In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith focuses on Psalm 6, which is a prayer of distress by David. David expresses his deep sorrow and grief, comparing his tears to a flood that has soaked his bed and couch. He pleads with God to have mercy on him and deliver him from his enemies. Pastor Chuck emphasizes the importance of having the right motives in our actions, as God judges not only our deeds but also the motives behind them. He encourages listeners to commit their ways to the Lord and trust in His plan for their lives.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit and His love Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be studying David's prayer of distress We turn in our Bibles to Psalm 6, verse 1 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith Psalm 6 It is a psalm that is entitled To the chief musician On Niggunoth, which is a stringed instrument And thought to perhaps be a lyre Upon Shimoneth, which in Hebrew is octaves So it's on a stringed instrument to be played in octaves And it is a psalm of David It is a psalm in which David is conscious of his guilt He has done something wrong He knows he's done something wrong He knows that he is deserving chastisement from the Lord And so he begins the psalm with a petition to the Lord Not to rebuke him in your anger Neither chasten me in your hot displeasure It was always great when my dad would chasten me After he had cooled down So often a parent grabs the child in the moment of emotion When the parent is still shaking with fear Over what the child has done They have done something, their life was in jeopardy And you are so shook You grab them and quite often overreact to the situation And thus the punishment is quite often more severe Than really the situation would dictate And so David, understanding the human nature Carrying it over unto God Of course God doesn't do that But we so often attribute to God our own feelings and emotions He is saying, O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger Neither chasten me in your hot displeasure But instead he pleads for the mercy of God Have mercy upon me O Lord For I am weak The confession, Lord I just weak Mercy Lord Now the glorious thing, the Bible says that the Lord knows our frame And he knows we're but dust We're the only ones that are fooled by ourselves And we think, hey I can handle it They say fools rush in where angels fear to tread And so often when we think, I can handle anything Come on Satan, put up your dukes, let's go at it I'm sure the angels say, oh no And David says, Lord mercy I'm so weak O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed The effect of sin upon the human body In the 32nd Psalm as David there is Conscious again of his guilt And is again talking about the forgiveness But his experience prior to the forgiveness When he was doing his best to cover his tracks and hide his sin He spoke about that roaring that was in his bones And here again he speaks about his bones are vexed Just the very inward part of my body, my life is affected by my sin My soul also is sore vexed, my mind is troubled The conscience is just giving me a bad, I know I'm guilty But thou O Lord how long, how long before you intercede How long Lord before you lift this burden How long Lord before I'm freed from this heavy Consciousness of my guilt And so the plea, return O Lord, deliver my soul O save me for thy mercy's sake The Lord had promised to the children of Israel That he was doing it not because they deserved it But because of his mercy's And for his mercy's sake and sometimes for Abraham Not because of your righteousness but for my mercy's sake And so David is not really here pleading his just cause He's just casting himself upon the mercy of God And asking God's salvation for his mercy's sake Then David said, for in death there is no remembrance of me There's no joyful rejoicing and praise over in the cemetery In death there's no remembrance of thee In the grave who shall give thee thanks If I go down into hell, and the word translated grave there is sheol, hell You know there's no praise services or Thanksgiving services there So Lord for your mercy's sake deliver me I am weary with my groaning And then I think he, well they call it a hyperbole It's a sort of a figurative speech which is exaggeration For all night long I make my bed to swim My tears are so many that my bed is afloat in my room I water my couch with my tears My eye is consumed because of my grief Red eyes, blurry eyes They are like an older person's eyes who begins to get cataracts Can't see well, it waxes old because of my enemies And so he then turns from his plea towards God And he addresses the workers of iniquity And he says, depart from me ye workers iniquity The separation from the evil companions Those that would lead him into his rebellion against God For he declares, the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping The Lord has heard my supplication Notice he has heard, he has heard And then he will receive my prayer The past work of God Builds faith and confidence in the continued or future work of God Paul the Apostle said, who has delivered us from so great a death Looking back, God has delivered us Looking around, who doth now also delivereth And we are confident that he shall yet deliver us I look back, I see the hand of God, he's been good He's delivered me, he's helped me I look around, I see the hand of God He's good, he's brought me this far It gives me confidence for the future If God has heard me, then I know that he will hear me If God has helped me, and he is helping me I know he shall yet help me I don't really worry about tomorrow Because I am confident in the past In what God has done, and in what God is doing And it gives me then assurance For I know that God will not forsake the work of his hands But he will perfect that which concerneth me So that continued work of God, of which David now becomes confident Because he has heard my prayer, he has heard the voice of my weeping He's heard my supplications, and I know that he will receive my prayer So let all of my enemies be ashamed and sorvexed I've been sorvexed because of my sin Now let them be sorvexed Let them return and be ashamed suddenly The seventh psalm is a Shigion of David Shigion by some is declared to be praise And others say it is a loud cry When you read the context of the psalm It sounds like it's more of a loud cry than a praise Which he sang unto the Lord concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite Now who is Cush the Benjamite? We don't know Saul was the son of Kish And so there could be a thing of Saul's words against David When he was determined to destroy David It could be this guy Shimei Who when David was driven from Jerusalem by Absalom Ran along above David on the hillside Throwing rocks at him and cursing him And being a Benjamite and a follower of Saul It could be that it is Shimei The word Cush in Hebrew is black And so the words of this black Benjamite Whoever he may be Oh Lord my God In thee do I put my trust Now here you have the combination of Yahweh my Elohim Yahweh my God In thee do I put my trust Save me from them that persecute me And deliver me So David is in trouble He is being persecuted And his prayers for salvation from the persecutors And for deliverance Lest he, this black Benjamite Tear my soul like a lion Rending it in pieces, my heart, my soul This guy is ripping it with his words While there is none to deliver Oh Lord my God If I have done this If I am guilty of what he is accusing me of being guilty If there be iniquity in my hands Of the charges that they are making are true If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me And this evidently was the charge they were making it of David That he had, somebody was good to David but he rewarded him with evil And David then puts in a word for himself He said I have delivered him that is without cause my enemy You know I haven't done evil, I've actually helped those who were my enemy But if I am guilty of what they say They say that to reward evil for good Is devilish To reward evil for evil Is beastly To reward good for good Is manly And to reward evil with good Is godly Figure that one out A lot there So if I am guilty of the things they are charging me of he said Then let the enemy persecute my soul and take it Yea let him just grind my life down into the earth And lay my honor in the dust If I am guilty then let him have at it Lord and just wipe me out But David knows he is not guilty And so he goes on and declares arise O Lord In thine anger lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies And awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded Lord come on and defend me Bring judgment against my enemies And so shall the congregation of the people come past thee about For their sakes therefore return thou on high For the Lord shall judge the people Judge me O Lord according to my righteousness Now this is an interesting thing for David to say And no doubt was early in his career According to my integrity he said that is in me Now in this particular case David is innocent of the charges This black Benjamite is making false charges against David And it's amazing how self-righteous and all we can become When someone are making false charges against us You know we can get just this righteous indignation That's not so that is a rotten filthy lie And we can get so righteously indignant over false charges And these were false charges that were being made against David in this case And so he is asking the Lord to judge according to the right Lord you know the truth and you judge according to the righteousness My righteousness and according to my integrity Now later on in David's career After he had fallen greatly fallen with Bathsheba Tried to cover his guilt was found out In the 51st Psalm which was written on that occasion You don't find David saying Lord Judge me according to your righteousness or to my righteousness But David is saying have mercy upon me oh Lord According to the multitude of thy tender mercies Blot out my transgression for against thee and thee only Have I sinned and done this great evil in thy sight And I mean he really is calling now for the mercies of God upon him I make it a point never to say God I want justice I always say God I want mercy My plea and my prayer is always for mercy never for justice from God And then he goes on to Declare concerning those wicked ones that had given him the problems Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end But establish the just For the righteous God trieth the hearts and the reins The Bible tells us that when we will be standing before the Lord in judgment That the secrets of the hearts shall be revealed That we will be judged our works will be judged of what sort they are Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount Told us that we should beware How we do our righteousness or our righteous acts That we should not do them with the motive Of being seen of others and thus receive the praise of others Take heed to yourself he said that you do not your righteousness before men To be seen of men in other words don't let that be the motive of your heart And then he gave illustrations that's the principle and then he illustrated it And he illustrated it with the Pharisees how they did certain acts of righteousness How they gave They gave with great ostentation so that everybody saw what they were giving to God So that people would ooh and aah over their gifts And he said they have their reward In their prayers they would pray on the street corners publicly So everyone would know you know how what men of prayer they were And it was a public show and so they received the acclaim The plaudits of men but Jesus said that's not good Because he said then you have your reward So when you do your righteous acts do them in secret before God When you pray go in your closet shut the door When you give don't let your right hand know what your left hand is giving And do these things as unto the Lord before the Lord And of the Lord then you will receive your reward But the heart the motive is the thing that God is going to judge Paul the apostle in 1st Corinthians 13 Tells about the things that people may do But if the motive isn't love It will profit you nothing And so when God judges us the judgment will be according to the motive That prompted the deed And the deed may be right but the motive wrong When God judges he'll judge the secrets of the hearts He will judge the reigns that is Those motives that direct the purpose of my life The reason why I did it The reigns of course by which you guide And by which the choices by which your life is directed My defense he said is of God Which saves the upright in heart So I am trusting in God He is my defense It is a glorious thing to have God as your defense And the Lord will defend his people And I have learned That if I commit my ways unto the Lord If I will commit the situation to the Lord The Lord will defend me If I seek to defend myself he'll let me And I'll tell you I have a weak defense when that happens But the Lord will defend you No weapon formed against you will prosper This is the heritage of the children of the Lord And it's so glorious to have the Lord as our defense We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse venture through the Bible In our next lesson as we continue our study of the Psalms And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience you can order online anytime When you go to the wordfortoday.org And while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs and so much more Once again that's the word for today online at thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address which is The Word For Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence And now on behalf of the word for today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse venture Through the Psalms That's right here on the next edition of The Word For Today The Word For Today Now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing comments God bless you and may the Lord guide you in His plan for your life And may you learn as David to just commit your ways unto the Lord Knowing that the Lord will take care of things As you just submit your life, its facets unto Him And may God just continue to use you as His instrument In bringing His love to a needy world Undoubtedly one of the most glaring signs that our society is in trouble Is the breakdown of the family unit Marriages just aren't making it today And kids are suffering as they watch the breakup of their homes Those marriages still holding together are often plagued by conflict and turmoil Making the home a battleground instead of a refuge That's why The Word For Today would like to present Pastor Chuck Smith's Marriage and Family MP3 Where Pastor Chuck discusses basic biblical principles To keep a family's love alive Each member of the family has a different set of needs and responsibilities And when you know and apply God's principles Everyone in the family can experience real peace, real joy, and an agape love To order your copy of the Marriage and Family MP3 by Chuck Smith Call The Word For Today at 800-272-WORD Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word For Today In Costa Mesa, California