Let us turn to Psalm 6. The first psalm that we read, Psalm
6. And I want to direct your attention tonight to those words
that we find at the end of verse 3. Psalm 6, the end of verse
3, O LORD, how long? O LORD, how long here is David's
cry and I think in some ways it's a topical verse when we
think of our current situation those things that have come upon
us over these past months almost a year now with lockdowns and
so forth and all the restrictions that have been brought in We're
told in answer to the pandemic that is over the face of the
earth and maybe sometimes this is all we can utter when we come
before the Lord with our prayers. Oh Lord, how long? And I'm sure many times you find
a great deal of comfort here in the book of Psalms. So many of the Psalms are evidently
prayers, clearly prayers, there's no disputing that, they have
praises, that's what the word Psalm means really, it's a book
of praises. But also here, surely we recognize
that these praises are in the form of petitions and prayers.
We go back to the previous Psalms, in the earlier part of the book,
look at the words that we have in Psalm 4, Hear me when I call,
O God of my righteousness. And then again in Psalm 5, give
ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation, hearken unto the
voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto Thee will I
pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the
morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. These are clearly very much prayers
and here In this sixth psalm, David prays. The psalm is principally
a prayer. Certainly that's the case with
the first seven verses of the psalm. And even as he addresses
God, we see that quite clearly because we have this expression,
O Lords, some five times here in the first four verses. It's the It's the evocative,
it's that form of address that would be used when one is addressing
a person. O Lord, rebuke me not in thine
anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy
upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones
are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed. But thou, O Lord, how long? And then return O Lord, deliver
my soul. He is constantly addressing God
directly in his prayer. But then we see something different
at the end of the psalm because in verses 8 and 9 he doesn't
speak to God, but he certainly speaks of God. It's not O Lord
in verses 8 and 9, it's The Lord. He turns to men and says, Depart
from me all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice
of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. There's an assurance in the way
in which he speaks in those two verses and then he addresses
God again at the end. Let all mine enemies be ashamed
and so vexed. Let them return and be ashamed
suddenly. So what we have here is clearly
a prayer and the assurance of his prayer. How he is confident
that the Lord has heard him. There in verses 8 and 9, the
Lord has heard him, the Lord has received his prayer. Who is a God who hears prayers?
What does God say? Before they call, I will answer.
While they are yet speaking, I will hear. But what do we say? We come in the word so often
of our text, O Lord, how long? Sometimes maybe we fear that
our prayers are not being heard, not being answered. And that's
as much as we can say, if we're honest. O Lord, How long? Well, as we come to consider
this text tonight, I want to divide what I'm going to say
into three parts, looking at the cry of David here. First
of all, the cause, what lies behind his prayer. Then the contents, what the prayer
is actually made up of. And then, last of all, the consequence,
the result of his praying. The psalm does bear a title.
The title tells us very little, I suppose, really. Some of the
titles of the psalms, of course, tell us a great deal about the
circumstances, the historic situation in which David was moved to write such words. That's the
case, for example, in the following seventh psalm. It's one that
he sang unto the Lord concerning the words of Cush. the Benjamite. But all we're told here in Psalm
6 is that it's to the chief musician and then various instruction
is given with regards to the manner in which it was to be
used in the worship of God on Neginuth upon Shemineth. So the title does not tell us
a great deal about the cause. So we have to look at the content,
we have to examine what David is actually saying. to understand
why it is that he should utter such words. And it does appear
that at the time when David wrote this psalm, he was sick. He was sick. What does he say
in the second verse? Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am weak. O Lord, heal me. for my bones
are vexed in fact we might say that he was so sick that he was
afraid that he was not going to survive that he was going
to die of this particular disease whatever it was he says in verse
5 for in death there is no remembrance of the in the grave who shall
give the thanks when we're in physical troubles
when we're brought low in our bodies. It does oftentimes make
us to be more earnest in our prayers to God. That's the consequence
when troubles come upon us. And here we can say that was
certainly the case with David, but his distress is not only
because of his physical condition. There's also surely a spiritual
element here. It's not just his physical needs,
it's his spiritual needs. He says in verse 3, my soul is
also so vexed. In verse 2 it said, my bones
are vexed, his body, speaking of his physical state. But then,
here in verse 3, it's his soul. And then he utters those words,
that petition that I want us to concentrate on, those two
words, au, lang, But see, when it comes to his soul, the trouble
is greater than his physical need. In verse 2, it's simply,
my bones are vexed. That's the verb. But now, in
verse 3, concerning his soul, he uses an adverb. He says, my
soul is also sore vexed. Oh, it's really affecting his
spiritual condition, whatever has come upon him. And this word
saw, of course, has the idea of extremity. His soul is very
vexed indeed. There's certainly an emphasis
in the way in which Davies is expressing himself here in the
text. He goes on and says, But thou,
but thou, O Lord, O or there's something emphatic
in the address that David is making here, he is so earnest. And surely we recognize that,
that the sinner's sense of his need does make him to cry out
in this sort of fashion. We read there in James chapter
5 of the effectual fervent prayer of a man, availeth much the effectual
fervent man availeth much and remember there at the end of
James 5 we're directed to the prophet Elijah how he prayed
earnestly and the margin says literally it says he prayed in
his prayer all he prays to God that God would stay his hand
and that there might yet be rain there was a great dearth he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain, then he prays earnestly that
it will rain. Here is one who is surely meaning business with
God. It's the same Apostle James who
reminds us earlier in his epistle that we have not because we ask
not. And we ask and we receive, not
because we ask and we miss, that we might consume it upon our
lust. We can say prayers and yet oftentimes
what are those prayers? Are they real prayers? Do we pray earnestly? Do we pray
in our prayers? We have that gracious promise.
God says through Jeremiah, you shall seek me and find me when
you shall ask, or when you shall seek me with all your hearts.
wholehearted seekings after God. And this is what we see in the
way in which David is praying. As he cries out, but thou, O
Lord, how long! And what is causing David to
pray in this sense, as I've said, Is it some physical affliction
that has come upon him? Is he a sick man? Is it a serious
affliction and he's fearful of dying? He certainly speaks in
those terms and then also we see that his real concern is
for his soul. But he seems to discern something
of God in all of this. He makes mention of God's chastening
at the beginning of the psalm. Oh Lord, he says, rebuke me not
in thine anger. know that chasten me in thy heart
displeasure. Why would David be chastened?
Well, as a child of God, of course, he would not be able to escape
chastening. The Lord deals with His people.
The Lord deals with all His people. If we know anything of the Lord,
the Lord will not leave us to ourselves when we come into certain
circumstances, when we sin against Him. when we go in the way of
disobedience, He'll correct us. And we should be thankful that
God takes account of our poor lives. But see, David, though
he might be chastened because of his sin, he can only plead
the mercies of God. He says in that second verse,
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak, We need God to deal
with him in the ways of mercy. We know that whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Paul says, If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons. What son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? And chastenings for the present
are not pleasant, they are grievous. but they are profitable to those
who exercise thereby. And certainly here we recognize
that David is one who is very much exercised. He will bow to God, he will bow
to the sovereignty of God, but as the Lord is dealing with him,
and it's a hard lesson that he's having to learn, he cries out
in the agonies of his soul, O Lord, how long? How long will God's
hand be upon me in such a fashion as this. And what he asks is
that God doesn't deal with him in anger. Rebuke me not in thine
anger, he says. Rebuke me not in thine anger,
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. We find Jeremiah
in a similar place to where David was. There in Jeremiah 10.24,
he cries, O LORD, correct me, but with judgment, not in anger,
lest thou bring me to nothing. But you see, God is not dealing
with him in anger or in any judicial sense,
as we were saying on the Lord's Day, God never deals with any
of his people in that judicial sense because the judicial punishment
of all their sins has been visited upon the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the propitiation for our
sins. He has borne the wrath of God
against all the sins of his people. And God does never deal with
his people in anger. And surely in a sense, doesn't
David recognize this? I remarked on how we have him
constantly here addressing God, and how does he address God?
Five times in those opening verses he cries out, O LORD! O LORD! O LORD! O LORD! O Lord! Every time, of course,
he is using God's covenant name. So he's coming now as a child
of God, as one whom God has had mercy upon and adopted. He's coming really in the spirit
of adoption. Though he doesn't address God
as his Father, yet he is surely mindful of the covenant. But now, oftentimes you see,
God's people, as I said on the Lord's Day, they misjudge God. Well, we're all prone, we're
all prone to that. Look at the language that we
have in one of the hymns. Hymn 304. And there at the end
of the second verse, Hart says, Fine would I find my God, but
fear the means perhaps may prove severe. If thou the least displeasure
show, and bring my vileness to my view, timorous and weak, I
shrink and say, Lord, keep thy chastening hand away. It's not
easy, and it was not easy for David, and yet these things are
here, they're left on record, they're in Scripture, and they're
there for our comfort. That's a wonderful truth, is
it not? They're all recorded for our learning. for our comfort,
for our establishment. All these things that happen
to the saints of God and God has seen fit to leave them here
in Holy Scripture. But all David, you see, he feels
himself to be in such a low place. My bones are vexed, he says. He's greatly dismayed. That's
the force, really, of the word that you said, to vex, to be
dismayed. to be downcast, to be in that
low place. And though we see that this was
many times the experience of David, the man after God's own
heart, how does he speak in Psalm 38? And there at verse 3, there
is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest. The margin says peace or health. in my bones because of my sin.
Verse 7, my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and
there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken.
I have wrought by reason of the disquietness of my heart. So
we see something that that that was lying behind the prayer of
David. It's God's dealings with him.
He recognizes God's hand. Is he physically in a low place? Has he been brought down? Is
that the state of his health? He's certainly concerned about
the state of his soul. Is God chastening him? Is there
some sin that he has committed? These are the reasons why he
prays in this fashion. But what of the prayer, what
of the content of his petition? And we're thinking in particular
of this part of his prayer in verse 3, O Lord, how long Just
two words, how long? It's another one of those short
prayers. And I remarked before on short
prayers. And we have them there in the
New Testament when we see Peter walking on the water as Christ
is coming to the disciples there on the Sea of Galilee Christ
is walking on the water they see that it's the Lord and Peter
bold as he is impetuous, impulsive Peter soon walking on the waters
to meet the Lord but then he's aware of the tempest and the
waves and he begins to sink and remember how he cries out Lord
save me Lord save me and also we've remarked in times past
on that Syrophoenician woman that Canaanite-ish woman in the
Gospel who comes to the Lord with her sick child and the Lord
doesn't take any notice, any account of her He ignores her
it seems and the disciples become weary and want her to be dismissed
but then she comes with that simple prayer Lord help me And
how the Lord was pleased to hear and to answer that prayer also. Short prayers. And here's another
short prayer. Lord, oh Lord, he says, how long? How long must I wait? Or maybe
that's how we feel sometimes. How long must I wait? I've waited
and I've waited. And sometimes maybe we're waiting
for the Lord to come and grant us that assurance that our sins
are forgiven. How long have I got to wait till
the Lord seals that precious salvation in my soul? How long must I endure these
sufferings? How long must I wait in this
condition? How long must these circumstances
continue? We come to the end of our tether,
we come to our wit's end as we read there in Psalm 107. There's a sense in which this
petition is left rather open. We don't know just what it was
that David was longing for the end of. How long? But he doesn't
tell us. We tend to think, oh, it must
be a matter of time. It's interesting. There are these
prayers in Scripture that, in a sense, are incomplete. I think of the prayer of Moses concerning the children
of Israel after they've been guilty in the matter of the golden
calf, remember? And Moses is the one who must
come and plead with God that he will not disinherit them and
cast them off altogether. He acknowledges that they have
sinned, There in Exodus 32, 31, he returns to the Lord and he
says, oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made them
gods of gold, yet now they will forgive their sin. And then he
breaks off. And if not, he says, blot me,
I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. It's
an incomplete statement that we have there. It's broken words,
broken sentences. And yet, sometimes, and I really
feel this, sometimes our broken prayers are our best prayers,
aren't they? When one has to stand before a congregation,
week by week, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, and pray, and as it were,
try to be the mouth of the people in prayer. Well, sometimes maybe
one feels, oh, I had some liberty in prayer. The words came quite
easily, quite readily. And we think that's spiritual
liberty, but it's not always the case, is it? It's just a
natural liberty. Sometimes our best prayers are
those that we have to feel after. Every word, we have to find every
word, and we're feeling for those words. And surely this is so
with the prayer of David here in the text. But thou, O Lord,
How long? This is why God has granted that
ministry of the Holy Spirit. I know we oft times refer to
those words of the Apostle there in Romans 8.26 about the Spirit. That while he was come, you see,
the Lord has not left his people without a comforter. The Holy
Ghost has come. And there the Apostle Paul speaks
of that ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit, he says, helpeth
our infirmities, and maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot
be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. What a comfort it
is to know that there is a ministry of the Holy Ghost. And he was
there in the Old Testament, he was there to help David, Again,
in that 38th Psalm, David says, Lord, all my desire is before
Thee, and my groanings are not hid from Thee. What were those
groanings? They were spiritual groanings.
And surely that's the case here. That's the case here. He says
in verse 6, I am weary with my groaning. All the night make
I my bed to swim, I water my couch with my tears. Oh, how
he comes then with his prayers. And this prayer, it's a prayer
that was evidently very familiar to this man. David knew what
it was, to ask God how long. That's why I read those words
also in the 13th Psalm. How long wilt thou forget me,
O Lord? Forever. How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God. All what prayers here, time and
again we see him uttering those how longs, four of them. Four
times there in the beginning of that 13th Psalm. How long?
Here is an experience then that David was very familiar with. He can't adequately
express himself. All he can say to God in his
prayer is, how long? The hymn writer says, so to speak,
thou be not able, always pray and never rest. Prayers are a
weapon for the feeble. Weakest souls can wield it best. And David says here, I am weak.
I am weary. Oh, this is real worship, isn't
it? These short petitions are such
an important part of proper worship. I referred to that woman in the
Gospel, that Syrophoenician woman, and what does it say? When she
came with her simple prayer, she worshipped Him. She worshipped
the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, help me. All the content then of David's
prayer, broken words, broken sentences, short petitions, just
two words, O Lord, How long? And then, finally, this evening,
there's a consequence here. What's the result of all of this?
Well, David acknowledges that his prayer is accepted. There in verses 8 and 9. He says, The Lord hath heard
the voice of my weeping, The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. And there we have that parallelism
that is such a significant part of Hebrew poetry is saying the
same thing three times over in slightly different ways, yes.
But it all amounts to the same really, doesn't it? The Lord
hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication.
the Lord will receive my prayer. How emphatic that is! And why
is David so sure that God has heard him? Well, it's not because
of his own words. It's not because of his own words.
His own words are rather weak words. If he is simply saying
to God, how long? What is the reason that he has
this confidence? He's a man after God's own heart.
He's not the hypocrite. The Lord, remember in the Sermon
on the Mount says, we're not to be like the heathen who think
that they're heard for their much speaking. We're not to use
vain repetitions in prayers. Why does David have this confidence
that his prayer has been heard? Because, because he has been
pleading the mercy of God. In verse 2 he says, Have mercy
upon me, O Lord. And again in verse 4, O save
me for thy mercy's sake. All the time he's pleading the
mercy of God and it reminds us of the publican that the Lord
speaks of in the Gospel when the man who goes to the temple
at the same time as the Pharisee. And who is the man who goes justified
to his house? Not the Pharisee, the self-righteous
Pharisee. but the publican, the despised
sinner, goes to his house justified rather than the other. Why? Because
of his prayer. God be merciful to me, a sinner
was his prayer. Oh, he pleaded the mercy of God. And you know, to plead the mercy
of God is really pleading the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In
Romans 3.25 We read of Christ, whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Now
the word there, propitiation, it's the same word that's also
used in Hebrews 9.5 in respect to the mercy seat in the tabernacle. There in Hebrews 9.5 it's translated
as mercy seat, whereas in Romans 3.25 it's translated as propitiation,
but it's exactly the same word. Why so? Because it was at the
mercy seat that the high priest on the day of atonement went
and sprinkled the blood, the atoning blood. But you see what
he is saying there in Romans 3.25, he's speaking of Christ
whom God has set forth to be a mercy seat. All Christ is the
mercy seat. He's the one in whom we have
boldness and access with confidence, by faith. We're to come boldly
to the throne of grace so we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And He tells us, whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my
name, He may give it you. Or to come and pray for God to
hear us because of His mercy, that's Christ. But thou, O Lord,
come on, return, O Lord, deliver my soul, O save me, for Thy mercy's
sake. All that God would help us in,
to wait, to wait upon Him in that spirit of real expectation,
In Psalm 40, David says, I waited patiently for the Lord. In waiting, I waited, literally. In waiting, I waited. And He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. Oh, that we might be those then
who would come in that spirit of
true faith, resting in the Lord, and waiting patiently for Him. I suppose we have to say our
time is always ready. Our time is now. We need much
grace to wait for the Lord's time and to look to Him and to
commit our way in the midst of all our uncertainties into His
gracious hands. But the Lord help us to come
in the spirit that we find here in our text tonight, the spirit
of this gracious man, King David. When he cries out, O Lord, how
long that then he can go and return, O Lord? Deliver my soul,
O save me for Thy mercy's sake. And then that assurance, O Lord,
hath heard the voice. and my weeping. The Lord hath
heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. May the Lord bless his word to
us. Now let us worship God as we
sing our second praise. The hymn 401, the tune is Ombudsly
385. How long O Lord, shall I complain, like
one that seeks his God in vain? Canst thou thy face for ever
hide, and I still pray and be denied? The Hymn 401