Psalms 6

1. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am withered away: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. 3 My soul also is sore vexed: And thou, O LORD, how long? 4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: Save me for thy lovingkindness’ sake. 5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: In Sheol who shall give thee thanks? 6 I am weary with my groaning;

SINCE the time of Origen, seven of the Psalms have borne the name of Penitential—namely, 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. “The historical books,” says Perowne, “need a rich store of knowledge before they can be a modern book of life; but the Psalms are the records of individual experience. Personal religion is the same in all ages. The deeps of our humanity remain unruffled by the storms of ages which change the surface.” Sin and penitence, which are common to all times and to all men, give these productions a permanent and universal interest. These Psalms are not all expressions of contrition for personal sin; nevertheless, they all recognize sin as the source of corruption and trouble. We may find in them every element of a true repentance according to the Gospel standard. V.—This is the first of the seven Penitential Psalms. In great peril from his enemies, and in great anguish of heart, David cries to God for mercy. In the malice of his enemies he sees the rod of God’s chastisement; and therefore he makes his prayer to God for deliverance. The struggle has lasted so long, the grief is so bitter, that his health has given way, and he has been brought to the gates of the grave. But, even while thus pouring out the anguish of his spirit, light and peace visit him, and he breaks forth into the joy of thanksgiving. That this is a Psalm of David, there is no reason to question, although there is nothing in it to guide us to any peculiar circumstances of his life. P.¹

Title. For the Chief Musician (to be sung), with stringed instruments upon the eighth. This

Every night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

7. Mine eye wasteth away because of grief; It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries.

8. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; For the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.

9. The LORD hath heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer.

10. All mine enemies shall be ashamed and sore vexed: They shall turn back, they shall be ashamed suddenly.

last word corresponds exactly to our octave; but its precise application in the ancient music we have now no means of ascertaining. We probably lose little by our incapacity to understand these technical expressions, while at the same time their very obscurity may serve to confirm our faith in their antiquity and genuineness, as parts of the original composition. This Psalm, like the three which immediately precede it, describes itself as a Psalm of (or by) David, belonging to David, as its author. The correctness of this statement there is as little reason to dispute in this as in either of the other cases. A.

1-7. These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled under humbling providences, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent on purpose to awaken conscience, and mortify corruption. Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them; but those are getting ready for mercy who under God’s rebukes sow in tears, as David does here. H.—David uses the name Jehovah exclusively in this Psalm. He has no hope but in the grace of which that name is a pledge. Rebuke, anger, chasten, displeasure—each word involves an acknowledgment of deep guilt. David feels that his sin has found him out. Cook.

1. This is not a prayer for the mitigation of the punishment, but for its removal, as appears from the answer in vs. 8-10. Such a petition, while it indicates a strong faith, at the same time recognizes the connection between suffering and sin. In the very act of asking for relief the Psalmist owns that he is justly punished. This may serve to teach us how far the confident tone of the preceding Psalms is from betraying a self-righteous spirit, or excluding the consciousness of personal unworthiness and ill-desert. The boldness there displayed is not that of self-reliance, but of faith.

2. Heal me, O Jehovah, for shaken, agitated with distress, are my bones, here mentioned as the strength and framework of the body. The physical effect here ascribed to moral causes is entirely natural and confirmed by all experience. A.**

2,3. The Feeling of the Burden and Sorrow of Sin.** Thus the bones and the soul are sore vexed. The bones wax old: a heavy hand is upon him: his moisture is dried up (32: 3, 4). God’s arrows stick fast in him; there is no soundness in his flesh: his heart panteth, his strength fallet; his loins are filled with a loathsome disease (38: 2-10). He has eaten ashes like bread, and mingled his drink with weeping (102: 9, 10). His sin is ever before him (51: 3). V.

3. The Psalmist himself guards against the error of supposing that his worst distresses were corporeal. And my soul, as well as my body, or more than my body, which merely sympathizes with it, is greatly agitated, terror-stricken, the same word that was applied to the bones in the preceding verse. The description of his suffering is then interrupted by another apostrophe to God. And Thou, O Lord, Jehovah, until when, how long? The sentence is left to be completed by the reader: how long wilt Thou leave me thus to suffer? how long before Thou wilt appear for my deliverance? This question, in its Latin form, Domine quousque, was Calvin’s favorite ejaculation in his times of suffering, and especially of painful sickness. A.—Our deprecatory prayers appoint not God His ways, nor His times; but as our postulatory prayers are, they also are submitted to the will of God, and have all in them that ingredient, that herb of grace, which Christ put into His own prayer, that yet not My will, but Thy will be fulfilled; and they have that ingredient which Christ put into our prayer, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Donne.

3. Return.** It seems to the sufferer as if God had been absent during his affliction. And there is no hope for him but in God. Therefore the repeated prayer, Do Thou be gracious unto me:—how long wilt Thou be absent? Return Thou, etc. And observe, not only “be gracious, for I languish,” but “deliver me for Thy lovingkindness’ sake.” Any man may use the first argument: only one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious can use the last. P.

It is an unspeakable privilege that we have a God to go to in our afflictions, and it is our duty to go to Him and thus to wrestle with Him, and we shall not seek in vain. He pleads his own misery, and that his misery had continued long: “I am weak, I am troubled, sore troubled; O Lord, how long shall I be so?” He pleads God’s mercy; thence we take some of our best encouragements in prayer: Save me, for Thy mercies’ sake. He pleads God’s glory (v. 5): “For in death there is no remembrance of Thee.” Even the death of the body puts an end to our opportunity and capacity of glorifying God in this world, and serving the interests of His kingdom among men, by opposing the powers of darkness, and bringing many on this earth to know God and devote themselves to Him. To depart and be with Christ is most happy for the saints themselves; but for them to abide in the flesh is more profitable for the Church. This David had an eye to when he pleaded this, In the grave, who shall give Thee thanks? And this Christ had an eye to when He said, I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world. H.

8. Judge me, oh Lord, Jehovah!** If it be true that God will judge the world, redress all wrong, and punish all iniquity, let Him begin with me. Let me share now in the justice which is to be universally administered. Judge me, oh Lord, according to my right, and my completeness, or perfection, over me, i.e., according to my innocence which covers and protects me. All such expressions must be qualified and explained by the confession of unworthiness in Psalm 6 and elsewhere, which sufficiently demonstrates that the Psalmist here makes no claim to absolute perfection and innocence, nor to any whatever that is independent of God’s sovereign mercy. A.

Mine integrity that is in me. Notice how the Scriptures speak of integrity, how manifold and bold the forms in which they commend it, and how freely the good men of the Scripture times testify their consciousness of it in their appeals to God. And lest we should imagine that the integrity is only a crude and partial conception, belonging to the piety of the Old Testament, the Christian disciples of the New Testament are testifying also in a hundred ways to the integrity, before God and man, in which they consciously live. As an integer is a whole, in distinction from a fraction, which is only a part, so a man of integrity is a man whose aim in the right is a whole aim, in distinction from one whose aim is divided, partial, or unstable. It is such a state of right intention as allows the man to be consciously right-minded, and to firmly rest in the singleness of his purpose. There is a kind of integrity which goes far beyond the mere integrity of trade, and which is the only real integrity. This higher and only real integrity is the root of all true character, and must be the condition somehow of Christian character itself. There is no redeeming efficacy in right intent; taken by itself, it would never vanquish the inward state of evil at all. And yet it is just that by which all evil will be vanquished under Christ and by grace, because it puts the soul in such a state as makes the great power of Christ, co-working with it, effectual. Integrity is presupposed in all true faith, and enters in that manner into all true Gospel character. Bushnell.

The believer’s purpose to glorify God and enjoy Him forever is an habitual, constant purpose. Whatever winds may drive him from the thing he purposes, yet no wind can drive him from his purpose when once it is wrought of God in his heart. He may be drawn to sin, but he can never be drawn to a purpose of living in sin; nay, if some strong corruptions prevail against him and lead him captive, yet he can confidently appeal to Heaven it was against his purpose, and against his prayers, and against his tears, and against his hope, that such an iniquity prevailed against him. Erskine.—An habitual intending God as our end, depending on His support, and subjection to His government, will carry on the soul in a sincere and constant course of godliness, though the actual most observed thoughts of the soul be fewer in number about God than about the means that lead unto Him, and the occurrences in our way. A man in a journey may be much of the way taken up with thoughts and discourse of other things, and yet he doth truly intend his journey’s end in every step of the way, and use every step as a means to that end. And so it is with a true Christian in the work of God and the way to heaven. Baxter.

Consider what it is that gives such peace and loftiness of bearing to the life of a truly righteous man. What an atmosphere of serenity does it create for him that he is living in a conscience void of offence! And when great storms of trouble drive their clouds about him, when he is assailed by enemies and detractors, persecuted for his opinions, broken down by adversities, thrown out of confidence and respect even, as will sometimes happen, by false constructions of his conduct and malignant conspiracies against his character, still his soul abides in peace, because he justifies himself and has the witness that he pleases God. These clouds that seem to be about him do still not shut him in. He sits above with his God, and they all sail under! Such a man is very strong! There is no power below the stars that can shake him! He is able still and always to make his great appeal and say—“Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to the integrity that is in me.” Who can understand like him the meaning of that word—“And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” Here, too, is the ground of all failures, and all highest successes in religion, or the Christian life. Only to be an honest man, in this highest and genuinely Christian sense, signifies a great deal more than most of us ever conceive. Here is the spot where you are to make your revision, find what your intent is, whether it is honest, and whole, and clean, warped by no ambiguities, divided and stolen away by no idols. Here the Achan will be hid if anywhere. Make sure of his dislodgment, and the way is clear. Every man who comes into a state of right intent, or is set to be a real integer in the right, will forthwith also be a Christian. Bushnell.

9. It is the cessation of evil with which the Psalmist has now to do—oh, that it would come to an end! His prayer is therefore not directed against the persons as such, but against the evil that is in them. This Psalm is the key to all the Psalms that contain prayers against foes. To the longed-for cessation of evil there corresponds the longed-for securing and confirming of the righteous, whom evil endangers and whose stability it tends to undermine.

God trieth the hearts and the reins. The reins are the seat of the emotions, just as the heart is the seat of the thoughts and affections. Reins and heart lie naked before God.

10. God is the righteous One, and in virtue of His knowledge of the heart He is perfectly able to prove Himself righteous in anger as well as righteous in grace, according to the requirements of each several case. Therefore David can confidently add: God beareth my shield. D.—He saves the upright in heart, saves them with an everlasting salvation, and therefore will preserve them to His heavenly kingdom; He saves them out of their present troubles as far as is good for them; their integrity and uprightness will preserve them. The upright in heart are safe, and ought to think themselves so, under the Divine protection. God is a righteous Judge, who not only doeth righteousness Himself, but will take care that righteousness be done by the children of men, and will avenge and punish all unrighteousness. H.

11. Ainsworth translates it, “God is a just judge; and God angrily threateneth every day.” With this corresponds the reading of Coverdale’s Bible, “God is a righteous judge, and God is ever threatening.” In King Edward’s Bible, of 1549, the reading is the same. J. Morison.—God’s judgment upon the case of the righteous is thought of here as a vindication of His cause against the oppression of the wicked. So considered, David says, “God will avenge the righteous man, intensely indignant all the time,” i.e., against his oppressor. So the next words imply, “If he turn not”—which can possibly mean none other than this wicked persecutor of the good. This turning must be a reversal of his course—real repentance of this sin. C.

The object of this anger, although not expressed, is obvious, and is even rendered more conspicuous by this omission. As if he had said: “God, who does justice to the righteous, has likewise objects for His indignation.” A.—No other word will adequately represent God’s feeling, but the human word anger. If we explain away such words, we lose the distinction between right and wrong: we lose belief in God; for you will end in believing there is no God at all, if you begin with explaining away His feelings. F. W. R.—We have no insensible and stolid God to deal with; He can be angry, nay, He is angry to-day and every day with ungodly and impenitent sinners. The best day that ever dawns on a sinner brings a curse with it. Sinners may have many feast days, but no safe days. S.

12. If he, the sinner with whom God is angry, will not turn, i.e., turn back from his impious and rebellious undertakings, His sword He will whet, i.e., with a natural though sudden change of subject, God will whet His sword, often referred to as an instrument of vengeance. His bow he has trodden on, alluding to the ancient mode of bending the large and heavy bows used in battle, and made it ready. The bow and the sword were the most common weapons used in ancient warfare. The past tense of these verbs implies that the instruments of vengeance are prepared already, and not merely viewed as something future. A.—The whetting of the sword is but to give a keener edge that it may cut the deeper. God is silent as long as the sinner will let Him; but when the sword is whet, it is to cut; and when the bow is bent, it is to kill; and woe be to that man who is the butt. W. Secker.

13. And at him (the wicked enemy) He has aimed, or directed, the instruments of death, His deadly weapons. This is still another step in advance. The weapons are not only ready for him, but aimed at him. His arrows to (be) burning He will make, i.e., He will make His arrows burning arrows, in allusion to the ancient military custom of shooting ignited darts or arrows into besieged towns, for the purpose of setting them on fire, as well as that of personal injury. The figurative terms in these two verses all express the certainty and promptness of the Divine judgments on incorrigible sinners. For even these denunciations are not absolute, but suspended on the enemy’s repentance or persistency in evil. That significant phrase, if he will not turn, may be tacitly supplied as qualifying every threatening in the book, however strong and unconditional in its expressions. A.

Illyricus hath a story which may well be a commentary upon this text in both the parts of it. One Felix, Earl of Wartenberg, one of the captains of the Emperor Charles V., swore in the presence of divers at supper that before he died he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans. Here was one that burned in malice, but behold how God works His arrows against him; that very night the hand of God so struck him that he was strangled and choked in his own blood; so he rode not, but bathed himself, not up to the spurs, but up to the throat; not in the blood of the Lutherans, but in his own blood, before he died. Jeremiah Burroughs.

11-13. With what magnificent boldness he paints God the Judge arraying Himself in His armor of destruction! Surely there is nothing grander in any poetry than this tremendous image, smitten out with so few strokes of the chisel, and as true as it is grand. The representation applies to the facts of life, of which, as directed by a present Providence and not of any future retribution, David is here thinking. Among these facts is chastisement falling upon obstinate antagonism to God. Modern ways of thinking shrink from such representations; but the whole history of the world teems with confirmation of their truth—only what David calls the flaming arrows of God, men call “the natural consequences of evil.” The later revelation of God in Christ brings into greater prominence the disciplinary character of all

punishment here, but bates no jot of the intensity with which the earlier revelation grasped the truth of God as a righteous Judge in eternal opposition to, and aversion from, evil. A. M.