(Audio version; Music: "Finding My Joy...Again" (by Jessica Tozer)--WorshipMob Original--Real. Live. Music.)
Introduction
I want to
confess right away that I stole the title for this lesson from a book by the
same title from one of my favorite authors, Max Lucado. In the book, Max tells
the story of Chippie that I would like to share with you.
“Chippie the parakeet never saw it
coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was
sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie’s
owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the
attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang,
and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said ‘hello’ when ‘ssopp!’ Chippie
got sucked in.
The bird owner gasped, put down the
phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie—still
alive, but stunned.
Since the bird was covered with dust
and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and
held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked
and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do…she reached
for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
Poor Chippie never knew what hit
him.
A few days after the trauma, the
reporter who’d initially written about the event contacted Chippie’s owner to
see how the bird was recovering. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘Chippie doesn’t sing much
anymore—he just sits and stares.’
It’s hard not to see why. Sucked in,
washed up, and blown over…that’s enough to steal the song from the stoutest
heart.”[1]
I’m sure
that some of you got a big laugh out of that short story, but not all of you. Some
of you are just sitting there staring at these words. You can’t laugh anymore,
you have only tears, and you’ve lost your voice from crying out day and night
in pain. So now you’re like Chippie—you sit and stare; no more joy; no more
singing. I know you. I’ve been you. Life seems perfect and then comes that day
when the military chaplain shows up at your door to tell you that your son’s
been killed. The police show up at your door to tell you that your daughter’s
been killed in a car accident. The doctor walks in and says it’s cancer and
you’d better get your affairs in order. You watched Muslims butcher your family
in front of you. Your boss says he’s sorry but cuts had to be made and you
didn’t make the cut. You realize that your marriage is barely surviving and
your spouse doesn’t seem to care. We find ourselves sitting and staring,
feeling like the life has been sucked out of us; like we’re drowning in pain
and sorrow; like we’re being blasted by a wind that feels like it is trying to
cut out our soul with a dull knife. You’re trying to do life but all you can
manage to do is just put one foot in front of the other or just sit and stare.
Life for you is no longer something to embrace, it’s become something to endure
as the storm clouds around you grow darker and darker with each passing day.
You can’t figure out where to turn, what to do next, how to get out. You are In The Eye Of The Storm and your only
hope is to lash your life to God who is immovable until the storm passes—and it
will pass one way or another.
One of the
great things about the Bible is the transparency of the characters it portrays.
Life is rarely filled with rainbows and butterflies for the prominent
characters of the Bible. For example, David experienced withering storms during
his life and he recorded his joy, fear, pain, and sorrow for us in the Book of
Psalms where he is also transparent about his doubts about God and his faith in
God.
Subject Text
Psalm 6
1O LORD, do not rebuke
me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2Be
merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal
me, for my bones are in agony. 3My soul
is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? 4Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. 5No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you
from the grave? 6I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with
weeping and drench my couch with tears. 7My
eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. 8Away
from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has
heard my weeping. 9The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer. 10All my enemies will be ashamed and
dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.
Context
Psalm 6 is
traditionally understood to be one of six penitential Psalms. One of the
difficulties of the Psalms is trying to establish their context because each
Psalm is separate as opposed to a running narrative. Some of the Psalms are
hymns and are meant to be sung. However, many of the Psalms are prayers except
that the person offering the prayer doesn’t generally give us the specific
reasons for the prayer. Consequently, the best we can do is take a look at the
life of the one offering the prayer, in this case David, and try to understand
this Psalm within the context of some of the events that surrounded his life.
When we understand those events, we might get sense of why he was praying. The
prophet Samuel anointed David as Israel’s king when he was ten years old
according to the historian Josephus but most theologians and historians believe
he was fifteen when he was anointed by Samuel. Unfortunately, Saul was still
the official king at the time and even though he no longer enjoyed God’s
endorsement because of his continued unfaithfulness, he wasn’t about to
relinquish his throne to David. In fact, Saul made countless attempts to kill
David. David spent many days hiding from Saul who was slowly going mad trying
to cling to a throne that no longer belonged to him and an authority that was
no long endorsed by God. Consequently, David wouldn’t take his rightful place
as Israel’s king for 13 to 15 years after being anointed. However, even though
our Subject Text references
“enemies,” I don’t believe this prayer was offered exclusively in the face of
opposition. Specifically because David makes reference to God’s “rebuke.”
Consequently, it appears that David is also laboring under the consequences of
some unnamed sin. Some even suggest that David is battling with some kind of
illness, which is entirely possible. Nevertheless, even though we know David
best as a “man after God’s own heart,” we also know him as the man who seduced
and slept with another man’s wife. Lurking in the shadows behind this anointed
king of Israel and towering man of God is the story of David and Bathsheba, the
wife of a Uriah, a man in David’s army. When we read the story of David’s
affair with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 in English we miss some of the gravity
that is conveyed in the Hebrew. The English makes it sound a little like a love
story at best or an illicit affair at worst but the Hebrew tells a far
different story. The Hebrew makes clear that David raped Bathsheba. Apologists
for David don’t want to admit it but it’s right there in the Hebrew and we have
to face it just like David had to face it. And in case that wasn’t bad enough,
David had Uriah assigned to the front lines of the battle to insure that he
would be killed. As hard as it is to admit, the accurate picture of David is a
man of God who raped a woman and had her husband killed. David wasn’t rejected
by God, like Saul was rejected by God, because David confessed his sins and
repented of them and turned to God for forgiveness. Although God forgave him,
David labored under the consequences of his sins for the rest of his life. I
believe that in addition to constantly facing opposition from his enemies, both
internally and externally, David is living with the consequences of some
unidentified sin as well as maybe even some illness. This is possibly part of
the background and context of our Subject
Text.
Text Analysis
1O LORD, do not rebuke
me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
As a dad,
one of the things I learned in disciplining my own children is to do so under
control and with a clear mind. David knows how abhorrent sin is to God but he
appeals to God not to treat him in a state of wrath even though he knows that
God would be justified in doing so. I know that nothing melted my heart more
than when one of my daughters confessed a mistake and asked for forgiveness.
There were still consequences for the mistake but sentencing was far more
painful for me than it was for them. God isn’t waiting in the bushes for us to
fail so that he can pounce on us with judgment and discipline. God is
constantly guiding and instructing us so that we can avoid the pitfalls of sin.
Nevertheless, God cannot simply ignore the sins we inevitably swerve into.
However, God takes no pleasure in disciplining us when we sin (Eze 18:32) even
though He does it. David isn’t asking God to close His eyes to sin but is
asking God to have mercy on him. David’s character as a man after God’s own
heart is not defined by his mistakes but by his willingness to be guided and
instructed by God. The Hebrew word that is translated by the NIV as “rebuke” in
v. 1 is intended to convey the idea of
correction and not condemnation. It “means…‘show the right way,’ notably in
texts that are concerned with instruction; it is often parallel to…discipline.
This is especially the case where the subject has both the insight and the
authority to address one for faulty behavior. A key role of the wise instructor
is to reprove a student in order to develop that one’s character. A discerning student,
realizing that reproof is essential for learning, loves the teacher who
reproves judiciously. Indeed, those who offer wise, judicious reproof to one
who is receptive are highly regarded; their value to the community is
comparable to that of gold jewelry. That is why one psalmist prays that he may
be reproved, set right, by a righteous person. Conversely, the self-centered,
i.e. fools, not only do not like to receive reproof, they hate and may even
harm the one who offers reproof. Yahweh, like a father, reproves those he
loves. In the dynastic covenant Yahweh made with David, he promised to rebuke
with a human rod any of his descendants on the throne who would break the
covenant. Responding to iniquity, God disciplines one of his followers with
numerous reproofs, including pains of a serious illness, in order to have that
one change from harmful ways. The person receiving God’s correction is
considered blessed. Nevertheless, since God’s reproof can be severe, one might
earnestly ask God not to reprove by his anger.”[2]
2Be
merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in
agony. 3My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? 4Turn,
O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.
Nothing
moves the heart of a parent more than the sincere pleas from their child for
help and relief. Of course no child likes to be disciplined at the time but
it’s the latent consequences that can be so painful. This is why we, as
parents, discipline our children as they grow up for even minor offenses.
Specifically, at least in my case, we know how painful the consequences can be
for more serious offenses. Some consequences are relatively short-termed while
others could last a lifetime. For example, while intoxicated you may say
something foolish or embarrass yourself in front of a group of people. Later,
you may have to apologize, either publicly or privately, for your behavior. The
consequences are that you might not be included as a guest to any parties for a
while but eventually people forget and life returns to normal. However, what if
while intoxicated, you get behind the wheel of a car and kill a father, or a
mother, or a child, or maybe even an entire family? I promise that the
consequences for that will never go away for you or for anyone else affected by
the accident. There may be forgiveness for the mistake but relief from the
consequences may prove to be elusive. In vv.
2-4, David is expressing the deep anguish he is enduring and he is pleading
with God for relief by appealing to some of God’s character traits—mercy and
endless love. Some of you know this pain, you know the anguish and the sorrow
because you’re living it. And in some cases, it is self-inflicted because of your
own sin. At other times we suffer the consequences of someone else’s sin or
because of no specific sin but because of some injury or illness. We might
endure it for a while because we know we deserve it or can’t do anything
ourselves about it but eventually, even the strongest among us craves relief. We
beg God to notice us; to turn to us, and acknowledge our anguish. We’re
convinced that if God only knew how much we are suffering, He would do
something about it. I know that sounds strange considering God knows everything
and sees everything, but this is one of the characteristics that comes with
severe anguish—the feeling of being forgotten, even by God. “Maybe your husband
has left you. Or maybe your wife. ‘God, what are you doing to me?’ you are
asking. ‘What have I done?’ Maybe you have gotten very sick [and]…You do not
know whether God is punishing you for some sin or trying to develop character
in you by the things you are suffering. Paul wrote, ‘we know that suffering
produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope’ (Rom 5:3-4).
That may be it. But how do you know? And what does it matter as long as you are
feeling downcast as you are? All you want is that God should hear you and
relieve your distress, if that is possible…A sense of being disproved of by an
angry God is bad enough, but sometimes in our depression things seem even worse
than this. What if God should not even be present? Suppose he has turned away
from us or withdrawn himself?...It may help to remember that these words were
written, not by some unsuccessful or weak person naturally inclined to
depression, but by King David. If anyone was ever strong or successful, it was
he. Yet sometimes, it would seem, the strong in particular have this problem…If
you have been long in such a condition, you will know the feeling of utter
weariness and fatigue that David describes…In times like these we feel that we are
too tired to do those many countless things that urgently need to be done. We
are
·
too tired to get out of bed and get dressed
·
too worn out to get into the car and go to work
·
to exhausted to get the kids off to school
·
too weary to clean the house
·
too depressed to go to church
·
too burdened to read the Bible
·
too sluggish even to pray
Perhaps the only thing you can pray
is the prayer David utters in verse 3: ‘How long, O Lord, how long?’…If there
is a turning point in this psalm, this is certainly it. It is when David,
whether by training, habit, or sheer discipline, called upon the name of the
Lord. Learn from David at this point. In times of victory, call upon God.
Praise him. In times of defeat, call upon God. Ask for help. In times of
temptation, call upon God. Seek deliverance. In the dark night of the soul,
call upon God. Request light. God is our pathway through the darkness. He is
our one sure hope in life and in death. He is our hope even when we are unaware
of his presence.”[3]
5No one remembers you
when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?
I want to
address v. 5 separately for a number
of reasons. It divides the psalm in half structurally but also between the
presumed causes for David’s distress. In the verses the precede v. 5 David is laboring with the
consequences of either his sin, someone else’s sin, or maybe even because of
some unknown illness. In the verses following v. 5, David reveals that part of his struggle is the result of
attacks from those who oppose him. However, the main reason I want to address v. 5 separately is because it is real.
And by real I mean I’ve used this approach with God countless times. Haven’t
you? What good is going to school and working hard if I can’t do better in
class? What good is having a job if I’m treated like garbage every day? Why did
you lead me to marriage just so my spouse could abuse me or even leave me? What’s
the point of trying to be a faithful ministry leader if no one is following? We
bargain with God in the same way that David is bargaining with God. Do you want
to know what David is saying here? ‘God, you’re darn lucky to have me as a king
and if you don’t do something to help me out here then who could you possibly
find to replace me.’ David is saying that somehow God would be less God if we
weren’t around to praise Him. I’m not trying to be critical of David, I have
been in this place. Pain and sorrow have a way of distorting our perception of
reality. Instead of understanding David’s words as the words of an arrogant
king, understand them as the words of a desperate man in unrelenting pain
resulting from the circumstances of his life. Pain and struggle can keep us
from relating to God in ways other than how we were meant to relate to Him. We
were meant to relate to God with a spirit of praise and worship. However, “if,
as the psalmist suggests, the chief role of humans is to remember and praise
God, how is it possible to do that in the midst of personal pain and suffering?
It is especially difficult when all the voices around us undermine our
confidence—either with words that are too negative or with those that are too
positive.”[4]
6I am worn out from
groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with
tears. 7My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my
foes.
I have been
through times in my life when I have been so exhausted that I could barely put
two cogent thoughts together. Do you want to know the worst times of day?
Nighttime. At least during the day I could drown out my struggles with noise
and activity. But not at night; when it came time to sleep, the storms of life
seemed to rage the strongest. Pain and sorrow chased sleep away and often in
its place left tears—tears of pain, tears of sorrow, tears of fear, tears of
guilt, tears of regret, tears of anger. Often where words fail; where prayers
are nothing more than primal groans, tears are never in short supply. In vv. 6-7 the picture that David paints
of his deep anguish is graphic when he says his bed is flooded from another
night of endless weeping. What David is saying is equivalent to the English
idiom, “I’m crying my eyes out.” It is clearly intended to be hyperbole but it
doesn’t seem that way to some of you who feel like your drowning in tears.
David reveals that part of his sorrow is the result of being relentlessly
pursued by his enemies. It can be hard to relate to David in this respect
because we exert significant energy trying not to make enemies. But for a Christian,
there is a reason that Jesus says we are to take up our cross every day and
follow Him. Christians have enemies—enemies who want to silence their witness;
enemies who want them to compromise their character; enemies who want them to
renounce their confession; enemies who, in some cases, want to kill them. The
relentless physical, mental, and emotional onslaught by enemies can be
exhausting; exhausting to the point of just wanting to give up. David was at the
breaking point when he says that his eyes were growing week and failing because
of the persistent attacks by his enemies. Because of his anguish and sorrow,
David is exhausted yet rest eluded him as it so often does for so many of us
when there is nothing left but tears. “As for most sufferers, it was in the
long watches of the night, when silence and loneliness increase and the warmth
of human companionship is absent, that the pain and the grief reached their
darkest point. It is possible that this psalm reflects the time of morning
prayer, when the memory of the long night was still vivid and the thought of
another night was appalling.”[5]
There is a
radical shift in David’s attitude and outlook in vv. 8-10. This is the David that is so familiar to us. To this
point we witnessed a man in pain and anguish; a man who has been beaten down by
life; a man who has hit rock bottom. Life at the bottom can be lonely and
miserable. And to this point David has been looking up from the bottom calling
to God for help and wondering how long he would have to endure the misery while
God seemed silent and unmoved. But now we see a very different man, we see the
young man who courageously struck down a fierce giant with just five smooth
stones and a sling. That David called on God to be his courage and strength and
he succeed where hardened military fighters quivered in fear inside their
tents. Here again we see a courageous David who acknowledges that God has heard
his cries for help and has granted him a reprieve from his anguish. The sight
of a renewed David discouraged his enemies and sent them scurrying much like the
Philistine army ran in fear when David displayed the severed head of their
leader Goliath for them to consider. Many of you know the feeling of renewal
after a long season of constant pain, sorrow, and disappointment, when it seems
that God has finally answered your prayers and provided much needed relief. “Despite
the signs of long delay, Yahweh does hear the psalmist’s plea and will deliver
him…The psalmist returns to the enemies with confidence that they will be
ashamed by being proven wrong. Yahweh will deliver the psalmist, and the
opponents will receive a public comeuppance…As a result of Yahweh’s faithfulness,
the enemies will not be defeated or destroyed, instead, they will be ashamed
and dismayed and made to withdraw in sudden disgrace…The psalmist’s rejection
of the evildoers is not so much a rejection of them as it is a refusal to
accept their negative message. Their resultant shame and dismay affirm Yahweh’s
power and will to save in the face of prolonged suffering and divine silence.”[6]
Application
It would be
wrong to characterize pain, suffering, or persecution as “good” even though God
can use any of it for our ultimate good and to accomplish His will. To do that
is to diminish the sense of wrongness we intuitively know exists in the world. There
is nothing noble or courageous about ignoring or refusing to admit we are
suffering for some reason. That isn’t a godly response to pain and suffering.
Instead, a godly response is to cry out to God and seek Him in our suffering.
If there is anything good about pain and suffering, it is that it forces us to
rely desperately on God’s mercy and love. I have counseled two kinds of people
experiencing wild and raging storms in their respective lives. One tries to
understand God while being battered by the storms of life yet he isn’t willing
to commit to anchor his life to God and the other has his life firmly lashed to
God as his rock. Both suffer terribly during the storm but only one usually
survives the storm—the one whose lifeline was anchored to God while the other
is blown from one storm to the next still trying to understand God in the midst
of each storm. Here’s something I can promise you will experience in this
life—storms! We tend to think that “other people” have their life figured out
because they always seem to be living under blue skies and sunshine. But don’t
let appearances deceive you. Most people have an uncanny ability to hide the
storms that pummel their lives. Everyone, at some point, will find themselves
in the middle of some violent storm; the death of someone close; severe
illness; marriage infidelity; substance abuse by a child; financial collapse,
or some moral failure on our own part or on the part of someone else. The only
thing that will be important during those days is being certain that our lives
are firmly anchored to God. I was talking to a friend recently who is in the
midst of just such a violent storm and he asked me a great question. He asked,
“What if this isn’t just a season of my life? What if this is my life?” I’m
sure he knew I didn’t have an answer to that question and I’m not even sure the
question was directed at me. I wonder if what he was really asking was, “How
long, O Lord, how long?” It’s a question that only God can answer and I’m
thankful that my friend has anchored his life to God who is an immoveable rock.
Do you want to know how I know that? He said something very revealing to me
this week when he said, “On days when my heart can’t sing, it will hum.” Unlike
Chippie who simply sat and stared after being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner,
held under a running faucet to get cleaned up and then dried off with a hair dryer,
we have an opportunity to sing or hum to God even while we are In The Eye Of The Storm.
Remember
that the Psalms are not a running narrative. Instead, they are prayers or
hymns. I am well aware that during the storms of life, it can be almost impossible
to utter a word of prayer. Our thoughts are jumbled; our emotions are raw;
every part of our body groans in pain. At that point all we’re hoping to do is
make it to tomorrow. This is where the Psalms can play a vital role in helping
us endure the tempest that rages all around us. Let the Psalms, whether this
one or some other one, be your personal prayer. That’s why they are included in
the Bible. When you can’t bring yourself to read any other parts of the Bible,
the Psalms can become your voice. The psalmist’s cries become your own and the
psalmist’s tears mix with yours. The Psalms can be a cherished companion during
the lonely and dark days and nights In
The Eye Of The Storm.
[1]
Max Lucado, In The Eye Of The Storm,
(Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1991), p. 11.
[2]
Willem A. VanGemeren, gen. ed., New
International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Vol. 2,
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), pp. 443-444.
[3]
James Mongomery Boice, Psalms, Vol.
1, Psalms 1-41, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994), pp. 53-55.
[4]
Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms, Vol. 1—The
NIV Applicaation Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p. 186.
[5]
Peter C. Craigie and Marvin E. Tate, Psalms
1-50—Word Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), pp.
93-94.
[6]
Wilson, Psalms, Vol. 1, pp. 182; 185.
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