“Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.”
~ Psalm 38:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever felt like God was really angry with you? Have you ever felt like God was punishing you for something that you did that you knew that you should not have done? God punished David. David did something that made God angry with him. God had David become very sick as a punishment for what David did that he should not have done. David wrote a psalm song about what it was like to have God punish him by causing him to become very sick for doing something that he knew that he should not have done. God had David feel absolutely miserable for having sinned against Him. A psalm song that David wrote – Psalm 38, is David’s plea to God to stop making him feel so sick. This psalm song is one of seven penitential psalm songs that David wrote and which became part of the Psalms Book. David starts out this psalm song making a plea to God – asking God if he would please stop being angry with him. David did not like the feeling of having God being angry with him. For David – the feeling of having God’s anger against him was like the pain of having arrows shot through him. For David – the feeling of having God’s anger against him was like being covered with festering, ugly sores or wounds that just would not heal. For David – the feeling of having God’s anger against him was like having such a bad backache that he could no longer stand up straight. For David – the feeling of having God’s anger was against him was like being totally deaf and dumb so that he had absolutely no words to describe how really horrible and awful that he felt. David knew that what he had done was a sin in God’s eyes. It was not as if David felt like he had been caught by God in a sin; David finally got it that he had blown it again by doing something that he knew that God had not wanted him to do. David tells God in verse 3 how he was feeling because of what he had done that had God’s anger burning against him, “Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.”
Your grandpaa knows that he is constantly giving God reasons to be angry with him. Your grandpaa knows that God has had every reason in the world to punish your grandpaa just as He punished David. Your grandpaa knows that God has given your grandpaa a lot of passes over the years. Your grandpaa knows that there have been times when God has seemed to be a lot further away from your grandpaa than at other times. There have been times when God has put your grandpaa in situations where He expected your grandpaa to ask Him for help. Your grandpaa likes to think that he never needs help to do whatever – even though your grandpaa knows and says that he was elected by God before He created planet Earth to do what God has foreordained what He will have your grandpaa do. Your grandpaa knows that he will always – as God teaches Him to trust in Him, be on a steep learning curve just as God took David through really difficult and sometimes really messy, unpleasant situations to trust in Him.
Your grandpaa spent eleven days and ten nights with Hector and Patty Pivaral in Xalbal, Guatemala while Hector and Patty taught the very first Programa de Educación Biblica (Bible Education Program) module in Xalbal. The first Programa de Educación Biblica module that was taught in Xalbal was in April of 1996. After having spent eleven days and ten nights in Xalbal – where there was no running water or electricity, Hector, Patty and your grandpaa were very ready to get back to their homes in Guatemala City. The rainy season in Guatemala begins in April. Because it was raining the day that Hector, Patty and your grandpaa where to fly back to Guatemala City, the small plane that was to be flown to Xalbal to pick up Hector, Patty and your grandpaa could not make the flight. When Hector, Patty and your grandpaa found out that the small plane that was to be flown to Xalbal to pick them up could not fly to Xalbal because of the rainy weather, they decided to go overland back to Guatemala City. Hector found a small truck that was taking bags of shelled corn to Cobán. Hector, Patty and your grandpaa knew that once that got to Cobán that they would be able to find a bus that would take them the rest of the way to Guatemala City. The road out of the Ixcán province – which is where Xalbal is located, is a very rough, gravel road that goes up and over a lot of steep hills. Your grandpaa lost count of the number of times that he had to climb down out of the small truck that was taking bags of shelled corn and other guys and gals to Cobán to help push the small truck up another steep hill. While the driver of the small truck was – in the rain in Chisec, repairing his small truck’s third flat tire, Hector, Patty and your grandpaa decided to get on a pickup that was loaded with bags of shelled corn or cardamon that was leaving for Cobán. Because there was some room for Hector and Patty to ride in the pickup’s cab, they got in the pickup’s cab while your grandpaa began climbing into the back of the pickup. Before your grandpaa could get into the back of the pickup, the pickup’s driver took off up a rather steep hill. Your grandpaa kept trying to get into the back of the pickup but . . . no matter how hard he tried, your grandpaa could not get a good hold on a slippery bag of shelled corn or cardamon to pull himself into the back of the pickup. The pickup had a tubular bumper that was slippery because of the rain. Your grandpaa could barely keep his feet on the bumper as . . . after shrieking and yelling as loud as he could for what seemed like hours, your grandpaa finally was able to pull himself into the back of the pickup on top of the slippery bags of shelled corn or cardamon. Instead of thanking God for keeping him from slipping off the tubular bumper unto the gravel road, your grandpaa was really angry with the pickup’s driver for not waiting until . . . because he knew that he would have been in a real hurt if he had slipped off the tubular bumper.
Psalm 38 (435)