We continue our series entitled God Talk: A Conversation through the Psalms. This is the third part of our series as we have been examining selected Psalms that have been recorded and persevered for us by God. Today, we investigate a prayer of Israel’s famous King David. It is a prayer for healing. As we have noted in our study in both Psalm 1 and Psalm 73, the Psalms are poetry often set to music in ancient times. These poems are written for your happiness. They are written for your joy. If you are in Christ, God is for you. If you are outside of Christ, God is against you. Two small prepositions, in and outside, yet the difference is eternity. Yet, even when God is for us and even though the believer’s future is brilliant as God has filled our futures with mind-blowing activities of joy and delight throughout eternity… Nevertheless, followers of Jesus Christ have struggled with depression throughout all of time. Christians are not alone in their bouts with depressions. Whether in ancient times or in our day, our desire for healing, both physical and mental, has always been high priority for us. And the medical community has taken notice. Whether you are discussing pharmaceutical care, nursing home, physicians, or hospitals, American people are putting their money where their mouth is by demonstrating a desire to be healed.
Just how important is our health care today? This industry has spent nearly forty million in television advertising by the end of July alone. The money you paid last year to pharmacies, for medical devices, diagnostic laboratories, nursing homes, doctors, and hospitals represent around $2.15 trillion or around fifteen percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GNP). We really care about our health. Yet in Psalm six, David’s frustrations are not simply to keep fit as he gets older and wider! David’s pain is as much medical as it is mental. He is suffering from both physical pain and emotional distress. He also has people who lack sympathy for his plight surround him; indeed, David calls them his “foes” in verse seven.
In our present day, many of you, like King David, are suffering from mental depression in our day as well. Sales of antidepressants in 2007 totaled $11.9 million dollars as the health care industry has attempted to make us synthetically happy. Earlier this decade, antidepressants were the second largest class of prescription drugs sold in America as they were only exceeded by prescriptions for heart problems. Researchers say approximately nineteen million Americans suffer from clinical depression in 2008. More than 27 million Americans have been prescribed an antidepressant in 2005 as the use of these drugs have more than doubled since 1996. This represents nearly ten billion dollars in sales. When it comes to health concerns, Arkansas, in particular was one of America’s most medicated states as we rank 5th most medicated among the nation’s fifty states. We are preoccupied with getting well.
The ancient King David, Israel’s best leader, felt such pain as well. In Psalm 6, he speaks of a personal suffering that is so intense that he may very well collapse. David is in deep personal anguish when he writes Psalm 6. He expresses a deep perplexity as to where is God when he is experiencing such anguish.
“O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. 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? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.?For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.?My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes. 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.?All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment” (Psalm 6:1-10).
1. A Plea for Help: God Save Me
David is in deep distress. His whole person – body and soul – is in anguish. David’s starting point is his sense of God’s disapproval. Candidly, he feels God is angry with him. “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath” (Psalm 6:1).
In verse one, he asks that God not rebuke him in anger. He asks that God not discipline Him in wrath. We’re not sure if David’s pain was brought on by some sinful act that he committed or it was simply the result of living in a sinful world. David doesn’t make it clear for us whether God is judging him because of some sinful action… …or…God is simply bringing him through some difficult aspect of his life as a means of discipline. No matter, the sense of abandonment is the same.
Depression has many causes. Some experts suggest causes ranging from chemical imbalances or personality disorders. While this goes beyond my field of expertise, it is important for you to hear that … Simply because you are suffering from mental torment, doesn’t mean you have sinned. Sin and depression is not a one-to-one correlation as when you step on the gas and your car goes faster. Surely, there are many subtleties and complexities when it comes to clinical depression. I would not anyone to interpret David’s words to mean God is punishing you through your depression. Throughout many churches in our day, you’ll hear many pastors speak in psychological categories such as, family therapy, behavioral problems, personality disorders, chemical imbalances, etc. Yet, this practice, while helpful in some fields, has replaced the biblical categories of guilt and righteousness. The substitution of psychological terms for biblical ones often places a distance between our actions and a God who holds us accountable. When dealing with our emotions we rarely struggle deeply with God and ask ourselves hard questions about our own accountability for our feelings. Instinctively, we tend to think we need a couch for therapy rather than a God for mercy. We need to ask ourselves is the Bible’s message what I need to rescue me from sickness … …or… is the answer to my problems found in the pages of a psychology book? Psychology has its place and I often learn good insight into my personality as well as others as I drink from its fountain. Yet, psychology cannot replace theology.
However, the biblical truth is that depression is seldom utterly divorced entirely from sin. God does get angry with people. They may come as a surprise to some of you. Let me ask tis: Does God Have Any Basis to be Angry with You? Why does David talk about God’s anger in the midst of medical and mental torment? Look again at verse one: “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath” (Psalm 6:1). David describes God as being angry and then God is possibly full of wrath. Another translation for the word “wrath” is fury. The word communicates “hot displeasure” and it comes from a root word meaning “anger” and “nose.” You can readily see that there is a clear connection between the thought of anger and God’s snorting in fury. In other words, God’s anger burns. The way the sentence is structured, David is stressing God’s burning wrath. David knows something about God’s anger elsewhere for in the next Psalm over, Psalm seven, he says: “Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment” (Psalm 7:6). Here David calls on God to get furious with David’s enemies and judge them in righteous anger. Yet, in our text David wants God’s anger to be quieted. Like a sword placed back in its sheath, David wants God’s anger far from him. He is afraid of God’s fury. To perhaps paraphrase David: “God, I confess that I deserve to de destroyed but I am unable to withstand the severity of Your wrath. Do not deal with according to what I have done. Instead, forgive me of my all sins that have angered You.” David perceives an intimate connection between his sickness and his sin that many of us in our day do not see. David felt that his experience of sickness presupposed some act of sin on his part. Consequently, his act of sin was then being punished and he was being rebuked by God.
I want us to be careful here as David’s idea can be taken too far. Again, not all depression has a one-to-one correlation with sin. Such things as postpartum depression in young mothers who do nothing else than give birth to a healthy child and come home. If your entire body is shutting down six months after the death of your sister in car wreck, this is not your sin that has caused your depression Yet, there is a connection between the fall of man, the entire world’s disorder and divine judgment. Jews made this assumption easily: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:1-4).
If I were sitting with you across a table, I would grab a napkin in order to explain the Bible’s overarching story… We live in a messy world. A world where Adam’s sin, the first man, has ruined everything until this day. It’s not Murphy’s Law instead it is God’s curse (Romans 8:20-21). We operate under the sinful conditions that we are responsible for. And inside this sinful world is our emotions. Our feelings for joy and our desire to rid ourselves of the pain and misery of this world is indicator of things to come. Believers today look forward to a day when we see, by faith, God ridding all of the earth of His judgment. Where He one day defeats Satan and brings healing as part of every Christ followers salvation. Our real hope for enduring and lasting happiness is the mercy and loving-kindness of God.
Let me show how David found emotional health in a messy world.
1.1 The Reality
David turns to God alone to seek His mercy for the engulfing terror he is experiencing. David’s prayer is real for he doesn’t try to hide his feelings.
He is authentic and he does not pretend. He doesn’t try to pose or posture before an all-knowing God. Neither does he try to put on a mask hiding his true feelings. Instead, watch how David describes his terror at the end of verse two and beginning of verse three: “…my bones are troubled.?My soul also is greatly troubled…” (Psalm 6:2b-3a). David is languishing. Another translation uses the word “faint” to describe David’s medical state. His vitality is draining away. This same word is used later by David to describe grass that is burnt up under the merciless heat of the sun. His soul is gripped by terror. Whether it has been brought on by a medical condition or not, the intensity of his depression is deep. David is sick throughout his body. The word “troubled” is in verses two and again in verse three as the word is repeated to emphasize his hurt. It is a Hebrew word that conveys “shaking with terror” or “struck with terror.” Martin Luther has said: “No one who has not been profoundly terrified and forsaken prays profoundly.”
When listening to David’s pain it’s easy to think of cancer patients today. Where dull and intense pain is always present. David’s description of his terror is very much like the prayer of a women who has been raped. Or we can think of parents whose child is given only a few months to live. Can you not see them ask, “What have I done to deserve this?” Watch them as they sit outside in waiting room in a pediatric oncology hospital, hoping against hope that a physician will give them a glimmer of hope. Initial anger soon gives away to depression and guilt eventually gives way to profound grief. David continues describing his grief in verses six and seven: “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.?My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes” (Psalm 6:6-7) This is highly graphic language. God seems distant during all of this. God is absent.
If I were to ask some of you who have experienced ongoing physical pain, you would often describe your experience as a person who is alienated from all those around you. You feel profoundly alone. In some respects, David wishes he was all alone. He mentions “foes” at the end of verse seven. In place of God’s sustaining presence, David’s mind is filled with thoughts of his enemies. How deep is the knife is embedded in the back of some whose friends and family members turn against them when they are down. Like sharks sensing blood in the water. All of this causes David to ask a question at the end of verse three: “But you, O Lord—how long” (Psalm 6:3b)? His emotions are so intense that he cannot complete his thought. This is the real question. Where is God in the midst of David’s pain? Where is God in the midst of your pain? David has no spiritual and emotional reserves. He has reached rock bottom.
1.2. His Hope
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled” (Psalm 6:2)
“Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love” (Psalm 6:4).
David is looking for God’s healing and grace rather than his anger. Nevertheless, David appeals to God for grace. He recognizes that he has no claim on God and simply seeks to motivate God to act. His appeal is based not on David’s faithfulness or goodness but on God’s character – His mercy in verse four. David makes his prayer based on God’s faithful promise to love His children. You must get this. God is self-moved. There is no way to manipulate God. You can’t tell him that if He’ll heal you, you’ll serve as a missionary in the Congo for the remainder of your days. God doesn’t act on this. God doesn’t bargain with us like the car salesmen.
So many times I hear people say, “I am good. I lived a good life. Why doesn’t God reward me?” If you talk to God like this in prayer then you have gutted verse four and verse one. Men will never find a remedy for their miseries until they forget their own “worthiness”. If you trust in your goodness while you fight cancer, you are deceiving yourself. You need to mark carefully David’s prayer in verse four and you need to emulate his prayer. His prayer should be your prayer. When you are depressed… When you are forsaken by all… Call on God to act according to His promised steadfast love. It is never wise to cease calling on God, no matter how sad your life is at the time. Yet in our pain, all we want to know is that God hears us and will relieve us of our distress. You feel overwhelmed.
Allow me to ask you: “When you feel overwhelmed, do you see and sense that your hope in God?” Or do you see your hope as the therapist? Or do you see your hope as when you find love again like you did with your first spouse? Or do you see your hope when you find an incredible job that pays well?
2. God Has Spoken but I’m Confident that He Listens
David’s mood has abruptly changed. This is an extraordinary turn. Something has happened between verse seven and verse eight. David has rallied. He is now confident. The difference is in verse nine: “The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer” (Psalm 6:9). He is assured that God has heard him. Notice there are two verbs in this verse. The first verb is in the past tense “has heard ” while the second verb implies an action in the future “accepts” my prayer. David does this deliberately. He began in prayer in fear but he closes it with confidence. God has heard him. And when he knows God has heard him, this brings release. When he knows God has heard him, this brings relief.
Never underestimate the way worship can meet your need. God’s mercy gets great honor when it grants great favors to great sinners. David’s plea was based on God’s character. He knew God could not lie nor could God deny Himself. When he hit rock bottom, David knew that God would stay true to His promise to show steadfast love always to His children. David’s prayer was based on this: God is always consistent. He will not divorce His own self.
Should we Feel Guilty for Pestering God with Our Needs? You do not pester God if you come to Him with your needs. Instead and opposite to that, you honor Him by coming to Him with your needs. Your feeble prayer even from the hospital bed demonstrates your reliance on God as your strength. Instead of the therapist’s couch come to God for mercy. Your prayer for His mercy honors Him as the source for the answers to real joy and enduring happiness.
A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn’t know Clark Kent is on board. A prayerless Christian is like having your room wallpapered with Saks Fifth Avenue gift certificates but always shopping at Goodwill because you can’t read.
“…call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15)
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came” (Ezekiel 36:22).
“It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel”
(Ezekiel 36:32).
