By
Rev. Todd W. Allen
Villa Rica 9/5/04
Psalm 6
It is a
fact of Christian experience that life is
a series of troughs and peaks. In his
efforts to get permanent possession of a
soul, God relies on the troughs more than
the peaks. And some of his special
favorites have gone through longer and
deeper troughs than anyone else. -- Peter
Marshall, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2.
David was
a great man of faith, but faith is not
simply walking with the Lord when things
are going well. Faith must experience
trials and tests, pain and sorrow, as well
as triumph and victory. David in this
Psalm resembles Jeremiah, the weeping
prophet. He might be compared to Job as he
went through his time of lamentation due
to his setbacks and sickness. Faith
develops its strength more in times of
trouble than in times of prosperity and
peace.
This psalm
is a good one for any person to read or
sing when going through affliction,
sickness or conviction. David begins with
doleful pinning and groaning over his
state of mind and body. He may have been
physically ill. We can't be sure. But he
certainly is discomforted in mind and
soul. His heart is in a sorrowful state as
he begins the psalm, but by the end of the
psalm he is recovered and his faith is
renewed and jubilant. What medicine for
the downcast child of God during his own
time of trial and suffering.
Let no
Christian think that he can go through
this life without humbling providences
being sent. The Bible tells us that whom
the Lord loves he chastens and scourges
every son whom he receives. This is not
because God simply desires to test our
faith, though this is a result of humbling
providences, it is because we all have
sinned and still carry with us remnants of
that old sinful nature we were born with.
In that old nature there is pride and
unrighteousness. We are born with a nature
that is vain and selfish and disobedient.
This was true for David and it is true for
every son of Adam. Providence is always
good to the child of God but that goodness
will necessarily include experiences that
are humbling and disciplinary. While going
through those times of chastening and
humbling we are not going to be on cloud
nine.
As David
begins Psalm 6 he is in a time of trouble
and trial. We aren't told the exact nature
of his problems, but we can be sure they
were severe. His pleadings with the Lord
reveal that David understood that his
distress is due to sin. He has been guilty
of things that brought upon him humbling
providences.
David had
enough understanding of God to know that
what was happening to him was not without
God's hand being involved. We tend to
think in human terms when it comes to
illness and accidents and problems of all
sorts that come our way. But David knew
that God was sovereign and that every
circumstance was under sovereign
management and direction. Nothing that
happens to us is meaningless or pointless.
God has a lesson he wants us to learn, and
the humbling of the soul that comes by way
of his chastening does something in us
that nothing else could have done or would
have done. We might think of it this way.
God is preparing us for an eternity in
heaven where all is holy and perfect. We
come out of a stock that is diseased and
corrupt because of sin. We are born
deformed and incapable of entering or
enjoying heaven until a radical change has
come to our souls. This begins with a new
birth, regeneration and this commences a
life-long process called sanctification.
In
preparing places for planting new trees,
the diggers found it necessary in certain
spots to lay aside the spade and use the
pickaxe. In those positions there had been
a well-graveled carriage road, and hence
the ground was hard to deal with.
How
often, when we are under sanctifying
influences, do we find certain hard points
of our character, which are not touched by
ordinary influences? These are most
probably sins in which we have become
hardened, tracks worn by habitual
transgression. We must not wonder if the
severest processes of affliction should be
tried upon us, if the pickaxe is used
instead of the spade, that our stony
places may yet yield soil for the plants
of grace and holiness.
Sanctification removes uncleanness, ill
temper, pride, self-will and ugliness. God
uses many means to bring about the changes
that are necessary before any redeemed
soul can go to heaven. We do not
comprehend all of the delicate operations
that God must perform before we can enjoy
His holy presence, but they are necessary.
David understood in the same limited sense
that we all should if we are Christians
that God was doing his strange and secret
work. But that did not make the
experiences through which he was passing
easy or painless. He was hurting,
that's for sure. He begins by
saying,
O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your wrath. Psa. 6:1
By saying
this he is acknowledging that he is
deserving of this chastisement and pain.
He is not innocent of guilt for he has
sinned. David attributes his problems and
suffering to his own fault. This is where
we see the faith of David shining out at
the very beginning. He is not complaining
to God that his chastening is undeserved
or that God is unfair. His only request is
that God would not let the things
happening to him be from the Lord in anger
or wrath. Then it would be a hopeless
situation.
He knows that salvation is owing to the
mercy of God and that restoration from
sinful mistakes is a part of that
salvation process. So he says,
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am
pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones
are dismayed.3 And my soul is
greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD—how
long? Psa. 6:2-3
David is
pleading for a shortening of his
chastisement. His argument before the Lord
is that because he has acknowledged his
sinfulness and is mourning over his errors
that have brought upon him this
providential state of affairs, that he
would mercifully lift him up and restore
his soul. David does not go public with
his repentance, though this psalm and
others are testimony enough of his
contrition and sorrow over his sins.
The
Pharisees would wear sorrowful faces and
by this want to be seen of men as solemn
and serious about their piety. But David
is not ashamed to weep in secret, to
review before God his inward corruption
and outward conduct that had brought on
this deserved chastisement.
How many
people look to themselves when they
experience trouble? Usually we look at the
circumstance and try to fix the blame on
others rather than on ourselves. David is
not complaining about what he is going
through, he is agreeing with God that he
had it coming to him, that God is just in
all His ways and righteous in all His
chastening. He is not asking for an
explanation, as Job did. He is trusting
God in this time of pain and misery. He
asks that because of God's lovingkindness
he be rescued from his present distress,
for, he says,
Return, O LORD, rescue my soul;
Save me because of Your lovingkindness.
5 For there is no mention
of You in death; In Sheol who will give
You thanks? Psa. 6:4-5
David has
a proper fear of God during this time of
humiliation and pain. He knows that sin
deserves death. To die without being
restored would be a terrible event as far
as David was concerned. To die in the gall
of bitterness or anguish, as did Judas and
Saul and other suicides is something David
did not want to happen to him. You
certainly don't feel like praising God
when you are going through conviction of
sin and an overwhelming sense of anguish
and distress. That is not a time to die.
David wanted to be brought out of his
distress and grief into a renewed time of
fellowship and praise.
The Old
Testament saints did not have the same
measure of light that we do now since the
victory of Christ over the grave and know
that to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord. So David viewed
death as a time of lost opportunity unless
he was at peace with God and walking in
the joy of his salvation. David wanted to
die the death of the righteous when it
came time to die. And even the saints in
heaven cannot do what saints on the earth
can do, namely, glorify God by being
employed in the war against Satan and
bearing witness to the grace of God,
seeing the Church advance against
unnumbered foes. Being a part of the body
of Christ on earth is an opportunity for
service that not even the saints in heaven
have. Their labors are finished and there
is no more that they can do, but we left
on earth can still pray and do the Lord's
work while it is yet day.
Verse 8-10
abruptly changes from a pleading for mercy
and restoration to one of assurance that
God has heard his prayer and will forgive
his sins and restore him to fellowship and
blessings as in times past.
8
Depart from me, all you who do iniquity,
For the LORD has heard the voice of my
weeping. 9 The LORD has heard
my supplication, The LORD receives my
prayer. Psa. 6:8-9
His enemies will either be
converted or they will be destroyed. When
a person is converted to the Lord there
will be a time of repentance and shame for
sins committed, and so David's words, All
my enemies will be ashamed and greatly
dismayed;They
shall turn back, they will suddenly be
ashamed.
Psa. 6:10 can
be interpreted to mean that they are
defeated in their opposition to him and
unloving treatment of him, or they will
become converted to the Lord and thus also
be ashamed for their shabby treatment. In
either case, conversion or providential
circumstances that will turn against them
and remove them as a threat or annoyance
to David will be the outcome.
When we
are shamed it can be with a good ending or
a bad ending. Sinners will all be ashamed
one way or another. They can be shamed
through the convicting work of the Holy
Spirit and then saved by the mercy of God
in Christ, or they will be ashamed in the
Day of Judgment and their defeat at the
hands of God without salvation. Every
Christian has learned to be ashamed of sin
in order to be saved and established in
the fellowship of God. Every unbeliever
will be ashamed of his sin unto
condemnation forever unless he repents and
turns to Christ for mercy. So David gains
the assurance that the Lord has heard the
voice of his weeping. He knows that his
prayers have not been in vain and that he
will be victorious over all his foes.
What a
great psalm for all of us to understand.
We can always be lifted back up to God's
favor as we truly repent of our sins and
seek the Lord's pardon. We may go though
down times, through pain and sorrow and
distress, but God will restore the soul
that seeks for mercy as David did. This
psalm was given to the choir director to
be sung to the music of stringed
instruments. So all of God's people can be
lifted up in times of deep distress by
following the guidelines of this
penitential psalm.
Can you
identify with David? Have you had or are
you having trouble that is pressing down
on your soul? Follow David’s pattern in
this psalm until you come to the same
relief and peace of mind that he obtained.
Do you
need to come to the Lord for salvation?
Jesus Christ died for you. He is extending
the hand of his mercy and forgiveness.
Believe on him, repent of your sins and be
saved today.
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
distribution. We only request that proper
web page attribution be provided if
distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word.