Subscription Lists

There are six Penitential Psalms (Songs of Penitence) in the Bible. Each of them conveys a unique and poignant point about the process of penitence and the comfort that can derive from it. Our study of comfort would be incomplete without an overview of the relationship between penitence and the comfort that is offered in these six wonderful bits of inspired literature. For purposes of the six articles that follow, the bold print portion of each passage contains the point of focus for that article and is purely arbitrary on this writer's part.

“O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD — how long? Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD has heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.” (Psalm 6.1-10).

It is worthy of note that one of the first points of recognition in these psalms is man's overwhelming need for mercy. “Have mercy on me, O LORD... Oh, save me for Your mercies' sake.” Mercy in these cases is desired because of the relative position of sinful man in respect to his Sinless Creator. “I am weak... My bones are troubled... My soul is greatly troubled.”

Now notice the emphatic statements relative to the depth and sincerity of the penitent heart that is crying our for mercy. “All night long I make my bed swim.” Of course this is a metaphor in hyperbole (pronounced hi-PER-bo-lee) form. It is an obvious overstatement of fact made for the sake of emphasis! Beds don't swim and a person's eyes cannot shed enough tears for that even if they could, but that is the psalmists' statement. It reflects a heart that is thoroughly and completely broken as a result of his sinful ways. There can be no doubt as to the fact of his repentance; this is not a formality or mere admission of guilt; it is a loathing of one's self and a hatred for the sinful deeds in which that soul had engaged. In true Hebrew parallelism, the writer then restated the same in a slightly different form: “I drench my couch with my tears!”

Changing the form slightly but with the same emphasis, he says, “My eye wastes away because of grief [over my sin].” This was the eye that had so clearly seen the target when David let fly the stone which struck down Goliath. This was the eye that was able to see lustfully onto his neighbor's rooftop and behold the beauty of Bathsheba. But, now that same eyesight was diminished to worthlessness. The mighty warrior had been humbled, not by a giant representing the Philistine army, nor by the beauty of a woman who was not his, but by the horrid impact of sin on his own soul! The conscience of this man of God was greater than all the outward forces that could ever come against him. He was literally smitten to the earth, not by a carnal weapon nor by the strength of its blow, but by the small inner voice that convicted his heart of the wrongs that he had done!

Genuine comfort from sin must always be preceded by penitence. That is the singular point that I wish us to see from the 6th Psalm, the first of the Penitential Psalms. (Continued).

Questions:

1. What is a Penitential Psalm?

2. What is a hyperbole? See Judges 20.16 & John 12.19 for other examples. Can you think of others?

3. What does the statement, “I make my bed swim...” actually mean?

4. Should someone need to be told how to act when convicted of the terrible nature of sin? What evidence of genuine repentance can you think of in the Bible?

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

Things that go bump in the night