Year 5, Day 181: Psalm 38-39

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

At first this seems like a weird choice for a topic when looking at both of these psalms.  After all, each of these psalms is about struggle.  Each of these psalms finds the psalmist struggling with life, with meaning, and with external persecution.  How can such psalms of anguish really be about identity?

If we look at Psalm 38, we hear David speaking about being in the snare of enemies.  We hear him holding his tongue because his life is in such turmoil.  We hear him speak about even his friends standing aloof.  He sounds so much like Job!  But look at where David lets this thought drive him.  David waits for the Lord.  David knows that he is in the protection of the most high.  He may be experiencing pain, turmoil, and persecution.  But his identity is with the Father and he knows that God will not disappoint him.

In Psalm 39 we see David struggling with a deep “meaning-of-life” kind of internal struggle.  He knows how fleeting human life – his own life, even – is!  He knows how we strive after things that will not last.  So what is the answer to the human condition?  We must remember that our identity is with God, not the things of the world.  David tells us that his hope is in the Lord, not the things of this world.  He understands that he is at best a sojourner upon God’s land. 

<><