Lord Have Mercy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
What do you do when you know you’ve blown it with the Lord?
How do you respond to the crushing weight of guilt and shame from your sin?
Tonight, we are going to take a look at David’s response to sin.
David was a man after God’s own heart, but he would have been the first to tell you that he was not a perfect man. He was a sinner who needed the mercy of God.
So are you and I.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
6 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
Pray
1. A Plea for God’s Mercy and Grace (vv.1-3)
1. A Plea for God’s Mercy and Grace (vv.1-3)
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?
We don’t know when this was written, but once again we can lump this Psalm with the others before it and see the theme of David’s guilt over His sin.
He comes before the Lord with a godly sorrow
5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Application
You and I must get real with God
We must acknowledge our sin for what it is
We must confess it to the Lord in genuine repentance and not cheap grace
2. A Request for God’s Deliverance (vv.4-5)
2. A Request for God’s Deliverance (vv.4-5)
4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
David prays that God would give him the chance to be freed from God’s anger and rejoice again in His fellowship
David also prayed this in Psalm 51:8–12
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
If David dies, then he will no longer be able to sing the praises of God in the land of the living
Matthew Henry says,
Courtiers in the royal presence are most happy, but soldiers in the field are more useful; and therefore we may, with good reason, pray that if it be the will of God, and he has any further work for us or our friends to do in this world, he will yet spare us, or them, to serve him.
3. A Reflection of Godly Sorrow (vv.6-7)
3. A Reflection of Godly Sorrow (vv.6-7)
6 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
David didn’t care about anything else going on around Him, because he was consumed with his guilt
The request is not based Paul rejoiced that grief led to repentance
9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
4. An Assurance of Answered Prayer (vv. 8-10)
4. An Assurance of Answered Prayer (vv. 8-10)
8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
David knew God’s mercy
Spurgeon says,
The Treasury of David, Volume 1: Psalms 1–26 Psalm 6
The Psalmist has changed his note. He leaves the minor key, and betakes himself to sublime strains. He tunes his note to the high key of confidence, and declares that God hath heard his prayer, and hath delivered him out of all his troubles.
We have the same assurance
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Application
How does it make you feel to know that your prayers have been heard and despite your unworthiness, you are able to be forgiven?
Our greatest enemy is not people, but the wages of sin. Christ has paid the fine and we can go free.
We are like a convict who has been sitting on death row and has received the pardon for his crimes. The gates of the prison swing open and we walk out into the world a free man.
Conclusion
Tying it all into Christ.
Remember that the Bible says that Christ was wounded for our transgressions, and He was crushed for our sins...
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Jesus had done no wrong, yet he bore the full weight of the wrath of God for our sins upon Him.
He could not pray, “Lord, rebuke me not in your anger.” He had to bear the full weight of God’s anger towards our wickedness.
God did not deliver His life from the hands of the evil men who sought to slay Him, but handed Him over to be crucified for our sins.
But, because no guilt was found in Him, God raised Him up triumphantly and gloriously from the grave.
When we consider the weeping over sin that David felt, we must also see the weeping over sin that Christ endured in the Garden the night He was arrested.
This Sunday, we will consider more of what Jesus went through, but for tonight, simply rejoice that God has delivered you from your guilt, your shame, your punishment.
Rejoice that God did have mercy on all of His elect and sing His praises in the congregation of the righteous.
