Psalm 6:1 “O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.”
[Praise be to you, Lord God, for your gracious, kind and forgiving heart, and for your mercy triumphing over justice.
You, Lord Jesus, took the punishment and anger we deserved, and you, heavenly Father were willing to pour your righteous wrath on Him rather than us, opening the way for us into your Kingdom, into your family, into full forgiveness.]
Psalm 6:2 “Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?”
[You have made body, soul and spirit so intertwined that the anguish of one strongly affects the others. Praise you, Lord, that your healing touch in one area also brings healing to the others. You are the answer to our anguish, you are the healer of our hurts, the cure to all that troubles us.
You are merciful so in our needs we can turn to you, knowing that our salvation comes from you–even though sometimes we must wait a long time to be rescued from anguish.
I think of pastors unjustly imprisoned in countries like China, who are held for years in appalling conditions. May they remember that you only are our Rock, our Salvation and our high Tower, that our soul finds rest in you alone, and when our soul is at rest, so is the whole of our being.
Sustain them, encourage them, help them to be shining lights in the darkness, joining you in your plans for all in those prisons.
