Do you remember waterbeds? I don’t hear much about them anymore, but when I was a kid I remember wanting one. It seemed like something fun when I was young, but there is no way I would enjoy that now. I’ve never read any reviews on waterbeds, but I know someone who had one and did not like it. That person was Israel’s King David.
In Psalm 6 he wrote of the turmoil he was enduring, using verbiage that included the words languishing and being greatly troubled. The English word languishing translates a Hebrew phrase that literally means, “I am one who droops.” We do not use the word droop too often, but it makes me think of the old cartoon character Droopy Dog.
The white basset hound was known for his trademark lethargy; everything was slow motion and monotone. That seems like an appropriate word to describe David while he was languishing. He was Droopy David.
Then in the sixth verse he said, “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.” Droopy David cried himself to sleep every night. With his usual poetic flare, David wasn’t just wiping a few tears, he was swimming in them. His bed was soaked with the discharge of his eyes. David slept on the world’s first waterbed.
He also said he drenched his couch. The King James Version says, “I water my couch with my tears.” Saying “I water” makes me think of watering the plants. I can picture David standing there, garden hose in hand, crown on his head, watering the palace petunias. But it wasn’t a hose that supplied the water, it was his own tears.
David has chosen his words carefully to help us understand the depths of his emotions. We don’t know the details—why he felt the way he felt—but we know how he felt. This was the result of sin in his life, we just don’t know the specifics. That is why David began the psalm by pleading, “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.”
Has your sin ever caused you to be there? Do you sleep on a waterbed of your own making? Are you watering your couch with your hose of hardships? Are you comparable to a melancholy mutt?
If so, it doesn’t have to be that way. Psalm 6 doesn’t end with David’s tears. He gets out of his waterbed and onto his knees. His confession of sin leads to a turnaround in his emotional state. Suddenly David has the heart of a warrior again, telling his enemies to depart from him. Where does he find this strength? He tells us in verse nine, “The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer.”
If some sin in your life is causing you to languish, confess it to God. He will hear your plea and accept your prayer. Waterbeds are not fun, so cry out to God and receive His forgiveness.
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