Can you hear me?
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This summer we are studying the book of Psalms - spending time with perhaps the most emotional man of God to walk the earth.
From David, and the other composers of these Psalms, we are learning how to be people of God. What it really looks like.
We have seen what it looks like to pray in times of hurt and trouble, we have seen what it looks like to deal with hard times and to keep our faith.
In the first few chapters, we have seen David pray in the morning and in the evening - and seen how important it is to bookend our day with time with God.
We learn from David how to be people of God. It is real and messy. It is a struggle sometimes. But to see them go through it, helps us to go through it.
We find ourselves in a similar place in Chapter 6.
PRAY.
For the choir director: with stringed instruments, according to Sheminith. A psalm of David.
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking;
3 my whole being is shaken with terror. And you, Lord—how long?
4 Turn, Lord! Rescue me; save me because of your faithful love.
5 For there is no remembrance of you in death; who can thank you in Sheol?
6 I am weary from my groaning; with my tears I dampen my bed and drench my couch every night.
7 My eyes are swollen from grief; they grow old because of all my enemies.
8 Depart from me, all evildoers, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea for help; the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be ashamed and shake with terror; they will turn back and suddenly be disgraced.
A kink in the hose - God is silent
I don’t do a lot of watering of grass or anything like that, but we do have a hose at our home it seems like we use all the time. Water is flowing through that hose - to the tune of triple digit water bills monthly. It gets used.
Our hose bib - the part where the hose connects to the house through the wall, is in the water line of the house just a few feet where the water main comes in. So our water pressure at the hose is the best pressure in the house, there are no obstructions, you turn it on and it is blasting.
But every once in a while - the water will just stop.
Without warning, and typically when I am in the process of doing something it just quits. Why?
A kink in the hose.
Something - a twist, a turn, a tangle - has caused the hose to collapse on itself and pinch off the flow of water through the hose.
And when that happens, you have to find it. You have to figure out what’s going on - why the water stopped - and fix it.
Usually for me, it was because we didn’t put the hose away properly, and now it is tangled up.
David - a very spiritual person, one who communicates with God often - is suddenly feeling the silence of God.
It feels to him, like the hose has been shut off.
Access has been restricted.
God, is quiet.
David isn’t used to God being quiet. David enjoys a relationship with God that is constant and connected, or at least that is the way that he expects it to be.
And in this moment, where God suddenly feels distant and silent, David feels anxious, weak, and afraid.
Adoniram Judson was a baptist missionary to Burma, who’s life was full of loss. He translated the Bible into Burmese, and it cost him two wives and a daughter. Upon the death of his wife and daughter - dug a grave for himself and sat by it, staring into it for days. Three years later he wrote:
“God is to me the Great Unknown. I believe in him, but I find him not”
This feeling - that God is distant, that he is disconnected, that we are alone and weak, is not something new for believers in God.
Our feelings are often dictated by our circumstances - and those circumstances are often viewed through our own lenses of trauma and pain. Just because some thing looks a certain way to you, doesn’t mean that it is that way in reality.
We will struggle to see what God is doing, what God might be saying, because there are things that get in the way of those things.
Sometimes, it is because God is silent.
Sometimes God is speaking and we can’t hear him.
And as we see here - sometimes - the things that get in the way is our own sinful behavior.
King David is in a lot of pain, because of his own actions. And God is teaching him something in that.
As parents we know there are times when we look at our children and say, if only to ourselves, I can’t comfort you through this yet, until you understand.
11 Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline;
12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.
7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?
8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness.
All of this happens before David begins writing. He has felt God’s discipline. He has felt God’s absence. He has been in great pain.
Sometimes we have to feel the weight of our own choices before we are willing to get to the place of repentance.
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking;
3 my whole being is shaken with terror. And you, Lord—how long?
Dealing with our sin.
Seeing our sin - one of the biggest catches to us dealing with the sin in our lives is when we refuse to recognise what it is.
Confessing to our God - knowing it in ourself isn’t enough. We have to deal with it. We have to be honest about it.
Acknowledges weakness - getting to a place with a contrite heart.
Coming Back - how do I get back to a place where I am in right relationship with the Lord?
This is the way that we come back. We work through it, just like David did here.
Our faith is tested.
And the very act of turning to God reveals hope to us and in us.
That is the nature of our relationship.
When it hurts - where do you go?
When you mess up, where do you go?
David made this Psalm personal, he called God by his covenant name YAHWEH. And he repeated it, multiple times in this prayer. Reminding himself - this is my God who cares.
This is my God who saves.
This is my God who promises.
This is my God who provides.
This is my God who loves.
This is my God who walks with me.
This is my God who goes before me.
And its not perfect. Its messy.
And in that he asks God - be gracious to me. Help me. Save me.
Do not rebuke me in your anger.. do not discipline me in your wrath.
Rebuke and discipline, andger and wrath. Weakness and shaking terror and silence.. if God doesn’t show up soon, it isn’t going to be pretty!
Ps 6:4-5
4 Turn, Lord! Rescue me; save me because of your faithful love.
5 For there is no remembrance of you in death; who can thank you in Sheol?
Help ME!
The real ask.
God if you let me die - well I won’t be able to praise you anymore!
Well, maybe not standing in this building, but our praise doesn’t end here.
8 In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
This prayer was messy. It was honest.
WE can be honest with our God.
6 I am weary from my groaning; with my tears I dampen my bed and drench my couch every night.
7 My eyes are swollen from grief; they grow old because of all my enemies.
David is on the verge of a total breakdown. He is, as we would say, losing it.
Tradition says there were seasons of Davids life that his pillows had to be changed 7 times a night because he was crying so much. His heart was broken, he was afraid.
Peter C. Craigie and Marvin E. Tate write, “For most sufferers, it [is] in the long watches of the night, when silence and loneliness increase and the warmth of human companionship is absent, that the pain and the grief [reach] their darkest point”
Exalting Jesus in Psalms 1–50 (Ask God to Hear Your Cries and See Your Tears (Psalm 6:6–7))
If we are honest, we all have had times when we were …
• too tired to get out of bed and get dressed,
• too worn out to get into the car and go to work,
• too exhausted to get the kids off to school,
• too weary to clean the house,
• too depressed to go to church,
• too burdened to read the Bible, or
• too sluggish even to pray. (Boice, Psalms 1–41, 54)
You may feel no one cares or no one hears your cries of despair and pain. Be encouraged. You are in good company. David has felt despair. Other great saints have too. Rest assured, God is with you. He hears your cries. He sees your tears. How do I know? The rest of Psalm 6 tells me so.
David finishes this Psalm with great confidence.
8 Depart from me, all evildoers, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea for help; the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be ashamed and shake with terror; they will turn back and suddenly be disgraced.
Three times David warns anyone listening - that God has heard him.
Four times he tells of whats going to happen to them.
they will be ashamed
they will shake with terror
they will turn back
they will suddenly be disgraced.
Just as certain as David is that his prayers have been heard, he is sure of the complete and sudden demolition of his enemies. Because that is who his God is.
This Psalm is traditionally known as the Tachanun Prayer - the prayer of Suplication. It was prayed daily by the Jewish people. A time of confession.
David didn’t say in this prayer - God I am sorry for the way that I treated my servant Benni last Tuesday - he said God, I was wrong.
Leaving it to us to adapt to ourselves.
Lord, Yahweh. I was wrong.
God of the covenant - God of our agreement - God of Salvation.
David had access to God, we have more access - as we are seen by God as his own children through Jesus.
And yet, as children, we are subject to discipline. Because he loves us.
Only the overwhelming grace of God can deliver us from the righteous wrath of God through the mercy of God because of the Love of God.
Ask God to be merciful, knowing that he is.
Ask God to deliver you, because of His faithful love
Ask God to hear your cries and see your tears.
Ask God to accept your prayers and handle your enemies.
And know that He is.
