#DailyDevotion Are You Being Chastised By The LORD?
Psalm 6 0 LORD, don’t be angry and punish me, don’t be furious and correct me. 2Be kind to me, O LORD, because I am miserable. Heal me, O LORD, because I’m shaken to my bones; 3my spirit is terribly upset. O LORD, how long will you wait?
Psalm 6 may come from the time David had an affair, committed murder and married the woman he committed adultery with and who bore him a child. David did not think much of it until he was confronted by Nathan the prophet. While Nathan forgave David, there were temporal punishments handed out namely the death of his son and future troubles in his family dynasty. David fasted and cried out to the LORD for seven days for his son as he fell sick. This is a Psalm of Lament in which David cries out to the LORD for mercy and kindness.
David, feeling the brunt of God’s wrath on him because of his sins cries out to Him to not be angry and furious with him, to not punish him and correct him. Well that probably isn’t going to happen or at least the best David, you and I can hope for is chastisement, that is punishment to teach us not to do it again as opposed to the LORD’s divine wrath which puts us in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. If you sin, you might expect some sort of discipline coming down the pike to mortify your sinful desires. David is feeling it now in the illness of his son, the future prospects for his family and his own state in the midst of fasting.
He appeals to the LORD to be kind to him because he is miserable. He is shaken to his bones and his spirit is terribly upset. I think perhaps David is thinking of another psalm he wrote from this episode psalm 51 in which he says, “a broken and contrite spirit you will not despise.” In other words David is appealing to the fact the LORD’s chastisement has done its proper work on him now. Of course God ultimately decides, as he can read all men’s hearts, whether or not the purpose of the chastisement has accomplished His goals. Have you ever felt the chastisement of the LORD? Have you committed some sin and you experience the temporal effects, the chastisement of the LORD? Has your soul been buckled over by its weight on you? You may want to join David in praying this psalm.
David pleads to the LORD, “O LORD, how long will you wait?” Perhaps you think the LORD God is a little long in the tooth from rescuing you from damage you caused by your sins. Certainly David knows how you feel. When the hand of the LORD is pressing down on us, it seems like forever. Well it is an eternal hand pressing down on us, of course it feels that way. Well go ahead and cry out to the LORD, join David in asking how long. It is a good thing we can come before the LORD pleading for his mercy. He does not strike us down in anger when we come before him humbly, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We admit our wrongs, confess we indeed deserve what is happening to us and beg him for mercy and that right quickly.
I am reminded of our LORD Jesus Christ, who though he is innocent, threw himself to the ground and asked his Father to remove the cup of His wrath from him if possible. Three times he prayed this. The Father said no. He would have to wait three days in the grave before being vindicated by his resurrection. He waited bearing our sins in his flesh. He cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.” He then committed his spirit to the Father. In the midst of all our suffering, let us remember our Savior Jesus Christ, his innocent suffering and death, and commit ourselves to the merciful and kind hands of our heavenly Father.
Merciful and kind Father, have mercy upon us when we sin and you chastise us so we may not lose hope but mortify our sinful flesh, deliver us in due time, and help us to find your mercy and kindness in your Son Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.