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438_A prayer drenched in tears

Psalm 6 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?

4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?

6 I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.

8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

In the biography of Leonard RavenhillI, Light of Eternity, it is recounted how he used to pass by the Salvation Army building in a poor cotton town in England. This was one of the largest of its kind outside London. At the front stood two large stones. One bore the inscription: “William Booth of the Salvation Army opened this corps, 1910.” The other stone read: “Kate and Mary Jackson, officers in this corps.”

Kate and Mary Jackson were two young women sent to serve in that poverty-stricken place. They worked with all their strength. They did everything they had been trained to do. They organized meetings, taught, evangelized, and served the poor. But nothing changed. They could see no fruit. After a couple of years of exhausting effort, they were discouraged and desperate. They wrote to General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, asking to be transferred to another place. Back came a telegram: “Try tears.”

Kate and Mary didn’t just pray—they travailed. They wept. They poured out their souls in anguish and desperation. And the broken town stirred at last, not because of new strategies or better sermons, but because God answered the prayer of the broken heart.

This is the essence of Psalm 6. It is not a neat, composed prayer. It is not polished or formal. It is drenched in tears. Psalm 6 is the first of what we call the penitential psalms, that includes also Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. It opens with a trembling cry: “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.”

Here is David, the man after God’s own heart, burdened with guilt, fear, and anguish. Both his body and his soul are in torment. “Be gracious to me, O Lord,” he pleads, “for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.” And then he adds: “My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?”

In that place where the pain runs so deep it feels like your very bones are shaking, we must do what David did. What the brokenhearted always must do—he brought his pain to the only one who could hold it.

Even in the middle of this lament, David knows that God is good, and God is merciful. “Turn, O Lord, deliver my life,” he prays. “Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.” “Steadfast love” is the translation of hesed—a word that means covenantal, unfailing mercy. David knows that God’s mercy is deeper than his failure, stronger than his sin, and bigger than his sorrow.

David is neither bargaining with God nor trying to justify himself. He throws himself on the mercy of the Lord. For this is the only ground on which he can stand. That’s why, even in his brokenness, he can ask for healing, for help, for deliverance.

Then he says, “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.” He is exhausted with his sorrow. There is nothing left for him to say. His broken heart becomes his offering.

Tears have a language of their own. They confess the overburdened heart. The Lord Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He wept over Jerusalem, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:41). And when Jesus was walking to Calvary, bearing the cross, he turned to the women weeping for him and said, “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”

We need that heart today! A heart that is broken not just for our own suffering, but for the spiritual decay around us. Are our hearts heavy because of the lost ones around us, our lukewarm churches, and broken families?

Back in Psalm 6, something begins to shift. David begins to speak with a newfound confidence. “Depart from me, all you workers of evil,” he says, “for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.”

What changed? His enemies were still around. His body may still have been weak. But he was bold in the consciousness that God had accepted his prayer. God has heard. God has seen. And God will act.

Mary Magdalene stood outside the tomb, weeping because she could not find the Lord. And then a man appeared and asked her two questions: “Woman, why are you weeping?” and “Whom are you seeking?” Why are you weeping today? Are you sorrowful because you lost something—or because you seek someone?

For Mary, the answer was clear: she longed for her Lord. And Jesus revealed himself to her in that moment of weeping. He called her by name—“Mary”—and she knew it was him.

David ends the psalm in triumph: “All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.” This is the voice of a man who knows his God. The same God who allowed him to be broken now lifts him up and fills his mouth with praise.

We don’t have to hide our pain or pretend to be strong. We can come to God—tired, trembling, and tear-stained—and he will not turn us away. When we have no words but only tears, we can still pray. God who sees our weeping will also bring us to rejoice.

Let us take heart. Let us cry out when our hearts are overburdened. He cares for us, so let us cast our burden on him. Let us weep for our sin and that of our families and our churches, so that we may be healed. Let our tears of sorrow awaken the pity of Christ, that we may see him and know him better than ever before.

And every sincere heart that weeps will finally know for itself: “The Lord has heard the sound of your weeping. The Lord has heard your plea. The Lord accepts your prayer.” God bless.