MAKING MUSIC FROM SHARPS AND FLATS IN LIFE
Sermons Based on Selected Psalms
Psalms Sermon II – Psalm 6
David the shepherd lad who became King of Israel was a music maker. He played a harp – the most popular instrument in Old Testament times. The Book of Psalms is a collection of his compositions inspired by both his life experiences and his majestic moments with the Lord God.
As a sheep herder, the boy David became fascinated with the wonders of the out of doors even as he became familiar with the uniqueness of sheep.
As the one chosen by Samuel to be crowned the next king of Israel, David had no choice but to sharpen his defensive battle skills when Saul threatened his life; he had demonstrated his skills as a shepherd lad when he defended his sheep from the attack of wolves, and when he defended his family by killing their enemy Goliath with one stone fired by his slingshot.
David’s favor with God and the people worsened King Saul’s insanity, making him so blindly jealous that he made David the target of a relentless campaign to destroy the king-to-be.
David won the battle; but, more importantly, he won the hearts of the people because he had won the heart of the Lord God who had chosen him.
As king, David ruled righteously in accordance with God’s will; Israel enjoyed the golden years of their history during David’s reign.
Yet, as a man, David sinned; however, as a sinner, he was aware of his need for God’s forgiveness; as a forgiven child of God, he courageously accepted God’s punishment; as one who suffered the consequence of sinning against God, he also accepted the challenge of rebuilding his life for God.
As a Psalmist, David’s innermost thoughts - expressed in the verses of his poetry - have become the greatest collection of spiritual nuggets the world has ever known.
From a lifetime of positive and negative experiences, David has become our hero for making music out of the sharps and flats in life.
Any musician knows that it takes both to make good music. It takes the positives (the sharps) and the negatives (the flats). Arrange them in such a way that they blend into chords, orchestrate the chords into a harmonious melody, and what you get is a work of art that is pleasing to the ear.
Life is like that. The isolated sound of a sharp or the lonesome sound of a flat does nothing for the spirit. Get it all together in conformity with THE Great Composer’s divine plan for our lives, and what you have is harmonious living that is pleasing not only to God but to others as well.
These devotional messages, based on the Book of Psalms, are intended to draw from David’s orchestration of the sharps and flats in his life to help us make music from the sharps and flats in our own lives. Selah
Psalm 6 . . .
At the time David wrote the sixth psalm, he was sick. We do not know what his illness was, nor do we know why he was ill. But in this Psalm, we see a lonely and unhappy king. He was sick in body and in mind.
David thought God had left him; he had convinced himself that there was no help to be had from the Lord. His feelings of despair made him so sad that, for a time, he forgot about trusting in the Lord.
For some reason, although he believed that he would always live in the presence of the Lord God, David pled with God to “return” to him, as if God had gone someplace else.
Sometimes we feel like David felt. The thought may cross our minds that God has left us. In this psalm, David cried every night. He poured out his heart to the Lord with a question of desperation, “How long, O Lord, how long?”
Then, one night as he was praying, David sensed the presence of God as never. With a great sigh of relief, he responded by exclaiming, “The LORD heard me!” All of us want God to hear us! And He does.
If you and I continue to meditate on God’s Word, and pray, we too will realize that the Lord our God has been with us all the time.
Perhaps we could not sense His presence due to our fear that He was angry with us. Yet, we kept on praying; and eventually we could say, as did David, “The Lord heard me!”
Listen to David’s agonizing plea: “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your displeasure.”
David uses two words that are used often about prayers of penitence. A penitent prayer is one in which we are sorry for doing wrong and we are willing to atone for our wrongdoing.
He asked God to spare him from being rebuked. As a child, were you ever reprimanded by one of your parents or a school teacher? Of course, you were! It’s a good thing to want to be spared the rebuke of God; it means that we look upon God with the same respect that we looked upon our parents or teachers. The Lord is our heavenly Father; we are His children; it is important for us to respect Him as one who disciplines us.
David asked God to spare him from being chastened. But you know what? It’s up to each one of God’s children to spare themselves the chastening of the heavenly Father; we do this by listening to what He tells us in His word and by living accordingly.
David’s real concern, though, was that God be patient with him; that’s why he said in his prayer, “Do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your displeasure.”
We expect the Lord to correct us when we need it, but we certainly do not want to stir Him to anger and thereby incur His wrath.
David mentions two kinds of trouble that he was feeling:
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me because my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled . . ..”
Do you hear him saying that he was physically weak? This man David, even though a king, was nonetheless going through the trials of physical weakness and pain. He was asking that his suffering be tempered a bit by an assurance that it was not due to God’s anger. “Have mercy on me.”
Do you also hear him saying that he was spiritually weak? Although devoted to God, this king had experienced the trials of spiritual weakness and pain. No wonder he felt God had departed from him! He had let his physical pain affect his spiritual relationship to God.
Whatever your circumstances may be, remember that it is not God’s will that you suffer – physically or spiritually. He cares about you and wants what’s best for you. Tell Him how you feel, and ask Him to strengthen you spiritually for the rest of your journey. Your closeness to God your Father can make your burdens easier for you to bear.
The urgency of David’s plea is seen in the next two verses:
“Return, O Lord, deliver me!
Save me for your mercy’s sake!
In death, there is no remembrance of you;
In the grave, who will give you thanks??
Now, it may be surprising to you to hear David talk like this. But you must remember that those of us who live on this side of the cross of Jesus are able to see the experience we call death from a different perspective.
Yes, cemeteries are silent places; they always have been; they were in David’s time; those who lived during Old Testament days had a concept of dying that was revolutionized by Jesus whom God raised from the dead.
The Lord Jesus “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Today, twenty centuries after the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, we sing a different tune. The words of the apostle Paul ring in our ears: “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord . . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” He based his conviction on the promise made by the risen Christ: “Because I live, you shall live.”
In the sixth Psalm, with its negative tone, David’s words at first leave us feeling somewhat despondent; he was depressed, and that’s how depression makes us feel – despondent; but then David’s tune takes a turn for the better as he says, in effect, “enough of all that negative thinking”:
“I am weary with my groaning (enough of that); all night I drench my bed with tears (enough of that); my eyes are dim due to my grief (enough of that).”
Yes, he seemed to say, all of this depression and discouragement is not helping me at all; so I make this confident declaration unto you:
“Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity;
The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my supplication;
The Lord will receive my prayer.”
David came to realize something that each and every one of us needs to realize a very important truth: God hears our prayers. His answers are not always what we had hoped for. But when we realize that He has heard our prayers, there comes over us a wonderful peace that is so reassuring.
David was not afraid to cry before the Lord; and we need to know that God honored His weeping. God took notice of his tears.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon – one of the world’s most renowned evangelists – once said, “Let us think of our tears as liquid prayers.”
There was a time when Martin Luther wrestled in prayer with God. He, like David, felt inner peace that let him know God heard his prayer. When he finished praying, he came out of the room and shouted, "Victory! Victory!" Selah.
