In this song, David speaks very elegantly and sometimes he uses hyperbole. I think that he has exaggerated a bit, because when we are in such pain it is a daunting task to describe our pain. David feels pain and hopelessness. In other words: “He cannot see the forest for the trees.” Another way of putting it is as follows: “He feels as though his cup is half empty instead of being full.”
Depression is not a foreign disease to humans. In fact, in life we will have depression, sadness, and painful experiences. I know this to be true, because when I was going through severe depression God had me write a book called: Depressed Superheroes of the Bible. In this book I discovered that depression was a common occurrence with all of Gods humble servants and we are no exception. For example, let’s briefly mention Elijah.
Elijah had went through some trauma in his life; which led him to fall into a depression. Let’s read why Elijah was depressed from the pages of scripture! Turn with me to first kings chapter 19. First, let’s read the first two verses. 1 Kings (19:1-2 New International Version) “19 Now Ahab told Jezebel(A) everything Elijah had done and how he had killed(B) all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely,(C) if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”(D) First kings 19:3 and four gives us a great account of Elijah‘s deep depression. Think, for 3 1/2 years before Elijah went to speak with king Ahab Elijah was under constant attack! He told Ahab that it would not rain for three years, because God was going to judge Israel for their warship Bail. This news enraged King Ahab. So, for the next three years or so, they have chased Elijah aiming to kill him, but God protected him. Then, it was time for the two men to meet. I think if this meeting was held today we would call it a church business meeting. It’s like if I went to another church that didn’t believe in Jesus and was going to present the gospel or inform them of a prophecy God had provided. Elijah told Ahab that he would meet them, his profits, on the top of the Mountain, beside the altar. Finally, they had this contest, if you will, and God breathed down fire and killed them all.
So naturally, Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, got the news that her husband it was killed and she got angry. Let’s pick up the next couple verses together. The Scriptures reads as follows: 1 Kings 19:3-4 (New International Version) “3 Elijah was afraid[a] and ran(A) for his life.(B) When he came to Beersheba(C) in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush,(D) sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life;(E) I am no better than my ancestors.” In other words, Jezebel sent a message out that she was going to kill Elijah. So, I imagine fear set in the heart of David. Sure God could have destroyed her too, but he didn’t. I can totally see why Elijah’s in depression can’t you? He’s been running for three years. He’s been in hiding and facing death every day. Then, God destroys the enemy and Elijah hopes of Israel returning to God, but they didn’t. At least, he thinks that his plans have backfires. To make matters worse, he sent his servant on his way, and Elijah went into the wilderness alone.
Being alone and being depressed it’s not a good situation. This set him up for suicidal thoughts, because we see that he prays to God and ask’s God – to take his life. The end of the story is as follows: God had to deal with his depression before Elijah could go on his next mission. So, for the next 40 days and 40 nights he stayed in the wilderness. God woke him up and fed him and then he went to sleep, because he was exhausted.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
David in our Psalm for today suffered from depression. A Depression brought on by fear and trauma. However, before we move onto the lesson, the Holy Spirit wants me to quote Mark Twain writings. Mark Twain had two good points. He said that there were two important days in a person’s life. The two important dates:
- Your birthday
- The day you found out your life’s purpose.
When you feel the depression coming on; realize: that everything God creates has a purpose. Therefore, you were created for a purpose. I know from experience, once I began walking in my calling (which is my purpose) I “kissed those feelings of total worthless and shame goodbye.” In Christ I found my true value and my true worth. It is Christ’s love for us that is the antidote for sin.
OK! I feel like we can move on to today’s Scripture.
This Psalm was written with feelings of extreme depression. David could have felt the hand of God against him, but his word choice describes a person who is clinically depressed; especially in the first three verses. He could have also felt the chastisement of God, because David desires forgiveness from God. In addition, David in the last couple of verses, shares his confidence in the character of God.
When we are in sin and desire forgiveness from God we must cry out to God from the depth of our heart. When we don’t know what to do: just lay it all out for God. God is not bothered with any of us just pouring out our hearts out to him. He is never too busy. In fact, he waits to here from His children. Let’s read Psalm 6 together! I have copied and pasted it below:
Psalm 6
English Standard Version
O Lord, Deliver My Life
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
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.
David is saying listen God, please hear me. Sometimes, we think God is mad at us, but God will not punish us from anger, because Paul told us so in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. David is suffering here, and he is going through some hard times. The Psalm does not fully explain the cause of his pain, but in this Psalm, he recognized that God is his solution. David says: “1. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.” When we find ourselves in misery the answer is always the Lord. The relief will always be provided from the Lord.
When Christians stumble, we go through trouble, but oftentimes we separate or put distance between ourselves and God. Oftentimes, if I’m suffering due to my own mistakes it takes me longer to give it to God. From this passage you can see that David is talking about the possibility of having made some serious mistakes in this situation, because he has a sense that the Lord is disciplining him. I find, many people when they have a sense that maybe they are at fault they will refuse to go to the God. On the other hand, David didn’t operate under that;
In verse two, David is in trouble. He says he is languishing. David would have felt like his life was slipping away. This is what he said: 2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. David knew the trial of physical weakness and pain. In the midst of this kind of chastisement, he cried out to God for mercy. God has already given us mercy through His son Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:9, NIV: “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” God did not appoint us to wrath! He appointed us to salvation! Yet, when God disciplines us it is painful, but we can learn through our pain. For example, consider the following verse: Hebrews 12:11 (New International Version) “11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Notice, the last words of verse two. Those who have been trained by God’s chastisement yields peaceful fruit. Those who have been trained by disciple builds faith and has thanksgiving toward God. They know that they are truly one with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Those have a willingness to recognize what the Lord is doing in their lives and they give him the glory. We should treat hardship as discipline. We should come before the Lord and say:
- “I want to learn to grow through this situation, whatever it may be, with the presence of God.”
- “I want to grow in my understanding of you! “
- “ I want to grow in my understanding of what you’re doing!”
-because I know there’s always a purging and pruning going on in my life! God’s discipline isn’t automatically what we want and we have to be willing to be trained by his discipline!
So, lets open our hearts to God. Know and trust the training! There’s a promise that it’s going to bear fruit in our lives and that promise is the promise of discipline. -but right now; David is on the painful end of God’s discipline! Notice verse 2! David states here: “2 be gracious to me O Lord~ for I am languishing;” Languishing in your Bible can mean any one of the following words:
yearn for
long for
· desire
· grieve for
· mourn
· miss
· repine
David genuinely felt like his life was slipping away and fading fast. David asks God to ; “heal me O Lord for my bones are troubled.” You’ll notice this is where David is talking about the physical part of the discipline.
He feels what God is bringing into his life is influencing his strength and his well being. Verse three is an example of this, because when he says: “3 My soul also is greatly troubled.” The soul is the seed of our emotions. The soul is the seat of our intellect and of our will. Thus, when David says my soul is greatly troubled, he means he is emotionally stressed out! If you have ever been this troubled; then, you know the toll the stress can play on your body. For example, have you ever had a negative thought that plays over and over in your head? This could have a snowball effect in your life.
Now, we find ourself facing verse 3: “But you, O Lord—how long?” David asks God the question here, at the end of verse three, but this question I don’t believe David is necessarily waiting for God to come right then, but David is letting God know the depth of his pain. David is wearied and waiting for the Lord. -But God already knows! Matthew tells us so in Matthew 6:8 (New International Version) “8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
According to verse four, David in us asking the Lord to turn back. David literally says, “deliver my life and save me.”Now, notice what David based this request upon. He based his request upon God’s love for him. This is exactly what we do when we ask for forgiveness. And this song, David in prayer, is asking God to forgive him. What is truly amazing to me, is that David is suffering tremendously believes David believes and that God’s love is still steadfast. i’m sure David had Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse nine lodged in his heart at this point, because
Deuteronomy 7:9
states: “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” … All because of the steadfast love of God. “He knew that God’s love would not change for him no matter what he did or didn’t do. I found this amazing, because so many times, when people suffer, do they say God loves them. And you were trying times of trouble, do you question God‘s love for you?
Often times, we let our situations and circumstances effect the way we feel about God. Even though, we know the scripture: God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. (Hebrews 13:8) I hear the following statement end it blows my mind. “I don’t know if God even loves me? I hear statements like these all the time especially when we are in trouble or things just don’t go our way. David was not a perfect man, but no matter what situation he found himself in he did not let that -dictate the character of God! Instead, David called on covenant promises to get him so through. So, in times of trouble, let’s also call on God‘s covenant promises.
Sometimes, we use the following quick phrase: “I lost my job today, but God is good.” It seems that we always throw that “God is good” part in there, but do not mean it! It becomes like the voicemail, it becomes just what we say. David, understood the characteristics of God and this is why he prayed to God in the first place. He knew God would listen, understand, and react. You wouldn’t go to just anybody and tell them your problems -would you? You wouldn’t go to someone that you knew didn’t care about you or didn’t know your story. You’d go to someone that would listen. This is what we have in God. A constant listener who listens and reacts in love. Through God‘s favor life is bearable.
Let’s be careful with verse five, because people have taken it out of context and delivered an entirely different message. Psalm 6:5 says the following: “5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the agrave who shall give thee thanks?” The farce message is as follows: there is no life after death. However, David is speaking about his body being a dead corpse. A dead corpse cannot feel, remember, think, Or give thanks. In essence, David is asking God to not allow him to die. Then David follows up his statement by suggesting his death would cease his remembrance of God and he would no longer be able to give him Thanksgiving. You see, when David was alive after death was a bit more sketchy; then, what it is to us today. Today, we live with the faith that we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ. For example, consider the following verse: 2 Timothy 1:10 (New International Version ) “10 but it has now been revealed(A) through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,(B) who has destroyed death(C) and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” This verse does more than just giving us a glimpse of eternal life, because we are assured that Jesus was born a virgin, was crucified, and rose again on the third day. Jesus Christ was predicted in the Old Testament and fulfilled his mission in the New Testament. There is absolutely no doubt that God was reincarnated into man and Jesus was sacrificial lamb we needed for redemption. Yes, our salvation is a “know-so” policy! We can have a “know-that-we -know” where we will spend life after death.
We have faith in the word of God, because we can count on what he says. See, if I said: “trust me” that only goes so far, because I am human. But when God says he has steadfast love toward us, that his love never changes, and so forth we can count on him. He is always truthful and he he never lies. It is the character of God that we have faith in.
We can express our confidence in God’s character, because he never changes. Therefore, we can trust that when our emotions take over I situation that God is still going to be the anchor that holds. He is still the one to turn to. Instead, we are often question whether God is listening or whether God sees our tears. I want to be more like David and I hope that you desire the same. When our times of trouble come, let’s remember, to not get over emotional and rely on the couch character of God. Let’s no, that the Lord has heard the sound of our voice. Yes would be, what I call, the showing of ultimate faith. I don’t want just a little bit of faith, but I want all that God has for me.
In next verse, we find that David is really experiencing fear and/or trouble, because we see that David’s enemies are raging around him. Let’s read the scripture together: 7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
8 Depart from me, all ye workers of ainiquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. ”According to verse eight, we can infer, that David is feeling much more confident because he then sates the Lord has heard my prayer. When we pour out our heart to someone and they really listen and love, doesn’t that make us feel better? I’m confident that David felt the presence of the Lord or he had a angel show up. He either knew that God heard him and was going to answer his prayer or an angel showed up and said: “God has heard your prayer. He’s got this! Don’t worry! Your answers on the way.” Certainly, if an angel showed up, it would be recorded in Scripture, but the point is David loved and trusted God. David had a relationship with God. Today, I ask you do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. So, do you have a relationship with God?
In verse 9 we can see that he fully embraced one aspect of God’s attributes and that is his mercy. Verse 9 states the following: “The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.” King David understood and operated in the reality that God is merciful. Know this, we like David, can move past the tendency that many people have for guilt and self-punishment. Even though you are at fault, and you fear punishment; we should go to God. Finally notice, first that David in this in this Psalm, recognized that the Lord may be disciplining him for something that he’s done. Yet, David brings his sins to Jesus and repents shortly after his sin.
David finally, in his prayer, recorded his statement of faith: “Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.” David understood that faith and feelings are two different things. Some of us, are trapped in our feelings; Instead of living by faith. The Holy Spirit wants me to tell you that today. We are tempted by the world around us, because the world tells us to rely on how we feel, but scripture tells us to rely and have faith in God. Often, the psychologist will say: well does that feel right to you? And if I answer yes she almost always spotless it up with Colin then, we’ll, then that is true for you.” This sounds like it’s a twisting the words; therefore, I say it’s nonsense. The truth is that we are affected by this type a fallacy all the time; therefore, it’s hard to follow David’s example in this prayer. Our feelings, thank God, do not have the final say. Our faith leaders to God and God has the final say. Why, because our faith is in his word and his word will never pass away.
Before we close, I just want to mention again, that this is a prayer of David’s. Although, it might have been sung as a hymn. When we pray to God, there is no have to rhyme or riddle we must share. Sure, the Lord‘s prayer gives us some great directions, but when we pray, to our high priest, Jesus we need to keep in mind that it is a relationship Builder. When I approach my friends, family, or husband, I don’t go to them with fluffy words that I have rehearsed. I’m real with them. I can be myself with them. Therefore, when we go to Jesus, we should be real with him. God is interested in what’s on our heart, not if we are using great poetry to speak to him. Poetry, rhymes, riddles, are great, but they’re not a have to when we pray. We also, do not have to speak eloquently or formally or as we would if we rode a man your script. We need to be raw and real with God. We can use common language. We need to use slang term analogy. We don’t have to worry about our vocabulary as we would in a term paper or something. We speak to God as we know him. We speak to our loved ones and friendsThat way and that’s the way God expects us to keep to communicate with him. We can sense that davit knows God intimately, because of the way he speaks to him. Writing is different from speaking. The way you write is not the way you normally speak to people. God doesn’t want to hear the fluffy stuff. God is interested in our deepest darkest secrets and confessing our deepest darkest sins. God wants to hear from us! what we try to hide in the shadows is what we need to tell God! Why does he want this? Well, God does not want to hear these things, because he wants to expose us or ridicule us.
God wants to hear these things to restore our relationship with God.
God wants us to speak it to him; so, he can heal us.
We can see this in verse (three) that David is ugly in his prayer with God and he questions God, because he says” my bones hurt and how long will it last? ‘ Therefore, we can also be ugly in our prayers and we can also question God.
Lastly, the Holy Spirit wants you to know that everybody on this earth, has messed up. However, we see here with David that he knows what to do when he messes up.
Do you know what to do when you messed?
People today do not know what to do when they mess up. So the Holy Spirit today wants me to tell you: that when you mess up just confess up! Let me say that one more time: if you mess up just confess up! Now, repeat that to yourself.
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