Post by arete on Jun 9, 2014 19:14:18 GMT
Introduction:
A preacher of the early 1900s said that when he was 12 years old he had killed one of the family geese by throwing a stone and hitting it squarely on the head. Figuring his parents wouldn’t notice that one of the 24 birds was missing, he buried the dead fowl. But that evening his sister called him aside and said, “I saw what you did. If you don’t offer to do the dishes tonight, I’ll tell Mother.” The next morning she gave him the same warning. All that day and the next the frightened boy felt bound to do the dishes. The following morning, however, he surprised his sister by telling her it was her turn. When she quietly reminded him of what she could do, he replied, “I’ve already told Mother, and she has forgiven me. Now you do the dishes. I’m free again!” This morning we find David in a position of some guilt of sin or pain of trial. He turns his voice and heart to God and finds freedom…
Context:
Psalm 6 is a version of a lament called a penitential psalm. A lament expresses grief of one’s condition. Includes the lament, a statement of trust in God and an affirmation of praise to him. The penitential psalm confesses sorrow for sin, appeals to God for grace & forgiveness. The one praying the penitential psalm is dealing with their own sin and need for God’s grace. In Psalm 6, the writer does not explicitly detail the sin, but his cry for grace and deliverance along with his conclusion that God has heard and accepted him means this psalm rides a very fine line between the lament and penitential types.
Body – Psalm 6:1-10
Psalm 6 ESV – O Lord, Deliver My Life
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.
Troubled Soul vv. 1-3
David dreads the anger and wrath of God (v. 1). David knows that no man can stand against the anger and wrath of God. His discipline is such that he fears that he may be under that wrath. Fortunately, the Scriptures tell us that the children of God are no longer objects of God’s wrath.
David understands he is being rebuked and disciplined (v. 1). The rebuke is the formal charge of sin. Discipline is the answer to sin in a believer. When we sin, we need disciplined. Discipline is the loving act of God that corrects us and restores us. Sometimes the conviction of the Holy Spirit immediately spurs us to repentance, but sometimes we need the firm and loving hand of correction
The response to the discipline of God is to cry out for grace and healing (v. 2). David does not ask for immunity from judgment, but that God’s discipline be tempered with God’s grace. “Bones” indicates that David is feeling the rebuke through his whole body. He is wasting away from guilt and discipline. He prays that God bestow grace to forgive and healing to restore him to God.
David confesses the trouble in his soul (v. 3a). He knows that he cannot escape God’s discipline & he is afraid of it. How often do we find ourselves in this place – knowing that the only correction for our trouble is God’s loving & gracious discipline, but fear makes us want to hide from our only cure?
David pleads to at least know how long he will suffer (v. 3b). How long? That is a cry common to the Psalms. He asks how long he must endure his discipline, his grief, his time of trial. Reading ahead, we find his fears are not justified because even as he cries out to God in humility and repentance, God is already answering his need for grace.
Illustration:
Warren Wiersbe – “I’ve learned that sickness and pain either makes us better or bitter, and the difference is faith. If we turn to God, pray, remember His promises and trust Him, we will find His grace sufficient for our needs (2 Cor. 12:9). The Lord may not do what we ask, when we want it, but He will do what needs to be done and help us glorify His name. The question we should ask isn’t “When will I get out of this?” but “What can I get out of this?”
Application:
We all dread God’s response to sin, so why do we still sin? Sin’s result is living death. Sin gives birth to deep guilt and fear of God’s response. So we are tempted to hide from God and as we hide we compound our sin by sinning more and neglecting him more. If our trial is not our sin but the suffering common to a fallen world, we can still hide from God in fear that he is punishing us. We do not need to remove our guilt or repress it. Our guilt is a tool. It is the warning light on our dash that we must do something about our problem. That something is going before God and the best place to begin is to confess our fear.
Tearful Grief vv. 4-7
David knows God can save him and why God will save him (v. 4). He pleads for God to turn to him. He speaks it as a type of command, the imperative. Like other places, this is not David ordering God, but confident that God will turn to him because God always has before. David bases his certainty in God’s everlasting, covenant love. Because God loves him, he goes before God in confidence.
David fears that unless God intervenes he faces death (v. 5). Sheol is the word for grave and generally refers to the afterlife. Whether David fears his guilt will him or an enemy or both, he fears
1. What does it mean that there is no remembrance of God in Sheol? The “remembrance” here is to remember with the goal of helping and succoring. The dead are past this.
2. Why is David concerned with praise? The praise mentioned is the privilege of lifting living voices in a congregation & praising God publicly. It is telling that he is worried about praise in his grief
David is deeply distraught, depressed and grieving (v. 6). His situation has him worried until moans escape his lips and he gets no rest. He cries himself to what little sleep he gets. His tears are such that he likens them to drenching his couch. This is a very accurate description of depression in action
David’s grief is affecting all parts of his life (v. 7). Like “bones” in verse 2, David uses eyes to mark something larger than the eyes alone. They are windows to the state of his emotions and spirit. He is so down; he can’t see for the tears caused by whatever foes have contributed to his depression and need for penitence.
Illustration:
[David] needed his God—who had promised not to leave him—to extend his "unfailing love" to him and thereby deliver him. Only the Lord can take a man out of deep depression so as to give a sense of well-being in the whole person. (Expositor’s Commentary)
Application:
We all experience bone crushing grief at some point in our lives. We need to turn beyond ourselves in grief and depression; our answers are not just internal, but externally must find their cure in God’s unfailing love and care. No grief is so deep that God cannot give aid, comfort, peace and succor. He is the bottomless well of love and care for his heartsick child. When we fully trust and rest in him, he will not leave us beaten down by grief. He will bring healing to our hearts.
Total Confidence vv. 8-10
David’s time in prayer ignites total confidence in his outcome (v. 8a). Whatever enemies of his soul that David faces, he commands that they must now give up, turn aside, and go away. His grief is giving way as God works in him.
David knows that God has heard his tears (v. 8b). David knows God has heard because God has always heard him when he has gone before God and humbled himself. “To hear” also means that he knows God is acting on what God has heard. David’s song of penitence has reached God’s ears.
David knows that God has both heard and accepted his prayer (v. 9). What makes David’s prayer acceptable to God? Again, the king over men has humbled his heart before the Almighty God of Eternity. David knows the promises of God to lift the humble and throw down the proud.
David’s confidence in God turns from his grief to knowing he will be triumphant (v. 10). David is no longer prey to his sin or outside influences. He is right before God. He is God’s child and God’s chosen king over Israel. David’s enemies will now be turned away and ashamed. This doesn’t mean that David is glorified, but that all know the true God is the true king over David. God will be glorified in David’s forgiveness and restoration.
Illustration:
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:10
Application:
We will be exalted by God if we humble ourselves before him. What does it mean to humble ourselves? It means that we aren’t self-help Christians – trying everything in our power and every gimmick with a Bible verse plastered to it, out of context. It means that our first step in sin, hardship, trial, depression, and grief is to go humbly before God, admit our helplessness and lean fully on him and trust that either by loving discipline or gentle restoration, he will make us whole. And for those griefs that might plague our hearts on earth – he will make us whole forever in our home in heaven
So What Do We Do Now?
Pray before sin and not just after sin. “Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root” (John Owen). Follow David’s example and pray in lament and penitence, but also pray for God’s grace and strength to resist sin before it comes knocking. Know where you struggle and pray doubly and triply for these.
Put sin to death as fast as you give it birth. “Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” (John Owen).
Place your confidence in God. If you humble your heart before him in the guilt and shame of death or the grief of trials and suffering – know that He has promised to exalt the humble. He gives himself to us as the cure for sin, shame, and suffering. “Confidence springs up from conditions changed by the Lord and does not result from a mere psychological lift or personal effort. When grace penetrates into the depth of an anguished soul, joy in the Lord anchors faith, which no one can remove” (Expositors’s)
In sin and penitence or pain and lament, go before God and be “Free again”
Benediction
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:2-5 NRSV)
A preacher of the early 1900s said that when he was 12 years old he had killed one of the family geese by throwing a stone and hitting it squarely on the head. Figuring his parents wouldn’t notice that one of the 24 birds was missing, he buried the dead fowl. But that evening his sister called him aside and said, “I saw what you did. If you don’t offer to do the dishes tonight, I’ll tell Mother.” The next morning she gave him the same warning. All that day and the next the frightened boy felt bound to do the dishes. The following morning, however, he surprised his sister by telling her it was her turn. When she quietly reminded him of what she could do, he replied, “I’ve already told Mother, and she has forgiven me. Now you do the dishes. I’m free again!” This morning we find David in a position of some guilt of sin or pain of trial. He turns his voice and heart to God and finds freedom…
Context:
Psalm 6 is a version of a lament called a penitential psalm. A lament expresses grief of one’s condition. Includes the lament, a statement of trust in God and an affirmation of praise to him. The penitential psalm confesses sorrow for sin, appeals to God for grace & forgiveness. The one praying the penitential psalm is dealing with their own sin and need for God’s grace. In Psalm 6, the writer does not explicitly detail the sin, but his cry for grace and deliverance along with his conclusion that God has heard and accepted him means this psalm rides a very fine line between the lament and penitential types.
Body – Psalm 6:1-10
Psalm 6 ESV – O Lord, Deliver My Life
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.
Troubled Soul vv. 1-3
David dreads the anger and wrath of God (v. 1). David knows that no man can stand against the anger and wrath of God. His discipline is such that he fears that he may be under that wrath. Fortunately, the Scriptures tell us that the children of God are no longer objects of God’s wrath.
David understands he is being rebuked and disciplined (v. 1). The rebuke is the formal charge of sin. Discipline is the answer to sin in a believer. When we sin, we need disciplined. Discipline is the loving act of God that corrects us and restores us. Sometimes the conviction of the Holy Spirit immediately spurs us to repentance, but sometimes we need the firm and loving hand of correction
The response to the discipline of God is to cry out for grace and healing (v. 2). David does not ask for immunity from judgment, but that God’s discipline be tempered with God’s grace. “Bones” indicates that David is feeling the rebuke through his whole body. He is wasting away from guilt and discipline. He prays that God bestow grace to forgive and healing to restore him to God.
David confesses the trouble in his soul (v. 3a). He knows that he cannot escape God’s discipline & he is afraid of it. How often do we find ourselves in this place – knowing that the only correction for our trouble is God’s loving & gracious discipline, but fear makes us want to hide from our only cure?
David pleads to at least know how long he will suffer (v. 3b). How long? That is a cry common to the Psalms. He asks how long he must endure his discipline, his grief, his time of trial. Reading ahead, we find his fears are not justified because even as he cries out to God in humility and repentance, God is already answering his need for grace.
Illustration:
Warren Wiersbe – “I’ve learned that sickness and pain either makes us better or bitter, and the difference is faith. If we turn to God, pray, remember His promises and trust Him, we will find His grace sufficient for our needs (2 Cor. 12:9). The Lord may not do what we ask, when we want it, but He will do what needs to be done and help us glorify His name. The question we should ask isn’t “When will I get out of this?” but “What can I get out of this?”
Application:
We all dread God’s response to sin, so why do we still sin? Sin’s result is living death. Sin gives birth to deep guilt and fear of God’s response. So we are tempted to hide from God and as we hide we compound our sin by sinning more and neglecting him more. If our trial is not our sin but the suffering common to a fallen world, we can still hide from God in fear that he is punishing us. We do not need to remove our guilt or repress it. Our guilt is a tool. It is the warning light on our dash that we must do something about our problem. That something is going before God and the best place to begin is to confess our fear.
Tearful Grief vv. 4-7
David knows God can save him and why God will save him (v. 4). He pleads for God to turn to him. He speaks it as a type of command, the imperative. Like other places, this is not David ordering God, but confident that God will turn to him because God always has before. David bases his certainty in God’s everlasting, covenant love. Because God loves him, he goes before God in confidence.
David fears that unless God intervenes he faces death (v. 5). Sheol is the word for grave and generally refers to the afterlife. Whether David fears his guilt will him or an enemy or both, he fears
1. What does it mean that there is no remembrance of God in Sheol? The “remembrance” here is to remember with the goal of helping and succoring. The dead are past this.
2. Why is David concerned with praise? The praise mentioned is the privilege of lifting living voices in a congregation & praising God publicly. It is telling that he is worried about praise in his grief
David is deeply distraught, depressed and grieving (v. 6). His situation has him worried until moans escape his lips and he gets no rest. He cries himself to what little sleep he gets. His tears are such that he likens them to drenching his couch. This is a very accurate description of depression in action
David’s grief is affecting all parts of his life (v. 7). Like “bones” in verse 2, David uses eyes to mark something larger than the eyes alone. They are windows to the state of his emotions and spirit. He is so down; he can’t see for the tears caused by whatever foes have contributed to his depression and need for penitence.
Illustration:
[David] needed his God—who had promised not to leave him—to extend his "unfailing love" to him and thereby deliver him. Only the Lord can take a man out of deep depression so as to give a sense of well-being in the whole person. (Expositor’s Commentary)
Application:
We all experience bone crushing grief at some point in our lives. We need to turn beyond ourselves in grief and depression; our answers are not just internal, but externally must find their cure in God’s unfailing love and care. No grief is so deep that God cannot give aid, comfort, peace and succor. He is the bottomless well of love and care for his heartsick child. When we fully trust and rest in him, he will not leave us beaten down by grief. He will bring healing to our hearts.
Total Confidence vv. 8-10
David’s time in prayer ignites total confidence in his outcome (v. 8a). Whatever enemies of his soul that David faces, he commands that they must now give up, turn aside, and go away. His grief is giving way as God works in him.
David knows that God has heard his tears (v. 8b). David knows God has heard because God has always heard him when he has gone before God and humbled himself. “To hear” also means that he knows God is acting on what God has heard. David’s song of penitence has reached God’s ears.
David knows that God has both heard and accepted his prayer (v. 9). What makes David’s prayer acceptable to God? Again, the king over men has humbled his heart before the Almighty God of Eternity. David knows the promises of God to lift the humble and throw down the proud.
David’s confidence in God turns from his grief to knowing he will be triumphant (v. 10). David is no longer prey to his sin or outside influences. He is right before God. He is God’s child and God’s chosen king over Israel. David’s enemies will now be turned away and ashamed. This doesn’t mean that David is glorified, but that all know the true God is the true king over David. God will be glorified in David’s forgiveness and restoration.
Illustration:
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:10
Application:
We will be exalted by God if we humble ourselves before him. What does it mean to humble ourselves? It means that we aren’t self-help Christians – trying everything in our power and every gimmick with a Bible verse plastered to it, out of context. It means that our first step in sin, hardship, trial, depression, and grief is to go humbly before God, admit our helplessness and lean fully on him and trust that either by loving discipline or gentle restoration, he will make us whole. And for those griefs that might plague our hearts on earth – he will make us whole forever in our home in heaven
So What Do We Do Now?
Pray before sin and not just after sin. “Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root” (John Owen). Follow David’s example and pray in lament and penitence, but also pray for God’s grace and strength to resist sin before it comes knocking. Know where you struggle and pray doubly and triply for these.
Put sin to death as fast as you give it birth. “Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” (John Owen).
Place your confidence in God. If you humble your heart before him in the guilt and shame of death or the grief of trials and suffering – know that He has promised to exalt the humble. He gives himself to us as the cure for sin, shame, and suffering. “Confidence springs up from conditions changed by the Lord and does not result from a mere psychological lift or personal effort. When grace penetrates into the depth of an anguished soul, joy in the Lord anchors faith, which no one can remove” (Expositors’s)
In sin and penitence or pain and lament, go before God and be “Free again”
Benediction
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ." (2 Corinthians 1:2-5 NRSV)