A blog from Sunday’s sermon on Psalm 39:1-13.
When God brings discipline or conviction into our lives, our instinct is often avoidance instead of surrender. We try to suppress the voice of God in our hearts, suffer through His attempts to correct us, or sweat out our conviction by counteracting it with good deeds. However, Psalm 39 teaches us that the biblical response to God’s discipline is to stop fighting and turn to Jesus instead.
In Acts 26:14, Jesus tells Saul, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” A goad was a sharp tool used to guide animals. When the animal resisted, it only injured itself. Psalm 39 shows us the same truth. Resisting God’s conviction never brings relief; it only multiplies pain.
Empty Solutions to Jesus’ Conviction
Trying to Suppress It
The psalmist begins by making an internal decision to stay quiet. He guards his words, watches his mouth, and even muzzles himself. On the surface, it seems like he has the righteous goal of avoiding sin, embarrassment, and reproach from the wicked.
But his silence goes too far.
He becomes mute not only from sinful speech but even from saying good things. This silence is an attempt to ignore the pain of God’s discipline, hoping it will fade away on its own, but it doesn’t.
Instead, his pain intensifies. His heart grows hot within him. A fire burns as he meditates and keeps everything bottled up. Ignoring conviction doesn’t make it weaker, it makes it stronger.
Illustration:
This is like refusing to go to the dentist because you don’t want to hear what he might say. You avoid the diagnosis, but the problem only gets worse.
Application:
We don’t want to talk about conviction, so we hope it will simply go away. But inactivity and avoidance never work. The Lord is persistent in His discipline, and you cannot ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Trying to Suffer Through It
Eventually, the psalmist speaks, but not in repentance. He asks God to tell him how long he must endure. He wants to know the number of his days, how short his life is, and therefore how long the suffering will last.
He concludes that life is a fleeting breath, a vapor. But instead of letting that truth drive him to repentance, he tries to calculate endurance as if knowing the timeline will make the pain manageable.
The irony is clear: if life is that short, why waste it enduring discipline instead of being restored?
Illustration:
It’s like avoiding painful dental work and deciding to “tough it out.” Meanwhile, the pain intensifies.
Application:
We still don’t want to acknowledge our sin, so we resolve to grit our teeth and deal with it. Still, it is far more painful to endure God’s discipline than to humbly address our sin.
Trying to Sweat It Out
Next, the psalmist describes frantic activity. He goes about to and fro, rushing, laboring, and groaning. The language paints a picture of hard work and constant the motion of heaping up, gathering, and striving, yet the results are empty.
His efforts are only a shadow, his labor is vanity, and he works without ever enjoying the fruit of his efforts.
This is the person who stays busy trying to escape conviction, but never actually gets away.
Illustration:
“I’ll brush my teeth, floss, and stop eating candy.” These are all good things, but none of them fix the damaged tooth.
Application:
We assume staying busy with good, godly things will cause God to relent, as if we’re trying to negotiate with God through activity. But in the end, work done solely to avoid repentance is always in vain.
The Only Solution to Jesus’ Conviction
Waiting on the Lord Alone
After silence, endurance, and activity all fail, the psalmist finally asks the right question: “And now, Lord, for what do I wait?”
He recognizes that resisting God and kicking against the goads has accomplished nothing. Every other hope has collapsed. There is only one place left to turn.
His final conclusion: “My hope is in You.”
Surrender That Brings Rescue
He asks God to deliver him from his transgressions, not just from the pain, but from the sin itself. He acknowledges the reproach that sin has brought into his life and accepts that he has nothing to defend, nothing to argue.
This silence is no longer avoidance. It is humility.
Surrender That Brings Relief
He pleads for God to remove His discipline. The reproof and chastening have consumed what is valuable in his life, but God uses our surrender as means to bring relief.
Surrender That Restores Relationship
Resistance damages our relationship with God, but repentance restores it.
The psalmist describes himself as a sojourner that is isolated, disconnected, and alienated from God and others because of sin. He asks God to turn His gaze away in mercy, not abandonment, so that peace can return before the discipline destroys him.
Illustration:
Finally biting the bullet and visiting the dentist to address the problem. The pain is intense, but healing follows.
Final Call
We must come to the place of brokenness where there is nowhere else to turn.
God will allow conviction and discipline to intensify until we surrender. But once we finally turn to Him, His promise of deliverance is sure.
Conclusion
Stop kicking against the goads.
Stop suppressing it.
Stop suffering through it.
Stop sweating it out.
Turn to Jesus.
His conviction is not meant to crush you, it is meant to bring you home.
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