Psalm 6 - Heartbroken in the Presence of God

Have you ever felt heart broken in the presence of God as a result of sin? You might say that thankfully this has not been your experience very often since conversion. Great men of God, like David, had these experiences on a fairly regular basis. If you have never felt like that maybe you have become desensitised to sin in your life.  

Psalm 6 has three sections. 

Appealing to the LORD for mercy

Verses 1-4 - David recognises that God is extremely angry with him. 

Intense grief

Verses 5-7 - David expresses the intense grief he feels as a result of his sin

Confidence that the LORD has heard

Verses 8-10 - David is indicating his confidence that the LORD has heard and will receive his prayer. 

Let’s note some lessons for today.

David felt broken when he realised that he had sinned against the One who would never fail him. The LORD was furious about David’s sin. God would have been entirely just to have corrected or punished David. In verse 1 we see God’s reaction to sin. In verses 2 & 3 we learn how David feels. He feels sick physically, agitated and shaky. Overall his awareness of his ‘sin’ is growing greater by the minute. Sin in the life of a believer has a devastating effect both physically and spiritually. David pleads for mercy and asks that God act in keeping with the kindness of his character, verse 4.

In verses 5-7 David is arguing that if he dies his opportunity to live a life that will glorify God will have vanished forever. While the believer in the New Testament has a different perspective on death the verse still reminds us that once this life is over we will never have the same opportunity to live for God. The remaining verses of this section tell of the exhaustion that David feels in his sorrow for sin. This is seen in his constant sighing and crying.

In the last section David expresses his confidence in God. Like David we can be sure of this, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,’ 1 John 1. 9. God is to be trusted. David is admitting that he had been keeping bad company. He talks about his enemies and ‘the workers of iniquity’. These were people who sinned consistently and had been a bad influence on David. We also need to be careful who we have as our friends.

God heard when David cried out to him knowing that God would receive his prayer. David took praying very seriously because he knew that he was coming to God who hears and answers prayers. We can have this confidence as well.