If you have a copy of the scriptures and you'd
like to follow along, we'll be in the Old Testament,
Psalm chapter 6. This book of Psalms, it's quite
large, 150 chapters. It was the hymn book and
the prayer book of the nation Israel. It was
used in public worship and also private devotion.
And while it was written by men, it was divinely
inspired. We find in the Psalms the description
of real life situations. And yet also, we see
each one pointing us to Christ. The book of Psalms
serves as one of the most complete revelations
on the character of God. As we look in them,
we find out who God is, what He has done, and
how we should respond to Him. The book of Psalms
records entries from as far back as Moses to
the post -Babylonian exile, so approximately
about a thousand years of history and psalms
and prayers and hymns are recorded in these 150
chapters. And while there are multiple authors
over the book, today, as we focus in on Psalm
6, this is a psalm of David. And while there
are several types of psalms, this is actually
a psalm of lament. There are many. There are
psalms of thanksgiving. There are psalms of kingship.
There are psalms of trust. This is a psalm of
lament. And chronologically, it is the first
one that we find in the book of Psalms. Interestingly,
when we look into a psalm of lament, they all
have the same pattern. They are written in times
of great sorrow and great loss. But yet, even
though there is pleading and sadness, each ends,
every one of them, with a confidence, a renewed
confidence of being delivered from God himself.
We find David today, we will find him pleading
with the Lord, feeling very distant, feeling
crushed, feeling anxious, worried, and perplexed.
And these are all very natural human emotions.
that we all find ourselves feeling from time
to time. And if you've ever felt any of those
emotions or been overcome by the convicting power
of the Holy Spirit or an injustice that has been
done to you, I would say, friend, you're in good
company. Because many saints before you have
felt that as well. We see King David today will
wrestle with many emotions through Psalm 6, but
we're also going to point ourselves forward to
David's greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who Isaiah would say, as a man of sorrows, and
felt every one of these emotions in the same
way that we would. One who can resonate with
his people. We've got three main points today.
Our first we'll see is our sin is crushing because
God is infinitely holy. Let's look into verse
1 together. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your
anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure.
Now we find David here very quickly in verse
1 in sorrow. We find him in anguish. Spiritually,
we would say he is in a valley. And we find him
very aware, though, of his own sin and his own
guilt. Made evident in this first verse where
he asked the Lord to withhold his heavenly rebuke
and discipline. And to rebuke is to correct with
firm discipline. And while a parent may discipline
a child, this is different. In the original language,
David fears a discipline that may very well destroy
him. It is more than just normal discipline.
The king here is becoming undone as this psalm
begins to unravel. He feels the burden of his
sin. It's weighty. And I think we can all relate
to that. When we sin, if we are believers, and
we transgress, there is conviction that is brought
upon us by the Holy Spirit. And it feels, at
times, heavy. And it can feel weighty. And it's
hard to articulate and describe until you have
felt it for yourself. But you feel that weight.
You feel that burden. Sin has a way of doing
that. And it's a burden that we can't lightly
escape from. When we transgress, when we cross
a line that God has said don't cross, when we've
transgressed God's holy law, you feel it in your
body. And it's not something you can get away
from. It is all -consuming. And we see that portrayed
here in David's opening. verse as he pins it
down there are really two distinct types of sin
first of all would be a sin of omission which
would refer be a failure to do something that
one ought to do and then there's the sin of commission
which in contrast is actively transgressing god's
law so how do we say that very easily essentially
a sin of omission would be of something that's
left undone that should have been done while
a sin of commission is a wrongful action that
we have taken ourselves The overwhelming point
is that regardless of the type of sin that we
have committed, the whole of our sin, all of
them, regardless of the type, is grievous to
God. And that is a big statement, to say that
our sin is grievous to God. Christopher Ashe,
in his Psalms commentary, would put it this way,
Unlike sinful human anger, the wrath of God is
hot, settled, righteous hostility toward sinners.
David says something here in verse 1, very pointed.
He says, Nor discipline me, Lord, in your wrath.
In the Bible, the wrath of God always, every
single time that it is recorded, is directed
squarely at sin. Our sins, every one of them,
and though they are many, are grievous to God.
And you might ask, why? Because of His holiness.
R .C. Sproul famously... said that there was
only one attribute of God that was elevated to
the third degree, and it was His holiness. And
you probably remember in the book of Isaiah,
it is Isaiah who is in the throne room of God,
and he hears the seraphim around the throne and
the elders, and they're proclaiming, Holy, Holy,
Holy is the Lord God Almighty. At no point do
we say God is just, just, just, or that He is
love, love, love, or that He is wrath, wrath,
wrath. There is one attribute that is taken of
God to the third degree, and that is that He
is holy, holy, holy. And because of such, we
almost cover our hand with our mouth as we say
it, because it is so much to think of how holy
God is. How holy is He? He is infinitely holy.
He is perfectly pure. He is separate from sin.
And He is unchanging in His righteousness. Sin
is not only a violation of His law, but a personal
offense to His holy character. God's holiness
is both moral perfection and it is majesty. Because
He is holy, sin is in... Rebellion to God. And
we are sinners, and therefore our sin is open
rebellion against Him. Not just His law, but
also His lordship. That is why even the smallest
of sins, if you wanted to categorize them, even
the smallest of sins deserves eternal punishment.
Not because the act itself was infinitely large,
but because the one who is offended is infinitely
holy. And any sin, big and small, relegates us
as a sinner. Fallen in the eyes of God and must
be dealt with. Sin grieves God because it denies
what He is worthy of. And you say, what is that?
Perfect obedience and worship. As believers,
graciously, after we come to Christ, we have
the Holy Spirit indwelling us and residing in
us and convicting us. of our sin and bringing
it to the forefront of our minds and showing
us the error in our ways, and it's that same
Spirit who we grieve, the one who convicts us
of our sin, sanctifies us, and comforts us as
believers. A regenerate heart cannot sin peacefully
because the Holy Spirit within us will not allow
it. Paul said something that describes this very
well. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul said, You felt
a godly grief. so that you suffer no loss through
us. For godly grief produces a repentance that
leads to salvation without regret. The Holy Spirit
produces godly grief, and this is important,
not guilt or shame, but repentant sorrow with
the purpose of driving us back to Christ. Conviction,
church, is part of sanctification. The Spirit
does not condemn believers. But the Spirit does
expose sin so that what? So that we can put it
to death in our lives. A believer's grief over
sin is actually a sign of life. a sign and evidence
that the Spirit is active and present within
us. And this is what we would call a part of
progressive sanctification, which is the Holy
Spirit's continual work in the hearts and lives
of believers to continually conform us more to
the person of Christ while we are here on this
earth. It is the Holy Spirit that applies the
Word of God to our hearts, the Holy Spirit that
brings holy sorrow over sin and then draws us
back to repentance. When sin troubles us as believers,
it's not the Spirit's rejection. It is His redemptive
presence within our lives. He convicts not to
destroy, but to restore. Let's look into verses
2 and 3. David writing, Now have mercy on me,
O Lord, for I am weak. Lord, heal me. For my
bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord, how long? We see David in a
very desperate place here as he's writing. He
is crying out for God's favor. Be gracious to
me, he says. Heal me. He says, my bones are troubled.
My soul is troubled. He says, Lord, how long?
How long will this go on? How long am I going
to feel this? And we see David is shaken here.
He says his bones and his soul, which is not
really a comparison of the material to immaterial,
but a way of him expressing his whole being,
his whole person. He is feeling it all over.
And he says, Lord, how long will this go on?
Let us consider in our day -to -day lives for
just a moment. When we think of everyday experiences
that we all go through, something that is pleasurable,
something that is happy, it seems that it can
almost sweep by. so quickly. A good day, even
though we enjoy it, it goes very quick, it's
very fast, very good. But then pain and sorrow
enter. And it seems that time can pass so slowly.
Sitting in the doctor's office, waiting for test
results that we fear are going to be unfavorable.
A conflict, be it at work or in our personal
life, that we know we're going to have to deal
with, but we can't do it just then. It's going
to take some time until we can get to it in similar
situations. Those things pass so slow, and time
just seems to drag on. And David is feeling that
here. He is feeling a deep conviction of sin,
and it brings him to the point of almost distress.
in this language, and we ask ourselves at this
point, in suffering and in sorrow, when we suffer
and when we sorrow, does Christ understand what
we are going through when our souls feel this
trouble, that our bones and our soul is shaken
and troubled and we're just in deep distress?
Friends, our Savior not only understands what
we are going through, He superseded our sorrow
in every point. It was Christ who cried out in
the shadow of the cross in John 12, 27. Jesus
said, Now my soul is troubled. And what shall
I say? Father, save me. Save me from this hour.
But for this purpose I came to this hour. Jesus
Christ, the Son of the eternal God, the one who
was called the God -man. came to earth to dwell
amongst His people and literally be God in flesh.
John would say He was the Word made flesh and
dwelt amongst us. May I say, church, there is
great encouragement in serving a Savior who also
suffered. How does Christ understand your sorrow?
He understands our heartaches. He understands
our sorrows. He understands our deepest anxieties,
our deepest seasons of bereavement and grief
and sorrow and loss because as the God -man in
his humanity, he experienced every single human
emotion that we would ever encounter yet without
sin. We serve a Savior who can resonate with
us because He is a personal Savior. He is a personal
Redeemer. One who made full atonement for sin.
One who fulfilled the grand plan of salvation.
But one who's not far away. And one who's not
distant. But one who is approachable. One who
draws near. One who is an advocate. One who is
a mediator for his people. Consider this verse
in John 12 for just a moment because we see the
echo of Psalm 6 -3 here in John 12. We listen
not only to David's words here in the psalm,
but we see here our Savior in John 12 as he cries
unto the Father in anticipation of the agony
in the shadow of the cross that was before him.
And while it was terrible for David to sorrow
in Psalm 6, It was all the worse for our Savior
to endure the anger and wrath of God, a pure
and holy Savior, yet... In anticipation of feeling
the full weight of God's wrath, Christ knew unequivocally
what laid before Him at the cross, that the Father
would turn His back on Him and that the sins
of all who would ever come to Him would be placed
upon Him and laid on Him. And He is showing that
emotion here. No wonder His soul was troubled.
No wonder our Savior sweat as it were great drops
of blood. But yet He drank the cup that was before
Him down to the bitter dregs. And he experienced
this agony and he experienced all of these emotions
until he declared in John 19, it is finished.
In every way, church, in every way that we feel
overcome, Christ is there. He is more than enough.
And when we feel sorrowful, when we feel overcome,
behold him, look to him and abide in him. because
he is a Savior who understands. Number two, we
plead on the basis of God's steadfast love. Look
at verses 4 -7 here. David says, Return, O Lord,
deliver me. O save me for your mercy's sake.
For in death there is no remembrance of you,
and in the grave who will give you thanks? I
am weary. Now David says something very interesting
here. He says, Now that's specific language.
And there is a turning for us also. And the first
turning is a turning of repentance. But that
isn't even possible unless God first turns to
us in grace. David says, Notice very interestingly,
David is the king over all Israel here, a power
of position. He was the sovereign over the nation.
But he feels as though he's bearing the wrath
of God and he cries unto his covenant Lord on
what? On the basis of covenant love. What is
the word that he uses? It's chesed. Steadfast
covenant love. It's our pastor's favorite word.
And David pleads it out here in distress. He
says, God, deliver me now on what? On the basis
of your steadfast, your chesed covenant love.
And there's some heaviness in these verses. David
sort of bears out his soul here in very descriptive
language. He says he's very weary. And we can
resonate with this. Every night, he says, I flood
my bed with tears. He says he drenches his couch.
with weeping, that he's very exhausted, that
he's very, very tired. Night after night, without
reprieve, a place that he used to find rest,
a place that used to be a place of solace for
him, is now not. And he's very tired. He finds
there is no rest under the wrath of God, and
in addition, he's growing weak of all of his
many foes. Now this psalm is certainly one of
tears, at least up until this point. And in this
life, in the lives that each and every one of
us will live, there are many seasons that we
will weep many tears. There's times where we
will say goodbye to loved ones. We stand at the
graveside with the hope that we have in the resurrection
of Christ. There's times of sickness and disease
that we'll stand in the doctor's office and get
very hard reports and bad news. There's times
that we stand around. The bedside in a nursing
home when things look very bleak. There's times
of personal tragedy, not just in our lives, but
in the lives of other believers here and friends
that we just have even outside the church. We
walk through with them and we weep many tears
as we struggle to navigate the circumstances
of life. There are times when a man and woman
are married together and they have such a strong
desire to have children and yet they battle infertility.
For years. And they do it normally in private
and in isolation. And it's so very hard as they
want children so bad and yet struggle with infertility.
There's times that we weep tears over broken
relationships in our lives, broken friendships,
disappointments of circumstances and people.
But friends, in all this sorrow, we see in this
particular passage that we're seeing, David is
genuinely repentant. And in genuine repentance,
There is true peace. But in that genuineness,
we have an onus to unload our burdens to God.
When we find ourselves in these seasons of sorrow
and hardship and tragedy, we cannot allow ourselves
to try to bear it up on our own. That's our natural
inclination. In our flesh, it is do better, try
harder. I've got this. I can do this. And you
do not. I do not. None of us are equipped to
carry the struggles that come with this life
of brokenness. We have the privilege and the
access and the advocacy of Jesus Christ the righteous.
Once Christ ascended back into heaven, He was
seated at the right hand of the Father. The Scriptures
would tell us day and night, right now, He advocates
for those who are His, for believers. And friends,
when we are suffering, we cannot give in to the
desires and the leanings of our natural man,
our flesh, we would say, to grow cold. That is
the natural, to grow cold, to begin to drift,
to move ourselves into isolation, to seek some
sort of self -help. When we feel overburdened,
when we feel convicted, when we feel like life
circumstances are too much, we must abide. When
we don't feel like it, abide. When it hurts,
abide. When we have nowhere else left to turn,
we abide in God. Christ. He is the only place
of refuge. He is the only place of shelter to
which believers can run. When we're struggling,
we are tempted to look right, to look left, to
look for help all over, and the only place we
can truly go for help and reprieve is up. God
is the only one who is prepared to deal with
the troubles of this life because His Son experienced
them in every single point. And in that, we are
never alone. We want to look left, we want to
look right, but we look up. to the one who all
good things come from. David's very vulnerable
here, to the point that he says his eyes waste
away because of grief. He's pouring out his soul
near to the Lord. He speaks of his own weakness,
which is a very humble point that we must all
get to if we pour ourselves out before the Lord.
Then there's a shift here, and he speaks also
of his many foes. Christopher Ashe again. David
speaks here in anticipation. But as we look to
Christ in this psalm, Jesus in fulfillment endures
the deepest grief known to humankind. For he
understands the hostility of his enemies is at
the same time the expression of the wrath of
God falling on him. And in this is the paradox
of the psalm. One will not be resolved until
centuries later. Number three, heard and accepted.
Read verses 8 through 10 here. David says, Depart
from me, all you workers of iniquity. For the
Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord
has heard my supplication. The Lord will receive
my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and
greatly troubled. Let them turn back and be ashamed
suddenly. Now church, we've seen a big shift
here. from the end of verse 7 to the way verse
8 starts, every psalm of lament will conclude
with confidence, a renewed confidence, not in
David's strength, but in the strength of his
Lord, the one that he has now prayed to. And
we see this dramatic shift. The king is almost
a new person here, as it were. And he speaks
with a resolute voice. The weeping is over. The
sorrow is over. And he commands all evildoers
that are around him to leave. He says, depart
from me, all you workers of evil. But we hear
something deeper here if we really look within
the text. We hear the voice of a man. whose prayers
God has heard. His confidence is based on three
things. First of all, the assurance that the
covenant Lord has heard the sound of his weeping.
Secondly, that God has heard his pleas and his
humble cries. And thirdly, that his prayer has
been heard by God Almighty. The king has wept
over his sins. But we too in Christ may be confident
that God hears our prayers. And church, that
is no small thing. Why then do we find ourselves
when we're in the midst of sorrow, grief, and
anxiety? Why do we pray? Why then do we run to
Christ? Because as David said, his plea was heard
and accepted. We have the gift of prayer if we
are a believer in Christ, if we are someone who
has came to faith and trusted Him as Savior.
But prayer is much more than just asking for
and getting things. Prayer at its most basic
level is communication with a holy, righteous
God. And I would say let's take it one step further.
Prayer is communion with a holy, righteous God.
Down through the ages of history, prayer is how
men and women have sought the face of God. the
only one who can hear and accept our prayers.
Why then do we run to Christ? Because it is through
Christ that we have access to the throne room
of heaven. It is through Christ that we have
advocacy to the Father. And because He was the
man of sorrows and can resonate with His people.
Isaiah would put it this way in Isaiah 53, speaking
of our Lord Jesus Christ, He was despised and
rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we did not esteem
him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten,
and afflicted by God. Church, we can know. That
the Lord is with us moment by moment because
He sent His own Son to walk through this world's
sorrows. Why? Why did God do this? Why was it
that Christ had to suffer in such a way so that
the full wrath of God could be poured out against
sin and be satisfied? Christ, who came to this
earth, lived as the God -man, 100 % God, 100
% man, yet without sin. No transgressions at
any point. Paul would write, the one who knew
no sin took on sin, became sin for us, for those
who were sinners. When Christ was on the cross,
He did not become a sinner at that point, but
He carried the sins. The weight of those sins
were placed upon Him at that time, and He bore
them, not for His sake, but for our sins. For
all those, it was a definite atonement for all
those who would ever come to faith in Christ.
That is why our Savior died. And if we are not
careful, we can almost become too comfortable
with the crucifixion of Christ. We need to make
it very personal and understand that it was my
sin. that drove Him to the cross. It was my sin
that was on each nail print in His hand, the
spear wound in His side. Christ had nothing to
pay for. He was sinless. He was perfect. He was
God in... It would have been against his holy
nature to have sinned. And those nail prints
that are in his hands right now and will be there
through eternity as a proof of purchase for his
bride were because of me and all who had ever
come to faith in Christ. Nothing of his. He bore
that wrath, the full wrath of God, the full weight
of it as the Father turned his back. on his son
and for the one and only time in redemptive history
there was a break where the father turned his
back on the son on the cross why because god
could not look upon sin but yet christ took it
to the full measure he carried the weight of
my burdens he stood in the garden he sweat draped
great drops of blood and he hung on the cross
not because he had to but because of his love
for you and i and all that would come Friends,
we should never get too comfortable with the
cross because we were the ones who drove the
nails. And it was for us that that blood had
to be shed, that an atonement had to be made.
Every word that came out, everything against
our Lord, even the spear wound in His side because
of His love for us. Lest we never forget it.
And Christ dealt with that sorrow and that pain
until He would look up and say, It is finished.
Not for a little while. Then... and forever.
It was a grand design that through this atonement
made by the Son that we might now bring our complaints,
our griefs, and our afflictions to God in Jesus'
name. And we know for certain that the Lord has
heard our pleas and He has accepted our prayers.
There's great peace in that. Does that mean that
God is going to answer every prayer I ever pray?
No, it does not. But does it mean that He's going
to hear every prayer that I ever pray? Yes, He
hears the prayers of those who are His. And there
is great peace in that. And there is great comfort
in that. When I don't know what to do and I am
overcome and we are overwhelmed, that we have
access through Jesus Christ. That's why we pray
in Jesus' name. It is not a formality. We pray
in His name because He is our advocate and our
mediator to the Father. In 1 John 5, John would
put it this way, Now this is the confidence that
we have in Him, that if we ask anything according
to His will, He hears us. And if we know that
He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Church, this is certainly not an original thought,
but it has long been said that one of the greatest
gifts of a believer of Christ is the ability
to pray and that God would hear the prayers.
of His children. And while that is true, it is
also true that that is one of the most underutilized
gifts that we have. How many times do we try
to carry our burdens and we try to carry all
these things instead of just taking them to the
Lord? Christ has already died for them. He's
already carried our burdens, our sorrows, our
griefs. Take them to Him. When we go to God in
prayer church, we have confidence. that He hears
our prayers. It is not a hope -so thing of maybe
it got there. No. Find great confidence in this
psalm. If you are a child of God, your prayer
has been heard and accepted. Church, we are granted
grace and peace through these prayers that we
pray. When we walk through the dark valleys,
and there are many in this life, we need one
thing, and that is God alone. It is his mercies
that are new every morning as we read from Lamentations.
And it is Christ who we find the ultimate source
as grace and peace. We have great confidence,
but only if we are those who weep for our sins
because it is the hatred of sin that is the inseparable
mark of the repentant spirit. Thomas Watson would
say, until sin be bitter, Christ will not be
sweet. We must lament one to love the other.
So now what? So how do we live in light of going
through this text this morning? Church, it is
my sincere hope to the saints that are gathered
here at Kitts Hill that you find great encouragement
in Psalm 6. And while it's been filled with tears
and it's been filled with sorrow and distress
and grief and bereavement and anxiety, we do
see great confidence here. We see a portrait
of David weeping on his couch. But where does
he go in such great distress? What example have
we been given this morning in the Scriptures?
He doesn't look beside him. He doesn't even look
internally to all of the great resources he would
have had as the king over all Israel. He looks
up. And he goes to the Lord, even while feeling
the wrath that he says is all around him. He's
beset on every side amidst the storms of life
that he felt. David does not try to do better.
He does not work harder. He looks to the Lord
of mercy. And church, we must do the same. We
must feel the freedom to unload the burdens of
our heart to a holy, righteous God in prayer.
When things come up in our lives, we cannot just
grumble at them. We cannot internalize them.
We certainly can't be naive or in denial about
them. Being stoic isn't good either. We must
take them to God who reigns supreme, the only
one who has the power to intervene in our circumstances.
When times are hard, when we get into those deep,
dark valleys of life, we must abide in Christ.
Why? Because nothing else will do. When we are
weary, when we are tired, When our bed, a place
that was once a place of resting, has been taken
from us, now there's no rest left in it, run
to Christ. David poses the question, how long?
How long will things be hard? There are hard
days and hard seasons in this life, but they
are so short in light of eternity. In hope, day
by day, we abide for the eternal joy that is
set before us. The whole of the Old Testament
is a shadow. pointing to one greater, one to
come. And everything that the Old Testament was
in word, Christ fulfilled in substance. We long,
as the people of God, for final separation from
evil. From the final separation of sin and death
and sickness and all the things that plague us
here in this life. And there's a deep longing
in every believer for this to be resolved. You
say, who will do it? Christ. The one in whom
we abide will be the one to bring these things
to a resolution because, church, there is coming
a day where Christ will banish evil, sin, sickness,
and death forever. And on that glad and glorious
day, we may take comfort. Only then will we be
truly freed from sin and all of its entanglements
and the burden and the sorrows that we feel in
this life, all who are descendants of Adam. Each
and every one of us are guilty in the eyes of
a holy God, but through Christ, the one who wept
for sins, we will be ultimately delivered from
this estate. Christ will one day gather into
his kingdom every man, woman, and child who has
been grieved by their sins and called out to
the Lord for repentance. Church, it is to Him
we run. It is to Him we cling. In this psalm,
we see that God is good. We see that God is faithful.
And we see that He is a God that can be trusted.
That in times of despair... No matter what they
may be, we are admonished to run to his dear
son, to run and find the man of sorrows, the
one who can resonate with our circumstances because
he has felt every human emotion. We run to the
Lord Jesus Christ because he is one who understands
and he is one who cares. He is the redeemer and
lover of our souls now and forever. Amen. Church,
when we feel that weight, let it drive us to
Christ. We cannot give in to our yearnings to
be isolated. Let us abide in Christ regardless
of how we feel. He is the lover and redeemer
of our souls. Let us cling to Him. Amen? Amen.
Good for me, I pray it was good for you this
morning as we don't get into that book of Psalms
very often, but it was the hymn book and the
prayer book of Israel for hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of years, and it is good for us
to get into that book and read what men who were
divinely inspired wrote and also how we see Christ
in each and every psalm as well. We'll take this
moment to go ahead and transition to a time of
communion. We'll have our deacons go ahead and
come at this time, if they will, and prepare
the table as the junior church is coming back
in. As we transition to the table, we would want
to say that this is...