Greyed-out text omitted from the sermon delivery
1. For the concertmaster with
strings On the eight[-string], a psalm belonging to David.
Don’t judge me in your anger, Yahweh, and don’t discipline me in your fury!
2. Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am sagging; heal me, Yahweh, for my bones are in a panic.
3. And my soul is in a major panic, but You are Yahweh. How long will it be?
4. Return, Yahweh! Snatch away my soul; save me because of Your lovingkindness.
5. For in death there is no remembering You; in the grave, who responds to You?
6. I am tired out in my sighing; I cause my bed to swim all through the night. With my tears I cause erosion on my bed frame!
7. My eye has decayed from grief; it has shifted [focus] during all my stresses.
8. Turn away from me, all workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard [the] sound of my outbreak.
9. Yahweh has heard my prayer. Yahweh has received my prayer.
10. All my enemies will blush and be in a major panic. In a moment they will turn, blushing.
· Have you ever been in a situation where you were really hurting and some well-meaning person seemed to make light of it by saying,
o “Well, brother, all things work together for good!”
o Or, “God is still on the throne!”
o or worse, “Sister, God must be punishing you for something. Do you have any unconfessed sin in your life?”
o Or how about this, “Just be patient, one day you’ll thank God for it!”
· While there is truth in these statements, they can be platitudes that leave you feeling even more isolated, like your pain is not understood and is belittled. Do you ever have this gnawing feeling that your suffering, no matter how deserved it may be, is nevertheless evil and ought not to be?
· Gerald H Wilson wrote in his NIV Application Commentary, “When [pain and suffering are viewed merely as a] means [that] God uses to accomplish His purposes, we fail to realize just how contrary to God’s will and intention for His world and His people these evidences of evil really are… [W]e live in a disordered world that is at present far less than the world God created.” Sin has mangled God’s good design everywhere, and the results are not good. All creation “groans” now (Rom. 8:20-23).
· As children of God bought by the suffering of Jesus Christ and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the beloved Son of God, we, through our prayers, can take exception to the way things are and call upon God to bring transformation. This is what Psalm 6 is all about – prayer that turns the tables on evil.
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· Some Jewish scholars as well as Christian church fathers like Augustine believed it had to do figuratively with the 8th Day, the age of the Messiah’s reign
· If you’re reading a King James or ESV or NIV, the word sheminoth is based on the Hebrew word for the number “eight,” so this was probably an 8-stringed harp (Rashi)
· Psalm 12 is the only other one written for this instrument.
· This same kind of sheminoth harp is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 15:21, when David organized the Levites as worship music leaders, and it was played alongside another kind of stringed instrument like a lyre or lute tuned to alamoth, meaning “high-pitched.”
· Perhaps this sheminith was a string cello or bass whereas the alamoth was a soprano instrument like a violin (JFB).
· “This is the first of the penitential Psalms in which the author confesses his sin and asks God for His mercy and forgiveness.” (cf. Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) There is not explicit confession of sin… but it is hared to understand the petition, ‘do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath’ if sickness was his only problem.” ~JMB
· “The starting point is the psalmist’s sense of God’s disapproval or wrath… Have you ever felt like that? … Maybe you have done something wrong and know it. You know God is disrupting your life because of your sin. On the other hand, you may be overwhelmed by what is going on around you or is happening to you…. You do not know whether God is punishing you for some sin or trying to develop character in you by the things you are suffering. Paul wrote, ‘we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character , hope’ (Rom. 5:3-4_. That may be it, But how do you know? And what does it matter as long as you are feeling as downcast as you are? All you want is that God should hear you and relieve your distress.” ~JMB
· These two words for “anger” and “wrath/hot displeasure/fury” occur in parallel only 3x before the Psalms, all in the book of Deuteronomy
· Speaking of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin: Deut. 29:23 'All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive , and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.'
· And speaking of God’s promise to destroy Israel if they rebel against Him: Deut. 29:28 and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'
· The later prophets also spoke of God’s judgment through the Babylonian captivity using these words (Isa. 66:15, Jer. 7:20, Ezek. 7:8, Dan. 9:16, Mic. 5:15).
· And the New Testament apostles also wrote of the wrath of God yet to come Romans 2:5 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” (NASB)
· So we know God gets furiously angry over sin, and David had done his share of sin. Some Bible scholars (Data, Del.) think that this Psalm is related to David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. But David pleads with God to pass over His anger and wrath in His treatment with David.
· This “rebuke/correction” could be done with a rod: 2 Samuel 7:14 "when he commits iniquity, I will correct* him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men,
· It is equated with “discipline” by the parallelism in Job 5:17 "Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves*, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”
· God also uses sickness for this kind of chastisement: Job 33:19 “Man is also chastened* with pain on his bed, And with unceasing complaint in his bones”
· And the exile in Babylon was a form of this as well: Habakkuk 1:12b You, O LORD, have appointed them [the Chaldeans] to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct*.
· Because of the range of use of this word, I believe that the whole process of justice is in view. We know from the rest of scripture that this is all under Jesus’ jurisdiction, from the accusation to the formal trial to the verdict to the execution of the sentence: Isaiah 11:3-4 And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make* a decision* by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide* with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
· God never loses in the court of justice, “Thus the Psalmist pleads that Yahweh will not prove Himself right at the psalmist’s expense… he pleads for Yahweh not to establish His case, for in doing so, the psalmist will be shown in the wrong.” (GHW) Instead what David pleads for is mercy.
· This is something God promises to do regarding sin: Leviticus 26:18 “If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish* you seven times more for your sins… 23 And if by these things you are not turned* to Me, but act with hostility against Me… 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish* you seven times for your sins.”
· We’ve already seen this word in Psalm 2:10 So now, O kings, consider wisely. Be disciplined*, O judges of earth.
· It is not retribution but rather in parallel with instruction: Psalm 94:12 Blessed is the man whom You chasten*, O LORD, And whom You teach out of Your law;
· Isaiah 28:26 So He disciplines* him toward justice; his GOD teaches him.
· The wages of sin is death, and if God brought the full punishment, there would be nothing left of us, so we beg him for mercy as the Psalmist and the prophet Jeremiah 10:24 Correct* me, O LORD, but with justice; Not with Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.
· Jeremiah 30:11 'For I am with you,' declares the LORD, 'to save you; For I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, Only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten* you justly And will by no means leave you unpunished.'
· One such discipline was the Babylonian exile of the Jews, followed by restoration: Jeremiah 31:18 "I have surely heard Ephraim grieving, 'You have chastised* me, and I was chastised*, Like an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For You are the LORD my God.
· “There is a chastisement which proceeds from God's love to the man as being pardoned and which is designed to purify or to prove him, and a chastisement which proceeds from God's wrath against the man as striving obstinately against, or as fallen away from, favour, and which satisfies divine justice. [This psalm speaks] of this loving chastisement. The man who should decline it, would act against his own salvation. Accordingly David, like Jeremiah (10:24), does not pray for the removal of the chastisement but of the chastisement in wrath…” ~Del.
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· Mercy is a characteristic of God: Exodus 34:6 “…The LORD God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth”
· The very word for “grace” means “free” - something we do not earn. 2 Samuel 12:22 He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the LORD may be gracious* to me, that the child may live.'” David knew his child was conceived out of wedlock and that he didn’t deserve to live, but he asked for mercy anyway.
· David knew that God could be gracious because of His covenant in which a ransom was provided to die for his sins and a promise was made by God to love Him: 2 Kings 13:23 But the LORD was gracious* to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now.
· Job 33:24 [the mediator] will be gracious* to him, and say, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom';
· Psalm 4:1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious* to me and hear my prayer.
· Psalm 37:21 The wicked borrows & does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious* and gives.
· Psalm 41:4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious* to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You."
· Psalm 51:1 Be gracious* to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
· Isaiah 30:19 O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely* be gracious* to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
· “[T]he basis of his plea, if it can be called a basis, is his need… ‘He knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust’ (Ps. 103:14).” ~JMB
· Often used of plants withering, drooping, and running low on fruit. 12/15 occurrences of this word in the N.T. describe the time of God’s judgment on Israel during the Babylonian captivity.
· “Urge not your goodness or your greatness, but plead your sin and your littleness” ~CHS
· Praying for healing is consistent with what God revealed concerning Himself: Exodus 15:26 I, the LORD, am your healer*
· Sometimes physical sickness is God’s way of chastening us for sin: Deuteronomy 28:27 "The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed*.
· Deuteronomy 32:39 'See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal*, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
· 2 Chronicles 7:14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal* their land.
· Also figurative of salvation: Psalm 41:4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; Heal* my soul, for I have sinned against You."
· Isaiah 53:5 But He [speaking of Jesus] was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed*.
· Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal* us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
· Here in Psalm 6:2, I think the “bones” are set in a pleonastic parallel with the “soul” which is also “vexed/ troubled/ dismayed/ in anguish.” The idea is that David’s whole self, body and soul, is feeling panicky.
· “…erschrecht. We have no German word exactly corresponding to this נִבְהַל which (from the radical notion “to let go,” cogn. בָּלַהּ) expresses a condition of outward overthrow and inward consternation, and is therefore the effect of fright which disconcerts one and of excitement that deprives one of self-control.” ~Del.
· Critiquing the NIV translation, Gerald Wilson wrote, “bhl… describes not just the agonizing pain of illness and disease but the suffocating fear that can attend deteriorating life force and loss of control.”
· This hurried, frantic, panicky action is what God’s enemies – rather than His friends - should be experiencing: Psalm 2:5 Then He will speak to them in His anger and make them panic* in His fury, saying, I have installed my king on Zion…
· Psalm 6:10 All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed*; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.
· “…when the soul has a sense of sin, it is enough to make the bones shake; it is enough to make a man's hair stand up on end to see the flames of hell beneath him, an angry God above him, and danger and doubt surrounding him. Well might he say, ‘My bones are shaken.’” ~ CHS
· Question: Are you “deeply disturbed at the thought of having incurred God’s wrath”? (Cohen)
· David then gasps out…
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· God is the first to ask this question of rebellions men: Exodus 10:3 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, 'How* long * will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
· David is the first person in the O.T. to pray this back to God. Psalm 74:10 How* long *, O God, will the adversary revile, And the enemy spurn Your name forever?
· Psalm 80:4 LORD God of hosts, How long* will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
· Psalm 82:2 How* long * will you judge unjustly And show partiality to the wicked?
· Psalm 90:13 Do return, O LORD; how* long * will it be? And be sorry for Your servants.
· Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Habakkuk also ask this question of God, and God never really gives them a clear answer, although there is some answer in the 70 years of Jeremiah and the 70 weeks of Daniel. We can’t predict when our suffering will end, and it is not God’s way to give a lot of this kind of information about the future. When we look into the black future, not knowing when the pain will go away or when things will get better, all God wants us to do is believe that He heard us and keep trusting Him.
· This pitiful, faltering end to David’s initial request kind-of runs out of words. The sense is, “But You [are failing to step in and make things right] Yahweh. [This doesn’t make sense!] How long [are you going to let everything go wrong before stepping in and making things right?]”
· The coming of Christ into the soul in his priestly robes of grace is the grand hope of the penitent soul; and, indeed, in some form or other, Christ's appearance is, and ever has been, the hope of the saints. Calvin's favourite exclamation was “Domine usque quo” - “O Lord, how long?” Nor could his sharpest pains, during a life of anguish, force from him any other word. Surely this is the cry of the saints under the altar, “O Lord, how long?” And this should be the cry of the saints waiting for the millennial glories” ” ~CHS
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· When the Israelites made a golden calf, it made God mad and Moses had to ask God to “turn” from His burning anger. (Exodus 32) Here seems to be a similar situation. There is a sense of loss of God’s presence. Do you ever feel like your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling?
· Only other place before the Psalms where this imperative form of shuv (with the directional he) occurs is Num. 10:36 When it [the cloud of God’s presence that led the Israelites through the wilderness] came to rest, he said, "Return, O LORD, To the myriad thousands of Israel."
· But, if we consider the non-imperative forms of this Hebrew word, we see that God’s promises of returning are accompanied by blessings. Gen. 18:14 "Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son."
· We also see that God’s returning often followed a turning away from Israel in grief over their sin Jer. 12:15 "And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.
· Jer. 32:40 "I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.
· Zec. 8:3 "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'
· “[I]t was not His absence who is everywhere present, but our turning away that made us lose Him; ‘He was in this world,’ it is said, ‘and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not’ (John 1:10).” ~Augustine
· Mal. 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…
· This word literally has to do with pulling something away. It first occurs in: Leviticus 14:40 then the priest shall order them to tear* out the stones with the mark in them and throw them away at an unclean place outside the city.
· Deuteronomy 25:9a then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull* his sandal off his foot…
· Psalm 18 paints this very graphically in terms of a rescue operation: Psalm 18:4-6 &19 The cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears… 19 He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued* me, because He delighted in me.
· God even commands us to ask Him to rescue us! Psalm 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue* you, and you will honor Me."
· Why? Because we are worthy of it? No, rather simply as a function of His mercy/steadfast love/lovingkindness/unfailing love (cf. 5:7 But as for me, through an abundance of your lovingkindness I will go to Your house…)
· “As God's absence was the main cause of his misery, so His return would be enough to deliver him from his trouble. When we seek pardon, we are not asking God to do that which will stain his banner, or put a blot on his escutcheon. He delighteth in mercy. It is his peculiar, darling attribute.” ~ CHS
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v.5
In addition to David’s helplessness and God’s lovingkindness, the
Psalmist, in v.5, adds one more reason: “I’m no good to You dead!” This, of
course, is from a temporal, earthly perspective, which is the only experience
we have. Dead people don’t go to church and sing praise to God and take the
bread and cup in remembrance of Jesus; their bodies decay in the graveyard. God’s
word tells us that they either go to torment or to be with Jesus, but their
service on earth is done once they die, and David offers this as a reason why
his life should not be finished yet; his life calling has not been completely
discharged yet. This is an expression of eagerness to return to doing God’s
will rather than continue in sin against God.
· This seems to be a word with a wide range of meaning that includes any kind of conscious response to another person. It includes:
· Spontaneous praise: Gen. 29:35 And she [Leah] conceived again and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the LORD." Therefore she named him Judah [which is this same Hebrew word]...
· Temple sacrifices: Lev. 16:21 "Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.
· Prayer: 1Kings 8:35 "When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin…
· Worship music: 1Chron. 16:4 He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the LORD, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel:
· “If Yahweh continues to forget the faithful in this life, there will be no one left above ground to praise Him!” ~ GHW
· Augustine argues that since the rich man in Jesus’ parable was able to confess the justice of his punishment, David must therefore be speaking of another sort of “hell” – perhaps a deeper part of hell (the “outer darkness” of Matt. 25:30) which is totally cut off from all light or perhaps the mental hell of a reprobate mind which is hardened before God and has no desire to communicate (Rom. 1:28). This may be.
· David continues in…
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· Psalm 69:3 I am weary* with my crying; my throat is parched; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
· Isaiah 40:28-31 28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God – Jehovah, Creator of the ends of the earth will not grow faint and will not tire*; it is not possible to make a survey of His understanding, giving power to the faint and to the ones who have no strength He will increase might. Now, boys will grow faint and tire*, and young men will utterly falter, But Jehovah’s attendants will exchange strength; they will take wing like the eagles; they will run and not tire*; they will walk and not grow faint.
· Isaiah 49:4 …I said, “I have grown tired for nothing, for chaos and smoke I have exhausted my strength. Surely my vindication is with Jehovah and my result is with my God."
· Jeremiah 45:3 'You said, "Ah, woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary* with my groaning and have found no rest."'
· Job 23:2 "Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning*.
· Psalm 31:10 For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing*; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away.
· Psalm 38:9 Lord, all my desire is before You; And my sighing* is not hidden from You.
· Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of Jehovah will return, and go to Zion with singing - everlasting joy upon their head. Gladness and joy shall overtake them, and sorrow and sighing* shall flee!
· Lamentations 1:22 "Let all their wickedness come before You; And deal with them as You have dealt with me For all my transgressions; For my groans* are many and my heart is faint."
· “He had groaned till his throat was hoarse; he had cried for mercy till prayer became a labour. God's people may groan, but they may not grumble. Yea, they must groan, being burdened, or they will never shout-in the day of deliverance.” ~ CHS
· Place of “stretching out” as opposed to the place of “lying down” in Psalm 4, although both seem to be referring to the same piece of furniture
· Augustine interpreted the couch figuratively as the seat of worldliness and fleshly lusts which was to be escaped in order to be right with God but which still held much attractiveness to the Psalmist, quoting Rom. 7:25 (“With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin”). That seems to me to be a stretch of the plain sense of the Psalm.
· Psa. 42:3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
· Psa. 56:8 You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?
· Psa. 126:5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
· “[T]he Hiphil הִמְסָה signifies to dissolve, cause to melt, from מָסָה … to melt.” ~Del.
· This is a rare Hebrew word occurring only three other places in scripture, perhaps chosen for poetic reasons to match sounds in the next two Hebrew words. The word picture is that he has cried so much that his tears have started doing water erosion on his bedframe! Which is probably a bit of overstatement, but that is acceptable in poetry because it’s how he feels.
· Psalm 147:16-18 He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.
· “For most sufferers, it [is] in the long watches of the night, when silence and loneliness increase and the warmth of human companionship is absent, that… pain and grief [reach] their darkest point… There is also a sense of spiritual and bodily fatigue… ‘I am faint… worn out from groaning’… In times like these we feel that we are too tired to do those many countless things that urgently need to be done. We are too tired to get out of bed and get dressed… too weary to [work]… to depressed to go to church… too sluggish even to pray. Perhaps the only thing you can pray is the prayer David utters in v.3 ‘How long O LORD, How long?’” ~JMB
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· Related to the Hebrew word for moth (ash). Only one other passage in Bible, and there it is in parallel with “spent” and “failed”: Psa. 31:9-10 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief (מִכַּעַס), my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my bones wasted away.
· This word occurs in 1 Samuel to describe what Penaniah did to Hannah as a rival wife, and how it drove Hannah to God in prayer:1 Samuel 1:6 Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly * to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.
· In Psalm 10, it is in parallel with the words for mischief and unfortunate: Psalm 10:14 You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation* to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan.
· One of David’s griefs was the provocations of his rebellions son Absolom: Proverbs 17:25 A foolish son is a grief* to his father And bitterness to her who bore him.
· This word only occurs 8 other times, and all the other times, it has to do with moving away from one place to another. Since the subject is “eye” it may have to do with changing focus and not being able to see things close up, which is a common symptom of older age.
· “the mind, which, from her own disorder, is not permitted to see God, supposes that the inner sun, that is, the wisdom of God, suffers as it were a setting in her” ~Augustine
· “…enemies, he means, either amidst these vices, or amidst men who will not be converted to God.” ~Augustine
· Similar to Psalm 3:1-2 O LORD, how my oppressors (צרי) have multiplied! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance for him in God." and Psalm 4:1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress (בצר); Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.
· “The ‘eye is grown red and feeble through weeping.’ Conviction sometimes has such an effect upon the body, that even the outward organs are made to suffer. May not this explain some of the convulsions and hysterical attacks which have been experienced under convictions in the revivals in Ireland? Is it surprising that some should be smitten to the earth, and begin to cry aloud; when we find that David himself made his bed to swim, and grew old while he was under the heavy hand of God? Ah! brethren, it is no light matter to feel one's self a sinner, condemned at the bar of God.” ~ CHS
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v.8
But then a radical change occurs at verse 8.
· In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), and we see this transformation here in Psalm 6 after David’s mourning
· “Ye must have your times of weeping, but let them be short. Get ye up, get ye up, from your dunghills! Cast aside your sackcloth and ashes! Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning (Psalm 30:5). David has found peace, and rising from his knees he begins to sweep his house of the wicked. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity… Repentance is a practical thing. It is not enough to bemoan the desecration of the temple of the heart, we must scourge out the buyers and sellers, and overturn the tables of the money changers. A pardoned sinner will hate the sins which cost the Saviour his blood.” ~ CHS
· And David gains new confidence:
· “Is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail! Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear its way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way. My God, I will “weep” when I cannot plead, for thou hearest the voice of my weeping.” ~ CHS
· “the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart” Psalm 34:18
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· From Chanon (v.2) to get something freely, mercy
· “Luther… on one occasion wrestled hard with God in prayer, [then] he came leaping out of his closet crying, ‘Vicimus, vicimus;’ that is, “We have conquered, we have prevailed with God.” ~ CHS
· And in a prophetic voice, David declares the tables turned:
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· There’s a poetic root play in Hebrew between this word (yevoshu) and the previous word (yeshuvu) – “they will turn.”
· “prophetic… they shall repent” (Cohen quoting Kimchi) “This is rather a prophecy than an imprecation, it may be read in the future. ~ CHS
· Augustine affirms both: “[A]t present so far are the ungodly from being ashamed… I do not see how it can happen, save on that day when the rewards of the righteous and the punishments of the sinners shall be made manifest… The words then… may have this meaning; that they should repent of their sins, which cannot be effected without confusion and vexation… that is, let them be turned to God…” ~Augustine
· Numbers 16 Now Korah… with Dathan and Abiram… rose up against Moses, together with … two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation… They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" … Then Moses sent a summons to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; but they said, "We will not come up. Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, but you would also lord it over us? Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up!" … Thus Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to all the congregation. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Num 16:21 "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly*. … Get back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram." … As he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households… So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.
· Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless momentary*?
· Job 21:13 "They spend their days in prosperity, And suddenly* they go down to Sheol.
· Job 34:20 "In a moment* they die, and at midnight People are shaken and pass away, And the mighty are taken away without a hand.
· Psalm 73:19 How they are destroyed in a moment*, utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
· The Romans were wont to say, “The feet of the avenging Deity are shod with wool.” ~ CHS
· When they say, “Peace, peace, then shall sudden destruction come upon them.” 1 Thess. 5:3
· Isaiah 41:10-11 “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame* and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.”
· This is a plea for God to turn the tables,
o for those who do not trust God to be put in holy terror rather than the believers in God,
o for God to turn toward us and our enemies away from us rather than vice versa,
o and for timely justice as opposed to our languishing prayers of “How long, O LORD?”
· What can we learn from David about how to handle the suffering of life in the here-and-now while we are waiting on the LORD?
1. We can call upon the name of the LORD, clinging desperately to Him even when things are bad. Notice how David says, “O LORD” five times in the first four verses! ~JMB
2. We can humbly accept God’s discipline in our lives without complaining and consider how He may be sanctifying us by it. Charles Spurgeon wrote of this, “It were folly to pray against the golden hand which enriches us by its blows. He does not ask that the rebuke may be totally withheld, for he might thus lose a blessing in disguise; but, “Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger. …So may we pray that the chastisements of our gracious God, if they may not be entirely removed, may at least be sweetened by the consciousness that they are “not in anger, but in his dear covenant love.”
3. We can align ourselves more closely with God. David demonstrates how in three ways:
a) By asking God, “How long?... Let my enemies be ashamed” he is refusing to accept the world as it is, and refusing to gloss over the problem of evil, and instead aligning himself “with the tough-minded worldview that the world as we have it is not the world as it should be or as God intended. The world is broken and needs divine help to restore it.” (GHW) We should follow David’s example and rebel against naturalism, begging God to take this world which is broken by sin and make it right again.
b) Secondly, by arguing his case before God using things he thinks will motivate God to action, David is modeling for us another way we can align ourselves with God. He is praying for what he thinks is God’s will rather than just praying for his own will to be done. This is part of the transforming of our minds (Rom. 12:1ff) when we recognize that we are not the center of the universe – our opinion is not where the buck stops, but that God is sovereign and therefore His priorities are what is important in history. We would do well to try to get inside God’s way of thinking and re-align our thinking to reflect the things that God prioritizes.
c) Finally, David aligns himself with God by rejecting the influence of other people who threaten to undermine his faith in God and even perhaps seeking to reverse the influence and see them brought to their senses before God, as commentator Gerald H Wilson wrote, “Away from me you evildoers” followed by a affirmation that God hears prayer suggests that this psalm is “a reaction to those who seek to undermine his confidence in God’s goodwill.” It suggests “that the primary offense of the enemies was their caustic assertion of the psalmist’s guilt and that, therefore, Yahweh would not deliver…” The psalmist then seeks to send away the evildoers who seek to undermine confidence… [and] As a result of Yahweh’s faithfulness, the enemies will not be defeated or destroyed, instead, they will be ashamed and dismayed.” Which holds out hope that they may also be turned to faith in God and be saved, even as David was.
· So let us pray, like David, that God will turn the tables and make everything right, but in the meantime, let us keep calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus, let us humbly accept God’s chastisement, and let us align closer to God, seeking the transformation even of the wicked, conforming our will to His and not accepting evil as o.k.
· Story of Pastor Don Baker’s dramatic recovery from depression in JMB’s commentary, p. 56 (quoted from Depression: Finding Hope and Meaning in Life’s Darkest Shadow).
Sources:
Augustine – St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms
BHS – Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
CHS - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Treasury of David
Cohen – Soncino Commentaries
Dennis Datta, Analytical Studies of Psalms in Hebrew Worship
Del. – Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament
ESV – English Standard Version, 2007 ed.
GHW – Gerald H Wilson, NIV Application Commentary
JFB – Jameison, Fausset, and Brown, A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
JMB – James Montgomery Boice, Psalms: An Expositional Commentary
KJV – King James Bible, 1769 ed.
LXX – Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, edited by Alfred Rahlfs
NASB – New American Standard Bible, 1995 ed.
NKJV – New King James Bible, 1982 ed.
NIV – New International Bible, 1984 ed.