Psalm 6 - Big Enough
Psalm 6 - Big Enough
This panorama is a combination of 68 photos. The final, combined file is nearly 1 GB in size and is 27,000 pixels wide by 10,000 pixels high. I wrote about a panorama like this a few months ago but this time, it had a different feeling to it.
I was blessed to take in this sunrise a few mornings ago. It was one of those where the colors spread far above and behind me as I stood at the edge of the lake. As I just took in the breadth of this, I thought about a dear friend of mine who was just embarking that day on a new and stronger round of chemotherapy to try to “contain” (her doctor’s words) the stage 4 cancer that she has been fighting since early 2020.
What was stirring in me was a lament which essentially was saying, “God you’re big enough to do something about this...” If God can create a world that has a sight like this sunrise, God can eradicate the cancer from my friend’s body.
Psalm 6 given the title, ““A Prayer for Recovery from Grave Illness” in the NRSV translation of the Bible. That title comes from verse 2 which says, “Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am frail! Heal me, LORD, for my bones are shaking!” The rest of the Psalm, however, doesn’t seem to stick with just a message of healing from illness or injury but instead a lament on how abandoned the writer feels by God.
So as I listened to PBH’s musical reflection on Psalm 6, I joined in the lament. Not as much about “how long” but instead “God, you’re big enough...”
I do believe that.
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lord don’t rebuke me in your anger
don’t discipline me in your wrath
be gracious lord for i am weak and
my bones shake at the thought of it
i’m sick at heart sick at heart
oh lord how long lord how long
return oh lord and rescue
won’t you save me for you’re faithful
what dead man can remember you
who can lift their praise from sheol
while tears dampen my pillow
my beds a lake of sorrows
my eyes are swollen shut lord
from the ocean of my cries
but the lord has heard the sound of my weeping
the lord has heard my cry for his help
the lord accepts my prayer no matter how its broken
the lord will make my enemies turn and run