Read Psalm 39:1-6
"I was mute with silence, I held my peace" (v. 2). Usually David was singing a song or giving an order or rejoicing in the Lord, but now he is silent. Why? Because God had rebuked him for a sin he had committed, and he knew better than to argue with God. Sometimes when we sin, we want to argue. We make excuses instead of confessions. We give reasons for not escaping the temptation. But David didn't do that. He was silent.
But as he meditated, something stirred within his heart. "My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue: 'Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor'" (vv. 3-5). As David mused and meditated, he learned two lessons.
First, he learned about the brevity of life. Verse 6 reads, "Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain." This means that they are disquieted in vain; they're merely walking in a performance. David says, "I don't know how long this performance is going to last. My life is a handbreadth." Life's brevity ought to warn us not to waste our lives sinning.
Second, David learned about the frailty of man. "Help me to know how frail I am" (v. 4). He is telling us, "It's not the length of life that counts--it's the depth of life." It's not important how strong we are in ourselves but how strong we are in God. What counts is that we are investing our lives in eternal things.
Don't argue with God. Don't come with excuses. Rather, come and say, "Lord, make my life count."
Life is short, so why devote precious time to sin and its destructive power? Invest your life in the eternal things of God. Draw your daily strength from Him. When you sin, confess it right away and get back to investing your life for God's glory.
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