Bible in a Year… Day 17 (Psalm 6-8)

Psalm Tuesday is here again… we’re reading chapters 6-8.

Today’s notes:

Psalm 6:1-7 (NIV)
¹O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
    or discipline me in your wrath.

²Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint;
    O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.

³My soul is in anguish.
    How long, O LORD, how long?

⁴Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
    save me because of your unfailing love.

⁵No one remembers you when he is dead.
    Who praises you from the grave?

⁶I am worn out from groaning;
    all night long I flood my bed with weeping
    and drench my couch with tears.

⁷My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
    they fail because of all my foes.

Psalm 6 presents the powerful and moving plea of a man totally crushed as a result of sin.

The state of being presented in this Psalm is not a fun place to live, but I wonder how serious we can be about our relationship with Christ if we are not brought to this point from time to time, either as direct regret for sin, or at least by compassion and hurt over the necessary suffering of Jesus that enables us forgiveness.

When is the last time you came before God in this state… totally broken over sin?

Psalm 8 (NIV)
¹O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
    You have set your glory
    above the heavens.

²From the lips of children and infants
    you have ordained praise
    because of your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.

³When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,

⁴what is man that you are mindful of him,
    the son of man that you care for him?

⁵You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under his feet:

⁷all flocks and herds,
    and the beasts of the field,

⁸the birds of the air,
    and the fish of the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹O LORD, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I really love this Psalm of praise to God, specifically verse 4… “what is man that you are mindful of him”.

I mean, really… looking at the entirety of creation, how can we not be amazed that God is totally engrossed and concerned about the details of our lives? Why should he even care when He’s got the universe to run? When He’s got six billion other people running around this planet to keep tabs on? When He’s got wars, plagues, famines, and all sorts of other disasters that really need His attention going on even now?

But He cares about you and me. Deeply and completely.

Wow.