Journal

Psalm 6 - Personal and corporate passion

Posted on January 4th, 2006, in the evening

I've been reading and meditating on Psalm 6 for a couple of weeks as part of my series on Worshipping with the Psalms.

Although this psalm continues the theme of David's enemies, the self-righteousness of Psalms 3 and 5 gives way to a much more desperate note in Psalm 6.

In the text David cries for mercy from God, pleading that God would save him from his enemies and lamenting the state he has come to in his grief. He then affirms his trust in God in the face of his enemies.

As I have read this psalm over the last weeks, I am left with the overwhelming reality of David's passion. Psalm 6 doesn't read as someone composing lines for the sake of art, but as an almost involuntary overflow of prayer to God. The psalm is so raw, so vulnerable, so violent...

Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking;
my whole being is shaken with terror.
And You, Lord - how long?

Psalm 6:2-3

...that last line almost seems lost for words.

To reaffirm on the basis of Psalm 6 that scripture encourages emotional honesty in worship is an almost trivial understatement. This stuff is so uncompromisingly personal that it almost feels cheapening to make theological and even devotional comments off the back of it. But that fact in itself has actually helped me take another step in understanding some of the harder language I've already noted in previous psalms: there is simply no sense that this psalm is attempting to be objective or balanced, that just isn't the point.

That said, I do want to think a little bit about about how emotions are expressed in public worship.

Psalm 6 is anotated as being "for the leader" in the Psalter, unquestionably to be used in public. I find it incredible that this kind of content has been used in corporate worship.

When I prepare to lead corporate worship with my church, one of the factors I am very conscious of is the emotionally manipulative effect songs can have. It's all too easy for a musician or worship leader to produce an emotional reaction and call it a spiritual experience.

While I definitely think we should bring our emotions to God in worship, it's a different matter trying to find a way of doing that corporately in a way that doesn't presume upon people. For the sake of integrity I err on the side of deflating moments when the emotional pitch of a song strongly resonates with people rather than fuelling them. I don't want to trade in hype.

This is a large subject, one I am thinking through on an ongoing basis. Maybe there will come a time to deal with it in more detail here, but for now the observation I want to make from Pslam 6 is that the leaders of temple worship appear to have been far less reluctant to use personal and emotionally charged material than I am.