Reflections on the Seven Penitential Psalms: Psalm 6
by Graziano Marcheschi, M.A. D.Min
Psalm 6 —Prayer in Distress
The Psalms stand against the human impulse to merit God’s love and mercy through goodness or
obedience. A part of us clings to the naïve notion that God’s love for
us is tied to our behavior: good behavior earns God’s love and
acceptance; bad behavior means divine rejection. That’s a diabolical lie
and the psalmist knows it. Instead, eyes wide open and looking in the
mirror, the psalmist readily admits his sin and begs God’s mercy anyway.
Sin darkens human vision and alienates the soul from God, self, and
others. Sin’s greatest danger is its ability to make us doubt God’s love
and willingness to forgive. The psalmist’s saving grace is his refusal
to let sin drive that wedge between him and the Lord; in fact, it’s his
painful awareness of his sin that draws the psalmist nearer. We often
think we can approach God only when we’re “good” and have our lives in
order. But it’s sin God rejects, not the sinner. The psalmist knows if
we waited for a “worthy” time, we’d never pray. So we don’t defer
prayer; we don’t wait till God “is in a better mood.” At work, we might
rely on a spike in sales to incline the boss to mercy, but our God has
never been that kind of God. Scripture tells us to pray whenever there
is the need. And need is greatest when we are mired in sin.
In
his mercy, God does not spare us the consequences of sin. To spur our
prayer, to draw us closer when we might otherwise sulk or hide, God lets
sin impact our lives. Sin’s consequence is not God’s punishment, but
the natural result of our decisions that, in his love, God uses for our
good (if we let him). The psalmist is well aware that his own sin has
brought both physical distress and the attack of enemies into his life.
Yet he prays unashamedly. As a child who has disregarded a parent’s
injunction to not venture far from home comes running back when the
playground bully threatens, the psalmist knows where home is. He knows
where to find the strong arms and loving embrace of a God who eventually
would send his own Son to save us—not when we were finally worthy, but
while we were still steeped in sin.
Questions for Reflection:
St. Paul says that God “proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). So why do we keep thinking that God will love us only when we stop sinning?
On the other hand, does knowledge of God’s unconditional love mean we needn’t worry about sinning? Is the destructiveness of sin related to the effects it has on God or to the effects it has on us?
Besides petitionary prayer, there are prayers of praise, thanksgiving, adoration, etc. Does a prayer of petition, asking for mercy and the forgiveness of sin, seem to you like a lower, less enlightened form of prayer? How can you combine petition and praise?