Psalm 6.1-5
Psalm 6 is a preacher’s delight. An alliterative outline almost leaps off the page. By using a series of Rs, the truths of this psalm can be extracted, examined, and explained.
David’s opening plea was "O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger." Two observations can be made about the word rebuke. First, the Hebrew word translated rebuke can mean to adjudge or to decide. If David wanted to avoid a decision based in the Lord’s anger, he must have expected God to judge him guilty.
Second, in the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX), the word used means to convince. The sense seems to be "a clear argument showing a case to be true." In 2 Tim. 3.17, Paul spoke of Scripture as being sufficient for reproof, or to convince a person of his errors. The word Paul used is the noun form of the verb found in the LXX version of Psalm 6.1. Clearly, David expected God that to convincingly declare him guilty of sin.
Further evidence of David’s expectation of a guilty verdict is found in the second part of the verse: "Nor chasten me in Your wrath." David hoped that God would not carry out the punishment resulting from a guilty verdict. Obviously, David had a deep sense of his own sinfulness. He knew what he deserved, but David hoped for something else from God.
What was the hope upon which David made his plea to the Lord? He resorted to God’s gracious and merciful character. Sometimes, we Christians seem to think we have cornered the market on grace. Clearly, David knew about grace. He had experienced God’s grace before, and hoped for that grace again. Indeed, grace was his only hope.
What did David want God’s response to him to be? "Heal me, O LORD!" was his plea. The particulars of David’s predicament are not made clear in this psalm. Yet, the fundamental issue was plainly stated: sin is a disease only God can heal. Only God can restore a sinner to health.
The results of David’s sinfulness were tragic. "My bones are dismayed, even my soul is dismayed," David cried out. His despair reached to the depths of his being. Perhaps nothing frightens a person more than the word cancer. For many, cancer is an incurable disease. For others, even though surgery and therapy have "cured" them of cancer, the dread of a reoccurrence is a haunting, daily reality.
Regarding sin, a disease no human can cure, God can restore one to spiritual vitality by rescuing him from his hopeless condition. David felt alienated and isolated from God. In the psalmist’s mind, because he had sinned, God had withdrawn from him. David wanted the Lord to return to him so that he, David, could experience rescue and restoration.
David relied upon God’s faithfulness and loyalty. David looked to God’s loving kindness and his grace. The psalmist confidently expected the Lord to act and be gracious. He knew if God did not intervene, his disease would result in his death. Once in the grave, all hope would be gone. For, in the grave, no remembrance of God’s goodness. In Sheol, no one offers praise or worship to God.
For believers, the consequence of God’s rescue is total. Paul wrote to the Colossians Christians, "for in Him you have been made complete." God does not rescue or restore or return in a partial way; what he does to us and for us is comprehensive and total. God rescues and restores based upon the work of Christ upon the cross. By his grace, the Lord offers total, eternal, and absolute forgiveness of sin. Sin no longer separates because sin’s power has been cancelled once and for all.
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