Psalm 6 is gut wrenching. It reaches down and cries from the pit of David’s despair. It gives the sense of someone at the end of their tether, unable to go any further. It’s a cry for deliverance and salvation.

“I am worn out from my groaning. All night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow week with sorrow…” -Psalm 6:6-7a (NIV)

Before that, in verse 3 he writes the words “My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?” How long must he endure what he was going through?

David’s not the only person who has been in that space where everything seems too much and there seems no end to the crushing weight of some of the things life throws our way. It may not even be things directly affecting us. I often think about the world, the injustice that goes on and consider some of the darkest parts of that injustice – children abused, kids sold into sex trafficking, people needlessly tortured, countless people starving, people fleeing their homes that have been destroyed in war and those words come to mind “my soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long!?”

There is a lot of good in the world but let’s be honest, there’s a lot of crap as well. Psalm 6 captures the anguish of the human experience in the middle of the world’s tragedies well. Faced with the mess of the world, it’s an honest feeling and the pain and brokenness of some of that stuff I mentioned SHOULD cause us grief but that should not be the end of the story, even when it is caused by circumstances that directly affect us.

David’s sense of something more pulls him through and even if only faintly it should give us some assurance as well when everything seems too much.

“The Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.” (v8b-9) This is not a cheap response. It comes from a place of anguish and trust and though it may not seem self evident, it’s a response we can trust even if only faintly.

For David it wasn’t a blind trust, it was a trust that looked back in history and could see that God had acted. it’s not a blind trust for us either – it’s a trust that looks back in history and sees Jesus. It sees the God who heard the cries of humanity and entered the world, became one of us, wept with us, stood with us and went to the cross of us and for all of creation. He was raised again and defeated death. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again and all things will be made right.

There are times when that reality will seem faint, but it doesn’t stop it from being true and real. For that reason, we continue even though our bed has moments in our lives when it is flooded with tears.

Read more of my reflections on the Psalms.

Here’s why I’m walking this journey through the Psalms.