Day 84: To be accompanied by an eight stringed instrument

Psalms 6

1.  O Lord, don't rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your rage.
2.  Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak.
Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3.  I am sick at heart.
How long, O Lord, until you restore me?

4.  Return, O Lord, and rescue me.
Save me because of your unfailing love.
5.  For the dead do not remember you.
Who can praise you from the grave?

6.  I am worn out from sobbing.
All night I flood my bed with weeping,
drenching it with my tears.
7.  My vision is blurred by grief;
my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.

8.  Go away, all you who do evil,
for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9.  The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord will answer my prayer.
10.  May all my enemies be disgraced and terrified.
May they suddenly turn back in shame.

A long line of events worked together for me to find this Psalm yesterday when I so needed it.  Karl posted a mailart on facebook.  I started a project for someone.  I called my brother for a verse on strength that he had talked about getting as a tattoo.  He told me about his bible app on his phone and I downloaded Daily Bible.  The first chapter in their daily plan was this one.  It really speaks to me.

Verses 1, 2, and 3 are kind of just David feeling sorry for himself and I can totally understand that feeling.  But I think he's also making the point that he can't resolve his problems alone.  He was a king.  He ruled a nation.  I can barely run a household.  But if God could resolve his problems and he could trust God to do it, why is that so hard for me?

I'm not really sure what the point of 4 & 5 are.  It kind of sounds like an appeal to God's vanity?  I guess in the OT, there are times when it seems God was vain, but by the NT, he's not.  I've always been confused by this.  The question is, is David really saying, "God, don't let me die because who else will praise you when I'm gone?"  Weird.

Verse six is the one that got me.  It is me.  I FEEL this.  I don't just know the feeling or understand.  This verse is me.  To me, verse seven says depression.  It's not that my eyes are watery from crying, it's that nothing looks good when it's washed out in a torrent of depression.  Even the many blessings in my life are hard to appreciate sometimes as my perception is blurred.  And though I am sure David was talking about actual people wanting to harm him when he spoke of enemies, if I think of these enemies as my struggles and challenges, it makes a lot of sense.

The end is the part that I have a little trouble with.  David tells all his troubles to leave him as God is going to take care of him.  I don't know how to do this.  I feel like if I could just figure that part out, I could get a handle on everything else.  I guess I'm just not very good at faith.