December 12
“O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled; but You, O Lord – how long? Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave who will give You thanks? I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly,” Psalm 6:1-10.
In this psalm, the psalmist confesses the burden of his sins, and he pleads to God for mercy and forgiveness. The Lord had placed upon his conscience the remembrance of the sins for which he could be rebuked and chastened, and he pleaded, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.” The weight of his sin was so heavy that he was troubled physically and spiritually: “I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled.” In true repentance, he shed tears of sorrow: “I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. My eye wastes away because of grief.”
The psalmist’s only hope was to turn to God for mercy. “Have mercy on me, O Lord . . . O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!” The mercy and grace of God are revealed in the sending of His Son to be our Savior. As the psalmist, so we also must turn to God for mercy and forgiveness. We have no other hope.
As the psalmist wrote in another place, “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared,” Psalm 130:3-4. If God would count up our sins against us, we would not be saved. However, in His grace and mercy, He sent His Son to fulfill the Commandments in our place and to make the all-sufficient sacrifice to wash away our sins. Indeed, Jesus died – but behold, He lives! He rose from the grave and conquered sin, death, and the devil for us. He stands with outstretched arms and invites us to believe and trust His promise, “Your sins are all forgiven! Believe in Me and you will be saved!”
Confidently, the psalmist says that God has heard his voice of weeping and will answer his prayers. “The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.” With our faith and trust in Jesus, we can speak as confidently as the psalmist. The Lord also hears and answers our prayers for Jesus’ sake.
Finally, David briefly says that his enemies ought to be ashamed of what they were trying to do to him as the servant of God and they ought to change their ways.
“All that I was, my sin, my guilt,
My death, was all mine own;
All that I am I owe to Thee,
My gracious God, alone.
The evil of my former state
Was mine, and only mine;
The good in which I now rejoice
Is Thine, and only Thine.
Thy Word first made me feel my sin,
It taught me to believe;
Then, in believing, peace I found,
And now I live, I live!” Amen.