Psalm 6

Pre-Intro

Thank you, Tracy

We are so grateful for you and your family. Thank you for blessing us with the reading of God’s Word.

For everyone here, just want to welcome you.

As many of you know, last week was Jimmy’s last Sunday here until August

We wanted to send him off

So he and his family can experience a season of rest and rejuvenation after a tough couple of years.

I believe I speak for all of us that we were excited to send him off

Not because we don’t want him here, but because we’re excited to see what the Lord will do in this time for the Thoma’s.

Jimmy mentioned last week before he left to keep coming to church.

A different way of saying the exact same thing is just because Jimmy is on sabbatical doesn’t mean we are.

God still has many good works for us to walk in this summer.

People to evangelize to. Neighbors, family, co-workers, etc.

Please don’t check out for the summer, not only in participation on Sundays but also in the mission of the church.

Love God, love people, make disciples

For us, the mission stays the same

Circumstances don’t determine our mission, but the Word of God does

So please, let’s help each other not put our guards down this summer and continue to pursue the Lord and what He has for us.

Intro

If you were around last summer, we started a series called “Summer in the Psalms”

We are excited to bring it back this summer

One of the reasons we like to preach from the Psalms is it helps us to preach the Old and New Testament

We’ve been in Acts for over a year so we want to be balanced in our preaching

But secondly, we also feel that the Psalms are such a refreshing place for us to be as a congregation.

The book of Psalms is the place where the human emotions meet the truth of who God is.

It’s a place where they not only meet, but they co-exist together.

This collection of 150 Psalms is grouped into 5 books, and is mostly made up of poems or journal entries.

It shows both the joy and sorrow in our Christian life and the wrestling that takes place in the midst of it.

They coach us on prayer in the midst of every situation

This is why we thought it would be important for us as a congregation to have God lead us through the book of Psalms.

So that we could grow in our intimacy with God, no matter where we are in life.

Today we are starting with Psalm 6.

In the 150 Psalms, there are around 7 different categories people put them into

There is some debate on how many there should actually be. People say at least 5.

Royal psalms, thanksgiving psalms, wisdom psalms, hymns, trust, praise, and lament

Psalm 6 is a lament Psalm.

Lament, again?

Actually, about 1/3 of the Psalms are psalms of lament

Last summer we preached often on this idea of lamenting.

It can be kind of a lost practice in the Christian walk and the Psalms are a great place to study how to lament.

While we were working through a few of those, we were reading through the book, “Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy”

Which is a book on lament

So I thought it would be good for us to kick off this series to revisit this idea of lament.

This book defines lament so simply

“Lament is a prayer in pain, that leads to trust.”

Matt Chandler- They want to prepare their congregation most for suffering

We are not exempt from suffering, so we need to learn how to lament in our hardships, our sin, and our suffering.

So today we are going to look at a Psalm that is written by David

The question is what is David lamenting and how can we learn from him?

Before we dig in, let’s pray.

Message

Psalm 6:1 “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.”

We don’t necessarily know the context or the occasion that which this Psalm is being written.

A lot of times in the Psalms, we’re able to see what was going on in the author’s life, but we don’t know that here.

But we can see that David felt that he was under some sort of rebuke or discipline.

It is a personal lament- just between him and the Lord.

We see two words that describe how David is feeling God is acting or going to act toward David

Rebuke

Discipline

So what we see is that David is lamenting because he feels that he is experiencing hardship.

There is some debate about what has caused this hardship

Some people might take the view that it was because of a personal sin, but we don’t necessarily see him repent like we do in other Psalms.

And that’s why other people believe that David is lamenting an extreme hardship in his life.

Charles Spurgeon says this

“God has two ways in which He humbles His children to obedience; His Word in which He rebukes them; or His rod in which He disciplines them.”

So this is what we see with David.

Rebuke and discipline is to bring correction to David’s life.

And this isn’t necessarily Charles Spurgeon’s idea. If we look at 2 Timothy it says,

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

Rebuke is not always anger but it is simply a correction.

David is specifically asking for it not to be done in anger, but in gentleness.

Please don’t yell at me, please just teach me.

There are three ways we can be rebuked by God’s Word.

Through preaching

Through reading

Through others

We see that David is being rebuked, but at the same time, he is being disciplined.

And discipline is growing you in your sanctification (becoming more like Christ) through experience.

Discipline is done with the rod of God

The experiences we have in life

There is something that God is trying to teach David through this rebuke and discipline.

What is the biblical understanding of the discipline?

Turn with me to Hebrews 12:5-11

“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 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. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

So here’s a couple of things we can pull from this passage pretty quickly.

Addressed as sons

Discipline is a sign you have legitimately been adopted

Earthly fathers vs. Heavenly Father

Discipline is always good when gone rightly

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

This is one of the things I am learning right now as a Father,

Because my heavenly father has been disciplined me out of his loving-kindness, I now have the opportunity to do the same for Benson

Do I always succeed at this? No

Discipline is not always punishment like spanking, but it can be educational, to help them grow.

Benson sleeping in his room.

Discipline is not out of God’s displeasure with you, but rather His love for you.

God’s discipline is to protect us, lead us to life, and to show us the love He has for us.

It is to help us to grow in our dependence of Him

You maybe will say that’s only in the New Testament, but Psalm 94:12 says

“Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law,”

Whenever God disciplined Israel in the Old Testament, it was always for the betterment of Israel, even if it was extremely painful.

To show that He is God and that is where life resides

So David is not asking for the discipline to be taken away from him, but for it to not be done in God’s wrath.

It’s the way he feels it’s being done.

Please not in your anger and wrath.

We even see this in Ephesians that Paul tells fathers to discipline their children, not in anger.

This is even a good parenting thing here.

Sometimes we want to discipline our children out of a place of anger

You want to meet their big emotions with your big emotions.

This is his plea: “please be gentle in your discipline.”

Because I know that it is for my good and your glory.

Verses 2-3 might give us more insight on why David feels this way.

Psalm 6:2-3 “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?”

The word “languishing” at the end of verse 2 has some debate around what it means.

Translated it means, “weak” or “sick”

So we can inference from that David is either physically sick

OR he feels sick because this discipline is so hard to endure.

Certain situations are so hard you feel you don’t have any strength physically

Maybe a family member gets a diagnosis that just makes you feel so weak or so sick.

I don’t think it necessarily matters which one it is because the idea is the same.

David is in great distress physically and we see in verses 2 and 3 that it’s also internal (heart and spirit)

Down to his bones.

He says, “My soul is greatly troubled”

Down to his very core, whatever he was going through was shaking him into a deep distress

And he asks to be relieved of it, please restore to me what I once had

Have any of you guys ever been there, where you have deep pain or sorrow because of something you are experiencing?

Maybe it was a death of a loved one where you are so distraught that every part of you hurts

Cayce, my whole family was just distraught over that.

Emotionally, spiritually, physically

Where you can do nothing but groan because you are so exhausted all the way down to your core.

Maybe it was somebody else’s sin (spouse, ex-spouse, parent, child) against you that put you in a place like this.

It put you in this place of feeling so desperate and so hurt.

You feel physically sick or so tired that you have no energy at all

Where it hurts so bad that everything in you wants to scream, cry, yell, or sit there in silence all at the same time.

All of these emotions happening inside of us, humbles us down to our core.

Some early churches would sing Psalm 6 on Ash Wednesdays to be humbled.

Even when we think of the cross and the death of the cross, we can start to feel this sickening weakness.

There are so many scenarios where we may feel this way

That’s why David is asking God, please don’t do this in your anger or wrath, be gentle to me.

Don’t you remember I am your child?

End of verse 3: How long will this be?

Do you ever feel that way?

How long O Lord?

How long will I suffer?

David cries out for help.

Psalm 6:4 “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.”

“Turn” meaning, “God, look at your servant, do not abandon me.”

Almost as if David feels that God is far off.

Haven’t we all felt this way?

Distant from God

Remember the Psalms are the meeting place of what we, as humans, feel and the truth of reality.

So this feeling that David is feeling, that God is distant, is real, but it’s not necessarily true that it is.

Turn and deliver me,

Save me

He is asking God to deliver him in this trial

What’s going to be the mechanism that saves David?

The unfailing love of God

Here we almost have a mini-lament inside of a lament

You feel far off and distant but the truth is your unfailing love tells me the opposite, that God is near.

We see these emotions and the knowledge of the truth kind of battling within him.

Psalm 6:5 “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?”

Among the dead, no one proclaims your name

Who praises you from the grave?

This is not David giving us a theological framework of what happens when we die.

Because we know there will be much praising after we die if we are in Christ, but this is just how David is feeling.

So what is David saying?

He is asking for deliverance from either a sickness or situation that is so bad he feels as if he just might die (either physically or metaphorically).

He is saying if you don’t deliver me, O, Lod, I will not be able to praise you because I will be overcome with grief and pain.

If I am dead, I will no longer be able to publically worship and proclaim your name.

This pain is so bad for David he feels he will experience some sort of death

This leads us to verses 6 and 7.

He continues to explain how he is feeling from this rebuke and discipline.

Psalm 6:6-7 “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.”

Now for seven verses, we have watched David describe this pain and agony he is in and the intensity of it.

Verse 6 brings up this idea of groaning where there are no words to say how his soul is feeling.

He has nothing to say that will make this better

We see this same idea in Romans 8

Romans 8:19-27 “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Here we get to see Paul expand on this idea of groaning

He says that all of creation is groaning

Why is creation groaning?

Because it has been subjected to sin, death, and decay

The world/universe are now broken and dysfunctional

A world that was once perfect with no sin, with no death, with no hardships

is now subjected to all of those things

So all of creation is groaning and awaiting the day of restoration

Where things will be perfect again

Verse 23: Not only is creation groaning, but we as believers are also groaning because we see how imperfect things are.

We long for things to be restored to perfection again

Because that is the promise we hold onto; that God will restore all things

That is what David is groaning for

For things in his situation to be restored

There are times in our lives, just like David, when our pain will be so intense that we will not know what to say.

And not only will we be silent, but the only thing we will be able to do is weep.

David’s bed and couch are drenched in tears

His eyes hurt so bad because he is crying so much.

Many of us have been here, where we have nothing to do but pray.

Quote from Spurgeon

When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but his love.

Isn’t that beautiful?

God cares for us in our pain and our trials more than we could ever imagine.

David has been crying, “How long?” but we see that God is still with Him.

In the first 7 verses have been where we see David’s emotions, this deep sorrow. Now we move toward the truth of God.

We start to see the bridge where his emotions and the truth of God meet.

In verse 7, we see David use the word “foe”

This pain seems to be a pain that is not self-inflicted, but a pain that is caused by something outside of him.

Psalm 6:8-10 “Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.”

In this section, we get to see multiple promises David holds onto in the midst of his suffering

It is all through faith that David is delivered

Faith in what?

In who God is.

The first one is that “God has heard his weeping”

Romans 8, the Spirit searches within us for our groaning, even when we don’t know what to say.

The Spirit intercedes and brings what we can’t say to God.

Our prayers are not reliant on us to be heard.

He hears our weeping and crying.

We don’t have to have the right formula in our prayers

Even when we are so weak, we can do nothing but cry, and God hears our weeping.

This gives us confidence like David

Do you hear how his confidence has changed?

It went from agony to trust

Away my enemies

He is confident in the power, strength, love, and character of God.

David warns his enemies that God has heard his weeping, like a mother has heard her child crying and is coming.

Psalm 6:9: The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.

God has heard his prayer

What is his plea?

How long? Will you deliver me from this trial? Will you have mercy on me?

God is not distant, but He is with us.

Emmanuel- God with us.

We aren’t sure how long David endured this trial, but he knew that he would eventually be delievered.

Even if he had to wait until death, we know that the Lord restores.

Sometimes God relieves us in this life, and other times we have to wait.

But the promise is that God will deliver you if you have faith in Christ.

Psalm 6:10 “All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.”

His enemies will not win, they will be put to shame.

David is claiming the power of God

God is more powerful than the trial David is going through

God is in every single detail of this trial.

What is cool about this Psalm is that it points us straight to the cross.

Because we see that Jesus fulfilled the Psalm.

Because of Christ, we have an eternal and present mercy.

He is the perfect High Priest

Jesus, being God, became a man and endured the agony of this life.

He experienced the death of friends, suffering, hunger, all of the hard things that we did, and yet He was faithful.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Spurgeon Quote: “A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears.”

Not only does he sympathize with us, but just like the second promise David held onto, we now have intercession, meaning we can go to God in prayer, not through rituals and sacrifices, but through Christ.

Our prayers can always be heard, because the ultimate sacrifice has been made.

Not only can we go to Him in prayer, but God, being a merciful King, hears and knows our situations perfectly and cares about them more than we ever could.

He is more powerful than any of the trials that we face because He defeated the ultimate trial.

Satan, sin, and death.

Because He defeated these, we know that He is most powerful because there is no enemy that reigns above Him.

So therefore we can trust in God not only for his power, but also because of His wisdom.

Because of the wisdom of God, we can trust that even if they’re not handled in the way that we think they should or the timing we think, God’s ways are better than ours.

Just like in Psalm 6, we’re not sure how long David went through the trial, but we know that God answered his prayers at some point.

Questions:

Do you believe that God hears your weeping and is near in your suffering and pain?

Do you actively try to bring that before Him or do you try to push it away?

Do you believe that He can hear you and is with you because of the work of Christ?

Are you confident in the work and power of our Christ who defeated Satan, sin, and death?

Communion

1 cor 11:23-25 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.””