Psalm 6: 1 – 10
The Great Physician’s Healing Plan
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. 2 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD—how long? 4 Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! 5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? 6 I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies. 8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer. 10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.
I was just talking with a man whose son had just graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Biology from a Junior College. Let me mention that he was the one who initiated the conversation. Before I could congratulate the proud poppa for his son’s accomplishment, the man continued on with his talk. He informed me that his son was only 1 of 6 students who majored in this field. He then went on to tell me that over 200 of the 250 graduates majored in Psychology. He continued on, that unless these people had a Doctorate Degree in Psychology, such as I do, they just wasted all their time.
Don’t you just love it when people go out of their way to zing you? I mean, you have people, who have just experienced a good thing in their personal lives, and instead of wallowing in the nice situation, these evil people want to deride another person less fortunate. It is also true that this guy doesn’t have a clue as to why I obtained a Doctorate In Psychology. I went through all those courses and work so I could help others, not because I believe in or like this false science.
As a Pastor you wind up having to counsel people who struggle with physical, emotional, and spiritual issues. You might be thinking right now that IU should only be concerned with spiritual issues. I would say to you, yes and no. Let me give you an explanation and a example. You be the counselor. A person comes to you and says that he/she is depressed. They feel that God has abandoned them. They start to question whether they really are a Christian. Everything in life stinks. They feel that a dark cloud follows them all the time. They look disheveled which clearly shows the signs of stress that then been under.
What would you do? What would you say? Would you tell this person to go get on meds to deal with their problems? Would you open you bible and throw out a few clever verses at them?
In the book of James we come across some good advice. James is a man of action. He informs us that a person who has put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will observe and do the tings to help others even those things not necessarily spiritual. If someone needs something to eat, you arrange to get them some food. If they need shelter you work to get them a place to stay. The list goes on and on.
So, recognizing this Godly advice, I went to college to gain knowledge and a degree in order to understand what the world is feeding people who have emotional problems. I also went to medical college to gain knowledge in individual’s physical problems.
Oh yes, back to the person who came with the ‘depression’ issue. First of all, I let him spill all his pent up frustration. If you know about counseling they attempt to schedule people for 1 hour increments. I do not. If I can determine what is affecting a person after only 15 minutes, I give the person a suggestion of areas to eliminate and incorporate. Many cases I ignore the clock and let the person go on even if it takes hours to unravel the person’s particular problem.
You need to review all past counseling which this person may have undergone. What medication has this person been taking? Is this person seeing another doctor? What about human interactions; jobs, marriage, family, finance, etc. are areas that need to be explored.
It winds up that this person wasn’t eating or sleeping right. I could go into a whole dissertation on how improper diets and lack of sleep affect health, but I will not for time sake. Anyway with placing this person on a path to eat properly, exercise, and sleep the proper amount of time, while balancing the day, this saint automatically corrected the emotional and physical problems. This person then found it easy to find rest in prayer and self study in the Word of God.
The apostle James teaches us this in chapter 5 verses 14 through 16, “13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
Take a look again at what our Lord’s half brother had to say - a person is healed physically, spiritually, and emotionally. There you go counselors, do likewise!
I would venture to guess that 99 percent of churches do not follow this direction from our Precious Holy Spirit. They do not ask the sick person if there is some sin in their individual lives that needs to be confessed. For shame! If you are a church leader, start doing what our Great and Wonderful Counselor has called you to do.
David was experiencing these three things as a result of his sins of adultery and murder. Look at what he says in verses 1 through 3.
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. 2 Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD—how long?
One gift of God, if you truly understand it as a gift, is a conscience. You cannot run away from it. You can attempt to mask it by taking drugs but once you sober up, the conscience is waiting to visit you. As a result of David’s guilty conscience he felt totally wasted spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Look at how his body was experiencing trouble – his bones felt troubled. Ook at how he had no rest mentally day and night – ‘my soul is sore troubled’. And forget about the peace that the forgiveness’s of God, when you still cannot shake your guilt – ‘And You, O Yahweh, how long?’David was assured by the prophet Nathan of the Lord’s forgiveness. However, the after effects of our sins make it hard for us to shake the thoughts of what we have done to our Holy and Loving God and to other people.
4 Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! 5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks?
Please notice how David senses the loss of our Holy Father Adoni Yahweh’s presence. He feels that his sins have separated between him and God. So he pleads for Him to come back to him, on the basis of His warm covenant love, His loving-kindness, so as to heal him and restore their relationship. For he points out that he cannot worship our Creator if he dies and goes to the grave.
Sheol means the mysterious grave world where the dead go, and where they are only shadows without real life, in the land of silence and forgetfulness from where no man could return. And he felt so miserable and sinful, that unlike some other psalmists he could not muster up the thought that he might go to be with God.
6 I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies.
He goes on to describe his present state, groaning both because of his illness and because of his conscience stricken state, so much so that his bed is soaked with tears. Indeed it has affected his eyes, which reveal what he is going through, made worse by his adversaries who mock him in his state. The state of a man’s health is often revealed by his eyes, and here his eye ‘grows old’, that is, wrinkled and careworn.
According to Iridology [A domain of medicine which is concerned with the diagnostics of the iris of an eye], eyes are a sort of geographical map of the body, where diseases are marked by signs on fragments of the iris that are responsible for different parts of the body. It is amazing what man can learn from the bible and apply to areas of our lives.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer. 10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.
Proverbs 23 verse 7 says. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.” David was a good fighter. He was sick and tired of being sick and tired so he focused his mind on God’s truths. Our Great God had forgiven him and that should be enough – all that he needed to know. He knew that he had to get up, accept the truth and get on with his life.
At last his illness begins to subside. He has once again become more confident in Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High. . He tells those who are distressing him to leave him alone because The only true and living God has responded to him. He knows that God has accepted his repentance, and is once again receiving his prayer.
David now senses the restoration of God’s presence with him. He knows that he is forgiven. And he knows that the result can only be that those who railed at him are now put to shame, as well as being annoyed at his restoration in this way. It has upset their self-satisfied thoughts and beliefs. Thus they will turn back from him and leave him alone. It is their turn to be vexed or troubled.
Notice the three steps to his restoration. Father God has heard what his weeping has revealed, that he is truly repentant for his sin. Adoni Yeshua has then heard his spoken prayers and pleas, returning to him the sense of His presence. And finally he is aware that once again Adoni Holy Spirit God Is receiving his prayers. Full fellowship is restored.
Finally he is satisfied because his ‘enemies’ are thwarted. Like Job’s comforters, in the end they are put to flight. And his final hope is that through this they might be made to face up to their own position, recognizing that his experience should trouble them and put them to shame.
You should write down this prescription to health for future use. When you go through periods of dark times pull out this list and see if you can diagnosis your own illness and prescribe for yourselves The Great Physician’s healing plan.
