We begin with David the sinner and listen to his prayer for forgiveness (vv. 8–9). Like every truly convicted sinner, his mouth had been stopped (Rom. 3:19), and he admitted his guilt before God (see 1 Sam. 3:18; Lam. 1:21). We don’t know the particular sins that had brought this stroke from the Lord, and we don’t have to know. We do know that God listens to the cry of the brokenhearted (51:17) and forgives when we confess (1 John 1:9). David was especially concerned that he not give occasion to “the foolish” to ridicule his faith (14:1; 69:7; 74:22; 79:4).
Next, David the sufferer pleaded with God to remove the stroke and heal his body (vv. 10–11; see 32:4; 38:2). He used three images to get his point across: a plague or sickness, draining away his life; the blow of God’s hand, like a loving parent disciplining a child; the rebuke of His Word, which cut deeply into David’s heart. C. S. Lewis was correct when he wrote in The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.” The human body ages, decays, and dies; and the material wealth we gather gradually loses its value, like a moth silently destroying a garment. Jim Elliot’s oftquoted statement certainly applies here: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Vanity of vanity, all is vanity—unless we put our faith and hope in God.
Finally, David the sojourner prays for God’s direction as he makes his pilgrim way through life with its joys and sorrows. The world is a “vain show” (v. 6)— John Bunyan called it “Vanity Fair”—and God’s people are aliens and strangers here (119:19; Gen. 23:4; Lev. 25:23; 1 Chron. 29:15; Heb. 11:13; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11). We are not strangers to God, for He knows us and we know Him, but we are strangers with God as His welcomed guests (90:1; 23:6). He hears our prayers and cries, and He sees our tears. “In the world you will have tribulation,” Jesus told His disciples, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16: nkjv). His closing prayer was that God would turn away His frowning face and give him strength to return to life with its duties and burdens, and then one day enable him to pass into eternity. The phrase “no more” doesn’t suggest annihilation or the absence of an afterlife, but that David would “no more” be on his earthly pilgrimage. “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (23:6).