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“The Disposition of the Penitent”

Lamentations 3:1-19, 19-33 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Psalm 38 Mark 9:14-28 Midweek Lent – Psalm 38

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let’s get started right away with this one. Luther said that “this psalm portrays most clearly the manner, words, acts, thoughts, and gestures of a truly penitent heart”. Considering, this night, “The

Disposition of the Penitent”, we begin with verses 1 and 2:

38 O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! 2 For Your arrows have sunk into me, and Your hand has come down on me.

This one (like all the Penitential Psalms) is for no one but those who have been pierced by the arrows of God’s truth. “The smug, who have become hardened, the arrows glance off as from a hard stone.” No one but a Penitent would know God’s rebuke or discipline … no one else would recognize it (others are, rather, asleep to the idea). Another church in Spring Hill had a sign I think is true which says that “people would sin less if the punishment-for-it were more immediate” (more directly noticeable as cause-and-effect). God’s wrath is inevitable upon sin (but only graphically-so in the afterlife). It might be much more so, even here, had He not doled-out that anger for earthly individuals upon His Son. A Penitent is one with whom God’s arrows penetrate: where sorrow- for-sin-and-its-price upon civilization and the Lord crush into admitting a need for the Savior.

The Penitent has a different perspective (or frame-of-reference) than others do. Everybody’s dying (that’s what sin made, even, unbelievers to try to explain), but only a Penitent credits that dying to the appropriate justice upon our exercise of a right to express opposition to God. That’s what sin is: the expression of the right that we have to oppose God. Consciously, as well as sub-consciously,

Christians, even, exercise that right. No-one in this room has lived without expressing pride, doubt, and hatred. Pagans excuse it all as “just being human”, but Penitents regret that sickness we humans have. And Penitents regret sin not, just, because we fear Hell, but because, mostly, we love and honor God. “So, Heavenly Father, Your arrows have sunk into me; Your hand has come down on me, and I am (for that reason), rightly crippled and ashamed. The things I experience in, even, physical suffering, I deserve because I know that it’s my sin that’s given to me, even, physical suffering” (verses 3-8):

3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head [(I know that it’s them that I feel)]; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. 5 My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, 6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate [(hunched-over)]; all the day I go about mourning. 7 For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. 8 I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

Doctors have been unsuccessful in removing what’s justly due sin. Symptoms can get quieted, but the disease rages on. At 20, brain and lungs start dying rather than growing. By the mid 20s, skin does

… at 30, muscles do. Jim Heidenway says that “aging ain’t for sissies” (and aging starts early on), but

“aging”, also, “ain’t very endurable for the impenitent who don’t understand why it happens”. A repentant believer knows why … and, also, to-Whom to reach for help (verses 9-11):

9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you [(You know my sighing)]. 10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. 11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.

“Those in relationship with me, even, recognize my ugliness / my sin / my vulnerability … my enemies, even, recognize my weakness” (verse 12):

12 Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long.

“But my attitude toward this is different than a Pagan’s is. I cannot be angry outside of how ashamed I am of myself. I’m the cause of my problems. I cannot blame anyone else. As with Job, I can’t blame God or others for my woes.” Like Jesus, going “silent to slaughter”, a Penitent accepts what comes (not angrily, but resigned to it, recognizing even God’s grace through the clouds of trouble). Verses 13 and 14 show a believer’s disposition:

13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth. 14 I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

From that posture, worship can, then, begin; and (from worship) the requesting-of-God according the His will (verses 15 and 16):

15 But for You, O LORD, do I wait; it is You, O Lord my God, who will answer. 16 For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”

A Penitent realizes how close he is from danger; so hangs on, desperately, for the safe sanctuary that the Lord is (verses 17 through 20):

17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. 18 I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin. 19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. 20 Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good.

“Deliver us from evil”, Lord. These aren’t casual words we slip in between others. That a Penitent begs for because of the pressure sinfulness imposes. Penitence, however, does something about that pressure: “I confess my iniquity”. Almost as if over-inflation gets relieved from an about-to-burst balloon, spilling-out the words of our regret (directing them toward the cross where God killed them) we, then, can listen for His offer of grace … and, in this case, He leaves us on the edge of our seat anticipating it (which is worship … verses 21 and 22):

21 Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! 22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

We know He does, and, so, the context of Psalm 38 is the entire Gospel. God wants for us to be anxious for Him. With this world anxious about so many other things, “The Disposition of the Penitent” is of an anxiousness for God’s mercy.

Application

And that’s where I am thrilled that the Gospel of God’s Passion exists. We have (even locally) the trials of heart disease, Parkinson’s, the effects of strokes, ALS, cancer and poverty. We endure challenges to employment situations, of school-bullying, depression, alcoholism, and family conflict.

We wrestle with the world’s view on right and wrong and wonder, sometimes, if, even, the Lord thinks that battle’s worth fighting. We’re weak and doubting and sometimes disinterested and tired and fickle and wish (but not enough) that our efforts could be really wholesome and amount to something Good.

And God’s acquainted with the fact that His people are faced with all of this.

God doesn’t have a problem with us as long as we have a Penitent’s Disposition. It’s when we hold struggles and sin back from the Lord (when we don’t care) that we’re in jeopardy. Godliness- through-trials, but, also, sin (sorry-for and brought to God for release-by-forgiveness) is the normal

(desired) course of things for a real Christian. It’s staying-away from that … or not measuring ourselves too badly … or having no shame … or rationalizing … or, even, being compliant in allowing wrong to continue where we see it … that’s when opposing God makes Him wait to make

“personally-beneficial” His Mercy.

Penitents “lament”. In a whole book doing so, Jeremiah “let loose” upon the vacancy of his situation, strength, and, even, potential without some serious Divine help. His “disposition” rings as penitential for five chapters long (we got a bit in tonight’s First Reading) … because, also in that reading, lamentations remembered a context of grace. That made an entire difference to the prophet:

“But this I call to mind”, [he said], “and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is [His] faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

May we wait, so quietly (but anxiously) for the Lord’s salvation. In +Jesus’ name. Amen.