(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, well we're there in Psalm 6 and of course on Wednesday nights we've been making our way through the book of Psalms taking one Psalm a week and tonight we find ourselves here in Psalm 6 and as we've been looking at these Psalms we've been looking at these superscriptions, these statements that are written above the Psalm when they appear and we've been talking about them of course they are found in the original language, they're actually translated from Hebrew into English and in this Psalm, Psalm 6 and verse 1 we read this superscription it says to the chief musician on Neganoth upon Sheminath a Psalm of David and of course we appreciate the superscription because it often gives us some information about the Psalm, it'll tell us for example that this is a Psalm that was written by King David and we've talked about these things, we've already talked about the word Neganoth so I'm not going to deal with that tonight but just by way of introduction I want to talk about this word Sheminath because it's a new word that we've seen when he says to the chief musician on Neganoth upon Sheminath and of course if you remember we've looked at these words that are not words that are familiar to us but they come up throughout scriptures so keep your place there in Psalm 6, it's obviously our text for tonight but go with me just real quickly to the book of 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles chapter 15, if you go backwards you're going to go past Psalms, Job, Esther, Nehemiah, Ezra, 2 Chronicles and 1 Chronicles and I'd like you to find 1 Chronicles chapter 15, if you remember when we've looked at the word Neganoth and Neheloth we learn that it probably has to do with the type of instrument that's being played, either a wind instrument or a stringed instrument but then we see this new word Sheminath and it actually appears other times in scripture and one of the times is here in 1 Chronicles 15, 21 and I'd like you to see it, the Bible says this and Matathiah and Eliphilah and Mykoniah and Obedom and Jael and Azariah, I just want you to notice this little phrase here at the end of verse 21, with harps on the Sheminath to excel and again here we're talking about music and I want you to notice that it says with harps on the Sheminath to excel and again these words either in English or the Hebrew are sometimes difficult to even know what it's being referred to because they're not used a lot but in this context and understanding that it has to do with music and these Psalms are of course written to music and they're the book of Psalms and in some ways it's like the hymn book of the Old Testament nation of Israel although we know it's more than that, it's obviously scripture, it's inspired by the word of God but I want you to notice that the Sheminath seems to be referring to some sort of an instrument because here it says with harps on the Sheminath to excel and then if you would go back to Psalm 6 and verse 1 it says to the chief musician again telling us that this Psalm is being directed to probably like the minister of worship on Naganath upon Sheminath and that upon there is again probably an instruction as to what instrument that David wants to use for this Psalm so just something interesting there to consider the instructions being given here musically with regards to this Psalm and then of course we have Psalm 6 in front of us and it's not super long, it's 10 verses that the Psalm is but what I'd like to do is just quickly give you an outline and then we're going to work our way through this outline as we study this together and what I've done to outline this Psalm is I've just outlined it using four words and these words are like headings for each one of these sections so maybe you can jot this down if you'd like to have an outline for the Psalm so in verses 1-3 the word that we can use to outline these verses and to give it a heading would be this word discipline and if you'd like to write that down in your notes or maybe even in the margin of your Bible you can write the word discipline next to verses 1-3 and then next to verses 4-5 you can write this word deliverance and so we have discipline verses 1-3, deliverance verses 4-5 and then verses 6-7 distress and then to finish up the sentence we're going to use the Psalm verses 8-10 you can write the word depart so these four words we'll use them as headings to help us understand this Psalm discipline, deliverance, distress and then depart so we'll begin here of course in verse number 1 with this heading of discipline I want you to notice this is every one of these Psalms if you've been noticing after we got out of the first two Psalms which the first two Psalms were more of introductory Psalms we had a Psalm 1 that dealt with the blessing of the individual and then we had Psalm 2 that dealt with not a person but people and nations and there was lots of end times implications there and then we've been dealing these Psalms and just something for you to be aware of not only is the book of Psalms a book of music and these Psalms were made to be put to music and to be used in worship but they've also if you haven't noticed I think you have noticed are a prayer book all of these Psalms that we've been seeing so far have been written in a form of prayer and they've been different types of prayer one prayer had to do with when your enemies increase and other prayers had to do with different things and here again we find a unique prayer from David and in this prayer what we find is David under the chastening hand of the Lord he is being disciplined by God in Psalm 6 if you look at verse 1 notice what it says oh Lord this is how the Psalm begins David says oh Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure so I want you to notice that here David is acknowledging the fact that at this point when he's writing this Psalm he is under the chastening hand of the Lord he's being rebuked by the Lord he's being disciplined by the Lord and this is something that we see in other Psalms as well you're there in Psalm 6 flip over to Psalm 38 if you would and look at verse number 1 Psalm 38 and verse 1 Psalm 38 one the Bible says the Psalm of David to bring to remembrance oh Lord rebuke me not I just want you to notice Psalm 38 one and how it's very similar to Psalm 6 one Psalm 6 one says oh Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure Psalm 38 one he says oh Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure so again here we see that David is acknowledging the fact that he has sinned and we really don't know some of the other Psalms we know what David is referring to and we know what sin he might be referring to but in Psalm 6 we can take a guess from the Psalm as to what he may be referring to but we don't know for sure what sin it is that David has committed that he's being chastened for here but we know this that he knows that he's being chastened by God and he is referring to the fact that the Lord is chastening him and he's asking the Lord rebuke me not but he's not saying don't rebuke me he's the understanding is I know you're going to rebuke me Lord but what he's asking is that you would rebuke me not in thine anger he's not asking not to be chastened he understands that he's going to get chastened but he's saying neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure and I think this is one the first thing that we can take from this verse is this and as Christians we need to acknowledge that from time to time if we're believers if we're the children of God then we are going to be chastened by the Lord and the Lord at times if he's your heavenly father he's going to have to correct you he's going to have to discipline you he's going to have to give you a spiritual spanking and if God if you never receive spiritual spankings then the Bible tells us that you have to consider whether or not you're even saved whether or not you're even a child of God and not only that but in the chastening of the Lord then there is this silver lining and this encouragement that says when I'm being chastened at least I know I'm saved and at least I know that God is my heavenly father and of course in Hebrews the writer of Hebrews said it this way he said and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children and he says my son despise not thou to chasten the Lord neither beware of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth so he says look if you're a son of God from time to time God is going to scourge you he's going to chasten you he's going to discipline you and and that's something that we need to understand and you know I believe and I've taught this in the past but I want to reiterate this that when bad things happen in our lives we should never let me just say it this way when bad things happen to somebody else's life we don't need to sit there and judge we don't need to be like Job's friends and just say well I know this is happening because of sin in their life you know we we if it's a fellow believer we need to just weep with those that weep and and mourn with those that mourn and we just try to encourage them and be there for them but you know when bad things are happening to us we need to realize that not every time that bad things happen it's God chasing us we understand that sometimes like Joe bad things happen to him and he had done nothing wrong God wasn't chasing him God was purifying him and God was actually using him as a testimony for others so when bad things happen to us we need to realize that not all of it is a result of sin or God disciplining us or God correcting us it might be that God is trying to make us better it might be God it might be that we're reaping what we've sowed it might be just the fact that we live in a sinful world and there's sin but but we should when bad things do happen though to us we should consider is this the chastening hand of the Lord now please hear what I'm saying to you when bad things happen to somebody else we should not be asking like I wonder if this is God disciplining them you know because that makes you Job's friends right and they were bad guys but when bad things happen to us we should ask ourselves God is this you chastening me is this you disciplining me are you trying to get my attention with regards to something so and here's what I've noticed oftentimes what happens with Christians is that when they know they're living in some sort of of sin they know that there's some major problem in their life and then bad things happen to them and and and they think or sense that it is the chasing out Lord what Christians often do what what Jonah did is they'll try to run from the presence of the Lord which you can't even do because God is omniscient and we understand that but they'll try to not acknowledge God they won't go to God they won't talk to God but I want you to notice that this is what makes David different I think than the rest of us because the Bible says and we know that David was obviously a sinner he had many major sins in his life and many failures but here's one thing that makes David different than the rest of us and I think one of the reasons that God says that David was a man after God's own heart and it is this when David acknowledged that he was being chased by the Lord he didn't quit church you understand what I'm saying to you because this is what people do they they mess up their lives due to sin God begins to chase in them and they're like I got to go find another church or I got to whatever get a divorce I have to do this yeah and and they start trying to just run away from the chastisement but what you see David do is he embraces it and he acknowledges it and we don't see him saying Lord don't rebuke me the request that's being made here is not Lord don't rebuke me the request that's being made here is if you're gonna rebuke me and I know you're a just God and you're a holy God and I deserve what's coming to me he says would you please rebuke me not in thine anger would you please chasten me not in thy hot displeasure so notice he's not asking don't chasten me he's asking just don't do it in anger Lord and that's what his request is so one thing that we need to acknowledge as Christians is this sometimes we're going to get spanked by God and that's actually a good thing at the very least it shows that you're saved but we should not run away from God in those instances we should not try to flee from the presence of the Lord in those instances what we should do is acknowledge it and like David here he's what he's asking is that God would not do it in his anger now what does that mean for the Lord to not do it in anger well keep your place there in Psalms and then let me let me show you some verses in the book of Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter 10 if you'd flip over towards the end of the Bible you have Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Isaiah and then Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter number 10 and I'll show you what the Bible says about this this whole idea of not being chastened in anger or in hot displeasure in the hot displeasure of the Lord but if you just think of it on a practical level isn't it true as parents that sometimes we discipline our children and and in anger and look the Bible says we should not do that the Bible says fathers should not be provoking their children to wrath and I'm not saying that that's a good thing I'm not saying that that I'm not justifying that in any way but what I'm saying is this when you discipline your children when they've really angered you and you discipline your children that's where you're going to probably tend to take it a little further than you should you understand what I'm saying to you now let me just pause the sermon here and give you a practical tip don't discipline your children in anger all right if you're really angry about something they've done you know send them off to their room send yourself off to your room and cool yourself down I'm not saying not to discipline them I am saying it's wise not to discipline them in anger now God is holy and perfect he can actually discipline us in anger and not sin but you can't and I can't right that's why the Bible tells us to be angry and sin not and and it's not telling you to to that it's okay to be angry but he's saying it look if you're gonna be angry at least insulate yourself and make sure you're not gonna sin while in anger because oftentimes when we're angry and when we allow our emotions to get out of control we don't make good decisions we make very very poor and bad decisions what David is saying here is he's saying because look as a parent have you ever been in a position where you have to discipline your children because they did something wrong but you're not really that upset about it do you know I'm talking about maybe I'm the only one you know maybe my wife and I are the only ones but like you know someone tells you something about your kids and you're just like okay whatever like I guess I got it really I got a discipline them but is you're not you're just like it's not that big with you but you do feel like you should discipline them well obviously that looks a lot different right then when you're just angry because they did something do you see what I'm saying so when you sometimes when you're just discipline your children because it's the right thing to do out of duty like hey you can't do that you know you're just like you need to stop doing that and here's your punishment but if you're angry you know then you could be like ah you know just all crazy on them and what David is saying is Lord I know I've angered you and I know you're gonna discipline me but my request is don't discipline me in your anger and the idea is this David is asking God not to take it too far are you there in Jeremiah look at chapter 10 and verse 24 Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 24 here's here's what Jeremiah 10 24 says it says oh Lord correct me so again I want you to notice the prophets not asking and and the Holy Spirit speaking here the request is not don't correct me he's saying oh Lord correct me but if you're gonna correct me he says but with judgment or do it with judgment the idea is to do with justice and then he says this not in thine anger now why why not in thine anger notice what the what the verse says lest thou bring me to nothing because if we make God angry enough he might just kill us he might just destroy us there's plenty of examples in the Bible where God just kills people because they made him so mad in fact not only did God I preached a whole series several years ago on Sunday nights called drop dead and we went through and looked at all of the famous stories in the Bible where people just drop dead because they just upset God so much that God killed him and by the way that's a good lesson for all of us especially young people realize that you might do something that upsets God so much that he just kills you instantly and he might destroy you and he might just bring you to nothing he might cause some major harm to come to your life so the request being made by David here because let's understand the context David has sinned David acknowledges and this is one thing that David's good at remember Nathan comes to him and says thou art the man and he says I have sinned so he acknowledges the sin he realizes he's being punished but he's asking the Lord don't take it too far and here in Jeremiah 10 24 we read correct me but with judgment not in thine anger why is the request that you would not correct me in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing look at Jeremiah 46 if you would in verse number 28 if you flip over to Jeremiah 46 in verse 28 he says fear thou not O Jacob my servant saith the Lord for I am with thee for I will make a full end of all the nations whether I have driven thee Jeremiah 46 verse 28 look at last part of verse 28 but I will not make this is the Lord speaking to the nation of Israel fear thou not O Jacob my servant saith the Lord look at the last part verse 28 but I will not make a full end of thee but correct thee in measure you see what God is telling the children of Israel he says I'm gonna correct you but I'm not gonna make a full end of thee I'm not gonna take it to the point where I bring you to nothing I am going to correct you but I'm going to correct thee in measure yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished now I want you to see what he's saying there he says correct thee and measure so what are you saying when I correct you it's going to be measured correct a chastening I'm not just gonna go full on you to the point where I make a full end of thee but then he says at the end of verse 28 yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished he said so I'm not gonna go just full out to destroy you but I am gonna make sure you're punished because at the end of the verse he says I will not leave thee wholly unpunished he said he said you're not gonna get away with this but I'm not going to make a full end of thee so the idea here when David is asking correct me not in thine anger chasing me not in thine heart displeasure when he's saying these things what he's saying is Lord I realize you have to correct me but I'm asking that you would do it with measure that you would not bring me to nothing that you would not make a full end of me go back to Psalms if you would Psalm 6 and here's what we can learn from this is that when you and I are experiencing the chastening of the Lord which you should experience at some point in your Christian life because you're not perfect you're you're not the Lord there's one son that God never had to spank and that's the Lord Jesus Christ and and the rest of us are gonna get spankings when we acknowledge that you say what is the proper response the proper response is to realize that God is correcting us and to acknowledge you know the Bible says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we should not hide it we should not make excuses for it we should not minimize it we should acknowledge it to God confess it to God but one thing you can do that the Psalm is teaching us here that David did is saying but Lord can you just not do it in thine heart displeasure can you not do it in thine anger can you not take it too far can you not bring me to nothing can you not make a full end of me can you correct me in measure is what we learn here from Jeremiah and I apologize I meant to tell you to keep your place in Jeremiah we're gonna come back to that part of the Bible if you're interested but but go to go to Psalm 6 so I want you to notice that there there's a there's a don't and the don't request is from David is this don't take it too far but then there's a do there's a do request that David makes and it's found in verses two and three he says have mercy upon me so in verse one he says don't chase in me in thine anger don't discipline me in thy heart displeasure right don't rebuke me in thine anger don't chase in me in thy heart displeasure he's saying don't do it in anger don't take it too far but then in verse two he says and here's what I'm asking you to do Lord have mercy upon me have mercy upon me Oh Lord and and and you say why does David feel like the right to ask God for mercy and again I think this might show the closeness of David to God and why the Bible says that he's a man after God's own heart because even in his sin like here the interesting thing is this we've been talking a lot about prayer lately most Christians don't pray when they're right with God David not only prayed when he was right with God he even prayed when he was wrong with God when he was like being chastened by God I mean talk about being a prayer warrior he's sinned he's done wrong he's getting a spiritual spanking and he's like bringing his request to Lord I mean he's just looking up to God and and God's not upset because David's probably thinking to himself well you have not because he asked not so God told me to ask so here's what I'm gonna ask for right now while I'm getting a spanking take it easy on me Lord have mercy upon me Oh Lord well why here's why for I'm weak Oh Lord healed me for my bones are vexed my soul is also sore Vax but thou Oh Lord how long and when he asked this question how long what he's referring to is how long are you going to allow this to continue how long are you going to chase at me and what David is asking is for mercy he says have mercy upon me he's he and and he's saying for I'm weak and then he says heal me so he has two requests that he makes have mercy and heal me have mercy and heal me now let's just run a few verses real quickly go to Psalm 41 Psalm 41 and look at verse number four Psalm 41 in verse four the psalmist says this I said Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee so I want you to notice that in Psalm 6 verse 2 here you have David getting right with God a guy confessing his sin getting right with God and here's what he asked he says have mercy and heal me he says have mercy upon me for I am weak Oh Lord heal me for my bones are vexed and then in Psalm 41 and verse 4 we read these words I said Oh Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul and this again is a psalm of penitence is what these Psalms are called it's a psalm of confession he says be merciful unto me heal my soul why is he making these requests for I have sinned against thee so what does the Bible teach us when we have sin and God's punishing us that we should acknowledge it we should confess it but it's okay to ask God will you have mercy on me will you heal me be merciful unto me and heal my soul go to Proverbs 28 you're there in Psalm just flip over to Proverbs 28 and look at verse 13 now these Psalms are teaching us to pray for mercy while we're under the disciplining hand of God Proverbs 28 13 tells us something about obtaining mercy Proverbs chapter 28 in verse 13 says he that covered this sin shall not prosper but who so confess it remember if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins but who so confess it but notice it's not enough to just confess he says and forsaken them look at these words shall have mercy so look when God is chastening us he's not punishing us for our sins I know sometimes we use that terminology and I'm not saying it's terrible but God's not punishing us for our sins because if you're saved your sins were punished on the cross Jesus already paid for the sins so you said well then why does God correct us why does God chasten us for the same reason that we correct our children is because we want them to fix the problem and what God wants is he's chasing you because he wants you to fix whatever it is that you're doing whatever it is that is upsetting him and he wants to be merciful we can ask for mercy but the Bible tells us here who so confess it and forsake it them shall have mercy aren't you glad that God is a merciful God he wants to give you mercy his mercies are new every day he wants to forgive our sins he wants to re-establish a right relationship with us go to Isaiah chapter 12 if you would I meant to ask you to keep your place in Jeremiah if you kept your place in Jeremiah right before Jeremiah by Isaiah not just flip over to those big books and then do me a favor keep your place somewhere there Isaiah Jeremiah but look at Isaiah 12 and verse 1 the Bible speaks of this again Isaiah 12 and verse 1 and in that day thou shalt say Oh Lord I will praise thee look at this though thou was angry with me thine anger is turned away and now comfort is me so we see that though God might be angry with us at times that God's not going to be angry with us for all of eternity thine anger is turned away and now comfort is me that's the idea of praying for mercy so what we see in Psalms is that the Psalmist prays for mercy but he also prays for healing and there's a reference to this in Hosea Hosea chapter 6 I just want to show this to you real quickly if you don't mind Hosea chapter 6 you're there in Isaiah you'll go past Jeremiah past that mentations past Ezekiel past Daniel and then you have the book of Hosea so after those big books of the Bible you have Daniel and then Hosea Hosea chapter 6 look at verse 1 Hosea chapter 6 and verse 1 the Bible says come and let us return I want you to just make note of that word return because we're gonna come back to that word here in a second look at what it says come and let us return unto the Lord for he had torn okay what does that mean that's referring to the discipline of God the chasing handle of Lord he had torn but look notice what he says and he will heal us he had smitten and he will bind us up so the Bible was teaching here that though sometimes God has to tear sometimes God has to give us a spanking he has to smite us God will also heal us from that tear and bind us up from that wound so it is God himself who is going to chasten us like a loving father does he's going to discipline us but then he's also going to heal us so here we read the words come let us return unto the Lord why for he had torn and he will heal us he has smitten and he will bind us up and this is the attitude that we should have when we are being disciplined by God that though he is the one that is maybe inflicting pain he is also the one that will heal us that will bind us up and we need to return on to him so we see that the discipline here there's two requests a don't don't do it in your anger don't take it too far and then ado and the do is this have mercy and heal go back to Psalm 6 if you would let's look at the second heading the first heading was verses 1 through 3 that's discipline and then the second heading is verses 4 through 5 and that's deliverance now it's all within the same context so remember verses 4 through 5 the theme is deliverance but it's deliverance because he's being disciplined and here's the request again there's a do and a don't he's asking the Lord to do something and he's asking the Lord to not do something to don't do something so here's the do Psalm 6 and verse 4 return I remember we looked at Hosea 6-1 here a second ago you have to go back there but the return here is a reference to return unto our old relationship or return unto me or let me return unto you to restore the relationship because remember Hosea 6-1 come and let us return unto the Lord for he had torn and he will heal us he has smitten us and he will bind us up so here the psalmist is saying you're chasing me but please help me to return so he says return oh Lord and he says deliver my soul and the word deliver means to to save me and what David is actually asking for here he's asking please save my life I don't know what's going on in David's life I don't think God wanted us to know he wanted us to just take this as a general principle but he's done something and God's rebuking him and David literally thinks that God's gonna kill him like he that's why he's saying don't rebuke me in thine anger and don't chasten me in thy hot displeasure and he's saying oh Lord deliver my soul oh save me for thy mercy's sake now notice that he asked the Lord to have mercy on him in verse two and then here he's saying again Lord have mercy on me and look it is it's always good to petition the Lord on behalf of his mercy because he's a merciful God and here David is saying I know I don't deserve it I know I don't I there's no reason for you to do it but he says return Oh Lord he's asking the Lord to return and to restore that relationship he says deliver my soul Oh save me you say why David why do you feel the right to ask for this at this time I mean you've messed up you've done wrong God is chasing you and David says for thy mercy's sake is it not because of anything I don't earn it I don't deserve it but I know you're a merciful God for thy mercy's sake let me show you another verse go to Psalm 90 Psalm 90 and look at verse 13 we see something similar Psalm 90 and verse 13 notice what he says he says return that's the same idea as we saw in Psalm 64 return Oh Lord it's the same idea that we saw in Hosea 6 one come and let us return unto the Lord Psalm 90 verse 13 return Oh Lord how long and again those are questions that are asked in Psalm 6 as well he's asking how long are you going to punish me or chasten me rebuke me return Oh Lord how long and then notice what he says he says and let it repent thee concerning thy servants so again we see David asking God I know you're punishing me I know you're chasing me punish me is the wrong word chasing me rebuking me but he says let it repent thee concerning thy servants he's saying Lord will you please show mercy would you bring this to an end would you change your mind so the idea is this that David is saying what we want and what I want Lord is that you would return unto us that you would deliver us and that you would save us and then he says and here's why I'm asking and here's why I think you should do it because of your mercy because of your forgiveness because of your deliverance go back to Psalm 6 I want you to notice verse number five now Psalm 6 5 is a little bit of a controversial verse because it's a verse that people like to use to teach a false doctrine and false heresy and I'm going to rebuttal that and and and give you the proper understanding that but before we even talk about that I just want you to see the verse that it's context because oftentimes these cults when they take these verses they take them out of context but I want you to see it in context because remember the context is this David is sinned God is chasing him David is acknowledging that but he's asking for mercy he's saying Lord I know you're gonna rebuke me don't rebuke me in thine anger don't don't don't chase in me in that anger don't rebuke me in thy hot displeasure he's saying return deliver my soul save me for thy mercy sake and then he says this verse 5 for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee things now again this is a verse that's often taken out of context by the Colts but let me just say this in context what David is saying because remember he's asking for mercy and he's saying Lord save my life return Oh Lord deliver my soul Oh save me for thy mercy sake and then in verse 5 he says for the word for means because and he's saying here's Lord here's why you should save my life here's why you shouldn't kill me this is David pleading with God please don't kill me I know I really messed up I'm really sorry I've sinned against you you're very angry please don't chase in me in thine anger please don't rebuke me in thine hot displeasure please don't take it too far if you're gonna punish me do it in measure but then he's giving the Lord these reasons and he says for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee things and here's what David is saying David is is asking the Lord and he's saying if you kill me then I can't praise you if you in the grave who shall give thee things in death there is no remembrance of thee in the context what he's saying is this if you kill me then who I've only written six Psalms there's like 150 of these that need to be written so who's gonna praise you in the grave who's gonna give you things and this is something we see in other Psalms go to Psalm 88 Psalm 88 look at verse 10 Psalm 80 and why you turn there let me just say this this is not just a common theme found in Psalms this is a common theme found in the Bible and again I won't take the time to go through all the verses but but some notable stories that you might remember is remember when God was so angry that he's gonna destroy and kill the children of Israel and Moses is the great prayer warrior and his great intercessory prayer ministry that he had he goes to the Lord and what does he tell the Lord he's saying don't destroy them don't kill them and what does he say he says don't do it because of your mercy but then he also says what if you kill them then the Egyptians are gonna say that you killed them because you didn't have the power to bring them into the land and he's appealed Moses is appealing to God not on the merit of the people but he's saying if you kill them then they can't enter the land if you kill them then they can't conquer the land if you kill them then they're not willing to establish the nation that is supposed to praise you and what David is saying is if you kill me I can't praise you in the grave I can't glorify you in death look at Psalm 88 verse 10 will thou show wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee Selah look at verse 11 shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction and again what David is saying in a very practical way is this don't let this be the end because what is it that I can do for you if I'm dead and look in a very practical way what you and I should try to do in our lives is of course we're gonna sin of course we're going to do things that upset God and that cause his chastisement to come upon us and at times God may even want to kill us but you know something that you can do is just make yourself as valuable to God as possible because what David is saying is this he's saying look look God I get it I really I'm a screw-up I've done things that really upset you you even want to kill me but I'm writing these Psalms and and I and look in your life in my life we can appeal to God and say Lord I'm sorry I've sinned I've done wrong but I'm getting a lot of people saved and and I'm preaching the Word of God and I'm and I'm helping people with the Word of God and and and if you kill me I can't do that in the grave and this is the the argument that David is making this is the argument that Moses made and there's what they're saying is will thou show wonders to the dead are you going to use the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness in destruction you know but here's the thing though if you're completely useless as a Christian if you bring no value to God in your Christian life like you don't get anybody to say you don't do anything you don't serve then God says like yeah I mean I I have no problem killing you like I'm not losing anything you know in the Bible look and people I get it that we live in this 2024 America and no child left behind and everybody thinks they have value or whatever but the truth matter is Jesus Christ said that there are some Christians that he says when the salt have lost a saver he said it's not worth anything but to be trodden under foot he said just just throw it away and let people just just throw it out on the street because it's not doing anything so one of the things that we can do is try to make ourselves valuable to God and maybe in that value he'll show us mercy and that value he'll show us grace so here's so hopefully that makes sense the teaching in context but then let's let me just show it to you out of context go back to Psalm 6 if you would and look at verse 5 and this is a verse that the Jehovah's Witnesses like to use and this is the verse that the seventh-day Adventists like to use and they'll go to Psalm 6 and verse 5 and they'll they'll just pull this verse out of its context and it says for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee things now when you read it in the context and you're understanding what David is saying you're saying you're saying please don't kill me because if you kill for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee things but here's what the Jehovah's Witnesses and brother Nate Deagans just preached the sermon about this on Saturday morning about the Jehovah's Witnesses but it's here in Psalm 6 5 so it's good for us to cover it again but what they'll teach is this idea that there's no consciousness after death and they'll teach that their soul sleep and they'll also teach annihilation that if you aren't a good Jehovah's Witness or you're not a good at seventh-day Venice or whatever then you just get destroyed and and the attack is that there's no consciousness after death your soul just goes to sleep and only if God resurrects you then you wake up now what's silly about that is that the Bible actually uses the word sleep for believers as death the Bible doesn't refer to believers as being dead it refers to believers as being asleep but what's funny about that because they'll say they'll point at verses where it says we shall not all sleep but we shall all be raised or something and and the point of verses that use the word sleep in the context of death but what's funny about that is that every time the Bible uses the word sleep in death for believers it's talking about the body saying that your body is asleep that your body gets buried with its eyes closed and it's asleep but and the idea is that one day it's gonna wake up at the resurrection but don't take the verses that have to do with your body being asleep and they'll say your soul's asleep well that's not what the Bible says and it's just again I think the devil likes to make these religions just take a verse and just flip it on its head and teach the exact opposite thing just to make a mockery of the Word of God and there's lots that we could say about that I'm not gonna take the time to do it especially since we just heard a sermon about it in our soul winning challenge but let me just give you a couple of verses additional verses to kind of refute these things so they'll say see in the great there's no remembrance of thee and who shall give thee thanks look what the Bible is teaching this another thing that we can take from this go to 2nd Corinthians if you would 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 in the New Testament Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans 1st Corinthians here's another application we could take from this verse and it is this whatever you're gonna do for God you need to do it while you're alive it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment now the Bible teaches that our works do follow us and you know what I love about God is that he's like and and don't misunderstand what I'm about to say because this is not a good thing here on earth but it but it's a good thing in heaven that God is like one of these like multi-level pyramid schemes which on earth is bad right on earth is not good don't get into one of those multi-level like I saw this product but if I can get other people to follow me then I get like don't that's not good okay don't get into those things they're not good but but the funny thing is that God is like that like if I get someone saved then I get a reward for that in heaven you know God blesses that but then when those individuals go and do things for God I'm getting rewards for them as well because the Bible says that even after my death their works and my works do follow me into judgment so in a in a very weird illustration God is a good version the only good version that you can find of this is in heaven all right so sign up for Amway in heaven which is soul winning and don't whatever and if you do Amway I don't know it I'm not attacking you okay I whatever I always got to be careful when I say because people get offended the point I'm making is this that the Bible is teaching that what we're going to do for God we need to do while we're on earth while we're alive now what about this idea of like soul sleep or just non-consciousness after after death second Corinthians 5 are you there look at verse 8 second Corinthians 5 8 we are confident I say and willing rather look at what Paul said to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord so right there the Bible clearly teaches when I look when I'm absent from this body you don't have to wonder where I'm at if I'm absent from this body I'm willing to be present with the Lord I'm not going to be my soul is not going to be asleep somewhere for a million years or a thousand years hoping that I was one of the 144,000 if if I die my body will get buried my eyes will close and my body will be asleep but my soul will be conscious in the presence of God to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord let me show you just another verse real quickly Revelation 6 look at verse 9 last book in the Bible Revelation 6 and verse 9 this is of course during the Great Tribulation when the Antichrist is killing a bunch of Christians the Bible says revelation 6 9 and when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar those souls of them that were slain these are people that have been killed and he says he saw the souls of them so this if this was written by a Jehovah's Witness he'd be like and they were all asleep but that's not what the Bible says he says and when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held look at verse 10 and they cried with a loud voice that doesn't sound like they're asleep they cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true does thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth so here we see a bunch of people that just got killed just got slain John sees their souls in heaven and they're not asleep they're in heaven and they're very conscious they're conscious and they're communicating they're cognizant of time and they're crying with a loud voice and saying how long O Lord holy and true does thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth and of course you're talking about when are you gonna go down there God and judge that Antichrist who just killed us so this proves that soul sleep is a bunch of garbage because these souls are in heaven and they're very much conscious they're very much awake what goes to sleep is your body and your body of course will wake up one day the resurrection and it'll be turned into a glorified body go back to Psalm 6 Psalm 6 so we see the discipline in verses 1 through 3 we see the deliverance in verses 4 through 5 then in verses 6 through 7 we see the distress we see the distress and I think it's important for us to note here because what David does in verses 6 through 7 is that he gives us the characteristics of distress at least the characteristics of the distress of David and I think it's important to note that though David is pleading for deliverance and pleading for the mercy of God his sin and the result of his sin has had a negative effect on his life and even a negative effect on his health look at what look at how he describes this his distress verse 6 he says I am weary so we see that there's weariness in his life he says I am weary with my groanings he says all the night make I my bed to swim so not only is there weariness but there's weeping he says all the night I'm weeping I make my bed to swim of course he's being poetic here and and and using poetic terms he's saying that he's he's crying so much that the water is turning into a pool and his bed is swimming in the pool he says I water my couch with my tears so look this is what sin brings to the life of a Christian people think I'm gonna go out there and I'm just gonna live for the devil and live for the world and live for the flesh and I'm gonna have a great time listen to me you're if you're saved if you're saved and you have the Holy Spirit of God and God is actually your father there is pleasure and sin for a season but if God is your father he's gonna chase in you and if you're not being chased and then maybe you're a bastard and not a son because God chases his children and here's what living in sin is going to bring weariness weeping grief he says mine eyes consumed because of grief he says in verse 6 I'm weary with my groanings the word groaning is a reference to a sound that is being made it's not articulating anything just other than pain and despair mine eyes consumed because of grief it waxes old because of all mine enemies so we see the characteristics here of distress weariness weeping grief now here's what's really interesting and I'm just gonna read this for you you don't have to turn anywhere but he even talks about there being a physical effect on his body in verse 7 he says mine eye is consumed because of grief it waxes old because of all mine enemies now you might read that and think oh is he just talking about my eyes consumed because of all the weeping and and that could be a reference to that but I think there's more to it because of the fact that he says it's referring to his eyes waxes old he says and what he's saying is that sin is making me to age faster than I should and you might think oh that's silly go out there on Norwood and look at some drug addict that's been doing drugs all their lives you look at him and it's like they look like they're 80 years old and then you if you if you talk to them which I would not recommend necessarily you know it's like you're you're 35 you know the way of the transgression is hard the Bible says and and if you live a life of sin it's going to cause you to age early and it's gonna cause your body to fall apart and here's what's really interesting is that David says mine eye consumeth is consumed because of grief it waxes old because of all mine enemies in job 17 job obviously was going through a very difficult time in his life not due to sin but he was going through a lot of stress and here's what he said he said mine I also is dim by reason of sorrow so his wasn't reason of sin it was reason of sorrow he says that all my members are as a shadow so we see that that the distress of sin can have an effect psychologically it can have an effect on your life and then and then not only do we see the characteristics of distress but we see the cause of distress Psalm 6 and verse 7 look at the last part of verse 7 he says because of all mine enemies because of all mine enemies so here we see an example where God is using the enemies of David to bring chastisement upon David and to bring a rebuke upon David look at verse 8 so in verses 1 to 3 we see discipline versus 4 to 5 we see deliverance versus 6 to 7 we see distress and then in verses 8 through 10 we see this this word this is the the word the theme of these verses and it's depart now I want you to notice that there's a supplication and there's an opposition in verse 8 he says depart for me all you 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 I want you to notice that there's an emphasis I know we've had an emphasis recently on prayer part of that is because we've been in Psalms and Psalms has an emphasis on prayer but David is saying the Lord hath heard my voice the voice of my weeping he has heard my supplication he says he will receive my prayer and again you say I'm going through a difficult time I'm going through a hard time and and it's my fault and it is the sin of my life and I'm reaping what I've sown and God is chastising me you say what do I do here's what you do pray pray bring it to the Lord be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God and what we see is that David even in a time when he's backslidden is at least bringing these requests to God he's not running from God he's running to God and during times of chastisement this is what we should all do we should run to God he says the Lord has heard my voice and my weeping the Lord hath heard my supplications the Lord will receive my prayer but then I want you to notice again verse 8 he says depart from me and then he uses little phrase all ye workers of iniquity all ye workers of iniquity and I just that stands out to me because this is a phrase that this is a phrase that Jesus used in fact I wonder if Jesus is even quoting Psalms go to Matthew just real quickly Matthew chapter 7 we'll be done here in 2 minutes Matthew chapter 7 in Psalm 6 8 David says depart from me all ye workers of iniquity and in Matthew 7 and verse 21 Jesus said this not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and of course these people they're trying to get into heaven they're saying on the day of judgment they're coming to Jesus and they're saying Lord Lord he's saying that many are going to say to me Lord Lord and they're not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven and they're saying he says many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works and of course this proves that these people aren't saved because if you're saved I'm saved and if I get to heaven and you know the proverbial joke happens and I approached the goats the the gates of heaven and Saint Peter meets me at the gates and asked me why should I let you into heaven I'm not going to say my works I'm not going to say hey Peter I was a preacher that's why you should let me in I'm going to say hey because I called upon Jesus in faith believing on him for salvation that's what a saved person would say so these people are saying Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have done have cast out devils and and in thy name have done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them this is what Jesus says he says I never knew you now notice how this sounds very much like Psalm 6a depart from me ye that work iniquity so David said depart from me all ye workers of iniquity and Jesus says to these false religion so-called Christian people that aren't saved because let me let you in on a little secret most Christians so-called Christians are not saved he is gonna say to them depart from me ye that work iniquity and here's a takeaway that I think can be an encouragement for us go back to Psalm 6 and it is this that even when we are suffering the consequences of our own sin and even when God is allowing our enemies to bring affliction and chastisement upon us maybe as a result of sin in our lives and as chastening of the Lord we can at least pray this depart from me all you workers of iniquity and have some encouragement in knowing this that one day Jesus will say to them of course we're talking about reprobate enemies of the Lord that attack us one day Jesus is going to say to them depart from me ye that work iniquity and an encouragement is this that even though our enemies might make our lives difficult here on earth at least I can encourage myself in knowing this that they're gonna die and go to hell that if they're wicked reprobates Jesus is going to say to them depart from me ye that work iniquity so David uses that terminology in his prayer and he says Lord here's my prayer requests depart from me all you workers of iniquity look at verse 10 he says let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore backs let them return and be ashamed suddenly so we see here David just asking the Lord for deliverance he's being disciplined he says don't take it too far God please have mercy on me he's asking Lord for deliverance he's saying don't save my life don't end my life because at least and he really is contrasting himself to the enemies of the Lord and he's saying at least if you keep me alive I'm gonna praise you and I'm gonna thank you and I'm gonna worship you and I'm gonna serve you and then he says he talks about his distress and we see the weariness and we see the weeping and we see the grief we see the premature aging and then we see his his request which is depart his supplication he's praying to God he says the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping the Lord has heard my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer and then he's asking that these workers of iniquity would depart depart from me all ye workers of iniquity and let me just tell you something in this world and in this life we're always going to have enemies and we're always gonna have people that were we asked God you know will you get rid of this person will you and sometimes he does but you know if he if he doesn't we can have the confidence of knowing this every wicked reprobate enemy of God that we pray imprecatory prayers on that we pray depart from me all you workers of iniquity whether God actually fulfills that prayer requests here on this earth or not we can have confidence that God has heard our prayer and that prayer will be answered at the great white throne when Jesus says to them depart from me ye that work iniquity and we can have a confidence that at least we're saved and if we're being chastened then the encouragement is this you must be a child of God because God only chastens his children that's my our heads and I've ordered prayer how many father Lord we do love you and we thank you for your word and we thank you for the psalm and Lord I pray that you just help us to learn these things and understand these things and and thank you for these different songs that sometimes we see David we'll see David next week completely innocent being attacked by enemies and he's completely innocent and he's just praying to the Lord in regards to his innocence but then we see him in this song where he's not innocent he realizes he has done wrong and he's being chastened and but we get to see him pleading for mercy and Lord I believe that you've given us these Psalms to teach us because at times we're gonna get attacked and we're completely innocent at times we're gonna be under the chasing hand of the Lord and it's good for us to know how to pray to you and how to respond and Lord help us to learn these things help us to not be people when things get difficult that we run but help us to learn to run to you in Jesus name we pray amen