READ: Ps. 6:1–11: … Be gracious to me, O LORD … Deliver me for Your mercy’s sake … For in death there is no remembrance of You … The LORD has heard my supplication …
David is in distress. He confesses his weakness and pleads with the LORD for His grace and deliverance. This is not only about sickness or adversity. David is conscious of his own unworthiness and guilt. Verse 1: “O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger.”
He is dealing with adversaries and enemies, with those who practice injustice (vv.8–9,11). He feels alone and at the end of his strength (vv.3–4). His plea to the LORD concerns not so much a sickness. Rather, David sees the miserable condition in which he finds himself because of opposition, oppression, and persecution as a result of his own sinfulness.
From that awareness he pleads with the LORD not to punish him any longer. He is weary of sighing and tears. He asks for grace, God’s deliverance from punishment, but also for peace of mind and restoration of health.
In doing so, David makes a special appeal to the LORD to spare him and give him new strength, namely to be able again to praise and serve Him in his earthly life. That is no longer possible after death on earth. His motive for calling upon God’s grace and help, therefore, is to be enabled again to praise and glorify Him. David sees the fulfillment of his life precisely in this, that he may honour his God.
This psalm shows us that we must acknowledge our own shortcomings and sins when the circumstances in which we find ourselves are heavy. Then let us not only pray to the LORD for deliverance, but also ask forgiveness of our sins on the basis of the blood of His Son, pleading on His grace.
And let us then remember that in our lives—so long as the LORD gives them to us—it always comes down to the praise and glory of heaven. Are we not made on earth in the image of God to glorify Him in our lives? For that He created and redeemed us through His Son. For that He will one day create new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells (cf. Rev. 4:11; 7:12).
Do we recognize our own unworthiness?
Singing: Ps. 6:1,3,5