Pacific Hope

 

Sorrow, Repentance & Joy!

Psalm 6

 

 

O Lord, Deliver My Life

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith.^* A Psalm of David. (lit. ‘on the eight’, either an eight stringed harp or asking for a second, lower octave to emphasize the intense anguish of the Psalmist.)

 

• The Repentance of a Broken Sinner toward God

 

I. A plea for mercy when disciplined

 

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.

 

• This is a plea for mercy when the discipline comes. Please don’t pour out the wrath that You would be just to dispense.

• Jer 10:24

Correct me, O Lord, but in justice; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

• ‎'When plied with such assaults, one must have recourse to no other refuge than to the angry Lord Himself-believing against hope. When men seek consolation in a worldly way, and have recourse to some inferior creature they fall, to their great hurt, out of the hand of God, who would have held them up, and purified them. If the clay, while being turned, falls out of the hand of the potter, it becomes more unhappily shattered than before insomuch that it is useless, and the potter throws it away as good for nothing' (Martin Luther).

 

^{II. A Plea for healing}

 

² Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;

 

 

 

heal me, O Lord,

 

Psalm 41:4

As for me, I said, "O Lord, be gracious to me;

heal me, for I have sinned against you!"

 

Jeremiah 17:14

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved,

for you are my praise.

 

Hosea 6:1

"Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.”

 

 

for my bones are troubled.

• This is a phrase that speaks of bodily sickness, turmoil.

 

Psalm 32:3-4

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

 

Psalm 38:3-4

^….there is no health in my bones because of my sin….

 

 

Psalm 51:8-9

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

 

 

III. A cry of frustration

 

³ My soul also is greatly troubled.

 

• A term that refers to the inner man, his spirit, his mind.

 

Psalm 22:14-15

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;

my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

you lay me in the dust of death.

 

 

But you, O Lord—

• An aposiopesis, or ‘sudden silence’. Breaking off the sentence to leave the reader to fill in the rest and to emphasis great emotion.

 

how long?

.

 

Numbers 14:11-12

And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

 

Psalm 74:10-11

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?

Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!

 

Proverbs 1:22

"How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”

 

Revelation 6:10-11

They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

 

 

IV. A cry for salvation, for deliverance:

⁴ Turn,(Return) O Lord,

 

Psalm 90:13-14

Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

 

Malachi 3:7

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

4b- deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

deliver me! … for Your mercies’ sake.

 

 

Psalm 86:13

For great is your steadfast love toward me;

you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

 

Psalm 116:8

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling;

 

Isaiah 38:17

Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness;

but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction,

for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

 

V. Reasoning with God to spare his life, why He should spare David’s life

⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?

 

 

Psalm 88:10-12

Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you?

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.

O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

 

• The saintly Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford (A.D. 1600-1661), who suffered much for his faith, wrote, "It is faith's work to claim and challenge lovingkindnesses out of all the roughest strokes of God." He also said, "Why should I tremble at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows in my soul? I know He is no idle husbandman; He purposeth a crop." Hamen's argument is simply that his death will rob God of a great opportunity to demonstrate His power and glory. Of what service could Hamen be to the Lord in Sheol? –W. Weirsbe

 

Isaiah 38:18-19

For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you;

those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.

 

The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day;

the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

 

 

 

• ^{The Sorrow of Broken Fellowship with God:}

 

^{VI-VII An account of his depression that has led to this cry for help, this confession.}

 

⁶ I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.

 

Psalm 69:3

I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

 

 

⁷ My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.

 

Psalm 31:9-10

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;

my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.

For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing;

my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

 

 

• A believer can never lose his relationship with God, but can temporarily lose his fellowship with God.

 

Isaiah 59:1-2

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,

or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

 

 

Matthew 26:38-40

38 Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me."

³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Psalm 42:5-6

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

 

 

 

~Now there is a sudden and dramatic change in David’s attitude, his demeanor and even his countenance…

 

• The Joy of Restored Communion with God:

 

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of evil,

 

 

~Where does this sudden and full confidence come from?

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

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

 

Psalm 31:22

I had said in my alarm, "I am cut off from your sight."

But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.

 

 

¹⁰ All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back (retreat) and be put to shame in a moment. (wink of an eye)

 

 

Proverbs 29:1

He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,

will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hebrews 4:2-3

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. ³ For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

"As I swore in my wrath,

'They shall not enter my rest,'

 

 

4:6-7

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter (His rest), and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

4:14-16

¹⁴ Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

Psalm118:17-21

¹⁷ I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.

¹⁸ The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them

and give thanks to the Lord.

²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.

²¹ I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.