12/22/2011 9:18:18 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Psalm 6 PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 6
Message of the verses: “1 ¶ «For the choir director; with stringed instruments, upon an eight-string lyre. A Psalm of David.» O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. 2 Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away; Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed. 3 And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O LORD-how long? 4 Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. 5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? 6 I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. 7 My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.
“8 ¶ Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my supplication, The LORD receives my prayer. 10 All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.”
It is not clear as to when David wrote this psalm, but in the psalm we see that David is ill and thinks that he will soon die. I think that is one of the beauties of the book of Psalms, in that whatever a person seems to be feeling there seems to be a psalm that will help.
The Pain of Discipline (vv.1-3): We see verse one of this psalm repeated in verse on of psalm 38, and it has to do with discipline. We also see David using the covenant name for God in this psalm eight times, “Lord” which is Jehovah.
Dr. Wiersbe points out that God usually rebukes His children and then disciplines them when needed, but it is that of a loving father as seen in Hebrews 12:5-6 and also in Proverbs 3:11-12. The idea of this chastening from the Lord is always to bring them back into fellowship with God.
We see in this psalm that David was sick, and he was surrounded by his foes, who were evil doers and his enemies. He was weak from the sickness and when you put all of this together you will see that David felt that God was surely mad at him because of the circumstances that he found himself in. Let us look at verses 2-3 in the KJV, “2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?” The highlighted word vexed is also used in John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.” This word vexed, when put into the Septuagint (The Greek translation of the OT) is the same word as in John 12:27, and this was very close to when the Lord would go to the cross.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that the words “How long” are seen at least 16 times in the Psalms and he says the answer to that question is “I will discipline you until you learn the lesson I want you to learn and are equipped for the work I want you to do.”
The futility of Death (vv. 4-5): “? 4 Return, O LORD, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. 5 For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks?”
We see in verse five that David is asking the Lord to return to him so David must have felt that the Lord had gone away from him, that there was not the fellowship with the Lord that there had been before the incident that David was writing about in this psalm. David knew that the Lord was merciful as most Jews knew for we see in Exodus 34:6-7 “"The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.”
In the NASB we see the word Sheol, and this is speaking of the place of the dead, and David is saying that he could not praise the Lord from the place of the dead, so David wants the Lord to heal him. This is a similar prayer that Hezekiah prayed when he was about to die and God answered his prayer and gave him 15 more years to live.
In the OT times there was not as much known about the afterlife as we know now since the Lord Jesus has come and conquered death for all of His own. We know that absence from the body is present with the Lord, but this was not known then. We see in the parable that Jesus spoke about the rich man and Lazarus that the dead in the OT times went to a place called Abraham’s bosom, “Lu 16:22 "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.” Some believe that when Jesus was resurrected from the grave that he brought all of the OT saints with Him to heaven, and others think that Abraham’s bosom was actually heaven.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can understand the feeling that David thought God was mad at him, but you can’t always go by your feelings. Job felt the same way as we learned when going through the book of Job. The Bible says that God will never leave us or forsake us, and that is a great promise. We can however loose fellowship with the Lord by sinning and not confessing that sin. This is something I do not desire to do, for fellowship with the Lord is necessary for our growth and maturity in our walk with God. We can learn what it is that God desires for us to accomplish for Him that will give Him glory through these accomplishments. Psalm 139:23-24 are essential in our walk with the Lord, for we surely need the Holy Spirit to search our hearts for sins that we may be harboring in our hearts.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Psalm 139:23-24
2. Romans 12:1-2
3. Phil. 4:11b
4. Proverbs 3:5-6
12/22/2011 10:10:56 AM
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