Why We Should Have Worshipful Regret (Part 1 of 2)

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger
nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing.
Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also greatly is troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?
Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol, who will give you praise?
I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief
and grows weak because of all my foes.
Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
(Psalm 6:1–10)

The phrase "How long, O Lord?" jumps out in this passage. It is familiar to many Christians who have faced affliction or suffering. Yet here, the psalmist uses it not just for general trials, but for suffering tied to his own sin. Psalm 6 is the first of the penitential psalms, expressing sorrow and regret over sin.

This is a worship psalm, intended for the choir master, to be sung with stringed instruments. It turns personal misery, sorrow, and regret into music offered to God. It is public and corporate, sung among fellow believers who acknowledge their shared sinfulness.

The main point of Psalm 6 is why you should have worshipful regret. To understand this, we examine three aspects: how the psalmist experiences God, his sin, and trust.

1. How the Psalmist Experiences God

Not all worship is a happy or ecstatic experience. The psalms include both overwhelming joy and sorrowful regret. If God sent his Son to die for our sins, securing our eternal joy, happiness follows. Yet Psalm 6 shows worship can be sorrowful, even painful.

The psalmist's lack of joy stems from what he knows about God. He expects rebuke and discipline—not blessings or material gain. Rebuke means to expose, convict, and correct. Discipline, related to child-training, educates toward responsible living, often painfully.

David does not reject these; he knows they are deserved. He begs:

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger
nor discipline me in your wrath.

His concern is not their absence, which would make God unjust, but bearing them. He wants to endure God's righteous response to sin. Confessing sin means agreeing God is right—about our sin, its ruin, and his justice fulfilled in Christ.

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline
or be weary of his reproof. (Proverbs 3:11)

For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:10–11)

Worship expects and welcomes God's painful discipline, pleading to endure it for holiness.

2. How the Psalmist Experiences His Sin

"How long, O Lord?" cries for relief from sin's anguish, not just external trials. Sin provokes deep suffering—its presence is antagonistic, like sitting among thorns.

David feels it physically and spiritually: languishing, bones troubled (horrified, shaken), soul horrified. It affects his entire being, deeper than surface sadness. He floods his bed with tears, drenches his couch—his weeping dissolves it. His eyes waste from grief.

Sin is pure suffering, not enjoyment. Do we feel physically sick over it, horrified to the core? True worship requires abhorring sin this way.

3. How the Psalmist Experiences Trust

David appeals not to his merit, but God's hesed—steadfast, pursuing, preserving love that never ends. It undergirds the doctrines of grace and perseverance.

Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love. (Psalm 6:4)

Trusting hesed, he commands enemies: "Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer."

This is not arrogance, but trust in God's faithfulness. Knowing God is trustworthy enables bold faith. Faith grasps God's true promises, basing life on them.

Acknowledging God's Steadfast Love and Acceptance

If God has steadfast love for His people, then there is nothing left for you to do but to acknowledge that the Lord has heard your plea and accepts it. There are tons of times within the Psalms where the psalmist offers up prayer and worship to God and offers up these requests, even begging the Lord to do something. But within the psalm, it doesn't necessarily indicate that God really actually does something. On the basis of Psalm 6, we have to recognize that there is never a situation for God's people, on whom His steadfast love rests, where the Lord would not hear and accept the prayers of those who worship the way Psalm 6 describes it.

There are definitely times where the Lord is in a position of perhaps rejecting or not listening. Oddly enough, that has to do with husbands' treatments of their wives. There are also probably times where people would offer up prayers and requests of God that are not in accordance with His will, which have to do with holiness.

The recognition that the psalmist has in Psalm 6 is based on the things that he knows to be true about God and based upon the things that he knows to be true about himself. He's a sinner and God is His Savior. Because of God's steadfast love, the specific quality and character of this worship song is for forgiveness of sins.

You'll notice that Psalm 6 is not only verse 9—which is a short enough sentence and phrase to basically make it into most modern-day worship songs and to be the continual repeated chorus. It's a psalm that basically has the psalmist knowing things and recognizing things about God, knowing and recognizing things about himself. On the basis of what he knows to be true about God and on the basis of what he knows to be a reality within himself, he offers up a prayer and worship in the form of worshipful regret—regretting the fact of sin and desiring God's intervention now as well as ultimately, permanently, and finally.

Key Questions for Reflection

Several important questions arise from a study of Psalm 6. The first question is: Does it bother you to think about corporate recognition of sin, public acknowledgement of sin? Is the idea of other people knowing that you're a sinner a cause of anxiety or concern—is that a problem?

I'll follow it up with our second question: Have you known and recognized enough of God's steadfast love and ability to save and promise to save you? Do you know God's steadfast love and God's ability to save you and God's promise to save you? Because if that's the case, what harm would it be for other Christians to know your sin?

Did Christ bear the full weight of the wrath of God in order for you to go free? And if so, that type of freedom is one that still sees the absolute horrific nature of one's own sinfulness, but is a recognition of a person who cannot help but not be ashamed.

Who’s ashamed within Psalm 6? All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled. They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

The psalmist isn't ashamed because the psalmist is grasping the significance of God's steadfast love and God's ability to deliver and save and trusts that the Lord is doing that.

Lessons from the Psalmist's Worship

Worship with regret in the matter of 10 verses in one psalm in 150—certainly there is much to learn and to be gleaned from watching the psalmist as they worship God. It's my hope that these would be some very serious considerations that we would all take to heart this week and the week to come and perhaps even for the rest of our lives.