all that matters in the world. That is what David longs for in this Psalm. He awaits that time of unity and joy with his Father because even as he struggles with guilt, he knows that he is God’s child. And there will come a time for all of us to enjoy that with our Lord one day in heaven and even, in part, right here on earth as we confess our sin and hear our forgiveness proclaimed. As our Savior draws near to us in the Sacrament and we receive his body and blood, given and shed for us.

You know they made a music video for Johnny Cash’s song “Hurt” and it won a bunch of awards including best video of the year at the VMAs and the Country Music Awards. I encourage you to watch it sometime if you haven’t already. (If you aren’t one of the 93 million views on Youtube.) But toward the end of the video, flickering between shorts in the final chorus, are pictures of Jesus as he bears his cross and dies. It strikes me that this vision doesn’t make the sad song happy, but it reminds me that Johnny Cash was not without hope in his guilt. And neither was King David. And neither are we. Because no matter how you struggle with guilt, in Christ, remember that you are a child of God. 

Amen.