+ Ash Wednesday – February 22nd, 2023 +
Psalm 6
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Repentance – that’s the word of the day as the season of Lent begins. And yet in many ways, God’s word and work of repentance is at the heart of our Christian lives every day.
When Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-five theses he began this way: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
God’s word and work of repentance is not an occasional thing, or a peripheral thing. It’s a daily gift. The daily word and work of the Holy Spirit.
We hear that word a lot in Scripture, repentance. Like the prophets before him, John the Baptist went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus, too, preached repentance, and so did his disciples and apostles after him. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We hear that word repentance throughout Scripture, and in the life of the Church. But what does it mean? Repentance means turning, or returning; you were walking this way, now walk this way; a complete 180; a change of mind. Repentance is the Holy Spirit’s work in turning us away from our sin and ourselves, and it is the Holy Spirit’s work of turning us toward the words and works of Jesus who rescues you from your sin.
This is the rhythm of the Christian life: dying and rising in Jesus. Hearing our sin and receiving forgiveness of sins in Jesus. The Holy Spirit repenting us, turning us away from our sin; and the Holy Spirit turning us to the forgiveness of sins in Jesus.
This is also the pattern of so many of the Psalms, particularly the seven penitential psalms that we will spend our time hearing during our midweek Lenten services this year. As far back as the 6th century A.D., these penitential psalms have been the guiding light for Christians living in repentance and forgiveness in all seasons of life, and especially in the season of Lent. These penitential psalms fill our ears, hearts, minds, and lives with God’s word and work of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
Psalm 6 is the first of these penitential psalms. David begins his psalm this way.
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.
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.
David’s psalm begins with repentance. Psalm 6 reveals the deep impact of sin in our lives. Our bones are troubled. Eyes wearied by our sin and shame. Weeping. Weakness. Everything around us, says Psalm 6, down to the couch we sit on, is affected by our sin. Psalm 6 beckons us to look into the abyss of our sin, and to realize that we can’t rescue ourselves.
Psalm 6, like many other parts of God’s word, brings us to our knees. Brings us to repentance.
Psalm 6 does something else though; it also rescues. Psalm 6 doesn’t end with David or us in despair over our sins. It begins with repentance but ends with rejoicing in the Lord. It begins with cries of despair over sin, but ends with a shout of victory in Christ. It begins with sorrow and suffering but ends with the steadfast love of the Lord.
Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
That’s what Christ does for us; he works a great reversal from repentance to rejoicing. Psalm 6 points to the day when Jesus, judge of the living and the dead, was judged for us. And we see in the hands of our judge the wounds of God’s judgment that he bore for us. Jesus is the salvation and the deliverance that David prayed for, that we so often pray for as well. All our enemies: sin, guilt, shame, death, the devil, the world and even our old sinful flesh are no match for Christ’s victory on the cross and his glorious resurrection. It’s all turned back in a moment, an instant, like psalm 6 declares.
In John 12, Jesus alludes to psalm 6 when he says, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
Jesus prayed not to be saved from his death, but that he would go to his death for you. Not to depart from you, but to come and save you. To come to you in your weeping. To come to you as you cry out to him in prayer. To come to you with his peace, grace, and mercy, and return you to God the Father.
And in Jesus, our bones, troubled by our sin are healed by the life-giving words of him who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. In Jesus, our eyes wasted away with grief are fixed on Jesus whose eyes are always fixed on you and full of compassion.
In Jesus, the Lord hears the sound of your weeping; he hears your prayers, and he answers in Jesus crucified and risen for you.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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