A Prayer For The Dark/Sick Times In Life (Psalm 6) Series

We continue our very sporadic study of the book of Psalms today, by working through Psalm 6. Now, this is a psalm that deals with, among other things, sickness and healing. So some of you are going to wonder if this psalm was chosen deliberately, because we've spent a lot of time talking, and thinking, about all this lately. But I'm trying to be more intentional about working from the front of the Psalter to the back, and this is the first psalm I'm missing. [And I'm not quite ready to jump into another big series.]

Now, it took me a while to find the right frame of mind to read this. I don't know if it's because I struggle to transition from one type of biblical literature to another, or if it's because there's nothing in it, right now, that I find myself wanting to pray.

And as we get into this, you may be the same. This is not a psalm for always, every day. What is it?

This is a psalm for the dark times in your life. For the times when you are sick, and can't rise up in faith in Christ, and defeat it. For the times when your body feels like it's falling apart, and you just hurt, everywhere. For the times when you cry yourself to sleep every night, and go through life half-dead. For the times when you call out to

God, over and over, and He's not listening.

If you can imagine this dark place, and enter into it-- then you are ready to read this with profit. And if you're living in this dark place, right now, then today will be the day you find God's help. This is a psalm God gives you, to help you turn to him, and to encourage him, to turn to you.

Let's read verses 1-4 to start (Hebrew numbering throughout):

(1) Of/for the director with stringed instruments on the eighth/octave.

A psalm of/for David.

(2) Yahweh, may you not in your anger rebuke me,

and may you not in your wrath discipline me.

All of you know what it's like to be rebuked, and disciplined. Your parents did it. Your boss, at one point or another, has done it. You messed up. You did something wrong, or had the wrong attitude. And you got called out on it, and you were disciplined, to keep it from happening again.

Now, you also all know that when it comes to rebuke, and discipline, that there are different ways to do it. It can done gently, and it can be done harshly. With two of my kids, when they were little, all my wife and I had to do, was look at them sideways when they did something wrong, and they'd start bawling. They knew they'd done something wrong, and our slight disapproval was punishment enough.

With other kids, it's a lot harder. Some kids, when are confronted, don't seem very sorry. When they are disciplined, that discipline rolls off them, like water off a duck's back. And if you've had kids like that, how do you react? Or if you've had employees like that, what happens next? Do you shrug your shoulders, and tell yourself, "Well, I tried."?

Probably what happens, is that you find yourself getting angry. Getting worked up. Imagine that your wrath is like an amplifier. You started at like a 3. You were proud of yourself, for staying level-headed about all of it. But the longer it goes on, the more you find yourself turning the amplifier of your wrath up. Eventually, you will find a level that hurts-- because it needs to hurt. This attitude and behavior is something that has to get fixed.

That's what God's been doing to the psalmist. He cranked it up his wrath, and his anger, until He got the reaction he wanted.

In verse 2, the psalmist asks God to turn down the amplifier. What God is doing to him, doesn't need to be done so big (any longer?). The psalmist accepts the rebuke. He accepts the discipline. But what he asks here, first of all, is that God changes how he does it. Please God, dial it down.

In verse 3a, the psalmist adds a second request:

(3) Show grace/favor to me, O Yahweh,

because weak/feeble, I am.

When would you ask God to show you "grace"? The idea of grace, is that it's unearned favor. You ask for grace, when you're asking for something that you have no right to. When my kids, or wife, ask me for something, they don't ask me to "show grace" to them. I have made commitments to them, and when they ask for help, their request is based on those commitments. They know that I'm supposed to be a reasonably good father, and a reasonably good husband.