“Can there be healing even if there is no cure?” – James H. Waltner

I am always encouraged by the Psalms. In it we find the Psalmist moving constantly between emotions and levels of faith. Sometimes he is joyful and praising, sometimes sorrowful and desperate, sometimes happy, sometimes angry, sometimes focused, sometimes distracted, sometimes fulfilled and sometimes depressed. Is this not our lives? In all of it, however, he never stops seeking God, he never stops calling on God’s name. That is the key isn’t it? To never stop reaching for God, no matter how you feel or how long you’ve been waiting. 

Today we examine Psalms 6, O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
Here we find the Psalmist to be confident in his own faithfulness to God. While we always ought to be humble and aware of our flaws, aware that we can never obtain perfection I fear that sometimes in our effort to drive home our own sinfulness we lose a grasp on our ability to actually have victory over sin, by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s power. We can do the right thing and know that we are in the right. We see this in Job as well. Job’s friends insist that God has forsaken him because of his own evil – but Job knows that they are wrong because he knows he has been faithful to God. 

We can be confident in the righteousness God gives us through Christ and we can be confident that our faith is in Jesus and our motive is His glory – and, when this confidence is available, we should claim it. Much like making a parent proud by showing what we have accomplished, the reason for our righteous behavior and confidence thereafter ought to be the pleasure of our Maker. 

2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.3 My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
    save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

Prayer also comes with a confidence in God’s love. Here the Psalmist acknowledges God’s steadfast love whether God delivers or not. We must recognize this in every petition – that even if God doesn’t do what we are asking He still loves us! How do we know? From the cross. I spoke to someone recently whose mother has been in a bad way. Before the outbreak she was going through the most difficult moment in her life and the outbreak meant none of her family, including her husband of nearly 6 decades, could be with her. Her son asked me how a God of love could let this happen. I replied that I certainly understood his emotions and that he ought to share those with God. But I also said, “I know that God loved your mother so much that He sent His only son to die for her so that this current struggle will one day be a light and momentary struggle compared to the glory she will receive.”

5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who will give you praise?

Here the Psalmist is unaware of heaven. Jesus has not come yet, so he says that if God lets him die he will not be able to praise God anymore. When we pray, because of Jesus, we have the singular pleasure of being confident in heaven. Over and over again the scripture teaches us to look to eternity. As you pray, keep heaven in mind, it will help keep things in perspective. 

6 I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

Are you feeling this way today? Wondering how long God will let this go on? 

8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea;
    the Lord accepts my prayer.

This is the key to praying – we must choose to be confident that He hears us. God is listening, He hears your cry – and He is answering. Don’t be so obsessed with how you believe He ought to answer that you miss His answer when it comes. In his commentary on Psalms, James H. Waltner asks a stunning question, “Can there be healing even if there is no cure?” What if God doesn’t do what you think He ought, but He does something greater, deeper, more real? 

Pray! And be confident in our own faithfulness to God, confident of God’s love, confident of heaven, and confident that He is listening! 

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