O Lord, Deliver my Life (Psalm 6)

Announcements

This Saturday, we’re going to have a booth set-up right outside our front door during the Philipsburg Revitalization Corporation’s Halloween parade and harvest event. We’ll simply be passing out some candy, some popcorn, and hot apple cider, we do have some volunteers already, but we could use with a couple more people. If you’re interested in helping, please contact Natalie ASAP.

Not this coming Sunday, but the following Sunday on November 7th, we have a quarterly business meeting and an annual budget meeting right after the Sunday morning service. We have several things to vote on, so please plan on being there if you are a member, if you aren’t a member, but you’d like to see what all is going on in the church, you’re more than welcome to sit in during the meeting—all of our business meetings are open to the public.

Right after the business meeting on the 7th, we’re going to have a celebratory meal to celebrate our one-year mark as an official church—the church will provide the main dish for that meal, we still need some help with side-dishes, desserts, and drinks. If you’re able to help with any of those, please check the sign-up sheet by the entrance.

Let me remind you to worship the LORD through your giving, in order to help you give we have three ways for you to do so: (1) you can give in-person at the offering box at the entrance. If you write a check, please write it to “Grace & Peace” and if you give cash and you’d like a receipt, please slip it into an envelope with your name on it; if you’d prefer to give via debit, credit, or ACH transfer, you can do so by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and by following the text prompts or by (3) visiting online at graceandpeacepa.com and selecting giving in the menu bar. Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening, we’re finally back in the book of Psalms, which we started at the end of July, but took almost two months off so that I could utilize the time that I would normally spend preparing sermons on Wednesdays to get work done on this building—essentially, to help us move into this building sooner. Now that we’re back to meeting on Wednesdays, I do want to just give a brief introductory message to remind everyone of what all we’re doing in the book of Psalms. Much like our Sunday mornings series through the Gospel according to John, we’re working our way verse-by-verse, thought-by-thought through the book of Psalms. There’s a little bit of a difference however, because unlike the book of John, the book of Psalms isn’t one cohesive, chronological historical account.

The book of Psalms isn’t a narrative, which means that each psalm is typically a stand-alone unit that was written at different time periods. Each one of these psalms are a poem written by their own author, in their own life situations, with their own stylistic approach—some were written during particularly great times of the author’s life, some (like today’s) was written during a time of distress in the author’s life; which were then compiled by Ezra for the Israelites to be able to utilize them for worship. I’m saying all this just to remind you of some details before we jump into Scripture this evening. The psalms were written to be utilized by the Jewish people in a way that’s very similar to our modern-day hymnals, which means that each psalm is a poem that they would sing to music as they worshiped the LORD.

The book of Psalms includes some of the most familiar texts for Christians today and part of the reason for the familiarity is quite simple, the Psalms are highly relatable. We relate to the psalms filled with sorrow and distress just as much as we relate to the psalms filled with praise, adoration, and worship of the LORD. The Psalms speak of times of struggle concerning illness, pain, death, and suffering and they point the reader straight back to God each and every single time. Of course, because of the familiarity that many Christians have with the Psalms, it can be easy to read and read the psalms and completely miss the point. So, a big part of this series has been simply learning to read the psalms as they were meant to be understood, with the point of utilizing them for our own worship of the LORD.

If you have your Bible with you this evening, please turn it to Psalm 6. Psalm 6 is a short psalm written by David. The superscription to the Psalm tells us that it was written “to the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to the sheminith. A psalm of David.” There’s very little I can actually say about the superscription, simply because it doesn’t give us much details. The psalm is a psalm of David, but it doesn’t tell us when exactly he wrote the psalm. Occasionally, through the details in a psalm, we can attempt to pinpoint a date during David’s life as to when it happened, but this is not the case of Psalm 6, we simply do not know. What we do know is that David wrote this and he sent it to the choirmaster to be sung with stringed instruments (and let me just point out, that these were not violins and cellos, these were more likely lyres, which were like harps or lutes, which were like guitars). And we know that it was to be sung according to the sheminith, but we actually don’t know what the sheminith was—it is a term that has been lost in history. Most scholars believe that it is some sort of unknown musical term, probably concerning the meter or the melody of the song, but again, that’s just an educated guess, because we don’t know what the word means.

This is the first psalm in our series that fits the category of penitential psalms, which simply means that in this psalm, David acknowledges or confesses his sin before the LORD and he recognizes the need for God’s forgiveness. Or in other words, this is an excellent psalm for someone who is being convicted of their sins because it shows us what it’s like to experience punishment for sin, what it’s like to struggle with conviction, and what the proper response to these issues are. Read with me Psalm 6:1-10.

Psalm 6:title–10 ESV

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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at it in two sections Vs. 1-7, which is the longer section, is a series of prayers and a lament from David, which express his frustration, his struggle, and his agony in a time of great distress. This should be very relatable, because often in times of great distress, we feel the same way. As we work our way through these verses, we’ll explore a bit of how these ideas and feelings affect us; the second section Vs. 8-10, which is much shorter is David expressing assurance of God hearing his cry and accepting his prayer. It’s a section of David expressing the simple truth that God will restore him, which is something we can all be confident in if we are truly believers in Jesus Christ. This evening’s message will show us that it is perfectly acceptable to have emotions—you can feel distress, you can express weakness; it is acceptable to sob and experience grief. Even when those emotions are due to your own sinful behavior. And it will show us precisely what to do when we experience those sorts of emotions, when we are grieved, when we sob, when we are weak and distressed, we ought to cry out to the LORD, we ought to depend on the LORD, and we ought to have confidence in the LORD.

Prayer for Illumination

David’s Prayer for Relief and Deliverance from suffering (1-7)

Psalm 6 starts with David making a statement concerning God’s anger and wrath. Vs. 1 says, “O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.”

And in this first statement, we get a strong impression that the reason for whatever suffering David is going through is a result of rebuking and disciplining from the LORD, which brings up and excellent question. Does God punish his people?

There are some today who would argue that since Jesus has taken all our sins—past, present, and future to the cross and those sins have been taken care of in our justification, that God no longer punishes sin.

And that argument is true in one sense alone—it is true to say that a believer will no longer face eternal punishment for his sin, meaning that you, if you believe, will not experience hell due to your sin. However it isn’t completely accurate to state that God doesn’t punish sin on this side of eternity when it comes to believers and even just a cursory look throughout the Bible shows us this.

We could look at Proverbs 3:11-12, in which Solomon tells his son to “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.”

The author of Hebrews quotes this Proverb and continues in Hebrews 12:7-8, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

The authors of Proverbs and Hebrews tells us that God disciplines his children and that if you don’t experience God’s discipline, you aren’t actually his child.

James 1:2-4 tells us to expect hardship in life because “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And . . . steadfastness [when it has] its full effect” will make you “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Part of those hardships include being disciplined by the LORD for your sins.

But let me also say that not all consequences of sin are the discipline of the LORD. Just because you’re facing some sort of tremendous difficulty, doesn’t necessarily mean that the LORD is disciplining you. We lived in a sin-cursed world, which means that on occasion, life is simply terrible, but what James 1:2-4 tells us is that even when life is terrible, God will still utilize those hardships to make you perfect and complete if you endure in faith.

So yes, hardships in life can be God’s discipline because God does discipline his own people when they sin, but that isn’t always the case (consider Job). Regardless of the reasoning for the suffering, God is still sovereign and he’s utilizing it to help you mature spiritually.

David prays to the LORD and he asks the LORD not to rebuke him in his anger nor discipline him in his wrath, but rather Vs. 2, “Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.”

It’s clear that David is experiencing some sort of distress, but we’re not exactly told what that distress is, it seems to be some sort of physical ailment (as seen in the phrase, “heal me, for my bones are troubled.”)

This could be tremendous illness or it could be some other affliction, but whatever this affliction is, it brought to his mind the remembrance of his sin; and he took the suffering that he was experiencing as part of God’s displeasure against him.

Or in other words, this hardship in life is causing him to reflect on his sins, which is a proper response to hardships in life. Often, our tendency during hardship is to sulk or get bitter and than blame other people and God (or really blame everyone except for ourselves), when we really should utilize each hardship in our life to cause us to reflect to be sure that we aren’t in any sin that is causing us to experience consequences.

David is doing this in Vs. 1-3, “O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” The LORD wouldn’t rebuke nor discipline David unless he was in sin. Just like the LORD wouldn’t rebuke or discipline you unless you were in sin—very rare are the times when we, like Job are experiencing calamity simply due to the consequences of other people’s sins—it’s mostly due to our own sins.

David reflects on his own spiritual condition, and he cries out for the mercy of God.

In the midst of tremendous suffering, David expresses his emotional state and he cries out to God and this crying out to God is in a real, emotional, and authentic way. He doesn’t try to make his prayer eloquent or pompous, he simply says how he feels and he asks for God’s mercy.

We can see David’s authenticity and lack of eloquence in Vs. 3, “My soul is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?”

And that authenticity and lack of eloquence is really in the incomplete nature of what he says here. “My soul is greatly troubled. But You, O LORD—how long?” Allen Ross suggests that this shows a level of intense frustration and a longing for God’s healing, which I think is completely relatable to anyone who has experienced great distress in life.

Considering that this is an expression of intense frustration with the suffering that he’s experiencing, the almost disjointed nature of the verse makes sense. He starts off by saying “But you, O LORD” as if he’s about to express another statement and pauses that statement by simply crying out “How long?”

You can almost finish that question, “how long will I suffer?” It’s a physical ailment so, “how long will I ache?” “How long will this last?”

Which is actually a question that is expressed through several different psalms:

Psalm 13:1-2, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heard . . . How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”

Psalm 79 and 80 both express that same question in concern with God’s anger towards sin, “How long will you be angry with your people?”

Psalm 94, “How long will the wicked exalt?” How long will the wicked seem to prosper?

It’s an expression of suffering, but it’s also an expression of longing for something better; and we see what that better thing is in Vs. 4-5.

Vs. 4, continues “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance oF you; in Sheol who will give you praise?”

The better thing that David is longing For is simply deliverance.

“Turn, O LORD, deliver my liFe,” He’s asking the LORD to relent From rebuking him and disciplining him. The idea of deliverance is to be rescued. He’s asking the LORD to rescue him from his inFirmity.

And he’s basing the rescue or this deliverance on the character of the LORD. David gives two reasons why the LORD should rescue him, and we need to spend some time looking at those two reasons, but to make clear what they are, let me tell you what they are before we dig into them:

David prays for this deliverance based on God’s character, in particular, on these two attributes of God’s character:

God’s steadfast love (KJV mercy)

And because of God’s praise-worthiness.

We see God’s steadfast love in vs. 4 as a reason For deliverance, “Save me For the sake of your steadFast love.”

What’s translated as steadFast love is the Hebrew word hesed. Often that word is translated as mercy, steadFast love, and Faithful or unFailing love, but I don’t think any of those translations Fully encompasses all that hesed is

Hesed certainly encompasses the ideas of mercy, steadfast, faithful, and unfailing love, but that isn’t all that hesed is.

Hesed is all of those ideas based on one aspect of God’s character—it is his mercy, steadFast, Faithful, and unFailing love, but it’s based on one part of God’s character in particular.

It’s based on the fact that God keeps his covenants and his word. You can think of this word as God’s covenant-keeping, loyal love.

David is appealing to God’s covenant-keeping, loyal love for the First reason for his deliverance.

In vs. 5, we see the second reason, “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?”

The first reason David appeals to for deliverance is God’s covenant-keeping, loyal love.

The second reason David appeals to for deliverance is God’s praise worthiness and the worship due to his name.

David essentially says that if he dies, he won’t be able to praise and worship the LORD on this side of eternity. Sheol is the idea of the grave.

Think of sheol as a dark wasteland or a vast cavern, which is how its described in Ezekiel and Job.

David cries out for God’s deliverance, for rescue, for help; and he bases his cry for that deliverance off of God’s own character.

Because God is merciful; because of God’s steadfast, faithful, and unfailing love; because of God’s covenant-keeping, loyal love; David prays for deliverance.

Which is something to keep in mind because David ends this psalm with confidence in God’s ability to restore him, but we’ll get to that in a few minutes.

This section ends with David expressing the extent of his suffering. Vs. 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.”

David is expressing the extent of his suffering with some hyperbolic language, he’s being a little bit dramatic in what he says in order to express the severity of his struggle.

“I am weary with my groaning; every night I food my bed with tears;”

“I drench my couch with my weeping”

“My eye wastes away because of grief”

The way that David describes his suffering, it seems as if he’s cried enough to flood his home and he should be sitting in a pool of his tears. The way that David describes this is that he’s cried so much that his eyes have essentially fallen apart due to his crying.

Regardless of the highly exaggerated nature of what David has said, the point remains, that he is suffering tremendously and he desires to be relieved of his suffering through deliverance by the LORD.

In expressing the extent of his suffering, he provides a second reason for his suffering. Vs. 1-3, shows us that the first reason that he was suffering was due to his illness due to the discipline of the LORD.

Vs. 7, shows us that another reason for his suffering was due to his enemies.

Because we don’t know when exactly this is in David’s life, it’s a bit difficult for us to determine which enemies David might be referring to or what sickness he might be referring to

But we know from the historical date throughout the Old Testament concerning David, that as King of Israel, David had many enemies who wanted to see him fail and in some cases to see him die.

Allen Ross, “Throughout the night [David] suffered in agony. His health was wasting away and he was in sorrow, apparently because of his enemies. If God did not deliver him, he would die; then people would know that his foes were God’s chastening rod.”

Or in other words, what Ross is suggesting is that if David were to die or go to Sheol, his enemies would recognize that God was disciplining him for his sin.

All of what David has said in Psalm 6, thus far is relatable to anyone who has struggled and suffered and faced great hardship, which let’s be honest, we’ve all faced tremendous struggle, suffering, and hardship. And David has actually shown us the proper response to great suffering in that he cries out to God for mercy based on God’s character, but David isn’t done yet. He still has three verses in this psalm and in these last three verses David shows complete and utter confidence in the LORD. Read with me Vs. 8-10.

David’s Confidence in God’s Restoration (8-10)

Psalm 6:8–10 ESV

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.

In the final few verses of Psalm 6, David does two things: he calls out his enemies and he shows his confidence in the LORD.

Vs. 8 and 10, both call out his enemies, “Depart from me, all you workers of evil. . . All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.”

David tells his enemies to depart from him, to essentially “go away” and he calls them workers of evil. David says that they will be ashamed and put to shame.

There is a huge shift or change here in his mindset and his attitude. In Vs. 1-7, he expresses great suffering, but in Vs. 8-10, he’s sure that his enemies are going to fail; he’s so certain that he tells them to depart from him.

There is a reason for that big shift and there’s a reason for him to confidently tell his enemies to leave and that reason is quite simple. It’s found in Vs. 8-9.

Vs. 8-9, show David’s confidence in the LORD, “For the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.”

David is sure that the LORD had heard him and the LORD accepts his prayer.

David expresses faith in the LORD that extends beyond just saying that he believes, this faith in the LORD is a faith and confidence that the LORD will truly deliver him.

David ends his psalm of penitence and lament by acting as if God has already heard his plea, has already listened to his complain, and has responded accordingly.

Matthew Henry, “What a sudden change is here! Having made his request known to God, the psalmist is confident that his sorrow will be turned into joy. By the workings of God’s grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was accepted, and did not doubt but it would, in due time, be answered.”

David ends this psalm by resting in the LORD and by realizing God has heard his plea and will act favorably towards him.

It’s very much like the same confidence that Paul writes of when he speaks of his confidence in the gospel, in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.”

There can be absolute confidence in the LORD because of who God is and that’s clear in how David writes this psalm.

In our remaining few minutes, let’s take some time to look at specific application. Because of the way that this psalm is written, I want us to look at the full psalm at once to gain the application of the passage. So let me give you just a brief synopsis before looking at three specific applications for the text:

Application

What we see in Psalm 6 is a psalm of penitence by David, which expresses great sorrow and suffering during illness in the life of David. It’s clear that as David suffers, he realizes that part of the reason for his suffering is simply due to the consequence of his sin, that God is disciplining him for his sins. We spoke a bit about whether God truly disciplines his people, and we came to a realization that Scripturally God disciplines his people to make them more like Jesus Christ. So, David is suffering through something that seems like discipline for his sin and he cries out to the LORD in a way that expresses this great suffering in an authentic way—David is filled with sorrow, trouble, and suffering to the point that he simply cries out “how long?” We then see David appeal to God for deliverance or rescue from that suffering and as David appeals to the LORD for deliverance, he specifically appeals to God’s steadfast love and worthiness of praise. The psalm then ends with David expressing utter confidence that the LORD has heard him; that the LORD accepts his prayer; and that God will act in David’s favor. This psalm teaches us three things in particular, I’m going to list them and then I’ll explain how to apply them one-by-one: Psalm 6 teaches us that life can be difficult, it shows us how to respond during life’s difficulties, and it encourage us to have confidence in the LORD based on his own character:

Psalm 6 teaches us that life can be difficult:

Some of you hearing that are thinking “that’s the biggest understatement in the world,” but we do need to start with this point. That Psalm 6 teaches us that life can be difficult. The whole premise of David’s psalm is that he is suffering with some sort of illness as discipline for his sin.

In the same way, illness can be rather difficult for us today—we’ve seen the devastation of COVID-19, both due to those who have suffered and in some cases have died from COVID, but also in the way that it’s been handled.

But illness isn’t the only part of life that’s difficult—for instance, even if you absolutely love your job, there are some days that are harder than others. For most people, there’s a hard day at least once a week.

Some people go home to a part of their life that’s difficult—whether that’s due to someone else’s unbelief or simply their sinful behavior.

Many students find the difficult part of their life at school.

Life in general can be fairly difficult, but when you add more stress to it, it can become downright unbearable.

Someone close to you passes away, you fail a class, you get demoted at work (or you lose your job altogether)

Your unbelieving spouse leaves you or your parents get divorced

Your car breaks down again, you get sick again, or you simply run out of money before you can buy groceries.

All of that can be devastating and what Psalm 6 teaches us is that difficulties in life are simply a part of life, which may not be what you want to hear, but it is a necessary thing to understand.

There is a false idea that Christians should always be happy and that false idea stems from a misbelief that you won’t face difficulties in life if you are a believer, but that’s simply not true—remember James 1, which teaches you to count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds. It’s when you meet trials, not if you meet trials. Difficulties in life are to be expected.

And that’s seen in Psalm 6 as David who was known as a man after God’s own heart, faced illness, discipline, rebuking, and suffering.

Our first application then is this: during this life expect trials and tribulation—Jesus himself said “In the world you will have [trials] and tribulation,” we should expect trials and tribulation, what makes us think that our life today should be any different? Life is filled with great difficulty, so expect great difficulty in life. Our second and our third application builds on that fact:

Psalm 6 teaches us that life can be difficult, but it also shows us how to respond during life’s difficulties:

Psalm 6 is David’s response to the difficulties that he’s facing and by writing his response down, David essentially teaches us how to respond when life is difficult:

Vs. 1-3, when life is difficult, check your heart

David has already done this by the time he writes this psalm, it’s evident because his first two statements are, “O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.”

David has already checked his heart, that’s why he starts by expressing his realization that he is being disciplined and he shows of his repentance by asking God to heal him, and to deliver him.

Vs. 4-5, when life is difficult, cry out to the LORD to rescue you

We tend to turn to pretty much anything other than God when we face trials of various kinds—we turn to friends, family, co-workers; some turn to substances, others turn to inappropriate relationships, and others subtly practice idol worship.

We turn to pretty much anything other than God, but we really should run to God during times of great distress

When life is hard, we shouldn’t look elsewhere for help and comfort, we should run to Jesus and cry out to God.

Stop seeking help and comfort in creation and start seeking help and comfort in the Creator.

Vs. 6-7, when life is difficult, tell the LORD what you think and how you feel

Of course, you need to do this in a respectful and reverent way. God is still God and you are still his creation, so you can’t talk to God in a way that is disrespectful and irreverent

But God wants you to be honest and God wants you to be authentic; he wants you to be willing to express when you’re upset or when you’re angry

Do you know how I know? Because David did not just in Psalm 6, but in multiple other psalms and God allows those psalm in which David expressed his frustration to remain in the Word of God.

It is alright to express your frustration if it causes you to respond how David did, by checking his heart, by crying out to God, by telling God how you feel, and by remaining confident in the LORD.

Vs. 8-10, when life is difficult, be confident in the LORD.

Which I’m going to talk about at the end of the sermon instead of at this moment.

Responding to hardship in life like this, is completely contrary to how most people respond when life is difficult:

When most people face hardship in life, they default to complaining, to acting poorly, to blaming others, and even blaming God.

When in reality, what they ought to do when they’re faced with great difficulty in life is simple:

They should check to their heart and repent of any sins that they might be facing discipline for

They should cry out to the LORD for rescue

They should tell God how they think and how they feel (reverently of course)

And they should have confidence in the LORD.

When you face hardship in life, how do you respond? Do you default to complaining, acting poorly, blaming others and even blaming God? Or do you check your heart, repent, cry out to the LORD, tell God how you feel, and have confidence in him?

Psalm 6 teaches us how to respond in hardship, let me encourage you to memorize this response so that you can practice this response the next time life is hard, which let’s be honest, might be tomorrow:

Remember to check your heart and repent, cry out to the LORD for rescue, tell God how you feel and how you think, and be confident that God will utilize this hardship in your life.

And our last application for this text builds on top of this. You can have confidence in the LORD not because of you and not because of who you are, but because of him and because of who he is.

Psalm 6 encourages us to have confidence in the LORD based on his own character:

David expresses great confidence in the LORD in two ways:

First, when he cries out to God, he does so on the basis of God’s covenant-loyal love. David would only do that if he was confident that God truly kept his word.

Second, when David expresses that “The LORD has heard [his] plea; the LORD accepts [his] prayer.”

This great confidence that David has in the LORD is based on the LORD’s character, not on himself.

God is a covenant-keeping God who is described as love in the New Testament. Paul writes that all things work for good to them that love God, with the express point that what God considers good for you is for you to be more like Jesus Christ.

Because of who God is—the God who loves you, who wants you to be more like Jesus, who keeps his covenants, and acts in steadfast, covenant-loyal faithful love, you can have complete confidence in him.

So, when life is difficult, when you’re facing great hardships, you can be confident that Jesus has your best interest at heart

You can rest assured that whatever you’re going through, God will utilize it to make you more like Jesus Christ.

And you can know that in the end, you will be made complete through Jesus Christ.

Put simply, what we learn from Psalm 6 is this: (1) life is filled with difficulty, so don’t be surprised when life is hard; (2) when life is difficult, you need to respond by checking your heart and repenting if necessary, cry out to the LORD for rescue, reverently tell God how you feel and what you think; and lastly (3), you serve a good and loving God, so be confident in the LORD because of who he is.

Life is hard, run to Jesus when it is, and be confident in the LORD because of who he is.

Prayer Requests

Caleb Miller - Medical Issues

Alan Wisor - Medical Issues

The Dunlop Family - missionaries to France sent out a quick update a few days ago, they’re asking specifically for prayer in the following areas:

Safety as they travel during deputation

Continued direction for planning

Additional financial partners

And grace as Michael continues his education

Pray for the remaining renovation work—that we can finish up the building as quickly as possible, without anymore surprises.

We’re still a little short on funding, so please pray that the remaining funds come in ASAP

We do have one immediate funding need to pray for—we currently have most of the chairs for the Activity Room, but none of the tables. So, for our meal on November 7th, it’s going to be a little awkward because of the lack of tables. I priced the tables this morning, we’re looking at about $500. For us to have them by the 7th, I need to order them today or tomorrow, so just pray that God supplies our need.