Tag: affliction

Lament as a Response to Suffering Part 5.

13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,

like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

14 I have become like a man who does not hear,

and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

                                                                                    Psalm 38:13–14

Last time we left David he was alone.  Friends and family were aloof and his enemies were circling and attacking.  Illness and sin disrupt our relationships with others and this adds to our affliction.  The verses we are examining tell of the cumulative effect of David’s suffering.  Is David referring to his illness, his sin or the effect of his social and spiritual isolation?  Commentators generally focus on the effect of the enemy attack.  I believe David’s Self-Description is more nuanced and reflects all aspects of his circumstances.  In these rich verses are lessons regarding how the Godly respond to suffering as demonstrated by how our Lord, Jesus’ comported himself during his trial and execution. 

We can examine this passage from the physical, spiritual, social and political perspectives:

The Physical Illness

As a physician I initially read these verses as being a manifestation of David’s illness rather than a response to persecution.  We all know that severe illness can affect the senses and render us very weak.  The sick person often does not hear, understand and respond as they would when healthy.  They may hear part of what they are told or misunderstand the content.  Questions may not be asked by them and they may claim to understand when in fact they did not.  It is important for family and/or a close friend to be with them and for the doctor to revisit the substance of the communication over and again. 

The faculties of hearing and speech are the focus of these parallel verses.  Hearing is the subject of the first lines of each verse whereas speech is the subject of the second.  In verse 10 we saw that David’s heart was throbbing, his strength was failing and the life in his eyes was dimming.  As we lay dying,  hearing is the last sense lost.  Patients who survive severe illness can attest that hearing was preserved when circulation, muscles and vision fail.  We are cautioned as healthcare workers to be careful of our speech around a patient who seems otherwise unresponsive.  Therefore, these verses depict a more severe state of ill health as loss of hearing precedes death.

Often, people who are very ill cannot speak coherently.  It may be because the mouth is parched, the muscles and breath are weak or the mind is impaired or confused.  David opens his mouth and nothing comes out.  The Lion of Judah can no longer roar, the King cannot give a command.  David cannot communicate with others.  Being like a deaf mute he is completely alone.  This is a state of utter weakness and vulnerability.  He is locked within himself unable to place upon his lips the prayer that is in his mind.  He cannot hear others, but God can hear him because God knows our thoughts.  His cries cannot be heard by others but God surely hears them. 

The Spiritual illness

The Hebrew word used in the two verses are different yet they are translated into the same English word: “hear.”  The Hebrew word in verse 13 is אֶשְׁמָ֑ע ( ̀ĕs̆-mă‘ʹ) and in verse 14 is שֹׁמֵ֑עַ (s̆ō-mē). They both come from the same Semitic root שׁמע (Shema).  Perhaps the most famous usage in Scripture comes from Deuteronomy 6:4 (repeated by Jesus in Mark 12:29) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  It is referred to as the “Shema” and is recited by observant Jews upon rising and going to sleep.  It posted on the doorways of the homes in a mezuza and are bound upon the forehead (as “frontlets” between the eyes) and upon their hand in tefillin. 

This one word is critical in our relationship to God.  The root encompasses not only the physical sense of hearing but also the faculty of understanding and obedience.  When you read “Hear, O Israel” or any command to “Hear” in Scripture it is generally better understood as “hear and obey.”  In general, when שׁמע appears without a preposition, physical hearing is meant.  The second line in a parallel Hebrew poetic construction serves to amplify and expand the meaning of the first line.  Perhaps David’s loss of his sense of hearing in verse 13 is expanded in verse 14 into spiritual deafness.  David is not only unable to hear but to properly respond. 

As an illustration, the Hebrew word in verse 14 (שֹׁמֵ֑עַ; s̆ō-mē) is translated with the English word “obey” in Deuteronomy 21:18.

 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst,” (Dt 21:18–21).

Not hearing and obeying one’s parents (rebellion) is serious enough to deserve the death penalty.  This infraction was a microcosm of the rebellion of the child, Israel.  The people were commanded to hear and obey but rebelled instead.  With this background we can begin to understand the spiritual depth of David being like a deaf man.  David has sinned and therefore rebelled against God.  He failed to שֹׁמֵ֑עַ his Lord.  Is now David too far gone to hear and obey God?  Is he to be reprobated in a state of sin and rebellion, cast off forever?   

The sinner cannot hear, understand or obey God’s voice.  They are deaf and lack understanding. Their hearts are corrupt and desire is for sin and not what is good.  Until God regenerates the heart we are dead, like the dry bones in Ezekiel.  Only God can make us alive.  As one Hebrew scholar puts it:

“Hearing is critical for the interaction between God and human beings; the medium through which God makes his will known among his people (in commandments or mediated by the prophets) is the audible word. Interruption of this communication has consequences: Israel’s refusal to hear served as grounds for the punishment of the exile. Conversely, Dt. 4:28 and Ps. 115:4–7 heap scorn on a god who cannot hear human beings. To exaggerate the point: one who cannot hear does not exist; one who can no longer hear, no longer communicate, is doomed.”[1]

The second set of parallel verses concerning speech complete the message.  David cannot use his voice because of weakness.  Therefore, as a King he cannot give commands nor rebuke those who are in the wrong.  As a man of God he cannot witness to sinners by pointing out and rebuking their sins.  He is a sinner under the hand of God.  In all appearances David is the one being rebuked!  Sin destroys our witness unless we receive God’s forgiveness and are restored.  Then, and only then, may we call upon other sinners and tell of God’s amazing grace. 

What use is David to God now?  He is as good as dead.  He can bring nothing and offer nothing.  Yet David is displaying great faith.  As Calvin points out David waits silently before the Lord.  In this David is demonstrating his own patience and confidence that YHWH will forgive and vindicate him.  Few of us can do this.  Like all things, the capacity to suffer in such a way is a gift just like our faith is a gift. 

The Social Isolation

We have seen how David was socially isolated as friends and family held aloof.  David’s “deafness” and being “mute” create a vicious cycle of further isolation.  As David becomes weaker he cannot fully engage with the few visitors he may have.   Words may not impress him and his needs are not articulated.  Being removed from society also isolates David from the information one gets through normal social intercourse.  In short David is “out of touch.” 

People who are ill, shut in and alone withdraw.  They become depressed, do not take good care of themselves and even develop cognitive decline due to lack of stimulation.  They are unable to come to God’s house and worship with the church family, hear the word of God, partake of the Lord’s Supper and pray with others.  Simple human company, kind words, a warm touch and an attentive ear are a balm to the shut in.  This is why the ministry of home visitation is so important.  Sharing God’s word, praying and fellowship need not be confined to the church building.  We must minister to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our brethren.  

The Political Oppression

Most commentators interpret these verses in relationship to verse 11.  Calvin views David’s condition here as the consequence of his enemies piling on accusations and attacks, generally falsehoods.  David is guilty of sin but men are not gracious like God.  Evildoers are not content with justice but want revenge and destruction.  Under the weight of it all David is simply crushed and chooses to shut them out and not rebuke them.  John Calvin writes:

“It is indeed certain, that if David had obtained a hearing, he would have been ready to defend his own innocence; but perceiving that it availed him nothing, nay, that he was shut out and debarred from all defense of his cause, he humbly submitted, waiting patiently for the heavenly Judge. He therefore says that he held his peace, as if he had already been convicted and struck dumb.”[2]

Allen Ross notes the contrast between David’s silence and the “busy tongues” of his accusers.[3]  David cannot look to men for deliverance.  He looks only to the Lord for vindication.  

Our Lord’s Silence in Suffering

In this way David is like our Lord, Jesus, during his trial and crucifixion. As Charles Spurgeon put it:

“David was eminently typical of our Lord Jesus, whose marvelous silence before Pilate was far more eloquent than words. To abstain from self-defense is often most difficult, and frequently most wise.”[4]

David’s experience and response points to Jesus.  Isaiah, much later, prophesies:  

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

                                                                                    Isaiah 53:7

When we read about the lives of the martyrs we often see amazing strength and peace during their suffering.  This is not something one can drum up from within, from our own strength.  It is a gift of grace and like all God’s gifts it is freely bestowed upon whom he chooses.  For when any Christian is under trial, oppression, or affliction so is our Lord.  When Saul was on the road to Damascus, Jesus said that he was persecuting not only the Church but the Lord himself.  Jesus told the disciples “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20). Know that he is with you in your suffering.

We are to be imitators of Jesus in our affliction.  We are not to seek out suffering but understand that suffering is part of our calling as Christ’s people.  We are in union with Christ.  As such we share in his suffering and in his vindication, we share in his death and in his resurrection.  Believers can not only have peace during affliction but even rejoice.  It is through affliction we are made meet for heaven, refined in the furnace as pure gold.  As Paul wrote:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Ro 5:3–5).

Application

It may seem as if we are getting two pictures of David in affliction.  Earlier, he was roaring and moaning and not he is patient and quiet.  So which is the Godly way?  It would be wrong to chastise a suffering brother or sister for articulating their pain even in repeated moans and groans.  Such suffering is not a sign that a Christian has been abandoned but that he or she is loved by God.  Being refined in fire, undergoing divine “surgery” (or whatever analogy you like) is not painless.  It hurts.  It is part of our sanctification as we walk with the Lord.  He takes away many things our flesh desires because he knows that are bad for us.  

In the furnace of refinement David has learned suffering, patience and to trust God.  Saintly silence during suffering and tragedy is not stoicism but the meeting of faith and grace.  The pain is real, and so is our Lord’s presence.  We receive this gift by remaining in the Word, in prayer, and in communion with our Lord.  We cease looking inward and sideways and fix our eyes upon Christ and heaven.  

Therefore, the Godly way is growing in Christ and moving through lament to patience and hope.  

Our most gracious Father.  You hear our cries and know our suffering.  Give us the strength to endure, the patience to rest in your grace, and a heart to receive your love.  Though it is just for a season, it seems to us a long time.  Grant us the privilege and ability to serve you, especially in our affliction, that in all we say and do we glorify you and be thy instruments of bringing your Gospel to others that they may be saved and comforted.      

[1] U. Rüterswörden, “שָׁמַע,” ed. G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, trans. David E. Green, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), 258.

[2] Calvin, John. Commentary on the Psalms.  Ps. 38.

[3] Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms 1–89: Commentary, vol. 1, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2011–2013), 832.

[4] C. H. Spurgeon, Psalms, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 156.

Lament as a Response to Suffering Part 4.

9 O Lord, all my longing is before you;

my sighing is not hidden from you.

10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me,

and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,

and my nearest kin stand far off.

12 Those who seek my life lay their snares;

those who seek my hurt speak of ruin

and meditate treachery all day long.  

                                                                                    Psalm 38:9–12

David is standing in the dock before YHWH.  He has recognized his sin and its harm to body and soul.  As a man after God’s own heart, David grieves over his sin not simply his affliction.  He is contrite and has made good confession without excuse, conditions, or bargaining.

David now opens his petition.  In these verses David appeals to the One who is all-knowing by first stating how utterly alone and vulnerable he is. 

YHWH knows David’s Plight (v 9)

Longing is the intense expression of a desire unfilled over an extended period.  David is longing for his health and for restoration of his relationship with YHWH.  David, elsewhere, describes his longing as a thirsty deer panting for water:

As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

Ps 42:1-2

David cannot regain his health and vigor until he is in a right relationship with YHWH.  That relationship has been disrupted by sin and only YHWH can restore it by graciously forgiving his servant.  It is not that God has forsaken and abandoned David.  It is God’s immediate and perceptible presence that David longs for.  When God called Abram, he said “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless” (Ge 17:1).  Walking before YHWH is living and abiding in His presence, before His “face,” in communion and fellowship.  Those who know this sweetness feel the great bitterness of His absence.

The word translated “sighing” signifies “roaring.”  The Hebrew word is used to describe a lion roaring.  David is not stoic before God as his intense emptiness is set out before YHWH in plain sight.  The Lion of Judah is roaring in his affliction like a wounded animal.  It is ugly to hear and behold. 

That David makes such a loud demonstration is not a lack of faith.  The toughest of us may be able to hide our suffering from others but not our God who perceives everything.  David cannot hide his agony for our Father knows what you need before you ask him (Mt 6:8).  David writes elsewhere:

  O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

  You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

  Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

                                                                                        Psalm 139:1–4

Therefore, we need not be ashamed and try to cover ourselves.  However, in such circumstances we can be at a loss of words.  Our first response is not calm, eloquence but moaning and groaning.  God hears and understands this as the language of suffering. Our Lord not only perceives our pain, he hears and understands our longings, before and regardless of our ability to articulate them.  He stands ready and able to succor and provide what we need.

Charles Spurgeon observed:

Sorrow and anguish hide themselves from the observation of man, but God spies them out. None more lonely than the broken-hearted sinner, yet he has the Lord for his companion.[1]

In the verses that follow, David takes us deeper into the depths.

David’s Suffering is likened to Death (v 10)

David’s heart is “throbbing,” or being driven to and throw in agitation.  His soul cannot be quiet and settled.  It is a lost wanderer, a wild horse without a rider or a rudderless ship in a storm.  He is being tossed about with no end or purpose.  David is exhausted as his strength fails him.  His limbs are weak and cannot carry him.  His spirit is faint and abandoning his body.  The light of his eyes signifies his very life.  The windows to the soul are becoming empty. David is dying as his eyes gloss over, cannot perceive and loose contact with the world outside him.  This death is physical and spiritual.  Oh’ to feel abandoned on the deathbed!  How awful death is for those apart from the Lord and more so for those who have tasted the heavenly gift (Heb 6:4).  The Lord has no joy in the death of the lost and He feels its pangs.  David is a man drowning in sin thrusting forth his hand heavenward to be rescued.

Abandoned by Friends and Family (v 11)

David likens his illness to a plague that drives people away lest they to are afflicted with the contagion.  He is treated like a leper, living outside of the camp, unclean and apart from Temple and fellowship.  The leper was abhorred and feared.  Those who are closest to David, his family and his close brethren, now stand aloof.  Those who were near to him while in health, wealth and power are now gone.  David is unloved, socially isolated and truly alone.  Calvin comments:

In saying that his friends stand away from him, he means, that they cease from performing any of the offices of humanity towards him.[2]

And Spurgeon:

As the women and others of our Lord’s acquaintance from afar gazed on his cross, so a soul wounded for sin sees all mankind as distant spectators, and in the whole crowd finds none to aid. Often relatives hinder seekers after Jesus, oftener still they look on with unconcern, seldom enough do they endeavor to lead the penitent to Jesus.[3]

Has this happened to you?  When you are well and able to work and participate in family and social roles and functions you are surrounded by loved ones.  Illness and sin are a burden to others.  They truly do not want to experience your pain and anguish.  While happy to share in your joys they tend to you superficially in your affliction.  When you need them the most, family and friends have time to continue in their other joyous relationships but cannot or will not join you in your suffering.  They have lives to lead.  At least Job’s friends, for all their faults, sat with him for a few days in silent solidarity.  The balm of fellowship is replaced with pills, salves and some fleeting words of comfort.

                They have healed the wound of my people lightly,

saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace (Je. 8:11)

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored? (Je. 8:22)

We delegate these tasks to professionals: doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, home aids, pastors and elders rather than joining in faithful solidarity with our loved one.  When our friends and family stand afar our Lord is ready to draw neigh.  Jesus embraces us in our failures and suffering.  As he touched lepers and made them whole, he will touch us likewise.  Even our stench will not deter our Lord.  As the good physician he enters the sick room, approaches our couch without mask, gown and gloves.  He never leaves and he walks out with us, hand in hand, back into the world or into the heavenly Kingdom. 

David’s Enemies Circle for an Attack (v 12)

Predators in the wild cull the weak and frail from the herd.  Weak and alone, abandoned by his family and friends, David is apart from the protection of the herd.  The herd is his family and the family of God.  A single rod is easily broken but when bundled is resilient.  A coal taken out of the fire soon cools and dies out.  Satan is always on the prowl and attacks viscously when we are weak and alone.  His minions are vultures circling the dying. 

Have you experienced enemies taking advantage of your illness, circumstances and failures?  Do they mock you and are they quick to point out your flaws?  Do they take advantage of your weakness?  When a saint fails the world is quick to declare him a hypocrite rather than recognize him as a poor sinner in need of grace.  They delight in our misery, use our flaws to detract from their evil and therein justify their own sin. 

David describes this activity as laying snares that will entrap and kill him and with evil speech seek to ruin him.  The enemy is obsessed with his downfall as they plot and plan continuously.  Meditating on treachery all day contrasts with the righteous man of Psalm 1 who meditates day and night of God’s law.  David’s enemies delight in evil whereas the righteous man delights in the things of God.  The wicked walk in the way of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners and sit with the scorners at the gate mocking and passing judgment.

When we, as Christians, suffer this attack we are experiencing what our Lord did on the Cross.  His close friends ran away, some family and disciples stood at a distance unable to approach and help.  The religious leaders and the rabble cursed and mocked him, yet Jesus not only remained sinless but demonstrated the spirit of forgiveness. 

David leaves us with a picture of a man not only drowning but surrounded by sharks who smell blood.  He does not need someone to tell him to get out of the water but to dive in and rescue him.  No other than our Lord can and will do this.

Lessons for us

David’s illness has disrupted the most intimate of relationships.  In order to restore them, David must first seek reconciliation with God.  Our vertical relationship defines all our horizontal relationships.  Those with our friends and family will not be made right until we are right with God.  Satan’s fiery darts, delivered by his minions and our earthly foes, will continue to smart until our Lord quenches them. 

How does our Lord help and comfort us?  He generally uses his servants, the saints of His Church.  He sends them as ministering souls.  The teaching of these verses is not only for the one under affliction but for all of God’s people who are called to serve and show His love.  Are we willing to answer the call?  Are we willing to descend into the pit, dive into the water and meet our brother or sister where they are?  Are we willing to lift them up out of the mud by getting under them and letting them stand on our shoulders or cupped hands? 

People wantingly gaze aloft for miraculous intervention and are blind to God’s providence working through that which is common.  The suffering one misses the grace that God has sent and those around the afflicted gawk mute instead of acting with love and compassion.  Stop being like the Apostles whose eyes were affixed upon heaven at Jesus ascension and get to work!  You were called to serve the Lord.  We are to imitate him.  This may mean getting muddy and wet for your brother and sister.  In doing this your suffering brethren will not be a curse but a blessing.  For as you serve them you serve your Lord.  Great will be your reward in heaven and thankful will be your brother.  More so, you point to Jesus and bid others to follow.  In this way, you are a living testimony, preaching the gospel in word and deed. 

Next we shall see how David hits bottom and begins a turn upward.

[1] C. H. Spurgeon, Psalms, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 155

[2] Calvin, John. Commentary of the Psalm 38:11

[3] C. H. Spurgeon, Psalms, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 155–156.

Lament as Response to Suffering: Part 3

3 There is no soundness in my flesh

because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

because of my sin.

4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;

like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

5 My wounds stink and fester

because of my foolishness,

6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;

all the day I go about mourning.

7 For my sides are filled with burning,

and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8 I am feeble and crushed;

I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

                                                                                                Psalm 38:3-8

Previously we saw that YHWH was the source of David’s affliction.  David cried to YHWH not to chasten him in divine anger and wrath.  David understands YHWH’s discipline is part of their relationship.  It is therefore rational that David would look to YHWH to remove this suffering.  Verses 3-8 teach us the nature, ultimate cause and David’s response to affliction.

David stands before YHWH

Having called upon YHWH’s name and announcing a plea, David now is standing before YHWH his king.  David must now make his case.  As a king, David understood this situation.  How many times had his subjects come before him as judge?  As king, David had great power and authority.  Now David is in the dock before someone who has absolute power and authority.

For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:30–31).

Isaiah writes:

       The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling has seized the godless:

       “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

                                                                                                            Isaiah 33:14

David knows his position.  He is standing naked before YHWH his judge.  The effulgence of God’s Glory is at once beyond beauty and very dangerous.  YHWH is “a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29).  Therefore, who can stand before him and not be destroyed?  As YHWH told Moses when he asked to see His Glory: “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:20).  Only the pure and spotless can stand before God.  David and Moses were far from perfect and both had blood on their hands.  Indeed, no man who ever lived or will live meets this absolute perfect standard save one: Jesus.

David knew YHWH.  He understood that the Lord’s justice demands that all sin must be punished. God cannot abide anything that falls short of His moral perfection.  This includes our tainted and corrupt image which once was a pure reflection of our Creator.  If God does not uphold his justice, then he will cease to be Himself.  As God is just, such a fracture means the very failure of justice everywhere.  God cannot change.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). There must be a penalty “for the wages of sin is death” (Ro. 6:23).

Sin brings forth the anger and wrath of God.  God’s wrath is not an uncontrolled emotional reaction but “describes the settled opposition of God’s nature against evil, His holy displeasure against sinners, and the punishment He justly metes out to them on account of their sins.”[1] God’s wrath is not be understood in psychological terms but in ontological[2] terms.  God is never the subject acted upon but the object which acts upon all else.  Although Scripture speaks anthropomorphically[3] about God’s anger “being provoked,” what is happening is God acting according to his very being by strongly opposing and punishing sin.  God must do this because it is who God is.  God’s actions reflect his being.

Yet David also knows that God is kind, loving, merciful and gracious.  This was revealed to Moses in the divine name YHWH: “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation’” (Exodus 34:6–7).

These attributes or “perfections” of God seem in conflict.  Must God choose his justice over his mercy or his wrath over his love?  Or does God somehow resolve these conflicts by some wise compromise?  It is neither.  God being infinite and pure spirit necessitates he is not made of any parts.  Therefore, God is not part justice and part mercy.  Each perfection of God is part of a simple whole that cannot be separated.  We, as limited creatures must compartmentalize and distinguish them in order to come to some understanding, albeit imperfect. 

These attributes are conceived to exist in “perichoresis”[4] which is a mutual indwelling.  The concept is trinitarian.  God is of one essence and three persons.  God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is fully God, the Son is fully God and the Father is fully God.  They exist and live within each other, not separate in anyway, but distinct.  We know each member of the Trinity through their revelation recorded in scripture.  Likewise, we come to know God’s Being through what God does.  God’s justice is revealed as him judging, His wrath as punishing, His mercy as forgiveness, His kindness as long-suffering, and His love as Jesus Christ by who’s self-sacrifice God is also gracious.

David knows God to be righteous.  Righteousness is manifest in God’s works of salvation both in His covenantal love for Israel and in Christ, Jesus.  God chose, loved, delivered and protected Israel.  However, the pinnacle of God’s righteousness is found in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  When Israel appealed to God’s righteousness, they were calling upon Him to act according to His covenantal promises and intervene.  Jesus’ Hebrew name, Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁ֙עַ֙, Je-ho-shu-a) is derived from the root יהוה (YHWH).  It means “Ya saves” or “God saves.” 

The name of God, that of Jesus, is grounded in God’s righteous acts of salvation.  To call upon that name is to call upon our God who has promised to save us.  By calling upon that name, David immediately calls upon YHWH in this holy relationship of mutual love and responsibilities.  Therefore, we stand not before a capricious, fickle or self-centered God who we hope to impress or appease, but before our loving father who is committed to us in covenant.  When God “cut” this covenant with Abram he appeared as a fire pot and passed between animals who were cut in two (Genesis 15).  He was effectively saying to Abram “if I break this covenant let it be done to me what has been done to these animals.”  God is immortal.  It can’t happen.  Therefore, God’s promises are certain.  As Abraham’s spiritual descendants, we have inherited this covenant and its promises.

God’s Holiness expresses the unity of his moral perfections in what He does: God’s acts.  David stands naked before the Lord’s Holiness and is experiencing chastisement.  Yet as he knows YHWH and understands that there is salvation in this, and he shall seek it as a son and as covenantal promise.  Let us explore how David accomplishes this.

The cause of David’s suffering is sin (v. 3-4).

David immediately accepts and affirms that his suffering is due to his sin.  This is the essential next step and we should make note of it. Verse 3 is an example of parallelism.  There are four lines divided into two bicola.[5]  In this case the second line explains the cause of the affliction described in the first line.  Two bicola are used to amplify and expand upon what David is saying.  Here YHWH’s indignation and David’s sin are linked together.  Indignation is YHWH’s expected response to sin.  The result is “no soundness” and “no health.”  David is emphatically admitting that YHWH is afflicting him because of sin.

David’s sin is not merely his “original sin” of being a child of Adam.  In verse 4, David is speaking of actual sins he committed.  We know that David was an adulterer who murdered Bathsheba’s husband Uriah.  How many other sins did this man, invested by YHWH with power and authority over Israel, commit?  They are enough to ‘pile over” David’s head and press down and upon him.  David must carry these sins which are likened to flood waters engulfing him and a weight crushing him. 

John Calvin compares David’s statement in verse 4 to Cain’s statement to God in Genesis 4: “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”  Calvin points out that unlike David, Cain is quarreling with God.  David first acknowledges his sin as the heavy weight whereas Cain, the refers to the punishment as that weight.  Cain is petitioning for a change in sentence and protection.  God is merciful to Cain by not taking his life for murdering Abel, but Cain departs from God’s presence unredeemed.  There was no contrition, confession and request for forgiveness. 

David, on the other hand, is under heavy conviction of sin.  Such is a great burden for one understands the harm done to others and realizes that all sin is against God.  Sin distances us from God and we feel alone.  The burden of this distancing, God hiding his “face” from us, is heard in Jesus’ cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Mark 15:34, Ps 22:1).  God never truly forsakes David, but it seems that way when He hides his “face.” 

Cain walked away from Eden, to the East where the godless will live outside of God’s “presence.”  David seeks and will find restoration of his relationship with God.  Therefore, the godly seek the Lord not merely for temporal or material purposes but for restoration of communion that has been disrupted by sin. 

David’s suffering is physical as well as spiritual (v. 5 and 7)

Verses 5-8 form a structural unit known as a chiasm[6].  You will notice that verses 5 and 7 are similar in that they describe the nature of the ailment.  Verses 6 and 8 describe the suffering that the ailment causes.  Each verse consists of a bicolon, employing parallelism.  The arrangements of the four bicola serve to greatly expand and build upon each other giving a fuller sense than a simple statement of fact.  The chiastic arrangement is A-B-A′-B′.  Verses 5 and 7 are A and A′ respectively.

We see here that David’s affliction is physical.  He describes “wounds” that are putrid and “festering.”  They were caused by his “foolishness” which here is another word for sin.  In this way verse 5 is linked to verse 3.  David is also in great pain.  Burning pain is constant and gnawing.  One cannot find relief from it. Nothing seems to quench it.  Perhaps it points to the eternal “burning” of hell.  My patients have described this form of pain as a misery indicating emotional suffering such as hopelessness.  He repeats “there is no soundness in my flesh” linking verse 7 to verse 3. 

David has expanded upon and provided a poetic technique to invite God (and the reader) to experience his affliction.  He does this also in verses 6 and 8.  Why does David need to press upon YHWH this “experience?”  Is not YHWH all knowing and all wise?  Surely, as the one afflicting David, YHWH understands fully what David is experiencing.  Yet David is appealing to God because he knows YHWH has more than mere factual knowledge of pain and suffering. 

David’s son, the Messiah, will be God-incarnate and experience firsthand, hunger, thirst, pain, sadness and even death.  He will weep for a friend, have compassion on those suffering and identify with us in every way as fully human.  He will take all our sin upon himself and be whipped such that his flesh was exposed and his wounds would come to stink and fester.  The Hebrew word translated “sides” means the loins.  This is a place where the whip often fell.  Under Roman practice rocks and other hard material was wound into the cords so they cut and tore flesh, exposing inner organs such as the kidneys.  We can only imagine the unquenching burning pain.  Jesus’ flesh became unsound.  The indignation and wrath of God fell upon him for our sake. 

Although such affliction points to Jesus’ suffering we are not to conclude that David is simply prophesizing.  It is David who is ill, who has festering wounds that burn and cause misery.  It is David who has sinned, and it is David who is experiencing God’s chastisement for sin.  The connection to Christ is logical because such suffering under discipline is a foreshadow and small taste of what Jesus would experience.  Whereas David’s affliction was corrective in nature, Jesus affliction was penal.  David could expect relief from God whereas Jesus suffered divine dereliction and “descended into Hell” for us.  David was guilty.  Jesus was innocent.  The resurrection of Christ was public vindication of his innocence and victory over Satan and death.  Our vindication and victory are not our own but ours in Christ, as we have a share in it. 

David responds with humility, shame and remorse

(v. 6 and 8)

Verses 6 and 8 describe the emotional and spiritual effect of David’s affliction.  They also describe David’s response.  David is “utterly bowed down and prostrate.”  This is a position of great humbleness.  David, the king, does not stoically sit upon his throne before God as an equal.  Nor does David claim his position, authority and accomplishments as evidence before God.  David does not gnash his teeth in defiant anger as the ones Jesus describes as being cast out of the Kingdom.  David does not demand anything, nor does he bargain. 

David simply casts himself before his Lord and Father continually mourning his sin.  David is contrite and remorseful.  This contrition differs from superficial attrition.  Attrition describes someone who is worn down and beaten by external pressure.  Contrition comes from the heart and not from the external circumstances.  Yea, God often uses the external circumstances to get our attention, but contrition can happen when all seems well.  David understands the depth of his sin and the height of He who was sinned against.  The contrite heart grieves because of the sin whereas attrition brings grief because of the adverse consequences of the sin.  “All day” describes the continual and unceasing mourning and prostration before YHWH.  It is emotional, spiritual as well as physical. 

Verse 8 amplifies and further explains verse 6.  Both verses are linked to verse 4 by use of the terms bowed down, feeble, and crushed.  The second part of verse 8 explains why David is groaning in pain.  It is not simply from the wounds but from the “tumult of my heart.”  In the Biblical world the heart is not the seat of emotions.  The bowels (kidneys, inner organs) were believed to be the seat of emotion.  The heart is the seat of the soul and is therefore used to describe the immaterial aspect of our human life, our soul, that also suffers when we do.  David is both physically sick and “sin sick.”  The Hebrew word translated as “tumult’ signifies a “roaring.”  It is not a mere disquiet but a raging storm exploding from within affecting both mind and body.  We read elsewhere that “David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done.’” 2 Sa 24:10

The connection between sin, affliction, and suffering is total.  David confesses this before the Lord and his suffering is no mere show. 

Lessons for us

David has been described as a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 3:14; Acts 13:22).  How can this be since David was an adulterer and murderer?  When David’s sin with Bathsheba was exposed by God through the prophet Nathan, David wrote:

      The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

                                    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Ps 51:17

This is David’s expression of confidence in God’s promise to deliver him from sin and forgive him.  It comes after contrite confession, praise and petition.  David brings nothing of his own before YHWH save his own sin and brokenness.

We are to do likewise.  God does not require of us sacrifices of bulls and goats, performance of great deeds much less acts of penance or other material gift.  God desires restoration of relationship and to that end we must recognize and own our transgressions, acknowledge God as our discipling but loving Father and come before him bringing our shame and grief.

The Christian’s heart is not one of stone but of flesh.  It is circumcised and consecrated to God.  That “heart” is our “soul,” our eternal essence that has intimate communion with God or joins with Satan and the mockers.  A man after God’s own heart seeks God’s heart – soul seeking soul, spirit seeking spirit.  As we are in Christ, we have a participation in the Triune Godhead through Christ – that most intimate circumincession inaccessible save in Christ. 

This seems so simple.  So why is it hard to do?  I confess that I sorely struggle with it as I am sure many of you do.  Our pride is puffed up by Satan who tells us we should not humble and prostrate ourselves before our Lord.  We deny, minimalize or simply fail to understand and feel the depth of our sin and its consequences.  We presume upon God’s grace rather than rest in it. In this we compound our guilt.

Once we understand that everything we have comes from God, we see that even our regeneration, conviction of sin and our faith are gifts of grace.  Before we can be like David, God must remove the old heart of stone and give us one after His own.  But until our final perfection in the resurrection of our bodies, we live in tents of fragile flesh and are far from perfect.  God is working with us, growing us and preparing us to be “meet for heaven.”  This is a process of sanctification that punctuates our lives.  We can fight it in pride and arrogance or embrace it with humility.

Oh Lord, please grant me a humble heart that I may see my sin, grieve my sin, abhor my sin and bring it to you in contrite confession.  Give me this gift though I do not deserve it.  For I am nothing and can do nothing without you; even this, my pride and arrogance, cannot be purged without you.  Make me like the publican, who beat his breast and with head held low and cried out for forgiveness.  Take me as I am, a poor and broken sinner, wash me with hyssop and clothe me with your son’s righteousness lest I be lost forever.  Let thy countenance shine upon me.  Do this for your Name’s sake and for your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

[1] Alan Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms (Belfast; Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2002), 529.

[2] relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.

[3] Describing certain aspects of God having human characteristics – it is analogy for our understanding.

[4] More commonly known as circumincession: “The theological concept, also referred to as perichoresis, affirming that the divine essence is shared by each of the three persons of the Trinity in a manner that avoids blurring the distinctions among them. By extension, this idea suggests that any essential characteristic that belongs to one of the three is shared by the others. Circumincession also affirms that the action of one of the persons of the Trinity is also fully the action of the other two persons.”  Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 26.

[5] A verse structure of poetry having two cola (lines) that are related thematically and rhythmically. pl. bicola.  Todd J. Murphy, Pocket Dictionary for the Study of Biblical Hebrew, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 35.

[6] A literary structure where parallel elements correspond in an inverted order (i.e., A-B-C-Cʹ-Bʹ-Aʹ).  Douglas Mangum, The Lexham Glossary of Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).