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O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
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? (Psalm 6:1-3 ESV)

Repentance is a gift of God. We are tempted, I believe, to look at repentance negatively, when we should look at it as one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. The Jewish Christians in the New Testament rejoiced when they heard of Gentile conversions and said, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). When we read a psalm like this, we are seeing the evidence of God’s gift to us of repentance, that leads to blessings.

The inner awareness that we need to repent speaks to our credit, that we feel shame and guilt when we have sinned, knowing that we were made for something better. The one who has aspired to do right, to be responsible and compassionate, when he has failed, and when he has the courage to cry out to God in honest humility of heart, that is an admirable human being. Repentance as the Bible describes it involves (a) inner regret, (b) turning from evil, and (c) turning to God in faith.

Repentance and Grace

David repented before the Lord and found God’s forgiveness. He turned from sin and turned toward the Lord. The first part of this psalm recorded his prayer of repentance, and the last part David expressed the assurance that God had heard his prayer and forgiven him: “For the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer” (Psa. 6:8b-9). 

David cried out, “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love” (Psa. 6:4). And in the turning of the sinner to God was the assurance of God’s turning toward the sinner with grace and forgiveness. Through the prophet Zechariah God said to the nation: ” Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you” (Zech. 1:3). The rebuke and the discipline of the Lord was intended not for the sheer punishment of sin, but so that the person might turn from sin and turn to the Lord.

These two always go together if God is the One who has brought conviction. The Lord never puts upon us the awareness of our sin without also assuring us of the availability of His grace and forgiveness. No matter how grave the sin, the Lord constantly invites us to come to Him for cleansing and forgiveness.

“Happy repenting” doesn’t sound right, because the act of repenting is not one filled with happiness, but rather regret. But repenting the way God intended us to has actually a very joyful outcome – assurance of forgiveness and restoration into a healthy relationship with Him. The Christian life is one of constant repenting and thereby constant receiving and enjoying the grace and forgiveness of God. His grace far outweighs our sin, and His comfort far outweighs our shame. The joy of the Lord comes upon our turning to Him in repentance and faith.

How long?

David’s words reveal the agony of his soul that in mid-thought – bouncing from his sin, his physical languishing, and pain of his bones – he suddenly interjects these words: “How long?” Some translators have sought to make them read more smoothly and have added something to try and interpret them, such as “How long until you restore me?” (NLT). But in the original they stand out as a sudden cry from David’s heart.

The most common question in all the word of God is “How long, O God?” (Psalm 13:1; 89:46; Rev. 6:10, for examples). How long must we endure our own sinfulness, our fallenness and impurities? We long for eternal life, for changed hearts that are purified by God’s power. We long to see an end to suffering and injustice, as well as unbelief and evil. We long to see the new person – incorruptible bodies and perfected spirits that are completely sanctified.

I have personally discovered something redemptive and worshipful in praying this question to God. I believe God has left these desires for perfection in our hearts and as we cry out to God we are expressing His work within us. God put this desire in our hearts and we are revealing in this prayer a new nature and a new set of desires as new creations in Him. The answer eludes us, of course, other than to say:

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

And Christ adds the assurance, “Surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). The repenting soul has the assurance of God’s grace and the comfort of His Spirit.

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The New Testament Greek had a certain word that was translated “repent” – metanoeo – and it was a technical word which meant a change of heart. The Old Testament repeatedly called for Israel to repent, but the Hebrew did not have a specific technical word for repentance, rather the understanding of it was based on the context. Most often the word was “turn” – shub – and commonly used to turn from sin and turn to God. The word naham was also used to describe the inner regret that accompanies repentance: Job used this word when he said, “I … repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Unlike metanoeo these were, however, common words and the majority of times these two words were used in the Old Testament they were not about a faith experience, rather it was the context that determined their spiritual meaning.

Therefore repenting in the Old Testament had three human components: (1) to feel regret for one’s actions, (2) to turn away from sin and unholiness, and (3) to turn to the Lord. The one who did so could be assured that God would turn toward Him in forgiveness and cleansing, soothing the pain of discipline and the shame of the sin that accompanied regret.

Daily Devotions, Psalms

As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind has passed over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—to those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:15-19 BSB)

One of the major after-effects of the fall of mankind is a misguided opinion about ourselves. We take ourselves too seriously, and replace what was meant to be the spirit of true worship of the eternal greatness of God with an admiration of ourselves. Indeed, this was part of the original temptation that Satan put forth to Adam, that by eating the forbidden fruit they could become as God.

This appears to be a tricky matter, however, to discuss properly because there is so much attached to the subject. We humans are not always bad to one another all the time, yet still there are many bad things we do one another. The point of our attacks against one another is often in the area of diminishing the humanity and importance of another. We each have felt the sting of these “put downs” and dehumanising comments and disenfranchising attitudes – whether they come to us due to race, due to class and social status, or simply are directed at us from within our own family.

So anyone and everyone who is human knows what it is like to be put down. We learn in life that we must stand up for ourselves, and fight back against injustice and insult. When the world says we are nothing, we feel the need to answer and say “I am somebody.” Yet in answering these challenges, we can leave God out of the matter, resulting in merely another and a greater tragedy. For it is our Creator who gives us dignity.

The Dignity of Mankind

Our dignity is found in the fact that we are creations, made by the all-wise and all-powerful God. And we are made in His image – we reflect His thinking and His manner and his values. Sin has scared us and that original image is today misshapen and twisted. Our usefulness to God is diminished, but not our value to Him.

This is one of the most amazing truths of Scripture, that despite our sin God still loves us. He has paid the price to redeem us by the death of Christ on the cross in payment for our sins, and He has the power to change us and restore us. When we come to Christ in faith we become new creatures, and we are on a growth path now, growing more and more in grace to reflect the character of Christ. God promises to finish this task in heaven:

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. (1 Thes. 5:23-24 BSB)

Sin has diminished our dignity, but grace in Christ recovers and reclaims it. But this does not give us the right to mistreat those among us who are not yet saved. We should treat all people with respect and dignity due to their potential in Christ. And in that sense, we should not allow people to disrespect us. Common courtesy means that we should be patient with one another and not be offended every time we suspect someone disrespects us, otherwise we would turn into argumentative neurotics.

Our dignity calls us not only to not let other mistreat us, or to try and take away our humanity, but that we should also, out of that dignity, treat others with the same respect that they should have had toward us.

We Are Like the Grass

But the text above points out our vulnerability. We are like the grass that flourishes for a while, that blossoms and blooms, but then dies. We have our life and may have our great moments, but this physical life is fleeting. It is here today and gone tomorrow. No matter how long we live, it is over in a flash and even the memories we have are blown away by the winds of time.

And our place is remembered no more. Haven’t we all had those experiences of returning to some place – a former school, an old neighborhood, a former work place – where we were somebody important, or thought we were, yet the people there no longer remember us. Oh, this is what life is like. We are all forgotten in the end, no matter how important we seemed at the time. And often our achievements are also forgotten.

This should not make life insignificant and our achievements unimportant, for this is true for everybody, and advancements in human civilization can only come through those who achieve something, and pass it on to the future generations, and then vanish. Solomon wrote:

When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil. For what does a man get for all the labor and endeavors at which he toils under the sun? Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile. Nothing is better for man than to eat and drink and enjoy his work. I have also seen that this is from the hand of God. For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment? (Ecclesiastes 2:21-25)

So we ought to seek to achieve something for the world – this is what God has given every person to do. The good man or woman “must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need” (Eph. 4:28). We should seek to make the world a better place, but we should also realize that we will all be forgotten by the world eventually.

I was in a men’s Bible study this past week and we began to discuss death and whether a Christian should be cremated or buried. A biology teacher spoke up and said that it does not really matter, because the outcome will eventually be the same for both. Cremation makes it happen sooner, but eventually the body buried in the ground will undergo the same disintegration.

Our Eternal Significance Is Found in God

The psalmist was inspired of God to proclaim an encouraging truth, that only God is eternal, but that because He is our Redeemer we find eternal life in Him. God is not the supreme egotist, who created and redeemed us just so that He could be praised. If that was all He wanted, He never needed to redeem us from sin through the painful means of the cross of Christ. He could have simply annihilated mankind and created another race that would only praise Him all the time.

But that is not who God is. God rather is love and the reality of being in the presence of God is to experience His mercy and grace and love. Christ said to the Father: “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). The glory of God is inseparably connected to His love, and to praise Him is to express our gratitude forour salvation, for our acceptance in His eternal family, and our awe of how greatly He loves us.

It is our praise of God that gives us eternal significance. And praising Him is the most mature thing we can do. The immature person focuses on himself, and has an insatiable desire to be noticed and appreciated. One day, hopefully, the selfish immature person will wake up and realize how fleeting life here is, and that even those who praise and compliment him will eventually die and be forgotten as well. That his self-focus is an empty thing, vanity and meaningless.

Out of His love, God saves us from sin, brings us into His eternal family, affirms us as His children, tells us in our hearts that we are important for Him and always will be important to Him. He restores our lost dignity that was ruined by our sin and by the sin of others. He heals the inner wounds of our heart, and we find complete acceptance in the Beloved Savior.

So if you long for dignity, respect, significance, and affirmation – come to Christ and let Him save you and redeem you.

Daily Devotions, Psalms