HOW LONG, LORD?
Opening Prayer
“Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint” (2). Bring to God those things in your life which are troubling you.
Read Psalm 6
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.
1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;
heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
How long, Lord, how long?
4 Turn, Lord, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5 Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?
6 I am worn out from my groaning.
All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“The Lord has heard my weeping” (8).Too much to do? Too many people to worry about? Does it feel like everyone is against you? Or, maybe you’re feeling life is empty? However you feel, today is a day to stop, to put down the anxieties of the week and to receive God’s “unfailing love.”
The psalmist begins by pouring out his anguish to his loving Lord. Possibly, any deep unhappiness is the result of sin, so he talks first about that concern (1). Then, he remembers God’s love. Like Jeremiah, in private, the psalmist expresses his troubled feelings to God freely. In public, as the psalmist says to God, there is work to be done (5). We need God’s help if we are going to keep on proclaiming the Lord’s name. “Worn out” with his groaning, it’s as though the psalmist lays still, his tears soaking his pillow (6), and in his weariness he reflects on the hurt his enemies have caused him (7).
Then, there is a moment of change (8–10). The anguish is replaced with a deep confidence and awareness that God has heard his prayer
(9) and will bring his solutions, in his time.
Apply
Be still now, and allow God to bring you his comfort.
Closing prayer
This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it (Psa. 118:24).
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.