March 4, 2021 -- Psalm 6:1-3 -- Tears again

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?

Psalm 6:1-3 English Standard Version

Seriously, we’re here again? Didn’t we just go through a bunch of repenting and crying out? I hear you. I just want something happy-clappy to get me through the day. The reality is that our lives are not mountain peak to mountain top experiences of wondrous rapture all the time. Instead, there are many days where we wonder “what is going on?!?”

It may well be that the psalmist is struggling with illness. As someone who battles depression, I can so relate. There are many days my bones ache and my heart is heavy. There is no unconfessed sin (that I am aware of, else I’d confess it). And the days can be long stretches where my languid body and slow mind just cannot fight the inertia.

Where else can we go in our struggle? When sin threatens us, it takes the mercy of LORD to break it. When grief floods us so only our nostrils and lips are barely above water and we are inhaling water sprays wondering can I go on? The LORD can pluck us out of the raging waters. He can put me on the Rock of Safety. He hears those who cry out to Him. When we feel betrayed by our dearest and closest ones, it is the LORD knows the lament of our crushed soul and He hears us. This is the glory of the Word of God—to show over and over again the patient, listening, love of God.

Jesus was forsaken at the cross so that we, when we cry out to the LORD from the depths of our troubles, would have profound assurance. Jesus has carried away from us the punishment of the LORD so that we can receive the peace and healing of God. What the psalmist longed for and ached for is clearly displayed in Jesus Christ. Cry your tears, whisper your anguished prayers with the confidence, God hears.

Be kind to me, God. I don’t know the right words. Am I supposed to kneel when I speak to You? Do I have to speak the right words, because I am empty—too flattened by everything going on to know how to say much more than this—help me. I ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

https://youtu.be/yETRxtYIL-E