Psalm 6 reads, To the chief musician
on Neginoth, upon Shemineth, a psalm of David, 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? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance
of thee. In the grave, who shall give
thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning.
O'er the night make I my bed to swim. I water my couch with
my tears. Mine eye is consumed because
of grief, it waxeth old because of all mine enemies. 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. Let all mine enemies be ashamed
and so vexed. Let them return and be ashamed
suddenly. Verse 3, My soul is also sore
vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver
my soul, O save me for thy mercy's sake. O Lord, how long? How long? Have you ever been here with
the psalmist, brought to the point of crying unto your God,
Deliver my soul, deliver me. How long, O Lord? Have mercy
upon me, heal me, rebuke me not in thine anger. How long? This psalm, as we've said of
many of the other psalms, is the cry of David, the cry of
a child of God. The cry of one who in their experience
knows the suffering that a child of God is brought into. And here
the psalmist, here David, cries out from the depths. He feels
the Lord's anger upon him. He feels the chastening rod of
God upon his back. He feels like he's been cast
out. He wonders how long this circumstance will go on for.
He knows that if he goes to the grave in this state, that that's
the end of him. In death there is no remembrance
of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks. He's weary
of his groaning. He cries in the night. He's surrounded by enemies. But towards the end of the psalm,
the cry of his faith rises up. For despite all that he's put
through, despite the depths to which he sinks, despite the pain
of the chastening hand of God, he knows that his God will hear
and hath heard his supplication. 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. Let all mine enemies be ashamed
and so vexed. Let them return and be ashamed
suddenly. A three-fold cry of victory at
the end. The Lord hath heard the voice
of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. He knows His God hears Him. He knows His God has heard Him. He knows the end will be wonderful. He knows His deliverances are
short. And He knows His victory over
his enemies is certain despite the fact that here he is in the
depths crying out how long, how long. As I say this is the cry
of a child of God It was the experience of David. It's a psalm
that many others may have related to over many years. It's a psalm
that you may, from time to time, relate to. You may be put just
where David was. You may cry out unto your God,
how long? Deliver my soul. And you may,
with faith, rise up in victory to say, the Lord have heard the
voice of my weeping. The Lord will receive my prayer. You may have been here. But as
with the other psalms, this is not so much about David, not
so much about the child of God, not so much about the believer,
not so much about you. But the real hope conveyed in
this psalm, the real reason for the threefold cry of faith at
the end of the psalm, is that these are the words, these are
the thoughts, these are the feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the experience of the Lord when He was nailed to the cross, when the light of the sun was
taken away, when the burden of the sins of His people was laid
upon Him, and when He entered into the torments and the suffering
of death for His own that He should deliver them from their
sins. Whereas we saw in the 5th Psalm,
that the 5th Psalm's attention was very much upon the resurrection,
upon that morning when the Lord rose from the grave. And whereas
we saw in the previous two Psalms that they encompass the death
and the resurrection, Psalm 6 is very much focused, as are a number
of other Psalms, upon the experience of Christ, upon the cross, upon
the death of Christ. 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? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul,
O save me for Thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance
of Thee. In the grave who shall give Thee
thanks? I am weary with my groaning.
All the night make I my bed to swim. I water my couch with my
tears. Mine eye is consumed because
of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. Oh, what cries! Oh what an experience. These cries encompass something
of Christ's anticipation of what would come upon him. Very much
conveying how he might have felt in Gethsemane as this hour approached
him. When he cried out unto the Lord,
if thou be willing let this cup depart from me. O Lord, rebuke
me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
O Lord, must I, must I endure this? Must I take this? Must
I drink this cup? It encompasses his anticipation
of it, but it encompasses also the vast depth, the awful anguish,
the terrible suffering that he felt when he entered that hour. That hour of darkness, that hour
when he bore the sins of his people. Those hours, those free
hours in the darkness, in the night, in death. 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? How long? This just speaks to
the death of Christ. A subject so vast, so deep, you
can never fathom it, never exhaust it, never truly take it in. in terms of its scale, its depth,
its height, its length, its breadth. We can speak of the death of
Christ. We can know what he went through. We can know the fact.
We can know that he bore the sins of his people. We can know
about the judgment of God, his righteous judgment of sin. We
can know what it deserves. We can know that it deserves
an eternal outpouring of his wrath. We can know as a fact
that Christ endured that for his people. That though he suffered
for three hours, in reality it was the same as though he suffered
for eternity for each one of his people. We can know these
things. But just knowing them in the
head is not to have that experience or that true sight. It's just
to have a glimpse. It's something that our human
minds, our natural frame really can't take in. It's so vast,
so deep, so incomprehensible. Beyond what we can take. It's
something that must be revealed, must be shown. We can only see
it in but a measure. Just as we contemplate the vastness
of the universe in which we live. The unfathomable scale of the
universe and how small we are in the midst of it. We can know
it, we can know the scientific facts, we can see some photos
taken from space of how small the earth is and we can see the
numbers recording the distances between the planets and then
the numbers of galaxies and the number of stars and how far they
are all apart and we can read these things but we can't take
it in the universe is so vast and when people have been into
the heavens into space and seen the earth from space and seen
the the barrenness of everywhere else and how small the earth
appears even those natural men have been stunned and amazed
at how small the earth is in comparison to the universe around
and yet when we stand upon the earth up close we feel so big
when in reality we are so small the universe itself is so vast
because it's infinite it goes on and on well what Christ suffered
in his death is even greater he suffered infinite
suffering eternal suffering. A suffering without beginning
and end. A suffering that would go on
forever. And a scale and a depth of suffering
that we cannot comprehend. We cannot comprehend how awful
sin is in the sight of a holy God. We cannot comprehend how
awful, how terrible, how repugnant our sin Our rebellion, our depravity
is in the sight of God. He is so holy, so righteous,
that His justice burns against our sin. And it burns with an
eternal fire, that wherever sin is, that fire will burn forever. And yet Christ, in His love for
His own, in His love for His bride, in His love for His people. If you're one of His in His love
for you, Christ in love took that eternity of wrath, those
everlasting fires, that judgment which would burn forevermore
and He took it and He took it in a cup and He drank it. and
he drank as it were eternity he drank and drank and drank
and drank and drank as though it went on forever in those three hours upon the cross
we cannot fathom that it's eternal we cannot fathom how it could
have been contracted into the span of the three hours we can't
understand how eternity could be taken and swallowed up in
a span of time yet it was Though to men on the outside they looked,
and free hours passed, in reality Christ was almost in another
place. He took eternity into His soul,
and from the midst of it cried out, My soul is also sore vexed,
but thou, O Lord, how long? How long? In the darkness. In the eternal darkness. In the
midst of the darkness, in the midst of the suffering in the
darkness, Christ cried out to his Father, O Lord, how long? How long? How great is Christ's suffering?
How vast is this eternity of judgment which he endured? How
much did he drink in that cup? How long did he endure this for? How far did it go? How high,
how deep, how wide was this suffering? It was as long, as far, as high,
as deep as his love. for his people for whom he endured
it. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians
in chapter 3 where he prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith that he may dwell in your hearts that ye being rooted
and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be filled with all the fullness of God. You say, how could eternity dwell
in three hours upon the cross? How could an eternity of suffering
be confined to three hours on the cross? I say the same way
that the Eternal God, the Eternal Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
can dwell within a small and a finite creature such as you
and I. How can the fullness of God dwell
in our hearts? How can God, how can the Spirit
dwell in the heart of a man. How can he who is eternal be
found within that which is temporal? By the miraculous mystery of
God. For Christ does dwell in the
hearts of his people. The eternal God does dwell in
all fullness. in the hearts and the lives of
those whom he has delivered from death. And the eternal wrath
of God did dwell upon Christ in three hours upon a cross,
upon that man in the depths of the darkness of the night. Oh, how Paul prays in response
that we may know something of that love that took him to such
a place. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height And to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. How can we comprehend such a
thing? Only by faith. It's incomprehensible to the
natural man. It's foolishness to the wisdom
of man. The natural man may read of it,
may read the facts on the page, but ultimately will dispense
with it, will dismiss it, will say that cannot be. Yet faith
owns it, reckons it, trusts it, believes it, knows it. Faith looks to the love of Christ,
a love without beginning and without end, and receives it
gladly. And faith looks through that
love to the suffering that that love endured, on his part, on
our part, and says, and says, that is what Christ suffered
for me. How long? Oh Lord, how long? How long? How long must he endure? How
deep must he go? How hard must be the path? How hot must be the flames? How
fierce must be the anger? Why me? He might say, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? How long must I suffer? Why me? Not for anything that he did.
Not because he deserved it. Not because he earned it, not
because he shook his fist in God's face, but because his people
had earned it. Because you shook your fist in
God's face, because you and I rebelled, because we hated Almighty God,
because we said in our hearts there is no God, because we like
sheep went astray, because we deserve, because his people raging with the fruit of sin,
raging with death, turned aside from their God. He in love came
where they were and took what they are and took what they did
and bore it and his father looked upon what he was made to be in
their place looked upon his son who was perfect but looked upon
him as he bore their sins and as he was made sin and saw the
sinner he looked upon him as the sinner even though he himself
had never sinned because he stood as their substitute as their
saviour And he said, I must judge this sin and these sins, even
though this is my son who has done no wrong. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Because only by standing in their
stead, only by taking their sin, only by being united with them
that he might be made to be what they are, could he deliver them
from what they are and what they've done and the judgment of God
against it. Only through dying in their place
could he deliver them from death. Oh Lord, how long? In death there is no remembrance
of thee. in the grave who shall give thee
thanks? Oh the sinner that goes to the
grave with his sins upon his hands, the sinner that goes into
death with no answer for what he has done, will know what it
is to be plunged into this eternal darkness. And whatever he knows of God,
and whatever he feels of the hand of God's gone out against
him in judgment, he will never be remembered by
that God in mercy. The door is shut. It is too late. He will not be heard. But here
was one who went to the grave. Here was one who suffered death. Here was one who felt the anger
of God upon his back, who knew he would be heard. The Lord have heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. The Lord have heard the voice
of my weeping. Here was one who in death in
the grave was heard in the end and delivered his people because
he was the only one who could suffer that eternal wrath and
take it all and quench it and drink that cup to the dregs Should
you go to the grave with your sins, you will have a cup to
drink that you can never get to the bottom of. You will never
endure it to the end, you cannot. And your heart will still burn
with more and more sin as eternity races on such that the more you
drink, the more you have to drink. You will never get to the bottom
of it, it will go on and on. So your cries for help would
be in vain. But here was the one, the only
one who could drink that cup and drink it all. For all his
people, for at all time, he could drink it to the dregs. He could
drink every drop such that there was no more judgment that God
could justly pour down upon his head. At the end of those three
hours, everything was gone. Every sin was blotted out, every
crime was answered, every price was paid. There was no more to
pay, no more to drink, no more judgment, no more anger. It was
all taken away, all blotted out, such that God could not say any
more against him. but having taken it all away,
God must then look upon the Son and say, not guilty. Here was a man, here was a Saviour,
who in himself was righteous, the very righteousness of God,
and he could drink the righteous judgment of God against sin and
take it away, such that in the end all that was left was himself,
the righteousness. of God. Having swallowed up death,
having swallowed up judgment, having paid every price, there
was nothing that God could then see in the Son except what the
Son was, righteous. And with all His people united
unto Him there was nothing that God could see in that people
in His Son. Once he paid that price, accept
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. But to get to that point, this
Saviour, this man, had to go through a night of eternity. I am weary with my groaning. O'er the night make I my bed
to swim. I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because
of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies. O'er the depths he went in, in
the darkness of the night. I am weary with my groaning all
the night, make I my bed to swim. Christ slept in the night. He who is the light, the son
of God, the day, was plunged into the night when he bore the
sins of his people, when he was made sin. He was put into darkness. He who is light was made to be
dark. He who is righteous was made
to be sin. He who is holy was made to be
evil. He who is everlasting life died
in the place of his people. The light shone in the darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. or when the light came
into this dark and evil world there came that hour where the
darkness was laid upon he who is light and he bore it I am
weary with my groaning all the night make I my bed to swim how
long? how long? every hour until the
light of the morning should rise up when he rose up in the morning
of that resurrection day and the light shone forth again how
long? oh believer if you're ever given
some sight of the depths of this suffering some glimpse, some
understanding of just what Christ suffered for you for your sins,
for what you have done, for what you do, for what you will do.
It will melt you. It will melt you to have some
understanding of the scale of His love that He should do this
for you. The scale, the vastness of His
love that He should endure this for you. Oh what love. you cannot measure it and what a motive what an incentive against sin people religious people try to
get people to turn from sin in various means They put the law
on a sinner's back. They give them various rules
and regulations and they strive to live in a certain manner.
They strive to turn from their sin. They strive to live up to
a standard and they all fail like you and I fail. We have
no strength and no ability. And a great problem is that there
is no true conviction of sin. We struggle to turn from sin
when we don't see what's wrong with sin. Oh there's certain
things we can say are wrong and we don't do those things and
we think that we're not sinning if we don't do those things but
all the time we're sinning in a multitude of other ways that
we're unaware of. So much of what we do and think
and say is sin. It's all sin and yet we don't
see it, we don't know it, we have no conviction. But when
In the Gospel, the Spirit of God shows you something of what
Christ suffered for sin. Then you see what your sin is.
Then you see what your sin has done. Then you hate your sin. Then you turn. Then you see the
stripes that went on the Saviour's back. Then you see the beating
and the bruising that you have caused. then you know how much
he loved you that he paid that price for what you've done, for
what you've said, for what you are. How long? How long? The psalm opens with
this address as we've seen on some of the other psalms it's
addressed to the chief musician on Neginov upon Shemineth, the
psalm of David and Negunoth we met earlier at the top of Psalm
4 and we said that Negunoth is an instrument, stringed instruments
which the choir of the temple played and there are seven psalms
which are addressed to be played upon Negunoth which speak of
the unity of God's people who play forth, who bring forth this
praise and adoration of the Saviour as led by the chief musician,
their Lord and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. This praise is
brought forth from the hearts of all God's people unto the
Saviour. This perfect praise, this sevenfold
chorus of strings praising unto God and the Saviour. Neginoth. And here Psalm 6 brings forth
this praise again on Neginoth. But it adds to this sound of
the strings. It adds a certain note. It's Neginoth upon Sheminith. And Sheminith is the key in which
this is played. It's the eighth key. It's a low
key. A deep key. A solemn key. These are the strings of God's
people. Praising their God. with a certain
note because here they look and behold a saviour crucified for
them. Here they look into the darkness
of the cross. Here they look into Golgotha. Shemineth is mentioned at the
top of Psalm 6 and the top of Psalm 12. Psalm 12 also if you
read it is a similar depth, a Psalm with a similar depth which opens,
help Lord for the godly man ceaseth. Here the cry of the strings comes
from the depths. Here we're brought down with
the lowest note, the deepest note. Hear the people of God,
united unto their Saviour. With Him, go into the grave. With Him, go into death. With Him, end your judgement. To the Chief Musician, on Neganoth,
upon Shemineth, the deepest of notes. How long, O Lord? O Lord, how long? Deliver my
soul. Here the people of God, with
Paul, feel themselves to enter with the Saviour into the judgment. Here they see their sins judged. Here they see their old man Adam
crucified. Here they are slain. With Paul
they cry, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Here they look into the darkness
of the cross and see the one who loved them. the One with
whom they were crucified and see how He gave Himself for them. You cannot be light, you cannot
be frivolous, you cannot sing with a high note when you look
into the darkness of the cross. The joy comes when the morning
follows but when you look and see what He suffered Oh how solemn
that our sin should bring this to pass. I am weary with my groaning,
he cried. All the night make I my bed to
swim. I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because
of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies. Oh, he suffered, but we were
the ones that deserved to. Oh, believer, he paid the price,
but it should have been you. What an enemy we are. What an
enemy our sin is. What an enemy death is. But he
suffered for what we are. He suffered for our sin. He suffered for our iniquities. He suffered death. Which we had waxed if old because
of all mine enemies. He suffered. But he suffered
unto the end. He drank the cup to the dregs. And he knew that when he got
to the end, the Lord had heard his cry. And he rises up towards
the end of the psalm, as the daylight approaches, as the morning
hour comes upon him, as the nighttime passes away, He rises up in faith
and cries out, 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. Let all
mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed, let them return and be
ashamed suddenly. and he rises up and leaps up
from the grave as it were in victory and all his people with
him who cry with him the Lord have heard the voice of our weeping
the Lord have heard our supplications the Lord will receive our prayers
they all rise up with him and see the victory which he has
wrought against his enemies let all Christ's enemies be ashamed
and so vexed Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. Let
them be cast into the depths. Oh, let his enemy of sin be destroyed. Oh, let his enemy of death be
destroyed. Oh, let the devil be destroyed.
Oh, let every wicked one that put him to death who never bows
a knee be destroyed. Let them be ashamed. Is that
your cry or are you crying out in your heart against him? Are
you his enemy or are you one of those enemies who were once
an enemy but an enemy for whom he died, whom he conquered, whose
heart has been changed, who's bowed down before him in adoration? One who hated once but now loves,
where are you? Is your heart crying out against
this man, this saviour, this deliverer? Is it crying out away
from me? Crucify him. Is it shut in your
ears to Him? Are you shut in your eyes to
Him? Are you turning your mind aside to other things? Do you
say that Christ is but a myth, Christ is nothing to me? Yes,
it were on the cross, in the darkness, in the suffering, as
recorded in Lamentations said, am I nothing to you, all ye that
pass by? Am I nothing to you? And he says
in his gospel to you this day, am I nothing to you? Is Christ
nothing to you? Do you trample him underfoot?
Does your heart say there is no God, there is no Christ, there
is no Saviour? It doesn't matter. If it does,
be it known to you this day that you are amongst his enemies.
You put him to death with your disdain. You put him to death
with your apathy. You put him to death with your
unbelief. You put him to death with your
rebellion and sin. And you stand as his enemy, as
one of those enemies who will be cast into a lake of fire should
you not come to know His saving grace, one of those enemies of
whom He says, let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. Oh, will you stand to the end
as His enemy, or will God graciously open your eyes to see a Saviour
who endured death for sinners such as you and I? who went to
the very depths because he loved his people. He loved them when
they were his enemies. He died for them when they were
his enemies. He suffered their rejection,
He suffered their hatred, He suffered their scorn, because
He loved them. And He took their hatred, He
took their rejection, He took their scorn upon His back as
sins, and paid the price for it. And said, I loved them. And He endured the darkness because
He loved them. And He cried out, How long, O
Lord? Because He loved them. Did He
cry out, How long, O Lord? because he loved you. Oh, have
you seen his love? Oh, have you heard his cry? Oh, have you been brought to
see him in the depths of his suffering? When he died, God
divided the precious from the vile, the sheep from the goats,
his bride from his enemies, his people from the wicked. Amongst whom are you found? Amongst whom are you one of that
people, that elect, for whom Christ suffered? Paul, in Romans 8, says regarding
this death, this saviour, this gospel, this salvation. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.