Psalm 6 Depressing Night
Notes
Transcript
Depressing Night
Depressing Night
Prior to 2020 from the national ambulatory medical care survey states that from of all the physician office visits; 9.3% of the population have depression symptoms. Which is probably a lot more than we might think. Let’s say we have 100 people in here therefore according to this survey 9 of us have depression symptoms in one year period.
With the pandemic this number has increased to 28%, 28 people out of 100 has had depression symptoms in this past year. If this is so common we might think that the Bible may say something about it, and that is what we see in Psalm 6, from v 1-7 is a good description of someone who has depression symptoms. Some called Psalm 6 as a penitential psalm, repentance psalm, but I see as a Psalm that addresses depression.
But if you don’t know any other believer who might struggled with depression, or maybe you are or did in the past and you might have thought because of the hope we have in Christ we shouldn’t have depression. However, this is not true, in the same way that we are not immune to other consequence of sin like diseases and germs we are not immune to an emotional disorder.
Also, throughout history we see some famous believers that did struggle with depressions symptoms, like C.S Lewis, Spurgeon. But we also see people in Scripture that struggle with depression symptoms. A good example is Job, with all the suffering and pains that he had he also was struggling emotionally. But he was not the only one to struggle with this, we see today Psalm 6 where David is very low in his spirit and the words of this Psalm describes some emotions that depict someone who struggles with depression.
I confess that as I was preparing for this sermon and trying to understand what David was going through in this Psalm I ended up focusing on the emotions and feelings. The result was that for a couple weeks as I reflected on the emotions, I end up focusing on my emotions, plus a couple nights of bad sleep, followed by some constant pain it brought me to a low spot, where at any time of the day if no one was around I would just cry with no reason, and even the great things in life that made me laugh caused me to feel like I shouldn’t laugh or that I was not being truly myself, even teaching some of the great truths of Scripture from 1 Peter didn’t change what I was feeling. The weird thing is that I felt ashamed to share what was going on in my heart with anyone nor even my wife, One night when I told her what I was feeling, it was embarrassed and afraid to share. But it was only after I shared with her that I was able to process and understand why I was feeling that way.
When I studied this psalm my focus was on the emotions and feelings, and how we feel. I’m not saying by any means that Scripture is bad, Scripture is truth and truthfully describe our emotions and struggles, Especially in the Psalms where we find a descriptions of our emotions and how we should worship God in all circumstances.
I know someone who I deeply respect for their faith and service in the mission field once told me that when she was going through deep depression the only book of the Bible she could read was the Psalms, because they often described exactly our emotions.
The problem is if we just focus on our emotions and our circumstances and our pains it will lead us into an spiral down cycle, where we get just deeper in our own miseries. This is not how God wants us to do, God wants us to be truthful about our emotions but also recognize the truths about God. The solution and hope that David shows us in Psalm 6 is that only when we rest in Who God is that we will be set free.
So we will make our way through this Psalm looking at each verse, the first verse we will see what we might feel and what does it teach about God.
1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
If you are feeling low, the circumstances didn’t happen the way you were expecting, a car braking down, a loved one passing away, a child that is walking away from the Lord and from you. A disease and the consequential pains that won’t go away. Life might feel like the expression when it rains it pours.
You might feel like God might be disciplining you. We all if we are honest will admit that in many ways deserve to be disciplined. But if you are feeling low you might feel like you are getting not only the discipline, but the discipline in anger.
We often think that God is like us, we might discipline in anger. But God is not like us, even though we might feel like He might be disciplining us in anger, God is not like us, He won’t ever discipline us in anger. God’s discipline is 10 thousand times better than our earthly fathers discipline. Heb 12:10
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
Even though discipline is not enjoyable it is a proof that we are God’s children
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
When we face pain and suffering we have a choice, we can be angry at God, thinking that He is unjust, that we don’t deserve. This is a bad choice. Because we are believing a lie about God. The other option is to plead with God for mercy. That’s what David does in v2
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
David pleads with God, not based on his goodness or his righteousness, he pleads with God in his weakness, have mercy on me for I am weak.
This verse seems to indicate that David is struggling physically, often depression symptoms will follow when you are experiencing physical pain. We might think that we are strong emotionally, however, when physical pain comes and it is constant and maybe increasing it will have a direct affect in how we feel emotionally.
Here David seems to have been in deep anguish and in troubled. Troubled to the bones. Have you ever hurt yourself that you felt your bones hurting? It is troublesome, in a sense it hurts you to the core to your own structure, your foundation. Maybe you didn’t feel this physical pain, but maybe you know what is to be emotionally distress to the core of your own being, where it troubled you to the core. Where you can say just like David, O LORD, for my bones are troubled, heal me Lord.
David’s suffering was not only physical but it was his soul, in v3 he says
3 My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?
Here we can see that David was fully in agony, in troubled to the core of his bones and soul.
Tremper Longman says that “In Oriental fashion no clear distinction is made between “soul” and “body” because man suffers in his whole being. The agony of “my bones” means the same as “my soul is in anguish”, the same as “I am full of anguish”
We could say the trouble and anguish is so deep you can’t distinguish if it is an emotional distress, of physical distress, simply you are distress to your core.
Notice that in these two verses even as David is in such distress he is honest with God in what he is feeling, he is not angry at God, but he is pleading for God’s grace and he has an incomplete final cry “How long?” It is because the intensity of his feelings and emotions, he cannot even complete his thought, David just says “O Lord- how long?”
What these two verses tell us about God? I think God is showing us here that He cares for us, He wants to hear us. This is such a privilege that we have to come before God through Jesus Christ our High Priest and presents our hearts, our troubles, our circumstances. No matter how troubled we are we can go to God, even in the deepest of our emotions when we can only say “O Lord how long” and weep. We have the Holy Spirit and Christ interceding for us
Rom 8:26-28 and 34
English Standard Version Chapter 8
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
English Standard Version Chapter 8
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us
After David says how long he ask the Lord to return
4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
In the midst of troubled David felt like God had abandoned him, he couldn’t feel God’s presence, or maybe he felt like God wasn’t answering his prayers. He felt like God was distant and he was away from Him. Here is where David ask the Lord to return, to turn, to save him for the sake of God’s steadfast love. It is amazing to me, that in all these requests that David made in the midst of such troubled he never based any request on himself, everything is about God’s grace, God’s steadfast love, for God’s praise.
Also notice how frequent is God’s name, Jehovah, capital LORD in these four verses. God’s name is mentioned 5 times in four verses. That means that David is turning to God even when he doesn’t feel like, or when it is hard to turn to Him.
The disciples faced a similar situation in John 6 when Jesus was teaching some difficult things that they didn’t understand, Jesus said that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. Then it says in John 6:66-69
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Here Peter did not say that following Jesus was easy, or that he was not offended like the others that went away from Jesus. He said where else can we go? there is no one else we can turn to.
So we when we feel like our troubles and our sorrows have overwhelmed us and we feel like God is far away, and we don’t feel like turning to God, we need to remember where else can we go? our only hope is in Him.
How do we find hope in the deepest of depression, it is by turning to God, being honest about your struggles with Him, and resting, reflecting on who God is, thinking about God pleading with God based on God’s character and promises. It is only when we rest on God that we will find full comfort to a troubled soul.
It seems that David described all the troubles one could imagine, feeling God’s discipline, troubled to the bones and soul and feeling abandoned by God, but now in v5 he feels like death is knocking at the door.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
David feels like there is still life to live and he wants to live to praise God. Today this verse might seem strange to us, since we see that in death we will be in God’s presence. The OT does not denied life after death, but often in OT is has greater emphasis on the present life. Like David does here, there is nothing wrong in asking to be delivered from death so that we praise God.
I think this focus on present life is appropriate, because in the midst of depression and struggle we might find ourselves wanting to be home with the Lord. However, we can’t shorten or add hours to our span of life, our days are numbered and until they are done we have a purpose and something to accomplish for God’s glory.
Even Paul saw a tension between life now and be with the Lord. He says in Phil 1:21-26
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.
23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,
26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
When death is knocking on the door we can ask the Lord to deliver our life for his praise, for the glory of Christ.
After David describes all of the deepest of his troubles it might seem trivial to speak of sleep but that is what he does in the next verses
6 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
These two verses are the last verses that David describes his pain and struggles and he describes the struggles of the night. P. C Craigie said “For most sufferers, it is in the long watches of the night, when silence and loneliness increase and the warmth of human companionship is absent, that pain and grief reach their darkest point.”
Job in his distress also describes the pains of lack of sleep he says in Job 7:3-4
English Standard Version Chapter 7
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
4 When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
It might sound trivial to talk about sleep, but it is only when you have a bad night of sleep that you see how important it is. In the same way that our bodies need water and food, it needs rest. When we face any type of physical ailment is when we feel the most the need for our basic needs of food, water and rest.
Research “shockingly” indicates that the amount of sleep that a person needs can vary from individual to individual. But also, Research suggests that regularly sleeping for less than seven hours a night can have negative effects on the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, and nervous systems. Side effects of sleep deprivation can include obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse, stroke and increased risk of developing some types of cancer.
Therefore, when we don’t get enough sleep our bodies waste away. David was struggling at night, he was not only not sleeping, but he was crying to the point where his throat was coarse, he was flooding his bed with tears, today we might say he was crying until there was no more tears left. That’s when he says
7 My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
Some say that the eyes are the windows to your soul. Here David is saying that his soul, his life is feeble and weak because of the grief. He also says that his grief is because of all his foes.
We don’t know what foes he is referring here. David faced several moments in his life that he was surrounded by foes, when his very life was in danger.
The many dangers that David faced reminds me of Paul’s description of his dangers in 2 Cor 11:24-28
English Standard Version Chapter 11
24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches
I’m confident that after Paul experienced all of this dangers his eyes became weak.
So far from v1-7 it seems all depressing, just David pouring his heart to God, and asking for grace and saying what he is experiencing. But then there is a sudden change, a change in the mood in this Psalm from v 8-10.
We don’t know how long it took from verses 7-8, on our microwave society we might expect a few seconds between the crying out to God and God answering our prayer and we feeling God’s presence. However, it might have taken days, weeks even months until God made himself known to David once again and restored his confidence. As David is touched by God he says:
8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
In confidence David says that the Lord has heard his weeping and that the enemies will go away. When David said these three verses he had not experienced the release of the pain, it is a confidence in what is going to happen. It is like as he continue turning to the Lord in his suffering, God touched him, he felt God’s presence. God gave him the confidence and the hope. God gave David the confidence that He heard his prayers. Because of this confidence he knows that the enemies, the evil will go away.
We need to remember that this confidence that David has now has come after long suffering and struggling where he felt the Lord was away from him. This is our confidence that no matter how long we might struggle, how long the night is, if we continue turning to the Lord; He will touch us, we will feel God’s presence, He will give us the confidence that He heard our prayers. He will give us the strength that we need.
After Paul describes all the dangers and the sufferings he goes on to say in that 2 Cor 12:10
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
How can he say: for when I am weak, then I am strong. At first glance it seems illogical because when you are weak, you are weak you can’t be strong, you are out of your own energy, out of your own abilities and skills. He was strong because he was not relying on his own strength, he was relying on God’s strength.
The weaker we are, the better we see ourselves
The weaker we are, the better we see our need for God.
I don’t know where you are right now, some of us are struggling and feeling like David felt in this psalm.
Our hope is to continue turning to the Lord, and He will give us the strength and the hope that we need to face each day. He will give us the confidence that He heard our prayers and that the evil we are experiencing will come to an end.