?” How long is God going to delay comforting David in his discipline, showing David His love and grace?
RETURN AND RESCUE – 6:4-5:
In this small paragraph, there are three imperatives that David gives God: “Return (#1), Jehovah! Rescue (#2) my soul! Save (#3) me because of your lovingkindness!” Here is that beautiful word from the Hebrew language that cannot be translated by one single English word: lovingkindness, love, grace, loyalty. God had made a promise to David that God would bless David and David’s family for generations. But when you get disciplined, disciplined severely, you wonder if God is going to change His mind. David calls on God not to change His mind because God is loyal to His covenant. That’s the idea behind this word: “lovingkindness.”
David fears death, perhaps even death at the hands of God! There is not in death memory of God. In sheol (the unseen world equivalent to “hades” in the NT), who, David asks, “will praise God?” Now, there are those religions who do not believe in consciousness after death, especially in hell. So, they point to verses like this and say, “See, there is no memory of God in death.” But, this is poetry and David is not making a theological statement about life after death. David is lamenting that if he is dead, he can’t worship God.
I MAKE MY BED SWIM – 6:6-7:
“I am weary,” David says, “with my groaning.” This is audible sighing from pain, from frustration – not just being worn out physically but being worn out emotionally. David is such an emotional person. He is so scared. He is so upset at what he has done to God to cause God to discipline him, that he cries – all night long. He can’t sleep at night in his bed because he cries. So he gets up and sits on the coach or the recliner but he can’t find any comfort emotionally. He cries there just as much, so much that he dissolves the couch with tears.
THE LORD HAS HEARD AND RECEIVED – 6:8-10:
In this paragraph, even while David is “smarting” from God’s discipline, he turns to his enemies and challenges them to leave him alone. Why?
“Because Jehovah has heard the voice of my weeping.” When you hurt, I can’t always give you the answers. But I can assure you, if you are a faithful Christian, that God hears you. God hears your weeping.
“Jehovah, my prayer, He took.” Jehovah God receives David’s prayer. Will you picture that for just a moment? David sent his prayer to God in heaven and God took it. God holds David’s prayer in His hands. What’s He doing with it? He’s examining it. He’s evaluating it. God is deciding how He is going to answer that prayer in David’s best interest. Why? Because of God’s lovingkindness and loyalty and grace and mercy!
David is in pain. He has been touched by his enemies, which he interprets to be God’s punishment. But David understands it to be discipline. He refocuses his heart on God. He knows God hears his prayer and he challenges his enemies to leave him alone. He has a Father who cares.
There is biblical truth in the statement, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” As we see in the account of Job, God restrains Satan from destroying us. God will not allow Satan to overwhelm us beyond our ability to refuse. Trials and temptations can make us stronger. They can make us better quality Christians. They can make us more determined to follow our Master.
Sometimes, again Job is a good example, we can’t explain why we experience what we experience except to say there is sin in the world and Satan is the prince of the powers of darkness.
But when we do suffer, we need to know that we have a Father who is in heaven to whom we can call out for grace and mercy.
Paul Holland