Week 37: Day 5

Intro: Hello everyone and welcome back to Orbit. My name is Josh, and today's the last day of my five-day stretch of the devotion. We're taking a step away from the gospel of Mark and we're looking at a psalm today. So we're going to be reading from Psalm 6, and I'm reading 1-4, skipping out 5-7, and then reading 8-10.

Bible: Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?
Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

Thoughts: There is so much raw emotion in this psalm. This is a psalm is written by David, who was a king in the Old Testament of the Bible. And we're not given a lot of context into what is going on in David's life here but we know it's a lot. We know he starts off by asking God to ‘not rebuke me in your anger or discipline in your wrath’. It's possible at this point David has messed up and he knows he's messed up, and he's come before God begging for forgiveness. He implores God for his mercy. He goes on to tell us that he is a broken man, both spiritually and physically. His bones are in agony, and his soul. His soul is in deep anguish. David is not in a happy place right now and he's pouring it all out to God.

It's okay to feel anxious. It's okay to feel depressed, worn out, upset. There isn't any taboo in God's mind around these things. David brings all of this and he pours out to God. But in all of this, in all of David's suffering, he remembers God's promises. He remembers that the Lord will deliver me, the Lord will save me because of his unfailing love. He remembers that God loves us so much that God is not able to rebuke us in anger. God does not want to discipline us in wrath. God's love outweighs his anger, no matter what we do, no matter how far short of God's standards we fall, God will not do these things.

David then goes on and his mood shifts massively into the end of this chapter. He is reminded of who God is and he constantly declares these things about God. He says, ‘The Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard me cry for mercy. And the Lord accepts my prayer.’ God is not put out that David has come with all this raw emotion and passion. God accepts his prayer – and God will accept my prayer and your prayer. No matter what circumstance we find ourselves in and no matter what a state we come before God in, he will accept us. This is the promise that provides confidence and comfort for David even in the depths of his despair.

The other thing David says is ‘distance yourself from those who do evil, away from me, all you who do evil’. It's important to remove negative influences in our lives. It's important to remove temptations and bad examples because they can distract us from the promises God has given us. And they can distract us from how we should be falling before God on our knees.

Reflection: I'm going to leave us a couple of moments of silence just to dwell on some of these verses. Dwell on the promise that God is listening, that God accepts my prayers, that God loves us and will save us through his unfailing love. And also just to search your own hearts, find that anguish in your soul, or any aching in your bones and lay that out before God just for a few moments.

Prayer: Our Father in heaven. Thank you that you hear me. Thank you that your ears are always turned to me. Thank you that I can lift up all my agony to you. Anything, any mistakes I make and any pain I'm in and that you are there to comfort me and love me. Thank you for your delivering us and thank you that even when it feels like I'm in David's situation asking how long, Lord, you know how long and you're there with me. Amen

Challenge: I'm going to ask you to do one thing as the last action of this week. I want you to write down verse four. I'm going to read it again to you: “Turn, Lord and deliver me, save me because of your unfailing love.”

And put it somewhere you can see it someone obvious. So if you ever find yourself in a situation like David, your bones are in agony and your soul is in anguish, you can look and you can see that verse and you can be encouraged and boosted through this promise of God's unfailing love.

Outro: Thank you very much for sticking with me this week. I hope you have a great day. Bye now.