Psalm 6

Amen.

Psalm 6: David’s Penitential Prayer and the Problem of Unconfessed Sin

Please take out your Bibles and open them with me to Psalm number six, the sixth psalm. Psalm number six, these are the words of God. To the chief musician with stringed instruments on an eight-stringed harp, a psalm of David.

Oh Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, oh Lord, for I am weak. Oh Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, oh Lord, how long? Return, oh Lord, deliver me. Oh, save me for your mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of you. In the grave, who will give you thanks? I am weary with my groaning.

All night I make my bed swim. I drench my couch with my tears. My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my enemies. 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. Let us pray. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, as your unworthy servants, we give you most humble and heartfelt thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people.

We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all, for your precious love and the redemption of the world by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the means of grace and for the hope of glory.

And we pray that you would give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be sincerely thankful, and that we may show forth your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, we all honor and glory, world without end.

Amen.

Please be seated. When we pick up our consideration of the Psalms, and today we come to Psalm 6, and you may remember when we first started this a little over a year ago, that there were several reasons that we gave to consider the Psalms.

Although we sing them every week, this book is rarely preached through. And so we wanted to pick this up and go through these things, and there were several good reasons also for doing this. For one, that the attributes of God are clearly shown in the Psalms.

Who God is, what his character is, and what he expects can be seen. But also, our true condition can be seen, who we really are, especially in relation to those attributes of God. But also, how we may approach God, how we may pray and conduct our lives, and this particular Psalm is an example of how we may approach God, or how we should conduct our life.

Particularly, this is a penitential Psalm, the first of several in the book of Psalms. A penitential Psalm expresses our sorrow for our sin. It expresses our humiliation due to sin, and our hatred of sin.

All of which are marks of a broken and contrite spirit. Psalm 51, 17 says that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, oh God, you will not despise. But God does not leave us with a broken heart.

He says in Psalm 147, three, that God heals the broken hearted, for those who truly mourn for their sins. Likewise, we are told that one of the primary or particular missions of our Lord Jesus Christ is to heal the broken hearted.

We have in Isaiah 61, one, he that is God the Father sent me that is God the Son, to heal the broken hearted. Now, this Psalm deals with sin. One man suggested that a proper title for this sin would be the conquering power of this Psalm, rather.

It would be the conquering power of confessing sin. And I think that's a good title for this Psalm. It's a good and right title. There is power in confessing our sins, and turning back to God in true repentance.

We know that the primary or chief attribute of our God is his holiness. You may remember that vision in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter six, where Isaiah enters into the throne room of God, and the angelic hosts call back and forth to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

You may remember we've talked that we have very many ways to underscore the importance of something. If we're writing, we may put it in bold or italics. If we're speaking, we may say, listen up. This is very important.

But in Hebrew, the importance was underscored through repetition. And here we have the repetition, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. But that's not all. We know that the Bible tells us in several places that God expects us to be holy.

He says, be holy, for I am holy. And we know that we are not. We have to admit that we still sin. We agree with Paul in Romans seven, where he says, even though we have been saved, we still sin. And he summarized the whole content of that chapter in verse 15, how what I am doing, I do not understand, he said, for what I will do.

And what does he will to do? He wills to be obedient to God. He wills to do the things of God. He wills to show God that love that God commands, and to do his good pleasure. But he says, that I do not practice.

But what I hate, sin, that I do. And even though we are saved by grace, even though we have been called from death to life, from darkness to light, we still sin. But what happens when the believer falls into sin?

What happens when a believer fails to acknowledge his sin? What happens when a believer fails to confess his sins? This psalm provides a picture of what happens in the life of David. The circumstances surrounding this psalm are not known.

It could apply to several events that we know about in David's life, because he was a man that sinned, and sinned greatly. But they could also apply to events in our own lives. The psalm can be broken into two parts.

The first part, verses one to seven, can be called the problem of unconfessed sin. And then verses eight through 10, the power of confessed sin. So let us take a look at this first part, the problem of unconfessed sin, and take a look at verse one.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your hot displeasure. The Lord sometimes rebukes and reproves his people by his spirit, by his words, by his ministers, or by his providences.

And when we sin, he does that on the account of that sin, to bring us to an acknowledgement of the sin, to remind us of duties forsaken, to remind us of neglect in our obedience. For boasting, or loving the enjoyment out of proportion, or sojourning in the things of this world.

These rebukes are always in love. His love for us is that he rebukes us to bring about repentance. They are not done in condemning wrath, although God is angry with our sin. Here in our psalm, David was painfully aware that what he was receiving, the trial that he was enduring, was a rebuke from God.

He was under the displeasure of God. He was under God's anger. But he pleaded, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. Again, this is not vindictive wrath. This is not punishment in the way that we would think that God will punish the sins of the wicked on the last day.

How could it be? If that were the case, then God would be unjust.

How?

He will have punished two people for the same sin, the Lord Jesus Christ and you. So it cannot mean that. But yet, it is a chastening, a correction that God is giving, loving discipline that God gives.

The underlying Hebrew word here translated chasten means to instruct and reprove and teach. As a father does with a child, our heavenly father does with his children. Chasten is an old word. Many of us know what it means, but let's define it.

It means to correct by punishment for the purpose of reclaiming the offender, to purify from errors or faults. I think that's a good word for us, that chastening that we need from God to drive us back to him.

Proverbs 13, 24 says, he who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. Time doesn't permit to dive deeply into this particular verse, but to withhold correction from a child rather than showing love, as we are often told today, actually shows the opposite.

It shows that we hate that child. In fact, not correcting a child at the moment that is required could be the most hateful thing we do to our children. But it is not so with God. God chastens his children.

He does so for our good, our spiritual good as well as our eternal good. Always in love, never in condemning wrath, but wrath that is deserving of our sin. We must remember what we read in Hebrews 12, verses five and six.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.

The chastening from the Lord is for our good. And that is what David is experiencing here. But he goes on further and says, have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

David knew that he was a sinner. Whether by original sin, that sin which we inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve, or by actual transgression, David knew that he was a sinner. And he knew that that sin deserved the hot displeasure and wrath of God.

But he also knows that he was the Lord's. Although he was a sinner, yet he was a child of God. And as a child of God, he could turn to his loving Heavenly Father for mercy. Have mercy on me, O Lord. He pleads for mercy.

Indeed, he seeks it. He flees to God for it. Through Christ, we must always remember that, that the Old Testament saints, just as the New Testament saints, were saved by Christ, for no man can come to the Father, but through the Son.

And he doesn't do so pleading his own merits. He doesn't point to any former works of righteousness or obedience that he has done. But he throws himself on the mercy of God. When I was preparing this, it reminded me of that verse from The Rock of Ages.

"'Nothing in my hands I bring. "'Simply to thy cross I cling. "'Naked come to thee for dress. "'Helpless look to thee for grace. "'Foul I to the fountain fly. "'Wash me, Savior, or I die.'". That's how we must always approach our Heavenly Father.

And that's how David does so, not pleading anything, but only trusting in God. He knows that this is the same Lord who always shows mercy. We pray this every week in the Prayer of Approach. We do not presume to come trusting in our own righteousness because we don't have any, but in his manifold and great mercies.

And David trusted in the Lord, and he came to him, and he pleaded his own weakness. He said, "'For I am weak.'". We don't have the details of what this weakness was. It may have been physical. It may have been physically weak, or it may have been spiritual, more likely both.

But he was weak. He was unable to exercise any grace, perform any duty, and had no ambition or drive. But one thing is almost certain, that he knew he was unable to make atonement for his sin. He knew he could not bear the punishment for sins.

He knew that he could not ascend the mountain of the Lord, for his hands were not clean and his heart was not pure. And he knew that he needed God to heal him. "'Heal me,' he cries out.". And this could have been from some disease.

Many think that that was the case, that David was burdened by a disease. Or it could have been the deep distress of his soul. It not only had manifested itself in weakness, but in great trouble, a feeling deep inside of trouble.

The old King James translated trouble as vexed. The Hebrew word implies an inward trembling of fear. Whether it was sickness or fear, whatever it was, it troubled him. It troubled him. He knew that he needed healing, the only healing that comes from the great physician.

And he says that my bones were troubled. I like that term. We have that in our own saying. I feel it in my bones. The bones are sometimes used to reference the entire body. Whatever was troubling him, he felt it tangibly in his body.

Sometimes bones being broken in the Bible can express a painful awareness of our sin. In Psalm 51, that psalm where David confesses his sin with Bathsheba, he says, he wants the Lord to forgive them, to make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

That is a deep pain for sin. May we feel that same deep pain in our bones, that pain and deep trouble when we sin, driving us to our Savior who always shows mercy. And we know that our Lord's mercy is great.

It tells, the Bible tells us in several places, for the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward us. He is ever-present to give mercy. But David continues, and he goes to verse three.

He says this, my soul also is greatly troubled. Not only is he feeling it bodily, but he feels it in his soul. But you, O Lord, how long? He had forfeited any inward peace. You're familiar with the Hebrew greeting shalom.

It means peace, but it means a complete and total peace. It's not just a calming down of strife around you, but inward peace, a complete peace. And David knew that he had forfeited that peace. One man said that he was thrown in complete and total consternation, which is an astonishment, an amazement, a horror that confounds the faculties and incapacitates a person for consultation or execution.

He cannot, he's in a spot where he can't be consoled and he can't be instructed. He's in total confusion. He doesn't know what to do. But he did know enough to turn to his Father in heaven. Then the sin of his transgression resulted in a way to the hiding of God's face from him.

And he felt that. This is sort of the reverse of the Aaronic blessing.

That we say.

Instead of saying, make your face to shine upon us, the Lord had turned his face from David. And that weight of that turning away was weighing on him.

He could feel it.

His soul was deeply disturbed, deeply troubled. There was even a fear of death. And we'll get to that in just a moment. So great was the way of sin on David. And he says, but you, O Lord, how long? This wasn't, he sinned five minutes ago and now is turning to God.

He has been under this hot displeasure for a time. He has been under the chastisement of the Lord for some time. And he says, Lord, how long? How much longer must I deal with this pain and vexation? With a heavy heart, aching for relief, David cried out, how long?

This feeling of anguish had persisted for a long time and David wanted relief. And he continues. He describes what that relief he is looking for. In verse four, he says this, return, O Lord. Deliver me, O save me for your mercy's sake.

The Lord had withdrawn himself from David. David felt estranged from God. He had lost fellowship with God that he enjoyed. Remember, David was called a man after God's own heart. And now he was separated from God.

And this was part of his anguish. And he entreats the Lord. He makes his earnest petition. It was like he was self-diagnosing. He considered his symptoms, his troubled body and his troubled spirit. He saw what the sin was doing to impact his spirit and he made a diagnosis and he decided to go to the great physician of our soul.

He knows what he needs the most. He knows he needs the Lord to return and deliver him. God had turned away his gracious favor from David. And David was feeling the absence of that favor. The King James renders this verse, deliver my soul.

I think that's a better rendering, although the Hebrew word implies the whole being. But David's soul was an anxious, he was in anxiety. He was in distress. He was in sore vexation. He had troubles. Workers of iniquity had surrounded him.

His enemies were at his gates. He has given himself grief and uneasiness, fear, and that even of death. But when he finally decides to turn to God, what is the reason that motivated David? Notice that David, again, does not appeal to any holiness in himself.

He knew what he had done had displeased God. He had nothing to commend himself. Notice that David doesn't appeal to his people. He's the king, after all. What would happen to them, to his people, if something happened to him?

He doesn't say that, nor does he say anything about appeal to his family or his friends, or even witnessing a good confession, although he is going to talk about that in just a moment. No, David says, oh, save me for your mercy's sake.

Deliver me, save me, give me salvation from this present ordeal. He's pleading to be free of the burdens of sin. He's pleading to have removed from him the dread and consequences of his sin for his, that is, God's mercy's sake, and he turned to the Father of mercies.

But David continues, and to describe what is happening, for, and, well, he now pleads here, sort of a reasoning with God, for in death there is no remembrance of you. In the grave, who will give you thanks?

We've seen this elsewhere in scripture, right? Here, David has death on his mind, and he is thinking, either with a dread feeling, he is thinking of death, either from the dread feeling that he has in his body.

His physical condition is such that he feels he's near to death, or from the surrounding of his enemies, or both. There is no mention of God in death, he says. David here, again, I think is reasoning with God.

Why save me, oh Lord? Why save me now? Why bring me out of this condition? Why forgive me of my sin? Rather than to kill him and have him die, he says, David says, because in death there is no praising of you.

There is no one to tell of the power of God. There is no one to tell of his faithfulness. There is no one to tell of the truth and majesty of God. Not only that, there's no observable show of the goodness of God and of his grace.

No observable show of his works and his people. These cannot be seen in dead men. A dead man is wholly useless for these things on earth. In Psalm 30, verse nine, we have this. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your truth? And we know that elsewhere in scripture that in a way the whole of creation declares the glory of God. The whole of creation praises him. But we were created in his image specifically to praise and glorify him, to worship him.

And he said, in the grave, who will give you thanks? Thanks for mercy shown. Praise for holiness and the grace of the Lord. In death, there will be no one to enter into his gates with thanksgiving or into his courts with praise.

David desires to live, but particularly to live, to praise and magnify and give thanks to the Lord, his God. This is the reason that David wants to. He wants to remind the people, as we read in Psalm 103, forget not all his benefits.

That's what he wants to do. He wants to tell his people. Who forgives all your iniquities. That's what he wants to tell about God. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your lives from destruction.

Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Who satisfies your mouth with good things. David knows that men in the grave do not do this. And David wants to be a man who lives to honor and glorify God.

But yet then David continues to describe what is happening to him. In verses six and seven, we read this. I am weary with my groaning. All night I make my bed swim. I drench my couch with my tears. My eyes waste away because of grief.

It grows old because of my enemies. David is no stoic. He's not trying to get through by keeping a stiff upper lip, as we might say. He has told us already that his body and his soul are greatly vexed.

That they're greatly troubled. That he was fearful even unto death. And now he describes what that is like for us. That he is groaning. Says, I'm weary with my groaning. This word means a deep, mournful sigh of those who are greatly troubled.

Sometimes that's all we can do. We are so overcome that all we can do is sigh and make a deep utterance. The depth of his bodily and soul vexation had driven him to tears. His crying was not minimal. He didn't shed a tear, but many.

They were so great, they were like rivers of water. That he was swimming in his grief and his sorrow. And he says, it grows old because of my enemies. His enemies were actually causing more grief for him.

Now, I don't know whether David is talking about actual people here. Enemies who have surrounded him. Enemies who are taking advantage of the situation. They see that he is sorely vexed in body. He may be actually ill.

He is greatly troubled nonetheless, and it's observable. The people around him could see it. The enemies of God are always looking for weakness to take advantage of. They, like their master the devil, are like roaring lions, seeking to whom they may devour.

But David may also be talking about the enemies of our souls, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Do we have greater enemies than these? We were once friends with these enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

They know our weaknesses. We once walked according to the course of this world, Paul tells us, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others.

And that was us, and that was David. These enemies, in his time of great sin, may be surrounding him to take advantage of his weakness with another temptation. They're ever-present, but also enemies of ours, the enemies of God, God sometimes uses as instruments for our discipline.

The Power of Confessed Sin and Separation from the World

Well, now we move into the second part of this psalm, the power of confessed sin. We read in verses eight and nine, 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. Notice the sudden change in David. Just a verse before, just a few verses before, he's greatly troubled. He's telling us he is weak, he is unable to do anything.

He's crying out to God for mercy. He is surrounded by his enemies, but now he comes and says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. He was fearful even unto death, but now he has great boldness. David had been delivered from his calamities.

He asked for deliverance, he asked for salvation, and he had received it. And with great relief, he was filled with joy, faith, comfort, and confidence. He was as bold as a lion. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

We have talked that these enemies may have been the enemies of our soul, the world, the flesh, and the devil. But here, it appears that these are actual workers of iniquity surrounding him. Human enemies, enemies like Saul or Absalom, or secret enemies, hypocritical men who are about him, always looking for a slip-up.

They always surround great men. But just a brief aside here, the believer is always surrounded by workers of iniquity, like Lot among the Sodomites, like David when he sojourned with the Philistines, like Israel and Egypt, like Isaiah with the men of unclean lips, we are sheep among goats.

Wicked men cannot be avoided. We are in this world. In order to be away from sinful men, we must leave this world. But even if we are in this world, we are not of it. We hear this all the time, do we not?

We are in the world, but not of it. But the not of it actually means something. We cannot have friendship with this world. We cannot have fellowship with it. That koinonia fellowship, meaning partakers, we cannot be partakers with the worldly.

We cannot enter into their worship practices, and we see them all over the place. Their worship practices are ever before us. We cannot enter into their liturgy, and that is also always before us. We must remember what James warns us of.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or what John writes for us in 1 John 2 .15, do not love the world or the things of the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Unless we think that that means if I love rocks and trees and beach, and so that's not what John is talking about. Paul clarifies that in 2 Corinthians 6 .14 -16.

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the believer with the unbeliever?

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? It is the system of this world. It is the things that are of the prince of the power of the air. Those are the things that we are commanded not to have fellowship with, to be partakers with, to be yoked with.

And why is that? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. And not only that, you are the temple of the living God. Those living stones being firmly fit together. Yes, we are in the world, but not of it.

We can say to the world, the flesh and the devil, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, along with David. Now back to our text. Where did this confidence that David showed come from? Where was this newfound strength to turn to the workers of iniquity?

Once seen as strong and mighty, once he was afraid of and fearful, even unto death, he finds the strength and confidence not in himself. He doesn't say, well, I'll just grin and bear it. No, but rather because the Lord had heard the voice of his weeping.

The Lord had heard his supplication. Remember that our position here is the power of confessed sin. Sin empties a man of strength. It robs a man of his ability. But confession and true repentance gives him strength.

In sin, we slink, we hide, we avoid. But in confession and true repentance, we are set free. Confession of sin and true repentance animates a man and makes him alive. In salvation and confession and repentance, we have glorious freedom.

We have no fear of condemnation. We have no fear of man.

Why?

Because those who the Son of Man sets free is free indeed. And we know this. We know that that forgiveness of sin that frees us is right there for us. First John 1 .9, a verse many of us know. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And when we do sin, we have one advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And we must remember this, that he died for sinners and was raised from the dead to confirm our salvation. He said, it is finished.

And that's the power of salvation for forgiveness of sins. When we confess our sins in true repentance, we, like David, are no longer vexed in body, no longer vexed in spirit. We can turn to our enemies and say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

Because the Lord hears our prayer. The Lord has heard our confession. The Lord has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. But our enemies, sometimes they're pretty clever. And they might say, yes, but didn't you do X, Y, or Z sin?

The devil does this all the time. You did this, or you did that. How could you call yourself a Christian? You know what you've done. But we can say, like Christ and through the power of Christ, get behind me, Satan.

We can say, with David, depart from me. That's all in the past. He remembers my sins no more. That brings us to the last verse here, verse 10, which we read, let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled.

Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly. This is a very interesting verse. Some point to this verse and say this is an imprecation. That's a word we use quite a lot, imprecation, or imprecatory Psalms.

What does it actually mean? Well, it means we want to invoke evil upon our enemies. We want them to be cursed. We want an anathema upon them. We want them to fall into calamity. We want something bad to befall them.

But is that what David is saying here? Perhaps, I think, that David is doing something else. Notice that David is calling them to be ashamed and greatly troubled. We must remember, sinful and wicked men are not ashamed of their abominations.

No, as we are well reminded this month, the month of June, they take great pride in their wickedness. Remember what Paul tells us in Romans 1. He gives a long list of vile sins from verse 29 through 31.

He says this, they, the unbeliever, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undeserving, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.

That's what the enemies of God are like. That's who our enemies are like. They are proud, they are boastful. But not only that, Paul says this about them in the next verse, verse 32. Who, that is, the unbelievers, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death.

They know that, but they not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. This is not shame. This is not being greatly troubled. I believe David here is calling on them to repent, that they would feel ashamed, that they, like him, would feel the weight of their sin, that they would feel it in their body and in their spirit.

They would come to know the weight of their wickedness, and that they would groan, that they would swim in their tears, that their couches would become drenched with their tears, and that they would waste away in their grief for their sins, that they would be in mourning for their sins, and not only that, David says this, let them turn back.

Let them turn from their sins. Let them burn with the shame of their sin, not parade around in arrogance and pride. No, he wants them to be ashamed suddenly. He wants them to repent, and that right quickly.

He wants them to feel the weight of the sins now. Let them do nothing, not to have them do or approve of their sins anymore. To do those things and approve those things what God calls an abomination. I believe this is nothing more than David doing what Paul did on Mars Hill.

He's saying, truly, these times of ignorance, God has overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. He's saying to them, yes, you have sinned. Yes, you have declared yourselves to be sons of disobedience.

Yes, you have even made yourself not only my enemy, but God's. Turn and repent. I mentioned a few moments ago, some consider this to be an imprecation, and we should pray that the workers of iniquity would be stymied in their work.

We should pray that their plans would be frustrated. We should pray that the Lord would destroy them. But remember this, that the best way for God to frustrate the wicked plans, the best way for God to restrain their evil, the best way to destroy God's enemies would be for God to turn them into his friends.

That he would indeed save them, and not only make them his friends, but also his beloved children. So this psalm is teaching us not only how we may approach God, but it's teaching us what we should do when we find ourselves in this situation.