“O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. 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? 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? 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. 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.”
-Psalms 6:1–9 ESV
Besides Jesus Himself, I believe David is the most relatable person in the Scriptures for the Christian, just not for the reasons that you may think. What made David relatable to the Christian was not that he killed a giant with a sling and stone, nor was it because he was a shepherd of sheep that became a king of men. In fact, only a few people in human history could relate to killing a giant or being a king and only a slightly higher number today tend sheep as closely as he did. Instead, what made David so profoundly relatable to Christians today was how we know he must have been like through reading his own words such as these in Psalms 6. David often reveals himself a broken and destitute sinner in dire need of God’s grace and mercy.
There are many places in the Psalms where we can find David walking through the “still waters” In peaceful fellowship with the Lord. However, there are just as many–if not, more– occasions where we find David in the “valleys of the shadow of death”. In fact, within the Psalms these two extremely opposite spiritual places can be found right next to each other. One great example is embedded in Psalms 37 and 38. In Psalms 37, David reminds us of the precious truth that God never forsakes His people; yet Psalms 38 has David seemingly forgetting this truth because we find him begging the Lord not to forsake him in light of his sins. Here in Psalms 6, David is in a similar position–on his face moaning and weeping in conviction of sin.
Now, you may find some who will say that David is not in a state of remorse from sin but a state of stress from the heavy responsibility of being a king. To that I wish to point you to verse 1, David pleads “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” There are two things we must note: The first is that he is pleading on HIS OWN behalf, NOT on Israel’s. Nor is he focused solely on deliverance from or justice for his enemies as he often does. David pleads in personal terms. Secondly, Why else would David fear the Lord’s anger and wrath if it were not because of sin? The Lord does not punish people based on their work schedule. He punishes people based on their sins against Him! So, it is abundantly clear that David has fallen and apparently has fallen in such severity that he is “languishing”, his very bones “are troubled”, and his soul is “troubled”.
An aside I want to briefly point out is that there is something to be said about David’s remorse. I could see a warranted accusation being made by someone looking for fault in the Scripture to say “God called David a man after His own heart, so why is David sinning and moreso, why is David sinning in such a manner? That must mean that either God was lying or that He truly forsook David!” My answer to that accusation would be that David’s outward sign of remorse and brokenness over his sin is all the more proof that God was both truthful about David and faithful to David! The very fact that David is in spiritual shambles after sinning against his Holy God, is proof that David is a man chasing after God’s heart. We must remember that the Lord did not say that He and David share the same heart nor resemble the same heart, but that David is pursuing His own heart. Meaning, David in spite of tripping and falling will always ask for the Lord to pick him back up so that he can continue on pursuing. David is a fighter. JUST as he did against the enemies of Israel, David waged war against his OWN sin. So even–and perhaps especially– IN David’s failures and his persistent striving towards the Lord and His embrace, there are life-altering lessons to be learned.
I cannot think of a more relatable section in this chapter then verses 3 and 4. David cries, “But you, O Lord—how long? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.” How many times in our moments of deep despair and darkness, have we asked the Lord…”How long? How long must I go through this pain? How long must I go through this loneliness? How long must I be depressed? How long must I battle this temptation? How long must I be sick? How long?” In my experience, sometimes when we ask God “How long?”, what we’re really asking God is “Why?” and that is because we are blind to the purpose for the pain in our lives. On many occasions, the suffering in our lives may catch us by surprise. We may be doing all the right things by going to church, giving money to the poor, feeding the homeless and all of a sudden WHAM! Life hits us in the back of the head, which leaves our souls face down in the dirt, much like David’s. However, David is not asking GOD, “How long is this suffering going to last because as far as I checked, God, I didn’t do anything to warrant this!” In fact, David is saying the opposite! David knows that he’s a sinner and is therefore guilty and deserving of the Lord’s discipline. In other words, David is not playing dumb towards God. He rather humbled and submitted himself to the Law of God. He did not say, “I haven’t sinned that much! Why are you doing this to me!?” but rather, “I have sinned against you…How long must I be disciplined?!”
In verse 3, we learn what David is saying. In verse 4, we learn more as to why he says it. David does not ask God how long he will chastise him, charging God as being unjust, unloving, merciless. David knows his GOD! And he knows him well (despite what his occasional failures may indicate.) We know that David knows the Lord intimately both by what he pleads and requests in verse 4, “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.” The first half already testified greatly to David’s knowledge of the Lord. Note that he doesn’t just plead to God “forgive my sin”, but “deliver my life.” David pleads this because: 1. He knows what he has done and 2. He knows what His God can do. First, David knows the damage that sin has left on his soul and his standing with God. David knows that he doesn’t just need forgiveness of sin to go and do it again. He needs deliverance from its chains and he needs salvation from its grasp on his life. Which leads to number 2, He knows that God is the only one who can and will deliver and save him. The only one with the authority to rebuke and discipline David’s soul, is the only one with the power to deliver and save David’s soul.
We now see that the second half of verse 4 testifies to David’s relationship with God. David, though fearful of God’s judgment towards him, is confident in His love for him. David requests that the Lord, “save me for the sake of YOUR steadfast love.” Once again, we see David place himself aside. He does not say to God, “Now you remember that I took down Goliath and am leading your people so you better save me because you need me!” In other words, David is not appealing to God by pointing to himself. David is not attempting to use his good deeds as a “save-on” bonus in order to convince God to save him. No. David is appealing to God by relying on who GOD IS. David is saying unto God, “You are Holy, good, mighty, and just and I am not. And you have every right to crush me like a bug… But, on the basis of your abundant love for me, will you save me?” So should be the plea of our hearts when we approach the throne of God on our faces in prayer.
Verse 5 is an easy road to get lost on, so I pray that this explanation may bring clarity for us all. In verse 5 David says, “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” You can take this a million different routes, most of which lead to dangerous conclusions. However, there’s less to this than we may try to pack on. The word “Sheol” in Hebrew means “the state or abode of the dead ”. This has been interpreted to mean the literal place of the dead, meaning the grave and has also been interpreted to mean the place for the souls of the dead. Sheol to the Jews was not the same as Hell nor was it Heaven, but it was a gloomy, foggy, and mysterious place. Either way, the truth remains the same. David’s aching and broken heart is longing to be with God and worship Him; neither in physical nor spiritual graves, can he worship God. Therefore, just as he stated before, David needs something beyond a physical remedy… He needs spiritual resurrection!
David clearly expresses the overwhelming weight of conviction and guilt that he feels from his sins in verses 6-8. However, I want to take a moment to address you as the reader. Some of you may read David’s lament and say to yourself, “That is me… All the time. Yes I trust in the Lord but I feel as if He has turned away from me because honestly I have NO love left in my heart nor happiness in my laugh nor joy in my soul.” If that is you, whether these feelings sprout from a terrible remorse of a terrible sin or if they sprout from an unknown root, moments such as these demand that you let go of the deception of your feelings that are tainted by sin so that you can rightly cling to the truths in the Gospel of the pure Jesus Christ.
Now, this is easier said than done. But, David did it. I have done it. And so shall you, weeping Saint. In those times of darkness, we must be like Micah who in spite of his sin says to the enemy, “ Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.” (Micah 7:8-9 ESV) There is not a clearer picture than that one of what it means to be a child of God stained by sin. Micah fully acknowledged his failures and the enemy’s tendency to highlight them and the resulting turmoil within his own mind. However, Micah relied upon the faithfulness of the Lord OVER his own faithfulness and he does so not because he doesn’t require faith, but because he is lacking in faith. Micah, David, you, and I all have imperfect faiths and as a result of that, have imperfect walks. Obviously, this FACT does not give us freedom to sin. For God, just like the perfect Father He is, will discipline us. However, He disciplines us because He LOVES us and He disciplines us for the purpose of conforming us closer to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
As we come to the end, we see David in verse 9 who through the drowning of tears and storms of depression, saw the very light of the Lord that Micah spoke of. David says, “Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.” .When the enemy whispers in our ear that we are not who we say we are and that we should just give up because we will never be the way we desire to be, we shall retort “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. For the Lord is my salvation, my light, and my life!” When we say that, the enemy has no strength but to SHUDDER. Above all else brothers and sisters, I say this to remind you that you are not alone nor abandoned in this darkness. The Lord has NOT forsaken you. His love is unwavering to the mountaintops and His faithfulness is unshaken through the valleys! Cling to Him and remember His voice, for He Hears Those Who Weep!