Releasing resources for The Kingdom
Psalm 6
How many times have you heard a church leader say, from the pulpit, “I’m really struggling?”
It seems that Christian leaders feel they cannot ‘let the side down’. They need to be strong and not show any weakness. They tell themselves there are good ‘rational reasons’ for such thinking!
The truth, however, from the point of view of scripture, is that as leaders, we are still part of ‘the body’ and the body of Christ builds itself up from
The music has changed! Psalm 4 was ‘with stringed instruments’ and now we have a psalm, depending on the translation, with ‘pipes’,’flutes’ or ‘on wind instruments’! But even if we have a ‘new band’, the message is very similar. David wants God to listen and restates his confidence and expectation.
David is also very ‘open’ he does not want to hide anything from
There is a rather trite saying that I have heard when people talk about how God answers prayer, or indeed if God answers prayer. They say “God answers with, yes, no or wait a while!” The idea of prayer presented in this framework is a shopping list that needs approval!
I have found this very unsatisfactory. It is not the picture of prayer that Jesus presents to his disciples in the Lord’s prayer nor what he demonstrates when he is heard praying in the
The heading in the version of the Bible I used to read this psalm says, it was written when David was running away from Jerusalem after his 3rd son Absalom had rebelled and proclaimed himself king.
To make matters worse Ahithophel, one of David’s closest advisors, joined the plot.
It’s not difficult to imagine what David must have felt like, and it’s no wonder that he prayed ‘So many people have turned against me’.
If you have ever been betrayed, undermined or abandoned by family, friends or colleagues, then this psalm probably reflects some of the