Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. Psalm 6:2
Some people will tell you that this psalm is about how feelings of guilt can kill. It’s the type of thing we often hear today as we try to understand the depression that drags so many people down into despair and darkness.
Of course, it’s true that depression can kill. For example, recognizing our wrongdoing against God and others can send us into a terrible tailspin. Some people have felt so badly about things they’ve done that they’ve committed suicide to escape the shame. It is a good prayer whenever we ask God to release us from the shame and despair that tear us up inside.
But in Psalm Six, the problem isn’t inner turmoil. The problem is the psalmist’s death. God is killing David because God is angry at him.
We may wonder what sort of thing David has done to deserve to die. We’re always looking at sin like that, as if it runs by degrees of badness. Some things are clearly scandalous. Other things, like our little stinging remarks or our stubborn unwillingness to forgive, seem so insignificant--that is, until we recall that we shall have to give an account to God for every idle word that we have spoken.
The wages of sin are death. So, sooner or later, we all will get a chance to pray this psalm.
Notice how David asks God not to punish him in his wrath. This anger is real and active. It’s destroying David’s body. So David tells God how he cannot sleep. Instead, he is soaking his bed with tears of fear and regret. He hopes that tears will move God to mercy.
Then he reminds God that he can only praise him if God allows him to live. “In the land of the dead, who shall give you praise?”
Is this all there is to move the heart of God? Tears and flattery? It sounds pretty thin, more like bribery and empty promises. Who accepts that from an enemy? If your drunken father, who has hurt and disappointed you for years, suddenly breaks down crying and tells you what a wonderful child you are, would your heart be moved?
Perhaps, and perhaps not. And if the answer is perhaps not, then what is God going to say to us when we cry and promise to praise him after disappointing him for the umpteenth time?
This psalm seems so hopeless . . . but for one word. “Help me because of your undying love.”
The undying love of God is the only thing that will bend his heart back to us. It is not our tears or our good intentions to be better sons and daughters in his kingdom that melt his heart. God cannot be flattered or fooled. We move God’s heart to mercy by reminding Him that He has made a covenant of mercy with us. It is an obligation of love that He has put upon Himself.
This past Sunday, we called upon God to remember. The Sunday is even called ‘Remember’ -- Reminiscere. “Remember what?” we might ask. “Remember your mercies, for they are from of old, Lord.” The Lord loves to be reminded of his promises to help, forgive and heal. He loves to be bound to his promises of compassion and kindness. In the New Testament, the word for this is grace. In the old testament, it is called covenant. The covenant of mercy and the promise of grace meet at the foot of the cross. There they are mixed with the blood of Christ and sprinkled on a desperate world. At the crucifixion, every plea for undeserved compassion is answered.
Did Jesus pray this psalm for us at the cross? It’s an interesting question. We know how he prayed Psalm Twenty-two before he died, saying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We’ll never know for sure, but it is possible.
We do know that at some point Christ prayed every Psalm. They are His prayers first. The Psalms mean something different when we recognize that He is praying them for us.
If Jesus prays them, these words can never be the same for us. David’s rhetorical question, “Who can praise you after he has died?” has a different answer when the resurrected Christ prays it. Our answer then changes, too. We cannot limply agree with David any more. Our answer becomes, “Yes, yes we can praise him after death. And we shall.” Christ came back to life, so it is no longer impossible for such a thing to happen. Now we can be certain that God is merciful enough to bring us back to life. He shall have His praise from us--now, and also in the life to come.
Why pray this Psalm? To bend the heart of God back to mercy when you are suffering from his wrath. To remind God of his covenant when you are sick or dying. God’s mercy endures forever. Whoever has figured out that God’s wrath is the reason why his eyes grow dim and his muscles grow weak, for him this prayer is a welcome sigh of relief.
The Reverend Sean M. Smallwood
cruxprobatomnia -- the cross tests everything
|