In Psalm 6 is a confessional or penitential Psalm from the hand of David. David, in humility, calls on the Lord for salvation from his sin.
There’s only seven of these Psalms in the Psalter. In this one David throws himself at God’s mercy with the plea that he not be treated as his sins deserve. We’ve heard this before haven’t we? Not as a plea but as an affirmation. In Psalm 103 David states with confidence: ‘You do not treat us as our sins deserve nor repay us according to our iniquity’.
God’s aversion to sin should result in death every time. That’s the response of His holiness to our sin. It has to be – otherwise it wouldn’t be utterly holy. It’s only through his mercy that we are spared.
Hebrews 12:7 makes it clear that chastening is evidence of our adoption: If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? When God corrects us it doesn’t feel pleasant, but it is good and for our good.
In Psalm 6, we can look at David’s repentant heart, God’s disciplining of David, David’s confident declaration at the end of this Psalm, but the phrase that I want to focus on is at the end of verse 4.
‘Save me according to your unfailing love’
Elsewhere in the Psalms it’s expressed this way: ‘According your unfailing love, remember me’.
This phrase holds a promise that should be the hope of every follower of Jesus. ‘Don’t save me according to my frailty and my flailing about like a hapless water buffalo. Don’t look at my sinful attempts at self-justification…but according to YOUR unfailing love, save me’.
If there’s ever a line that we’d do well to incorporate in our prayers, it’s this one. Yesterday we sang, ‘Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus’. It’s all about Jesus. The grace extended to us by Jesus is our hope for salvation. And so we pray for strength, we pray for guidance, we pray for God to act in particular ways on our behalf, but ultimately, we need to blanket all these prayers with the plea: ‘according to Your love, remember us’.
Father, don’t look at us, look at Jesus. When you see our sin, see the price Jesus paid for that sin. Don’t look at our efforts to make it right, see Jesus all-surpassing act of atonement as our salvation.
Amen.
– Simon Elliott