Yahweh,
don’t rebuke me in your anger,
neither
discipline me in your wrath.
Have
mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint.
Yahweh,
heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My
soul is also in great anguish.
But
you, Yahweh—how long?
Return,
Yahweh. Deliver my soul,
and
save me for your loving kindness’ sake.
I
am weary with my groaning.
Every
night I drench my bed with my tears.
My
eyes waste away because of grief.
I
grow old because of all my adversaries.
Depart
from me, all you workers of iniquity,
for
Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
Yahweh
has heard my supplication.
Yahweh
accepts my prayer.
May
all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed.
They
shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly.
Psalm
6:1-4,6-10
Several
years ago, I was hospitalized for over a week with a nasty gut infection. For several weeks after my release, I was
required to administer an intravenous drip of antibiotics several times a day
including the middle of the night.
Either as a result of my illness, or as a reaction to the antibiotics, I
became profoundly depressed. To occupy
the time while the I.V. dripped and to distract myself from dark thoughts, I
read some of the psalms. To my
surprise, those psalms that were a complaint to God, or a cry for help -
especially this one - were a real comfort.
The
revelation that became Scripture knew that suffering is a lonely endeavor. And it knew that in the darkest nights of the
soul it is easy to imagine God as distant. These psalms invite us to
acknowledge that feeling of distance, but also to challenge it. God shares even
that suffering.
