Psalm 6, "A Troubled Soul Takes a Turn for the Better"
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
What are some things that can give you a sleepless night? I have a short list of those, and near the top is when I’m facing the painful consequences of my own mistakes. What do you do when you’re confronted with your own sin, brokenness, and failure, and you realize that your own selfish choices have separated you from those that you love — separated you from God?
We said when we began looking at these psalms that there is a psalm for every human experience. These psalms offer us way-points to stop and ponder our relationship with God in each of these experiences. And that we would meet Jesus in all of these way-points. Today we come to the first of what are sometimes called the Penitential Psalms. These are prayers of confession. They are a cry of the heart to God for help, salvation, and restoration. You need this psalm in your prayer book, and you will meet Jesus in all His justice and mercy here.
The Pain
The Pain
We all from time to time, if we are children of God, feel the pain of our sin and failures. Pain gets our attention to stop us long enough to assess what might be wrong. We should begin by recognizing that God is a good and loving Father. And good dads will not let their children choose a destructive life path without discipline. We punish our children to help them feel the painful consequences of wrong choices. God is no different.
My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
God loves His children. And sometimes that means we will experience His discipline. But God does not discipline us like our human dad.
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
David is not asking the LORD to withhold punishment, but only that He not do it in anger. Even the best dads here on earth will make the mistake of punishing their children in anger. And for some children, this is all they’ve ever known. David is appealing to God whom he has come to recognize as uniquely gracious toward the hurting. And David is hurting.
David feels the weight of whatever wrong has caused this suffering. He can feel it in his body and his soul.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
"Languishing” is the feeling of being withered and dry, shriveling up. He can feel his trouble in his bones. But he can feel it in his soul too.
Psalm 6:3
My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?
We see in verse 5 that death seems like a real possibility.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?
David describes his misery in verses 6-7
I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
This is the ultimate sleepless night. Who hasn’t been here? We experience the pain of our sin and failure, and it seems like everyone is against us. On a night like this, you have two choices.
Choice number 1 is to indulge in self-pity. Feel sorry for yourself. Self-pity wallows in the pain of the consequences. It leads us to blame others, justify ourselves, and strategize some way to gain control of the situation. Maybe we even bargain with God. We play the victim card and point to all the good things we’ve done for Him and ask, “why would you let this happen to me?” Self-pity leads to a dead end road of isolation.
Choice number 2 is repentance. Repentance responds to the pain of being separated from God by our sins by crying to Him for help, forgiveness, and restoration. Repentance frees us from all our strategizing, self-justification and bargaining, to believe that God loves us and will draw close to help us in our trouble.
We can see in this psalm that David has chosen repentance over self-pity. The source of his pain is not his damaged pride, but his separation from the LORD. He asks in verse 3, “But you, O LORD — how long?” How long for what? Verse 4, “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.” God has turned away, and David is asking Him to come back.
The word David uses for “save” is connected to imagery that Dave showed us last week. The word for save means being brought out of the harsh, hard place, isolated and confined, out into a wide space of abundant life. Some people would use this word to name their kids, like Hosea, one of God’s prophets, whose name means “Yahweh has saved”, or Yahweh has brought me into a wide space, and the name Joshua, which means “Yahweh is salvation”.
Our sins imprison us in a confining wilderness where God seems distant. Repentance responds to the pain of that distance from God. It leads us to cry to the Lord for salvation, who gives us freedom and abundant life. Yahweh is the Ever-living One. To know Him is to know life. To be separated from Him is death. So David asks God to turn back.
Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
His circumstances could tempt him to think that God has abandoned him or hates him. But he knows better. The LORD is the one who has made a covenant of love with David, and David recalls that in his moment of misery.
We’ve all been in this place. Our sins and mistakes bring consequences. They can feel like being isolated in a prison of our own making. They separate us from God and from others. When you feel the pain of the consequences of your own sin, what are some of the thoughts that come to mind? Do you strategize how to get yourself out of trouble? Do you wallow in self-pity? Do you blame others?
Our psalm offers us another option. David confesses that his trouble is a rebuke or discipline from the LORD who loves him. So he is sure God will save him for the sake of His steadfast love. Are you this convinced of God’s love for you? That when you feel the consequences of your sin, God is using this to teach you and not to harm you because of His steadfast love? That same steadfast love will restore you to freedom.
The Pilers-On
The Pilers-On
We should not be too quick to judge someone who is suffering. It’s possible they got themselves into this trouble. It’s just as possible that it happened through no fault of their own. In fact, it’s possible that God has brought trouble into someone’s life for His own purposes. In any case, what kind of people would you want around you in your moment of misery?
David is surrounded by pilers-on. Some people love to kick a guy when he’s down. His enemies are making the most of his misery. Even some of his friends have become foes. He calls them “workers of evil.”
Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
These words show up again in the Bible. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says that at the day of judgment, we will all appear before Him. And He will judge us according to the fruit of our life, whether it was good or bad. He says, Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” We will all be exposed for exactly who we are in the eyes of our righteous judge. At that moment, many will dive into the fruit of self-pity. They will bargain with Jesus, they will seek to justify themselves.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
Jesus answers with David’s words from Psalm 6...
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Anyone can call themselves a believer. Jesus knows those who delight in doing the will of God. Have you come into the light of Jesus’ presence, have you let yourself be known by Jesus? When your sin is exposed, do you hide, protect, justify, and isolate, or do you come into the light, repent and believe that Jesus loves you, has paid for that sin, you are forgiven in His name, and you are heard by God because of Jesus’ work as your sacrifice and High Priest?
David is confident that God loves him and hears Him. He says three different ways:
Psalm 6:8–9 (ESV)
The Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea;
The Lord accepts my prayer.
The LORD does not just hear the sound of his misery. The LORD hears his plea, and He accepts His prayer. God is on his side.
Actually, in verse 10, David flips the whole situation on its head.
Psalm 6:10 (ESV)
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
He says that because God accepts him, the trouble he experienced in verses 2, 3 will be transferred to his enemies. And his confidence that the LORD would turn and deliver his life (verse 4) would also be the turning back of his enemies. David is shame-free and his enemies will be filled with shame.
This reminds me of the words of Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus endured the cross to pay for all the consequences of our sin, including the shame. In your own moment of misery over your sins and mistakes, how confident are you that God is on your side? If you’re like me, we run right to shame. Sometimes the piler-on in me - my own thoughts of self-condemnation. Others of us pile on the self-pity, or we blame others. Most of us pile on our feeble attempts to fix our mistakes ourselves. But all of these only cut us off from help. Run to Jesus, shamelessly. He will save you, He will restore you. He won’t help you fix it your way.
"Jesus is not our helper; he is our very life. Instead of making us stronger, God brings us to the point of weakness so that Christ can be strong in us (‘power is perfected in weakness’ [2 Corinthians 12:9-10].” Ken Boa
Communion
Tonight, and every night, a good practice is a nightly examine. Ask some direct questions, what have I done with my day? As God brings your weaknesses to light, you can avoid a sleepless night with a simple prayer of confession. Here’s one I find helpful. I invite you to pray it with me as we close.
Prayer of Confession
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We humbly repent of our sin.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.