Psalm 6: God's Discipline & Mercy When A Believer Sins
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A believer must not deliverately sin against God. Sin in the life of a believer will bring upon the believer the painful dealings of God. God hates sin. (e.g. Deuteronomy 12:31) When a believer sins and does not repent immediately when convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, then God will discipline that believer.
God loves the Church. He loves every one of His children. He wants to prepare us a pure bride fit for His Son Jesus. To bring the Chruch to the place of spiritual maturity, God disciplines the believer who walks in sin. He disciplines us because He loves us. (Hebrew 12:4-11; Revelation 3:19) He desciplines us to save us, our families and the Church from being destroyed.
- In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding of your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
- "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
- and do not lose heart when He rebukes you,
- and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as a sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
(Hebrews 12:4-7)
However, in His dealings with our sins, God deals in mercy. He has mercy upon those who suffer from our sins. He also has mercy upon the sinner and his family. As such, the discipline of God is always just and merciful. It flows out of God's wisdom and love.
Psalm 6 is one of the six penitential psalms in the Book of Psalms (the others are Psalms 32, 38, 51, 130, 143).
It is a psalm expressing sorrow over sins. It also gives us a glimpse of the painful discipline of God when we sin against God. However, this psalm also assures us that God will hear our cry for mercy in His dealing with us, when we repent.
As we study this psalm on the discipline and mercy of God when a believer sins, we will highlight the following truths. (Psalm 6:1-10).
Always repent of sin when you sin against God.
God will discipline us when we persist in our sins.
Our sins open a door for the devil to enter our lives to kill, steal and destroy.
Do not blame God for your sufferings when God deals with your sins.
When God disciplines you, repent and cry out to God for mercy.
God will deliever you in due time.
God will deal with your enemies who mocked at you when you were disciplined.
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1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in you anger
- or discipline me in your wrath.
- O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
- How long, O LORD, how long?
4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
- save me because of your unfailing love.
- Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from groaning;
- all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears
- they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
- for the LORD has heard my weeping.
- the LORD accepts my prayer.
- they will turn back in sudden disgrace.
1. Always repent of sin when you sin against God.
God wants us to walk in constant fellowship with Him. He does not want sin to come between us and His blessings. Sin in a believer brings shame to God's name, and will separate him from the life of God.
God has therefore sent His Holy Spirit to live in us to help us. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to resist the temptation to sin. The Holy Spirit also convicts us of sin whenever we sin against God (John 16:8).
- When He [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement.
(John 16:8)
Whenever we are convicted of sin, we must quickly repent and maintain our fellowship with God. If we repent, God will forgive us and will not discipline us. If we refuse to repent, we grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). If we refuse to repent, we will also incur the anger of God. God will punish us for our sin.
- And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
(Ephesians 4:30)
Many believers do not want to repent for various reasons:
(a) Some love their sin an enjoy what they are doing.
E.g. Boastfulness, criticizing others, worldliness, cursing others, divison and strife, holding bitterness in their heart, etc. Such sins pay terrible, painful, deadly wages in due time (Romans 6:23). Get rid of them quickly.
(b) Some justify their sins by pointing out the sins of others against them.
We do not have to sin just because others sin against us. Two sins do not make anything or anyone right. No matter what sinful things others do, we must alwasy repent as soon as the Holy Spirit points out our sins.
When we repay evil for evil, we cannot receive God's help to change our enemies. Instead, we make the problem worse.
E.g. Our parents may have treated us badly in the past; not that we believe in Jesus, we must not dishonor our parents because of their past sins against us.
(c) Some do not repent because they do not want to lose face.
Many believers just do not want to admit that they are wrong, or their children are wrong, when their sins are pointed out by their spouse, office-mates, church members, etc. Some will deny what ever wrong they did. Some will put the blame on tohers, even upon the innocent parties involved.
However, we must not try to save our face, that is, save our pride or dignity, when we have sinned. God sees everything. God will bring us to account sooner or later. God will humble us when he disciplines us. It is better to humber ourselves and not try to save our "pride" when we sin. If we humble ourselves and repent, God will not humble us.
E.g. Always blaming others for problems between your child and other children, while always defending your "wonderful, sweet, charming angel." However, there will be a rude awakening one day when your face the truth and its consequences.
2. God will discipline us when we presist in our sins
If we persist in our sins and resist the move of the Holy Spirit, God will deal with us. He will discipline us because He loves us. The word of God declares that "our sins will find us out" (Numbers 32:23). In other words, your sins will sooner or later be exposed when God disciplines you.
E.g. Many televangelists in the USA in teh late 1980's lost their ministry after they were caught for immorality or for the misuse of believer's money. They did not heed the warning that God gave them through others to repent.
- In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding of your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
- "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
- and do not lose heart when He rebukes you,
- and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."
But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure your sin will find you out.
(Numbers 32:23)
3. Our sins open a door to the devil to enter our lives to kill, steal and destry.
When we sin against God, He lifts His hand of protection away from us. He will allow the devil to torment us, with sickness, failures and defeat (Matthew 18:34-35 KJV).This is how God disciplines us. In other words, our sins open a door for the devil to kill, steal and destroy in our life Ephesians 4:26-27; John 10:10).
The devil will bring sickness, business failures, calamities into our lives, our families, our business and our ministry if we presist in our sins. In Psalm 6, David asked the Lord for healing; he also had no peace (Psalm 6:1-3). Sickness and anguish had come upon him as a result of his sins.
- 1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
- or discipline me in your wrath.
- O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
- How long, O LORD, how long?
4. Do not blame God for your sufferings when God deals with your sins. When God disciplines us because of our sins, seek God earnestly and find our the sins involved. Ask God: "Father God, where have I opened a door to the devil to bring suffering into my life?" God will reveal it to you. He wants to deliver you and restore you to Himself.
However, if you piously declare that you are suffering for God because of "spiritual warfare on behalf of the Church," then you are being dishonest. You are not facing the issue of your sins. You are putting the blame on God for your sufferings and making it look very "religious."
With such an attitude, God cannot bring your suffering to an end. In fact, you are magnifying the power of the devil to harass and destroy you. You are declaring that God is not able to protect you from sickness, defeat, failure and other oppression of the enemy when you serve Him. This is a lie of the devil, and you are using this lie to evade responsibility for your own sins. Our God can and will protect COMPLETELY those who serve Him.
If you GENUINELY and TRUELY do not know the "open doors" (sins) which have allowed the enemy to attack you, seek your Church elders for counsel. God has put them as shepherds over you, and God has placed the necessary gifts of discernment in their ministry to help you (1 Corinthians 12:10).
5. When God disciplines you, repent and cry out to God for mercy.
If we are honest and sincere, and seek God earnestly, God will reveal to us the sins that have led to His dealings in our lives. Is it pride, a judgemental spirit, critical attitude, stubbornness in evil habits? Is it lack of meekness and zeal? Is it worldliness and carnality? Is it division and strife, rebellion against authority, anger and bitterness? Is it idolatry, immorality, not honoring our parents, bearing false witness, slander, jealousy?
When we know the sins in our lives that God is dealing with, repent of them quickly. Ask God also for His mercy. Ask Him to reverse the evil consequences of your sins as soon as possible, so that His name may be praised. This is what David asked of God is Psalm 6 (Psalm 6:1-4,9). Ask Him to deliver you from your sickness, your business failure, your broken marriage, etc.
- 1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
- or discipline me in your wrath.
- O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
- How long, O LORD. how long?
- save me because of your UNFAILING LOVE.
- the LORD accepts my prayer.
6. God will deliver you in due time.
Although God forgives us the very moment we ask Him, the evil consequences of our sins will take time to be reverse in the natural world (2 Samuel 12:7-14). He may not allow our healing to manifest right away. He may not allow our failed business to be successful overnight. He may not bring your wayward son back tomorrow night.
In this time of discipline and restoration, God wants to bring us to maturity in Christ. He wants us to know the evil consequences of sin is a believer's life. He wants us to grow in holiness in our lives (Hebrews 12:10-11). He also wants us to grow in faith in Him to deliver and save us. Having asked God for mercy, just begin to believe that He will save, deliver and heal you in due time, by thanking Him everyday,
- Our faithers disciplined us for a while as they thought best; but God discipline us for our good, that we may share in His HOLINESS. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
(Hebrews 12:10-11)
If God restore us too quickly, some of us will not learn any lessons from His discipline and will go back to the same old evil habits again. Likewise, when God is disciplining another, do not interfere and play God. Seek God's wisdom, and allow God to finish His dealings in the brother's life.
E.g. If a brother is heavily in debt, and suffering financially, because he has spent extravagently using his credit cards, do not bail him out. Let him learn to do without luxuries, to budget, to settle his debts, to face his creditors, to cry out to God, to believe in God and to obey God. Let Him trun to God for mercy.
In Psalm 6, David revealed that God's discipline upon his life was lifted only after a certain period of waiting on God's mercy.
- 3 My soul is in anguish.
- How long, O LORD, how long?
- all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7. God will deal your enemies who mocked at you when you were disciplined.
When we sin against God, we will fall. As we are disciplined by God, our enemies will mock at us. They will gleefully rejoice when they see God's discipline in our life.
On our part, we must not sin against God by trying to get even with them. We must forgive them and surrender them to God.
Because they mocked at you when you were under God's discipline, they have sinned against God. God will deal with them and bring shame, dismay and disgrace upon them. This was the confidence of David in God concerning God's dealing with his enemies who mocked at him (Psalm 6:8-10)
- 8 Away from me, all you who do evil
- for the LORD has heard my weeping.
- the LORD accepts my prayer
- they will turn back in sudden DISGRACE.
Likewise, we must never rejoice when God deals with a brother or an enemy for his sins (Proverbs 24:17). Instead, pray for him, that he will learn to grow in holiness from God's dealings.
- Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
- when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice.
- and turn His wrath away from him.
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