A Prayer in Anxiety over Sin.

To the chief musician on Neginoth, the stringed instruments of the Temple-orchestra, upon Sheminith, that is, on the octave, probably in bass, the voice suited to the nature of its complaint, a psalm of David. The entire psalm is the cry of a soul beset with the deepest distress on account of the consciousness of sin and guilt, his prayer being that God would change the punishment of wrath into the gentle chastisement of love.

v. 1. O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, as just as this wrath is on account of the great transgressions whose weight the sinner feels, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure, which threatened to consume him altogether and pressed this cry for mercy from his anxious heart.

v. 2. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, the free grace and favor of Jehovah being his only hope; for I am weak, so terrified as to make him languish and droop like a withered flower. O Lord, heal me, He being the only Physician whose skill could avail anything at all in this emergency; for my bones are vexed, his entire body threatening to come apart under the severe stress of the affliction besetting him.

v. 3. My soul is also sore vexed, troubled, filled with the greatest terror; but Thou, O Lord, how long? When could he expect the relief for which he was so eagerly longing? He now follows up his question with a pleading cry.

v. 4. Return, O Lord, for it seemed to the sufferer that Jehovah must have been absent during the severity of his trouble, deliver my soul, redeeming it from its depth of suffering. Oh save me for Thy mercies’ sake, Jehovah’s loving kindness being the only hope of the sinner.

v. 5. For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave, who shall give Thee thanks? David wants God to consider that a condemnation of the sinner to the realm of death at that time, a definite rejection of him into the abyss of hell, would deprive Him of a willing worshiper, for which reason he asks relief before this extreme stage is reached.

v. 6. I am weary with my groaning, utterly fatigued and worn out with the severity of his suffering; all the night make I my bed to swim, with streams of penitent tears; I water my couch with my tears, so that it is almost dissolved in consequence of their multitude.

v. 7. Mine eye, as the mirror of man’s entire being, is consumed because of grief, dissolved with mourning; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies, the power of vision and all the strength of the soul being blunted as with old age. However, in the midst of the sinner’s sorrow and cry, while he utters his prayer for relief, his courage and strength grow.

v. 8. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; the sinner being sure of God’s favorable answer to his prayer, his complaint changes to a joyful confidence; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping, and so the voice of God’s free Spirit takes hold of him and causes him to rejoice.

v. 9. The Lord hath heard my supplication, as it was pressed from his overburdened heart; the Lord will receive my prayer, wherefore he no longer fears his enemies, the ungodly, the hypocrites, but can defy them with holy courage.

v. 10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed, rather, in a definite statement, “they will be brought to shame,” they will be terrified; let them return and be ashamed suddenly, their sneering mockery being changed to the most abject shame in one terrible moment, when the punishment of God strikes them. Thus every poor sinner, in the very midst of his anxiety, may look up to the Savior in the simple confidence of faith and rejoice in his salvation, no matter what attitude the enemies take.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

This is the first of what have been called “the Penitential Psalms.” It has been said that “there is much of grief in it, but nothing of penitence.” The grief, howeversuch grief (see verse 6)can scarcely be supposed to have arisen from any other source than consciousness of sin. dud grief of this kind is a main element in penitence. The title ascribes the psalm to David, and declares it to be addressed, like Psa 4:1-8; “to the Chief Musician on Neginoth,” by which we are probably to understand that it is intended to be set to an accompaniment of stringed instruments (see introductory paragraph to Psa 4:1-8.). The further statement, that it is to be “upon Sheminith,” is very obscure, but perhaps refers to some form of musical time (see Hengstenberg). The psalm seems to divide into four stanzasthe first and last of three, the intermediate ones of two verses each.

Psa 6:1

O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger. The psalmist begins by deprecating God’s wrath and displeasure. He is conscious of some grievous sin, deserving rebuke and chastisement, and he does not ask to be spared his chastisement; but he would fain be chastised in love, not in anger (comp. Jer 10:24, “O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing“). Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure; or, in thy wrath. In its primary sense, humah () is no doubt “heat,” “glow; ‘ but the secondary sense of “anger,” “wrath,” is quite as common.

Psa 6:2

Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak; rather, I am faint, or languidwithered away, like a faded plant or flower. O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. Bodily ailment seems certainly to be implied; but it is that sort of bodily ailment which is often produced by mental distressa general languor, weariness, and distaste for exertion (comp. Psa 22:14; Psa 31:10; Psa 38:3; Psa 102:3).

Psa 6:3

My soul is also sore vexed. It is not, however, the body alone which suffers; the soul also is vexed, and vexed greatly (). Clearly the main emphasis is intended to be laid on the mental suffering. But thou, O Lord, how long! We may fill up the ellipse in various ways: “How long wilt thou look on?” “How long wilt thou hide thyself?” “How long wilt thou be angry?” (see Psa 34:17; Psa 79:5; Psa 89:46). Or again, “How long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear?” (Hab 1:2). The cry is that of one wearied out with long suffering (comp. Psa 90:13).

Psa 6:4

Return, O Lord. God seemed to have withdrawn himself, to have, forsaken the mourner, and gone far away (comp. Psa 22:1). Hence the cry, “Return” (comp. Psa 80:14; Psa 90:13). Nothing is so hard to endure as the feeling of being deserted by God. Deliver my soul. “The psalmist feels himself so wretched in soul and body, that he believes himself to be near death” (Hengstenberg). His prayer here is, primarily, for deliverance from this impending danger, as appears clearly from the following verse, Save me for thy mercys’ sake. Either a repetition of the preceding prayer in other words, or an enlargement of it so as to include salvation of every kind.

Psa 6:5

For in death there is no remembrance of thee (comp. Psa 30:9; Psa 88:11; Psa 115:17; Psa 118:17; Isa 38:18). The general view of the psalmists seems to have been that death was a cessation of the active service of Godwhether for a time or permanently, they do not make clear to us. So even Hezekiah, in the passage of Isaiah above quoted. Death is represented as a sleep (Psa 13:3), but whether there is an awakening from it does not appear. No doubt, as has been said, “the cessation of active service, even of remembrance or devotion, does not affect the question of a future restoration,” and the metaphor of sleep certainly suggests the idea of an awakening. But such a veil hung over the other world, under the old dispensation, and over the condition of the departed in it, that thought was scarcely exercised upon the subject. Men’s duties in this life were what occupied them, and they did not realize that in another they would have employmentsmuch less form any notion of what those employments would be. The grave seemed a place of silence, inaction, tranquillity. In the grave (Hebrew, in Sheol) who shall give thee thanks? (comp. Psa 115:17, Psa 115:18).

Psa 6:6

I am wearyor, worn out (Kay)with my groaning. The Oriental habit of giving vent to grief in loud lamentations must be remembered. Herodotus says that at the funeral of Masistias, the Persians present “vented their grief in such loud cries that all Boeotia resounded with the clement” (Herod; 9.24). All the night make I my bed to swim. The Revised Version has, “every night,” which is a possible meaning. Dr. Kay translates, “I drench my bed.” I water my couch with my tears. One of the usual pleonastic second clauses.

Psa 6:7

Mine eye is consumed because of grief; or, mine eye is wasted away because of provocation. The eye falls in, becomes dull, and, as it were, “wastes away” through long-continued grief (comp. Psa 31:9). The kind of grief expressed by the word ka’as () is “that which arises from provocation or spiteful treatment” (Kay). It waxeth old because of all mine enemies. It becomes dull and heavy and sunken, like the eye of an old man. How often has it not been noted that nothing so much ages a man as grief!

Psa 6:8

Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity! Note the sudden change of tone, very characteristic of the Davidical psalms. The psalmist, having offered his prayer, is so certain of its acceptance that he at once turns upon his adversaries with words of reproach, and almost of menace. “Depart from me!” he exclaims; “get ye gone! do not dare any more to persecute me or plot against me! Your efforts are in vain.” For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. David speaks from an inward conviction. He knows that he has prayed sincerely and fervently. He is certain, therefore, that his prayer is heard and accepted.

Psa 6:9

The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receiverather, hath received; (LXX.)my prayer. The threefold repetition marks the absoluteness of the psalmist’s conviction.

Psa 6:10

Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed; rather, all mine enemies shall be ashamed and sore vexed (Rosenmuller, Kay, and others). Shame will fall upon David’s enemies when their plots have failed, and deep vexation when they find him restored to health (Psa 6:4) and in the full enjoyment of the Divine favour. Lot them return; rather, they shall return; i.e. “retire turn their backs,” “take to flight.” As Hengstenberg says, “David sees his enemies, who are gathered around him for the attack, all at once in alarm give way.” And be ashamed suddenly. It is doubly shameful to have to fly when one has been the assailant.

HOMILETICS

Psa 6:9

The school of adversity.

“The Lord hath heard,” etc. This outburst of triumphant gratitude is like a sunbeam out of a dark, stormy sky. A wail of profound sadness echoes through the earlier portion of the psalm. In his deep affliction the psalmist seems to lose sight of the light beyond; he sees but the dark silence of the grave (Psa 6:5). Suddenly the clouds part; faith revives; the conviction that God is the Hearer of prayer fills his soul with joy, and with the certain hope that God will answer.

I. TROUBLE IS THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER. In trouble even prayerless souls are often taught to pray (Psa 78:34; Psa 107:6).

“Eyes that the preacher could not school

By wayside graves are raised

And lips say, ‘God be merciful!’

That ne’er said, ‘God be praised!'”
(Mrs. Browning.)

But even prayerful Christians have to own that there is no prayer like that we offer in trouble. In prosperity prayer is apt to be vague, like an arrow shot skyward from a slack string. Prayer in trouble is like an arrow shot from a full-bent bowstraight at the mark. David’s prayer was intensely personal, “my supplication;” urgent, “the voice of my weeping;” persistent, “all the night” (Psa 6:6); seizing hold on God’s mercy as its plea (Psa 6:4). Even our blessed Lord learned this lesson (Heb 5:7).

II. Therefore, ONE PRINCIPAL BLESSING OF AFFLICTION AND STRONG CONSOLATION under it is thisthat thus our Father is teaching his child to pray. Our Lord teaches this lesson (Luk 11:5, etc.; Luk 18:1, etc.). Never lose hold of this truth in darkest trouble, for without this it will be dark indeedmeaningless, hopeless, comfortless. The Lord has heard your prayer in the way of taking note of itknows more about it than you do yourself. Therefore he will hear in the way of sending an answer: if not the exact answer you wish and expect, then something better. So St. Paul’s thrice earnestly repeated prayer was answered with a refusal richer in grace and love than if his petition had been granted (2Co 12:7-9).

Observe: If we lived nearer to God, more in the spirit and habit of prayer, in peaceful prosperous days, we might perhaps the less need to be taught in this sharp school.

HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE

Psa 6:1-10

The moan of a saint, and the mercy of his God.

For the significance of the title of this psalm, see the Exposition. An expositor well remarks that the confessed uncertainty on the part of the best Hebrew scholars as to the meaning or many of the titles is a striking proof of their antiquity, since it shows that the clue thereto is lost in oblivion. This psalm belongs to those specified under the first head of our introductory homily, as one of those in which we have the strugglings and wrestlings of a saint in devotional exercises; not the words of God to man, but the words of man to God, and as such they must be studied. We must not fall into the anachronism to which in our last homily we referred, of interpreting a psalm like this as if it had been written in full New Testament light; for we shall see. as we proceed abundant indication of the contrary. Yet there is here a priceless record of an early believer’s experience, from which troubled souls through all time may draw an abundance of comfort. Here area moan, a prayer, a plea, an issue.

I. THE MOAN. It is not that of an impenitent man; at the same time, it bears no very clear indication of being a penitential wail over sin. It is the plaint of one who is overwhelmed with sorrowwith sorrow that has come upon him through his enemies. So intense is his anguish that it haunts him by night and by day; it exhausts his frame, consumes his spirit. Note the various expressions: “withered away,” “bones vexed,” “sore vexed,” “weary with groaning,” “make my bed to swim,” “water my couch with my tears,”” eyes dim” “eyesight wasting away,” etc. What caused such overwhelming sorrow, we cannot tell. But this is of no consequence. The point to be noted is thisthere are not unfrequently times in the experience of God’s people when some care, or trouble, or perplexity is felt, and that so severe that they are haunted by it night and day; they cannot shake it off; and they cannot, even when at prayer, forget it. What are they to do? Let them not try to forget it; let them turn their prayers in that direction, so that the perplexity and the prayer are concurrent and not contrary forces. This is what the psalmist did. This is what we should do.

“Give others the sunshine; tell Jesus the rest.”

II. THE PRAYER. It is twofold.

1. Deprecatory. (Psa 6:1, “Rebuke me not,” etc.; “nor chasten me in thine hot displeasure.”) Here is one of the traces of the Old Testament saints’ thinking about God: they regarded their afflictions as indications of God’s anger. We are now taught rather to regard them as a part of the gracious training which our Father sees that we need. The sharpest trials often force out the most fervid prayers; yet, at the same time, we are permitted to cry to our Father to ask him to deal gently with us, and to “throw away his rod,” since “love will do the work.”

2. Supplicatory. “Mercy,” “healing,” “deliverance,” “salvation,”for these he pleads. Probably his yearning is mainly for temporal relief and deliverance from his foes. But we, under similar circumstances, as we know more than the psalmist did, should rise higher than he could. We should regard temporal deliverances as entirely subordinate to the higher spiritual improvement, which ought to be earnestly prayed for as the result of every trial. We should always be more anxious to have our trials sanctified than to have them removed.

III. THE PLEA. This also is twofold.

1. The psalmist feels that his burden is so great, it will soon bring him to the grave, if not removed. Hence he says, “In death there is no remembrance of thee; and in Sheol who shall give thee thanks?” Here is another proof that, in dealing with this specimen of the devotion of an Old Testament saint, we have to do with one to whom, as yet, life and immortality had not been brought to light; to whom death was but the passage to a dim and gloomy state of being; although, as we shall see in dealing with Psa 16:1-11; Psa 17:1-15; there was the hope of an awakening. Still, “Sheol,” the all-demanding realm, was not as yet lit up with gospel light. The Greek word “Hades” and the Hebrew word “Sheol” both refer to the state after death, though under different symbolic expressions. Historically, there are three conceptions of Hades, or Sheol.

(1) The pagan: all gloom and no hope.

(2) The Hebrew: gloom, with hope of a blest awaking in the morning.

(3) The Christian: no gloom at all, so far as the godly are concerned.

“Absent from the body; at home with the Lord.” Hence we cannot now adopt Psa 17:5 of this prayer, knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ died for us, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him; that hence our death is the gateway to rest, and that the time of our departure may be peacefully left in wiser hands than ours.

2. The psalmist grounds a second plea on the loving-kindness of God. This is better, surer ground (Psa 17:4). Very often is this plea used. It cannot be used too often. It takes hold of God’s strength.

IV. THE ISSUE.

1. The psalmist receives an answer to his prayer. (See Psa 34:6.) Thousands can say the same. “The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.”

2. Consequently, there is:

(1) New confidence Godward (Psa 17:9). “The Lord will receive my prayer.” As he has done in the past, so he will continue to do. New courage manward (Psa 17:10, Revised Version). Yea, by prayer the spirit is calmed. Trouble is turned to rest, fear to bravery, and despair to hope. Note: How much care and worry good people would save themselves if they did but take all their troubles to God at once, without waiting till they obtained such hold upon them l

(2) It is infinitely better to tell God everything, than to go about moaning and groaning to our fellows! God knows all. He never misunderstands us. He knows exactly how to help us. He will help us, at the right moment, in the best way, and to the full extent of our need; yea, he will do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”C.

HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH

Psa 6:1-10

A cry to God, and its response.

I. THE CRY OF THE FAINTING SOUL. Circumstances are adverse. There is gloom without and within. Conscience accuses. God seems full of wrath. Death is regarded, not as a release, but as the minister of judgment; and the grave, not as a quiet resting-place, but as a “pit,” loathsome and terrible. Amidst the darkness, and with fears on every side:

1. God‘s indignation is deprecated. Affliction is hard to bear; but with God’s wrath it would be overwhelming.

2. God‘s pity is appealed to. Weakness is pleaded, and the hope expressed that in deserved wrath God will remember mercy. His smile will turn the darkness to light.

3. God‘s deliverance is entreated. It is craved on the ground of God’s mercies (Psa 6:4). It is urged on account of the brevity of life, and because death will put an end to the power of serving God in this world (Psa 6:5). It is claimed as the only relief for the helpless and miserable (Psa 6:7).

II. THE RESPONSE OF A GRACIOUS GOD. It is said the darkest hour is that before the dawn. So here the psalmist, in his utter weakness and woe, turning from sin unto God, finds help. A light surprises him like sunrise breaking in suddenly on a dark night (Psa 6:8, Psa 6:9). The answer from God is not only quick and timely, but effectual. Thrice the glad heart says, “God has heard,” thus confirming to itself the news which seems almost too good to be true.W.F.

Psa 6:1-10

Night and morning in the soul.

I. NIGHT. There is darkness. God hides himself. There is dreariness. The soul is left alone with sad and distressing thoughts. There is depression. The ghosts of past misdeeds rise up. There are nameless terrors. But though perplexed, there need not be despair. God is near. He can help. He can even give songs in the night.

II. MORNING. Light comes, bringing hope and peace. God has beard the cry of his child. Such deliverances are comforting. They not only show God’s mercy and truth, but they prophesy of complete redemption. If there be night, let us wait for the morning. The weary traveller, the tempest-tossed mariner, the city watchman dreading the assault of the foe, comfort themselves with the thought that the morning cometh. So let us look up, for our redemption draweth nigh (Luk 21:28).W.F.

Psa 6:1-10

Great afflictions, greater consolation.

The language m this psalm may seem exaggerated and unreal. But it is not so. Want of imagination and sympathy in some, and want of experience in others, make them unfit judges. We neither know our strength nor our weakness till we are tried. The man who may have stood up to help others in their troubles may be cast down and disconsolate when visited with trouble himself (Job 4:3-5). Learn

I. THAT THERE ARE WORSE AFFLICTIONS THAN WE KNOW OF. We must not make our life the limit, nor our experience the standard. Besides what we see, there is what we only hear of, and besides all these, there are miseries beyond our wildest imaginings. Even as to ourselves, let our case be ever so bad, we can conceive of its becoming worse. What a glimpse have we of the dread possibilities of the future in that solemn word of our Lord to the man who had for thirty and eight years been a helpless cripple, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (Joh 5:14)!

II. THAT THERE ARE ADEQUATE CONSOLATIONS FOR THE SEVEREST TRIALS. Come what will, God is our Refuge and our Strength. Let us therefore be patient and trust. Let us also be thankful. Things might be far worse than they are. Let us also bear ourselves gently and kindly to others who suffer. It is those who have themselves been sorely tried who can best sympathize, as it is those who have themselves been comforted who can best comfort others (2Co 1:3-5).W.F.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT

Psa 6:1-10

Deliverance from sore trouble.

“In the malice of his enemies David sees the rod of God’s chastisement, and, therefore 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 ere long light and peace visit him, and he breaks forth into the joy of thanksgiving.”

I. A PICTURE OF COMPLICATED DISTRESS.

1. Danger from outward foes. Producing constant fear and anxiety, and perhaps threatening his life.

2. A sense of being under the chastising hand of God. The malice of his enemies was regarded as the rod by which God in his anger was punishing himan Old Testament view. “As many as I love I rebuke and chasten”the New Testament view.

3. These two things caused the prostration of both body and soul. Mental troubles are the causes of our severest afflictions and sufferings. Threatened by man, frowned upon by God, laid low by disease,that is the picture here given.

II. ARGUMENTS USED IN SUPPORT OF THE CRY FOR DELIVERANCE. “Let thine anger cease;” “Forgive my sins.”

1. Because of the extremity of my sufferings. He “languished ‘ (Psa 6:2). His “bones were terrified” (Psa 6:2). His “soul sore vexed” (Psa 6:3). His bed swam with his tears (Psa 6:6). His eye wasted and grew dim with his grief (Psa 6:7). It is an appeal to the Divine pity. “He will not keep his anger for ever.”

2. His power of endurance was exhausted. “O Jehovah, how long?” I cannot endure the severity of thy judgments. “How long?” was all Calvin said in his most intense grief. Here it means, “Do not quite destroy me, for I am well-nigh spent. Still a cry for mercy.

3. Because his death would put an end to his power to praise God. “There is here the childlike confidence which fears not to advance the plea that God’s glory is concerned in granting his request.” And that is the ground of all true prayerthe granting will honour thee. Those in Sheol lived a spectral, shadowy life, apart from the light of God’s presence, and could not praise him. “The living, the living, he shall praise thee.” The meaning here isit is pleasing to God to be praised, and pleasing to himself to praise.

III. THE TRIUMPH OF RELIEVING, PENITENTIAL PRAYER. Salvation from his enemies had become a patent fact. God had forgiven, and he was safe, and could now rejoice. The psalm epitomizes his experience, and that accounts for the sudden change in the eighth verse. Our sins are our greatest foes, and when God, through Christ, forgives them, that is the hour of our greatest triumph.S.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Psalms 6.

David’s complaint in his sickness: by faith he triumphs over his enemies.

To the chief musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith.
A Psalm of David.

Title. al hashsheminith. Upon Sheminith] Some render it, Upon the eighth. The Sheminith is generally supposed to have been a harp of eight strings. It is so rendered by the Chaldee. Fenwick renders it, on the unction; the anointing of the Holy Spirit. See his Hebrew Titles, p. 18. It is probable, that David composed this psalm upon his recovery from some great sickness. He complains in it of some grievous disorder, heightened by the malicious joy of his enemies, from which he prays to be relieved; and in a fiducial dependance that his prayer will be heard, he triumphs in the disappointment of his enemies.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psalms 6

To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A Psalm of David

1O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger,

Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

2Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak:

O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

3My soul is also sore vexed:

But thou, O Lord, how long?

4Return, O Lord, deliver my soul:

Oh save me for thy mercies sake.

5For in death there is no remembrance of thee:

In the grave who shall give thee thanks?

6I am weary with my groaning;

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

7Mine eye is consumed because of grief;

It waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

8Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity;

For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.

9The Lord hath heard my supplication;

The Lord will receive my prayer.

10Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed:

Let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Respecting the title, compare the Introduction. The Church has with propriety made this Psalm the first of the seven penitential Psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.). For we recognize here, not the prayer of one who was greatly troubled (Francke Introductio p. 64), but the supplication of a man who has been brought by Divine chastisements (Psa 6:1) to the border of the grave (Psa 6:5-7), who yet is assured of being heard (Psa 6:8-9), directed (Psa 6:2), and sustained (Psa 6:4) by grace. And yet he feels the wrath of God not in sickness (Aben Ezra, Ewald), but in distress through ungodly enemies (Psa 6:7-8; Psa 6:10), and he grieves so much, that bodily weakness is the consequence of his anguish of soul (Psa 6:2-3; Psa 6:6-7). The opinion, that the description of sickness is only a highly colored illustration of trouble (to which Hupfeld inclines), is not supported by the text, still less the conjecture that the sufferer is the Jewish nation, or the better part of it which was in exile (Aben Ezra prophetically, De Wette historically). The points of contact with Jeremiah (Hitzig, Maurer, Olsh.) are of the kind that they presuppose rather the greater antiquity of the Psalm; for Jer 10:24, corresponding with this Psalm, is directly followed, Psalm 6:25, with words from Psa 39:6 sq. (Delitzsch). Hengstenberg, very properly against Hitzig, refers to 1Sa 30:6; 2Sa 12:16 sq.; 1Sa 15:30, as historical proofs of a similar disposition in David, and Delitzsch reminds us of the consequences of his intercourse with Bathsheba, whilst Ruding refers to the rebellion of Absalom. Not a few of the penitential hymns of the Church have grown out of this Psalm.

Str. I. Psa 6:1. Rebuke me not in Thine anger.The position of the words shows that an emphasis is to be put upon anger. But in the course of the Psalm the Psalmist supplicates for the deliverance of his soul and body, and is finally convinced of his complete deliverance from the power of those who afflict him. He prays moreover not for a loving chastisement (Psa 94:12; Psa 118:18; Pro 3:11 sq.), for the sake of training the favored one, in contrast to a chastisement in anger as it comes upon the unconverted ungodly; so also not for a moderate punishment in contrast to a severe passionate treatment; but simply for a prevention of the chastisement, which because it is received as the punishment of sin, has an essential connection with the wrath of God, and would bring about the ruin of the one thus punished, unless it should be prevented by grace, Jer 10:24 sq. (Calv., Hengstenberg, Hupf.). Domine quousque? was Calvins motto.1 [Riehm: In his present condition it is as if he prayed, punish me no longer. Perowne: The Psalmist prays that the rod may altogether be removed, and that because body and mind are alike growing weary. The chastisement has been so heavy and has endured so long, and his sense of sin is so grievous, that he begins to fear lest God should shut up His tender mercies in displeasure and should consume him in His wrath.C. A. B.]

Psa 6:2. [I am weak , umlal ani. The pronoun n was supposed by Gesenius to be for the affirmative = first pers. perf. of the pulal of = to languish, to droop as plants and flowers, and thus by transfer, of trouble and care. Others (Hupfeld, Hitzig) regard it as part. pulal = , the being omitted, as not unfrequently in this participle, and the kametz shortened into pathach on account of the accentuation, the two words having in fact but one accent. It is better, however, with Ewald (Lehrbuch, 157 b) and Delitzsch to regard it as an adjective, like the form , with the same change in the kametz, kindred to , Neh. 3:34. Barnes: Here applied to a sick person whose strength is withered and gone. The condition of such an one is beautifully compared with a plant that withers for lack of moisture; and the word is here used in this sense as referring to the Psalmist himself when sick, as the result of his outward and mental sorrows.C. A. B.]

Bones.Hupfeld shows that this in poetical usage denotes, not only the frame of the body or the entire body, in all that concerns the feelings of life, but also the entire man as a sensitive being, and indeed also in spiritual or ethical and religious relations and expressions of life, comp. Psa 35:10; Psa 51:8. Yet there is here a reference to a shaking of the body, because the still more violent commotion of the soul is directly mentioned (Psa 6:3). Therefore also the soul (Psa 6:3) is not a circumlocution for the person, or substratum of the suffering subject (Hupf.); so also not a designation of the life which is endangered (J. H. Michael., Hengst.); but that real soul, which after death continues its existence with departed spirits in Hades, but yet has no complete life in itself. [Wordsworth: The Septuagint has here . words adopted by our Lord Himself in His sufferings (Joh 12:27; Psa 42:3-7).C. A. B.]

Str. II. [Psa 6:4. Return.Perowne: For 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 loving-kindness sake. Any man may use the first; only one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious can use the last.C. A. B.]

Psa 6:5. For in death there is no remembrance of Thee.The petition has as its motive the fact that the Divine interest itself is concerned in the deliverance of the man who can render thanks well-pleasing to God, only as living and not as one lost in death and swallowed up in Hades. Yet this is only one side of the thought. The other side (which is frequently overlooked) is likewise brought into view, namely, that the petitioner has at heart, to render thanks and praise to the glory of God. The relation is therefore in no respect a selfish one, in which the interests of selfishness prevail, but a moral and religious one. The etymology of Sheol [incorrectly rendered in A. V. grave.C. A. B.] is doubtful, but not the idea which the Old Testament has of it as the gathering-place of departed spirits in a gloomy and Sorrowful place under the earth, from which there is no possible escape by human help, and in which the departed lead a shadowy existence rather than a real and complete life. Christ has not only made a change in the ideas concerning the condition of the dead, but has also partly brought about and partly made possible a change in the condition itself.2

Psa 6:6. I make of my bed a flood of tears [I water my couch with my tears, A. V.].Camphausen literally: I make my bed to flow away. We are not to substitute countenance for eye (most interpreters since Vatabl ). The life of the soul as well as the body is mirrored in the eye; therefore in descriptions of bodily and spiritual condition and qualities it is often mentioned as the representative of the countenance and the entire man (Hupf.).

Psa 6:7. Hupfeld justifies the signification grief against Hengstenberg as a poetical generalization of the word which certainly in Hebrew means primarily indignation and ill-will, particularly with respect to anothers folly and unfaithfulness. [Alexander: Mine eye has failed, grown dim, a common symptom both of mental and bodily distress; from vexation, not mere grief, but grief mixed with indignation at my enemies. Barnes: It waxeth old, experiences the effects commonly produced by age in blunting the power of vision. This is not an uncommon effect of grief and sadness.C. A. B.]

Str. III. [Psa 6:8. Alexander: Here the key abruptly changes from the tone of sorrowful complaint to that of joyful confidence. No gradual transition could have so successfully conveyed the idea, that the prayer of the Psalmist has been heard and will be answered. The effect, is like that of a whisper in the sufferers ear, while still engrossed with his distresses, to assure him that they are about to terminate. This he announces by a direct and bold address to his persecuting enemies. Perowne: Mark the sudden change as of sunrise upon night. Already the prayer and the weeping have been heard. Already faith has triumphed.C. A. B.]

Psa 6:10. They will be ashamed.The imperfects are not to be taken as optatives [Let all mine enemies be ashamed, etc., A. V.], but as futures, for the hearing of his prayer is so certain to the Psalmist that he has already, on this account, called out to those who afflict him in a tone of triumph: depart from me (Psa 6:8).

[A. V., return] means not penitential turning back of his enemies to the Psalmist (Aben Ezra, Kimchi), is moreover not an auxiliary to express the adverb, again, anew (Venema, Paul), but it means the external side of the failure of their attack, as [A. V., be ashamed], the internal. Delitzsch calls our attention to the musical cadence.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Sin draws after it punishment, and the judgment of an angry God is terrible; but only the impenitent sinner is lost, not the penitent. It is true, in bitter, heartfelt grief over his sins, he experiences a sorrow, which not only grieves the soul, but also withers the body; but he feels at the same time that he is mightily drawn towards God by this godly sorrow. He confesses his guilt and the justice of the punishment with which the holy God visits him, and makes known that he is well aware how richly he deserves the disfavor and wrath of God, and how he has forfeited his life with his sins. But he perceives in this very punishment that God is still interested in him, and he himself has still a longing after God. He can still believe in grace, and therefore pray for life; and in this consists the saving change which takes place in his condition. Ne desperando augeamus peccata, propositus est pnitenti portus; rursus, ne sperando augeamus, datus est dies mortis incertus (Augustine)

2. As long as nothing is to be expected after death, but a realm of shades in the world below for the gathering of departed souls, so long fear of death is the prevailing power with the sinner, and his prayer for deliverance is chiefly directed towards the preservation of his life which is threatened. A germ of further development lies in the recognition of the fact that this preservation is a work of grace. But as long as communion with God is not yet recognized and desired as the true good in the life which has been saved by grace, and there is not found at the same time in this deliverance which is longed for, a restoration to this communion which has been destroyed by sin, so long there is lacking the assurance that there is a life higher than the earthly, and that life with, for, and in God is the only true life. But such assurance now forms the fruitful soil for thoughts of eternal life, and for faith in the resurrection of the dead. Yet this does not come into consideration here. However a step in this direction is taken by the expression of the conviction that God can receive the recognition, honor and praise due Him, only from the living, and not from the dead.

3. The relation of man to the world in general, and to other men in particular, very much depends upon the relation in which he stands to God. If a man is regarded as forsaken of God, the number and audacity of his enemies increase, he is regarded as an easy prey, and those who are themselves evil-doers think that they can judge, condemn and crush their opponent on account of his sins. But if God turns His grace upon the penitent, and accepts the contrite again, so that the hand of God is seen in his affairs delivering and blessing him, then people look more to the change of his condition than the reason for it, and but seldom does it accomplish their conversion; but they feel ashamed and retire. Quanto benignius de Deo, tanto indignius de me sentire cogor (Anselm).Egrediente natura ingreditur Deus (Tauler).

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The severest afflictions are turned into blessings, if they (1) remind us of our guilt by which we have drawn upon us the wrath of God; (2) if they urge us to the godly sorrow of repentance; (3) if they stir us up to believing supplication for the grace of God.It is better to fall into the hands of God than of men, for God punishes earnestly in His righteous wrath; but He likewise is gracious towards those who turn to Him in repentance.The most bitter part of affliction is the sense of Divine wrath; but this bitterness is a healing remedy, if it excites us to seek with penitence and lay hold of the grace of God by faith.We learn to overcome even the peril of death, if we attain to the point of seeking life with God and gaining the preservation of life from God.Prayer and tears are the strongest weapons man can have; by them God allows Himself to be overcome.The most fortunate turns in life take place (1) when we turn to God as converts; (2) when God turns again His grace upon us; (3) when our enemies turn away ashamed.

Luther: To realize sin aright is torment above all other torments.To wait, is in all the movements of the heart very hard and irksome.Starke: God lays hold of the ungodly with the punishment of His wrath, but the pious with the chastisement of discipline, in order that those who bring forth fruit, may bring forth more fruit.No one can be strengthened by God, or rightly experience the grace of God, without first experiencing his own weakness (2Co 12:9).We do not deserve any grace by the toil and anguish of our penitence for sin; yet we can present it before God, because He has promised in such disposition of the bruised heart for Christs sake to bestow His grace.How long? how long? are the usual words of lamentation of cross-bearers in general, but especially of those who are inexperienced, which God is ready to receive favorably, if only they are not without faith and tranquillity.When God turns away with His grace from man, it is the souls greatest sorrow; when God turns again to man with His grace, that is the redemption and hope of the soul.The children of the world desire a long life for the sake of carnal gratification: but the children of God in order to glorify the Divine name; and thus a Christian may ask for a prolongation of his life.Christians should not be ashamed of tears; in those who are truly penitent they are the witnesses of a painful sorrow for sin.It is not for the laughing mouth to be truly penitent; it demands the inner repentance of the heart, body, and soul, and all the powers.O great folly to make so much of the external beautiful form of the body, and make a show of it! how soon may it be destroyed by sickness of body or of spirit.What sad consequences sin has when conscience awakes!Truly he must be a loving Father who hears the supplication, weeping, and prayers of His children, even when He seems to be angry and punishes them on account of their sins.Let no one delay to repent and be converted; for Gods punishments descend suddenly.August.: Woe to human life, be it never so estimable and precious, if the mercy of God is not there.Osiander: We need the chastisement of God; but we should pray that this may not be too hard for us to bear (1Co 10:13).Thus it happens, that as good days swiftly pass, one day spent in trouble and anguish appears to be a year long. Trouble and internal vexation consume all the powers of body and spirit; but God can give us new powers again.Bugenhagen: Only he who implores the mercy of God can escape the wrath of God.Selnekker: When thou art frightened on account of thy sins, and know not how to get rid of them, flee to God, and confess thy sins to Him; uncover them to Him, in order that He may cover them.Eccard: It is very dangerous for a man, when it comes to this, that God punishes him in His wrath, and scourges him in His fury.Oh and woe are among all men the best teachers and tuners of prayer.We should flee from the angry God to the reconciled God, and we should appeal from His strong righteousness to His paternal goodness and mercy.Three heart breakers most violently assail us: (1) When God lays hold of that part of us which gives the most pain; (2) when many needs and sorrows come together; (3) when they last long, and as it seems to us, without end.Baumgarten: As Gods grace is better than life, so is His wrath worse than death itself.Renschel: God has two modes of punishment: (1) The punishment of wrath; (2) that of discipline.We may very properly pray for the prolongation of temporal life, chiefly for this purpose, that we may declare the praise, honor, and name of God.Frisch: God sees not so much the weeping eye as the broken heart.Herberger: On the sick bed there is no work more sacred than con fession and repentance.When misfortune hurts the body, the soul has its consolation; when it hurts the soul it only lasts a little while to the pious.Not to be in favor with God is the greatest pain.Thinking and thanking belong together.The best and the most profitable sorrow in the world is for the sins we have committed.The prayers of the pious do not vanish in the air, but press through the clouds of heaven.Rieger: Where a man has not attained the experience of his nothingness and weakness, and that all carnal ability, strength, and wisdom, go to ruin in him, he cannot share in the grace of God.The sighing of the soul includes the whole of repentance, painful regret, faith, desire of Divine grace, hunger and thirst after righteousness.Tholuck: To the man of God the bitterest drop in the cup of trouble is the sense of the wrath of God, which he experiences in the chastisements of GodGuenther: It very naturally happens that when we will not humble ourselves under the strong hand of God, the first affliction is only the weak beginning of a chain of afflictions, in which we will at last be choked unto eternal death.

[Matth. Henry: Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them; but those are getting ready for mercy who, under Gods rebukes, sow in tears.David, that could face Goliath himself, and many another threatening enemy, with an undaunted bravery, yet melts into tears at the remembrance of sin, and under the apprehension of Divine wrath; and it is no diminution at all to his character.Spurgeon: This is the right way to plead with God if we would prevail. Urge not your goodness or your greatness, but plead your sin and your bitterness. Cry, I am weak, therefore, O Lord, give me strength, and crush me not.Send not forth the fury of Thy tempest against so weak a vessel. Temper the wind to the shorn lamb. Be tender and pitiful to a poor withering flower, and break it not from its stem.When we seek pardon, we are not asking God to do that which will stain His banner, or put a blot on His escutcheon. He delighteth in mercy. It is His peculiar, darling attribute.Repentance is a practical thing. It is not enough to bemoan the desecration of the temple of the heart, we must scourge out the buyers and sellers, and overturn the tables of the money changers. A pardoned sinner will hate the sins which cost the Saviour His blood. Grace and sin are quarrelsome neighbors, and one or the other must go to the wall. Weeping is the eloquence of sorrow. It is an unstammering orator, needing no interpreter, but understood of all. Is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail? Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear its way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way.C. A. B.]

Footnotes:

[1][It is said the most intense grief and trouble could not extract from him another word.C. A. B.]

[2][. Gesenius, Ewald, Bttch., Maurer, e al., regard it as from the r*ot = = to dig, hollow out, like = hollow of the hand. = hollow way, thus meaning a hollow, subterranean place. Germ., Hlle = Hhle = hollow, cavern; Eng., hell. Hupfeld derives it from , an old root similar to , , ,, the radical letter being , with the idea of loose, lax, hanging down, in a double direction, expressing the idea of sinking down and separation (as . hio , etc.), hence the derivative idea of being swallowed up, abyss, depth (as in the poetical ), and also that of chasm. hollow empty space, as in Germ. Hlle and in , (also used for hell). So also Delitzsch. The former derivation is preferable. Delitzsch: The Psalmist knows only one gathering-place for the dead in the depths of the earth, where they indeed live, but only a quasi life, because they have departed from the light of this world, and what is more lamentable, from the light of the Divine presence. The Hebrew Sheol and the Greek Hades were alike. As the grave was the place of the dead body, Sheol or Hades was the place of departed spirits. This was taken for granted in the Old Testament, together with the doctrine of immortality, and there is a remarkable absence of revelation concerning it. The joy of Gods people was in the theocracy as existing in this world, and in the Messianic future, and it was not until the Messiah came, and died, and passed through the grave to a resurrection, that light shone upon the abode of the departed spirits, and even here a light only so far as that the light of a glorious resurrection shines through the riven grave and Hades (2Ti 1:10). Perowne: The argument here employed is no doubt characteristic of the old dispensation. They who then feared and loved God, nevertheless walked in shadows, and their hope was not yet full of immortality. Hence their earnest clinging to life, so different from St. Pauls desire to depart, to which there is nothing parallel in the Old Testament. It was not that they dreaded annihilation, but rather a kind of disembodied existence apart from the light of Gods presence.The Old Testament saints pleaded with God for life, in order that life might be consecrated to His service. And it is very touching to see how, with the weakness of mans heart, trembling at dissolution, there mingles the child-like confidence which fears not to advance the plea that Gods glory is concerned in granting its request. Compare Hezekiahs sickness, Isa 38:18-19, also Moses prayer for the life of the people, Num 14:13-21.C. A. B.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Psalmist is here under affliction. He crieth to God. In the conclusion, he takes comfort in the consciousness that his prayer had been heard, and he shall triumph over all his enemies.

To the chief musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

We may, without the smallest injury to the grand point this Psalm hath in view, I mean, its pointed reference to Christ, look at David as speaking also of his own personal afflictions. David had a large portion of sorrow in himself, in his family and kingdom. But the beauty of the Psalm is as it beholds Christ in his strong crying and tears, when taking upon him our nature, and becoming sin for the church, that the church might be made the righteousness of God in him. If we eye the Redeemer as the sinner’s surety, we shall then enter into a right apprehension of what he saith under the divine chastisement for sin. All the cries of Jesus are expressive of this. Hence it is said by him to the Father, reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. Psa 69:20 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 6

This Psalm might have a history to itself. It has a wail of pain and sorrow, deepening into anguish, running through it; but comfort dawns at the close, like an angel turning the key of the prison. It is the first of the seven Penitential Psalms, the others being the 32nd, 38th, 51st, 102nd, 130th, 143rd. One of the strangest things, though not the happiest, in its records is, that, along with Psalm CXLII., it was the choice of Catherine de Medici, the Jezebel and Athaliah of the French monarchy. She was irreligious and superstitious, profligate and devoured by ambition; and the fact that she had no children seemed likely to deprive her of the control which she hoped to gain in the counsels of the kingdom. The Psalm was the expression of mere worldly disappointment. She became at last the mother of Francis II. (the first husband of Mary Stuart) and of Charles IX., whose character she corrupted by ministering to his vices, and whom she urged to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. ‘Her desire was realized,’ says a French historian, ‘for the misery of France; and that family, which then took pleasure in the Psalms, put to death thousands of the Reformed for singing them.’

It has a more pleasing association with another princess, allied to the French royal family. Elizabeth Charlotte was niece of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and granddaughter of Elizabeth Stuart, after whom she was named. She had remarkable abilities, and was carefully educated by her aunt Sophia, under the eye of the great Leibnitz. Her father, the Elector Palatine, constrained her to a marriage with the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., in the hope that the union might save his principality from the aggression of the French king. But it helped Louis to fresh claims; and, when her beautiful native land, beside the Rhine and Neckar, was wasted by the French armies, its towns laid in ashes, the Castle of Heidelberg, the home of her childhood, undermined and shattered, and the people she loved driven out in winter to die houseless and famishing, she could not sleep for the visions of havoc, and for the thought that she had been cruelly sacrificed to a vain policy. Her letters are deeply interesting for the light they throw on the time, and on the Court of France. Her heart went back to her early Protestant faith, and to the old Castle of Osnabruck, where she had spent her happiest days with her aunt. In a letter to her she relates an incident connected with this Psalm. She was walking one day in the orangery at Versailles, and was singing it in the translation of Clement Marot, as an expression of her feelings. A noted artist of the time, warmly attached in heart to the Reformed religion, was engaged in painting the roof, and heard her. ‘Scarcely,’ she writes, ‘had I finished the first verse, when I saw M. Rousseau hasten down the ladder and fall at my feet. I thought he was mad, and said, “Rousseau, Rousseau, what is the matter?” He replied, “Is it possible, madam, that you still recollect our psalms and sing them? May God bless you, and keep you in this good mind.” He had tears in his eyes.’ Another woman, of our own time, with trials in a different position, and yet like in kind to those of Elizabeth Charlotte, has put her heart into some of the words. The wife of Thomas Carlyle inserts verses 2-4 in her Journal, 1855, when in sore trouble of body and mind, amid weakness and weariness, sleepless nights, and wounded feelings. ‘Oh, dear! I wish this Grange business were well over. It occupies me (the mere preparation for it) to the exclusion of all quiet thought and placid occupation. To have to care for my dress, this time of day, more than I ever did when young and pretty and happy (God bless me, to think I was once all that!), on penalty of being regarded as a blot on the Grange gold and azure, is really too bad. Ach Gott! if we had been left in the sphere of life we belong to, how much better it would have been for us in many ways! Ah, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak as water. Today I walked with effort one little mile, and thought it a great feat. Sleep has come to look to me the highest virtue and the greatest happiness; that is, good sleep, untroubled, beautiful, like a child’s. Ah me! “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, how long?”‘

This same verse 3 was the common expression of Calvin when he was in trouble, ‘ Tu Domine usque quo ?’ ‘Thou, O Lord, how long?’ and parts of the Psalm, with the last verse of Psalm LXX., were among the dying words of Robert Rollock, the first Principal of the University of Edinburgh, a man remarkable for power of administration and deep piety.

John Ker.

References. VI. 10. Bishop Alexander, The Great Questions, p. 106. VII. 8. H. Bushnell, Christ and Hit Salvation, p. 167. VIII. 2. A. P. Manley, Sermons for Children, p. 44.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Psa 6

[Note. The end of this psalm is like the beginning. The psalm is like a voice from a bed of sickness, in which the sufferer is expecting a fatal termination to his disease. At verse eight the tone changes. No longer does the sufferer talk of sickness, but of enemies and workers of iniquity and human foes. May not the sufferings described be sufferings of the soul, rather than of the body? In Hebrew literature this would be quite permissible: pictures of physical pain and disease are often used to express moral evil. The Church has regarded this as the first of the penitential psalms. Probably the psalm was composed in the exile period. According to some critics the psalm harmonises with the transactions preceding the revolt of Absalom. If the sickness was bodily it was regarded by the Psalmist as part of the chastisement due to the great crime which brought disgrace and misery upon his later years. The three divisions of the psalm are Psa 6:1-3 , Psa 6:4-7 , Psa 6:8-10 .]

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 weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

3. My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?

4. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.

5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

6. I am weary with my groaning: all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

7. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

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 suplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.

10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Sorrow and Succour

The whole of this psalm has about it the air of a sick man: the Psalmist says that his bones are vexed, that he lies awake all night, and that his eye is consumed because of grief; he speaks, too, of death and of the grave. During his sickness David was unable to discharge the duties of the kingly office; this gave Absalom considerable advantage in exciting a revolt; so we have before the fancy a double picture of distress David shut up in his sick chamber, and Absalom doing his utmost to set the kingdom against his father. Perhaps we have been in the habit of thinking that the Psalms were written at the window of a beautiful library, flowers glowing luxuriantly on sunny walls, and the green lawn stretching far away, brightened here and there by birds of rare plumage; we have looked upon them, it may be, as the pious recreations of a morning hour entries in a spiritual diary relating only to the sentimental, and never to the practical side of life. The exact contrary is the case. Some of these psalms are battles. Many of them came out of heartache and bitterness and mortal disappointment. They are pages of autobiography. They are channels worn by the urgent streams of life. We must never think of them as mere literary recreations, or as the effusions of a music composer; they are pangs of the heart, they are letters addressed to God, they are the sanctification of misery and helplessness and despair. If it is worth while to explore the head of a river, it is of infinitely greater consequence to find out the spring and source of the streams which make glad the city of God.

We may get the meaning and help of the psalm by asking, How did David conduct himself in the time of sickness and of trouble? First of all, he made his sorrow a question between himself and God. An old divine has said, as the woman in story appealed from pillar to pillar, so does David fly from God’s anger to God’s grace. David did not regard it in its earthward aspect; there was something in his trouble more than mere bodily pain, and something more than mere political disaffection. Let us set it down as a stern fact that there is a moral secret under the whole figure and movement of human life. Wherever we find disorder we find sin. This doctrine puts an end to much of the false complaining to which we are accustomed in Church life and experience. Men profess to be seeking for causes and explanations which lie quite remote from the real origin of the distress. We should never forget that all pain, suffering, and misery flow from one fountain whose unchangeable name is Sin. “Sin brought death into our world.”

Secondly, proceeding from this point, David proceeds to make things right between himself and God. He feels that it is of no use to trump up a peace with Absalom. It is a waste of time to be arranging things that are secondary until things that are primary are established upon a footing righteous and secure. David seems to have said to himself: “My son Absalom has set himself against me; I might excite public pity on the ground of filial ingratitude; but is there not a cause in myself? Have I not done wrong, and become infamous in wickedness before the Lord? Is not God employing Absalom as a scourge to punish me for my own grievous rebellion against himself?” Such questions bring the soul into a right temper, and deliver it from the fretfulness of narrow views. It is waste of labour to decorate the walls when the foundations are giving way. In all trouble go first in self-reproach to God and get at the cause of things. “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” The whole philosophy of human sorrow lies in this one determination. We exalt God in sovereignty above all great providences, and we have no hesitation in describing him as directing all operations to a common issue: but even in this broad acknowledgment of God’s supremity we may not sufficiently fix the mind upon the fact that every detail of life is under the superintendence of God’s wisdom, and that not a sorrow afflicts the soul which he does not either directly inflict or lovingly permit. God is not the God of the fair day only, the great broad shining day; he is the God of the night; at his command the stars glitter and the planets serenely burn.

In the third place, David feels that if the Lord’s hand be removed he can bear all other troubles. Sin is the disease; discomforts, revolts, losses are the mere symptoms: remove the disease, and the symptoms will disappear. The pain of trouble is in the feeling that it is deserved; could we be perfectly sure of our innocence, the suffering would have no effect upon us, except rather to encourage and stimulate us, and certainly chasten us into a truer refinement of temper. Innocent men can be calm in the midst of persecution and pain and loss. Innocence is as a comforting angel sent from heaven to sustain the heart. It is when the soul knows that every pain that shoots through the life is a pain that is deserved that the whole being quivers with agony and all strength fails from the spirit. This is our true condition before God, and we must acknowledge it to be so if we are faithful to ourselves. So long as there lingers in the mind the superstition that suffering is not deserved but is arbitrarily imposed, and expresses the domination of a supreme power rather than the beneficence of a stern law, we shall be without consolation or strength or hope in all the discipline of life. Take away the righteousness of the suffering, and then suffering is as an open door into our life through which the angels come. The innocent man is never in solitude, unless it be for one agonising moment to be succeeded by all the glory and peace of heaven.

David approaches God in utter self-renunciation; there is no word of self-defence as before God. This is needful in all prayer that is meant to prevail. This state of mind does away with the whole machinery of argument, witnesses, criticism, and cross-examination. It resolves the question into one of mercy. David prays the more earnestly, because his afflictions have brought him within sight of the grave and the world unseen. Who would enter the valley without a sense of forgiveness? Who would? We must enter that dark valley, we enter it either forgiven or unpardoned.

Now the light returns. David knows that his prayer is answered. The next work is easy. It is merely a question of time. Be right with God, and your foes cannot touch you.

“Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping” ( Psa 6:8 ).

A very full verse is this. It shows that David is not only not content with prayer being answered; he must dissociate himself from all wicked men and wicked concerns. If David looked upon the wicked in this instance as his pursuers and his enemies, he was right to bid them begone; but there is another sense in which the workers of iniquity may follow us, namely, in the sense of temptation and seduction and forced companionship: we shall know that the Lord hath heard the voice of our weeping when we are able to bid such men depart from us, because they can find nothing in our hearts that responds to their evil purposes. Thus prayer makes men morally strong. They can say things after prayer which they could not have said before prayer; or if they did say them the words would be wanting in pith and force; we need to have our tongues made strong by the exercise of prayer before it can effectively speak to the workers of iniquity and bid them flee away from our path. A wonderful alternation of weakness and energy is found throughout this psalm. David is so weak that one angry word would have destroyed him; so he deprecates the anger and the displeasure of the Most High: he is so weak that only mercy must breathe upon him or touch him or venture to speak to him: every bone in his body is withering, and his soul is in extreme dismay. By reason of incessant groaning he has become weary, and his strength has been dissolved in tears, and as for his eye, it is consumed because of grief, and it has waxed old as if by the multiplication of years. Now he has been in prayer he rises from his knees like a giant refreshed; his weariness has been accepted as a petition, and his weeping has been regarded as a plea for renewal of strength; mark how he rises from his knees and makes the workers of iniquity flee before him. That is the true Amen with which God follows all earnest prayer. If we still dally with the foe, and compromise with our enemies, and speak in hesitating tones to those who would do us injury, we may know of a certainty that how eloquent soever our prayer may have been in words, it has been unheard in heaven or rejected with divine contempt.

Prayer

Almighty God, do thou take account of our sorrow, and consider our trouble when we are in great and sore distress. Thou knowest that there are nights in which no star can be seen, there are seas which are all storm, tempests without measure, not to be passed but with infinite danger. But thou reignest; thy throne is in the heavens which are high; yet are thine eyes upon the earth, upon the meanest of its creatures and the most trivial of its concerns. The Lord’s hand is stretched out towards all his children; they have a place in his heart secure, inviolable, eternal. This is their joy, their hymn in the nighttime, their psalm in the morning, their victory all the day. Draw nigh unto us, Holy One; keep us as in the hollow of thy hand; let our walls be continually before thee; may our name be unto thee as a pleasant memorial, and all our concerns interest thy wisdom and thy love. We will fear no evil; yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, our heart shall be stout in God, for thy rod and thy staff they comfort us, and in the valley is an infinite light Blessed one, Christ of God, Son of God, walk with us in the valley, climb the hill with us, shield us when the air is full of darts aimed at our life, and comfort us with exceeding comfort when consolation is the only medicine we require. We bless thee for all heroic souls, for all patient spirits, for all men who have done the will of God, and for those other and equally noble men who have suffered it without murmur, complaint, or reproach against heaven. Order our life during the few remaining days it has yet to run; may they be days of industry, days of consecration to heavenly labour, and therefore days like Sabbaths, full of restfulness and expectation and joy, not to be spoken in the words of man. Wash us, and we shall be clean; give us the sprinkling of blood which means pardon, acceptance, adoption; give us the indwelling Spirit of God, that, walking under his counsel, comforted by his solaces, directed by his wisdom, our lives may be spent in all holiness, patience, and good-doing. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XVI

THE MESSIANIC PSALMS AND OTHERS

We commence this chapter by giving a classified list of the Messianic Psalms, as follows:

The Royal Psalms are:

Psa 110 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 72 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 89 ;

The Passion Psalms are:

Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 ;

The Psalms of the Ideal Man are Psa 8 ; Psa 16 ; Psa 40 ;

The Missionary Psalms are:

Psa 47 ; Psa 65 ; Psa 68 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 100 ; Psa 117 .

The predictions before David of the coming Messiah are, (1) the seed of the woman; (2) the seed of Abraham; (3) the seed of Judah; (4) the seed of David.

The prophecies of history concerning the Messiah are, (1) a prophet like unto Moses; (2) a priest after the order of Melchizedek; (3) a sacrifice which embraces all the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament; (4) direct references to him as King, as in 2Sa 7:8 ff.

The messianic offices as taught in the psalms are four, viz: (1) The Messiah is presented as Prophet, or Teacher (Psa 40:8 ); (2) as Sacrifice, or an Offering for sin (Psa 40:6 ff.; Heb 10:5 ff.) ; (3) he is presented as Priest (Psa 110:4 ); (4) he is presented as King (Psa 45 ).

The psalms most clearly presenting the Messiah in his various phases and functions are as follows: (1) as the ideal man, or Second Adam (8); (2) as Prophet (Psa 40 ); (3) as Sacrifice (Psa 22 ) ; (4) as King (Psa 45 ) ; (5) as Priest (Psa 110 ) ; (6) in his universal reign (Psa 72 ).

It will be noted that other psalms teach these facts also, but these most clearly set forth the offices as they relate to the Messiah.

The Messiah as a sacrifice is presented in general in Psa 40:6 . His sufferings as such are given in a specific and general way in Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 . The events of his sufferings in particular are described, beginning with the betrayal of Judas, as follows:

1. Judas betrayed him (Mat 26:14 ) in fulfilment of Psa 41:9 .

2. At the Supper (Mat 26:24 ) Christ said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him,” referring to Psa 22 .

3. They sang after the Supper in fulfilment of Psa 22:22 .

4. Piercing his hands and feet, Psa 22:16 .

5. They cast lots for his vesture in fulfilment of Psa 22:18 .

6. Just before the ninth hour the chief priests reviled him (Mat 27:43 ) in fulfilment of Psa 22:8 .

7. At the ninth hour (Mat 27:46 ) he quoted Psa 22:1 .

8. Near his death (Joh 19:28 ) he said, in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 , “I thirst.”

9. At that time they gave him vinegar (Mat 27:48 ) in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 .

10. When he was found dead they did not break his bones (Joh 19:36 ) in fulfilment of Psa 34:20 .

11. He is represented as dead, buried, and raised in Psa 16:10 .

12. His suffering as a substitute is described in Psa 69:9 .

13. The result of his crucifixion to them who crucified him is given in Psa 69:22-23 . Compare Rom 11:9-10 .

The Penitential Psalms are Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 . The occasion of Psa 6 was the grief and penitence of David over Absalom; of Psa 32 was the blessedness of forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah; Psa 38 , David’s reference to his sin with Bathsheba; Psa 51 , David’s penitence and prayer for forgiveness for this sin; Psa 102 , the penitence of the children of Israel on the eve of their return from captivity; Psalm 130, a general penitential psalm; Psa 143 , David’s penitence and prayer when pursued by Absalom.

The Pilgrim Psalms are Psalms 120-134. This section of the psalter is called the “Little Psalter.” These Psalms were collected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in troublous times. The author of the central psalm of this collection is Solomon, and he wrote it when he built his Temple. The Davidic Psalms in this collection are Psa 120 ; Psa 122 ; Psa 124 ; Psa 131 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 133 . The others were written during the building of the second Temple. They are called in the Septuagint “Songs of the Steps.”

There are four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents,” viz:

1. The first theory is that the “Songs of the Steps” means the songs of the fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of Israel, there being a song for each step.

2. The second theory is that advanced by Luther, which says that they were songs of a higher choir, elevated above, or in an elevated voice.

3. The third theory is that the thought in these psalms advances by degrees.

4. The fourth theory is that they are Pilgrim Psalms, or the songs that they sang while going up to the great feasts.

Certain scriptures give the true idea of these titles, viz: Exo 23:14-17 ; Exo 34:23-24 ; 1Sa 1:3 ; 1Ki 12:27-28 : Psa 122:1-4 ; and the proof of their singing as they went is found in Psa_42:4; 100; and Isa 30:29 . They went, singing these psalms, to the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Psa 121 was sung when just in sight of Jerusalem and Psa 122 was sung at the gate. Psa 128 is the description of a good man’s home and a parallel to this psalm in modern literature is Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The pious home makes the nation great.

Psa 133 is a psalm of fellowship. It is one of the finest expressions of the blessings that issue when God’s people dwell together in unity. The reference here is to the anointing of Aaron as high priest and the fragrance of the anointing oil which was used in these anointings. The dew of Hermon represents the blessing of God upon his people when they dwell together in such unity.

Now let us look at the Alphabetical Psalms. An alphabetical psalm is one in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used alphabetically to commence each division. In Psalms 111-112, each clause so begins; in Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 145 ; each verse so begins; in Psa 37 each stanza of two verses so begins; in 119 each stanza of eight verses so begins, and each of the eight lines begins with the same letter. In Psa 25 ; 34 37 the order is not so strict; in Psa 9 and Psa 10 there are some traces of this alphabetical order.

David originated these alphabetical psalms and the most complete specimen is Psa 119 , which is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 .

A certain group of psalms is called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are so called because the word “Hallelujah” is used at the beginning, or at the ending, and sometimes at both the beginning and the ending. The Hallelujah Psalms are Psalm 111-113; 115-117; 146-150. Psa 117 is a doxology; and Psalms 146-150 were used as anthems. Psa 148 calls on all creation to praise God. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn based on this psalm in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister. Psa 150 calls for all varieties of instruments. Psalms 113-118 are called the Egyptian Hallel. They were used at the Passover (Psalm 113-114), before the Supper and Psalm 115-118 were sung after the Supper. According to this, Jesus and his disciples sang Psalms 115-118 at the last Passover Supper. These psalms were sung also at the Feasts of Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, and New Moon.

The name of God is delayed long in Psa 114 . Addison said, “That the surprise might be complete.” Then there are some special characteristics of Psa 115 , viz: (1) It was written against idols. Cf. Isa 44:9-20 ; (2) It is antiphonal, the congregation singing Psa 115:1-8 , the choir Psa 115:9-12 , the priests Psa 115:13-15 and the congregation again Psa 115:16-18 . The theme of Psa 116 is love, based on gratitude for a great deliverance, expressed in service. It is appropriate to read at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Psa 116:15 is especially appropriate for funeral services.

On some special historical occasions certain psalms were sung. Psa 46 was sung by the army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, on September 17, 1631.Psa 68 was sung by Cromwell’s army on the occasion of the battle of Dunbar in Scotland.

Certain passages in the Psalms show that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices. For instance, Psa 118:27 ; Psa 141:2 seem to teach very clearly that they approved the Mosaic sacrifice. But other passages show that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important and foresaw the abolition of the animal sacrifices. Such passages are Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 4:5 ; Psa 27:6 ; Psa 40:6 ; Psa 51:16-17 . These scriptures show conclusively that the writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the Royal Psalms?

2. What are the Passion Psalms?

3. What are the Psalms of the Ideal Man?

4. What are the Missionary Psalms?

5. What are the predictions before David of the coming Messiah?

6. What are the prophecies of history concerning the Messiah?

7. Give a regular order of thought concerning the messianic offices as taught in the psalms.

8. Which psalms most clearly present the Messiah as (1) the ideal man, or Second Adam, (2) which as Prophet, or Teacher, (3) which as the Sacrifice, (4) which as King, (5) which as Priest, (6) which his universal reign?

9. Concerning the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah as a sacrifice, state the words or facts, verified in the New Testament as fulfilment of prophecy in the psalms. Let the order of the citations follow the order of facts in Christ’s life.

10. Name the Penitential Psalms and show their occasion.

11. What are the Pilgrim Psalms?

12. What is this section of the Psalter called?

13. When and under what conditions were these psalms collected?

14. Who is the author of the central psalm of this collection?

15. What Davidic Psalms are in this collection?

16. When were the others written?

17. What are they called in the Septuagint?

18. What four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents”?

19. What scriptures give the true idea of these titles?

20. Give proof of their singing as they went.

21. To what feasts did they go singing these Psalms?

22. What was the special use made of Psa 121 and Psa 122 ?

23. Which of these psalms is the description of a good man’s home and what parallel in modern literature?

24. Expound Psa 133 .

25. What is an alphabetical psalm, and what are the several kinds?

26. Who originated these Alphabetical Psalms?

27. What are the most complete specimen?

28. Of what is it an expansion?

29. Why is a certain group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms?

30. What are the Hallelujah Psalms?

31. Which of the Hallelujah Psalms was a doxology?

32. Which of these were used as anthems?

33. Which psalm calls on all creation to praise God?

34. Who wrote a hymn based on Psa 148 in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister?

35. Which of these psalms calls for all varieties of instruments?

36. What is the Egyptian Hallel?

37. What is their special use and how were they sung?

38. Then what hymns did Jesus and his disciples sing?

39. At what other feasts was this sung?

40. Why was the name of God delayed so long in Psa 114 ?

41. What are the characteristics of Psa 115 ?

42. What is the theme and special use of Psa 116 ?

43. State some special historical occasions on which certain psalms were sung. Give the psalm for each occasion.

44. Cite passages in the psalms showing that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices.

45. Cite other passages showing that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

PSALMS

XI

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS

According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:

1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.

2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.

3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.

4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.

5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.

6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.

7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.

At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.

The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.

The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.

They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”

The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:

1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.

2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.

3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .

In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.

There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.

The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.

The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.

The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:

Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)

Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)

Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)

Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)

Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)

They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.

There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:

Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.

Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:

1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.

2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.

3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.

4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.

5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.

All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:

In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).

In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).

In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).

In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).

The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .

QUESTIONS

1. What books are commended on the Psalms?

2. What is a psalm?

3. What is the Psalter?

4. What is the range of time in composition?

5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?

6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?

7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?

8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.

9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?

10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?

11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?

12. How many psalms in our collection?

13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?

14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?

15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?

16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?

17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?

18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?

19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?

20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?

21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?

22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?

23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?

24. How many of the psalms have no titles?

25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?

26. How do later Jews supply these titles?

27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?

XII

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)

The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:

1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).

2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).

3. The nature, or character, of the poem:

(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).

(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).

4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).

5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).

6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).

7. The kind of musical instrument:

(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).

(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).

(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).

8. A special choir:

(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).

(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).

(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).

9. The keynote, or tune:

(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).

(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).

(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).

(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).

(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).

(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.

(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.

(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.

10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).

11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)

12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).

The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.

The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.

David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:

1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.

2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.

3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.

4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.

5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:

1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.

2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.

3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.

4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.

5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.

6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.

The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.

Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.

Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:

I. By books

1. Psalms 1-41 (41)

2. Psalms 42-72 (31)

3. Psalms 73-89 (17)

4. Psalms 90-106 (17)

5. Psalms 107-150 (44)

II. According to date and authorship

1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )

2. Psalms of David:

(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).

(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).

(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).

3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).

4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).

5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).

6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )

7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )

8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)

III. By groups

1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.

2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )

3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)

4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )

5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”

IV. Doctrines of the Psalms

1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.

2. The covenant, the basis of worship.

3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.

4. The pardon of sin and justification.

5. The Messiah.

6. The future life, pro and con.

7. The imprecations.

8. Other doctrines.

V. The New Testament use of the Psalms

1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.

2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.

We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:

1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )

2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )

3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )

4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )

5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )

6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )

7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )

8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )

9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )

The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.

There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.

It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.

The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.

Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:

1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.

2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.

3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.

The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.

QUESTIONS

1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.

2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?

3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?

4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?

5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.

6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?

7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?

8. What other authors are named in the titles?

9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?

10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.

11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?

12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.

13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?

14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?

15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?

16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?

17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.

18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?

19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?

20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?

XVII

THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS

A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.

Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.

The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:

1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.

2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.

3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.

In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).

This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.

It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:

1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.

2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.

We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.

1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.

The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.

The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).

But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .

Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).

This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.

2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:

(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).

(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .

(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”

(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).

What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!

3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.

(1) His divinity,

(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;

(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .

(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .

(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .

(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .

(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .

(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.

(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .

4. His offices.

(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).

(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).

(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).

(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).

(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).

5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:

(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .

(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.

(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .

(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).

And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).

And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).

These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .

(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).

(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .

(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).

(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).

(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).

(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).

(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).

The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).

The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).

The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).

His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).

In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).

His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).

Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).

With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).

We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a good text for this chapter?

2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?

3. What is the last division called and why?

4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?

5. To what three things is the purpose limited?

6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?

7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?

8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?

9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?

10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?

11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.

12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?

13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?

14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?

15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.

16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.

17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.

18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Psa 6:1 To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

To the chief Musician on Neginoth ] See Trapp on title “ Psa 4:1 “

Upon Sheminith ] Or, upon the eight, i.e. Intentissimo sono et clarissima voce, to be sung aloud. An eight is the highest note in music. See 1Ch 15:21 . Others say, that hereby is meant the bass and tenor, as fittest for a mourner.

Ver. 1. O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger ] In this and some other psalms David begins so heavily, ends so merrily, that one might think they had been composed by two men of a contrary humour, as Merlin observeth. De l’ Amour Divin. Every new man is two men, Rom 7:9-25 The Shulamite hath in her, as it were, the company of two armies, Son 6:13 . The Lord also chequereth his providence white and black, he speckleth his work (represented by those speckled horses, Zec 1:8 ). Mercies and crosses are interwoven.

Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure ] Chastened David desires to be, as Jer 10:24 1Co 11:32 Heb 12:7-8 ; but in mercy, and in measure, 1Co 10:13 . “Fury is not in me,” saith God, however it may sometimes seem to be, Isa 27:4 . Of furious people the philosopher giveth this character, that they are angry, 1. , against those whom they should not; 2. , for matters they should not; 3. , more than they should be. But none of all these can be affirmed of God. Anger is not in him secundum affectum, but seemeth so to be secundum effectum, when he chideth and smiteth (as angry people use to do) when there is no other remedy, 2Ch 36:13 . His anger is in Scripture put, 1. For his threatenings, Hos 11:9 Joh 3:10 Joh 3:2 . For his punishments, Mat 3:7 Rom 2:8 . But as God therefore threateneth that he may not punish, Amo 6:12 , so in the midst of judgment he remembereth mercy, and it soon repenteth him concerning his people.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

As the three psalms just looked at are a cluster marked by growing confidence, the next two express the heart’s experience in sorrowful trial. Divine anger is deprecated, and mercy appealed to, in the sixth; with the prayer in the seventh which spreads before Jehovah their persecutors’ ways and the remnant’s in view of desired judgment.

Psa 6 is “To the chief musician on stringed instruments upon Sheminith” (or the octave). We must bear in mind that David was a great inventor of musical instruments (Amo 6:5 ), and that they will most appropriately celebrate Jehovah’s praise in the kingdom when it comes for the world (Psa 150 , Rev 11:15 ). Meanwhile we worship in spirit and in truth, as true worshippers of the Father, and are to sing with the spirit and also with the understanding (1Co 14 ). This is “a psalm of David.”

How plainly it is Jewish sentiment, true, holy, and proper for a people “living in the world,” as the apostle reproaches the Colossian saints that they were doing; whereas, as he insists, our relation to God is wholly and blessedly different, having died and being raised with Christ to seek and set our mind on the things above. Thus, though nationally the Jews had deserved Jehovah’s anger and wrath, the remnant know He has heard and will deliver.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 6:1-3

1O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,

Nor chasten me in Your wrath.

2Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away;

Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed.

3And my soul is greatly dismayed;

But You, O Lordhow long?

Psa 6:1 There are two imperatives used as jussives.

1. rebuke BDB 406, KB 410, Hiphil negated, cf. Psa 38:1

2. chasten BDB 415, KB 418, Piel negated

This is a penitential psalm, as are Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, , 143. The Jewish Study Bible (p. 1289) says that this Psalm of supplication has become the liturgical weekday morning prayer of Jewish people.

in Your anger. . .in Your wrath The Psalm does not say why YHWH is angry (see Special Topic: God Described as Human). It may reflect the OT theology of one causation. The psalmist had enemies, YHWH allowed/sent them (cf. Psa 6:3). Life’s circumstances are

1. punishment for sin (cf. Psa 41:4)

2. life in a fallen world (cf. Psa 147:3)

3. ways to strengthen faith (cf. 1Co 10:13; Heb 5:8)

However, one never knows which it is, so repent and have faith!

Psa 6:2-3 Notice how dismayed (BDB 96, KB 111, Niphal perfect) is related to both

1. my bones (BDB 782), Psa 6:2

2. my soul (lit. nephesh, BDB 659, cf. Psa 6:4), Psa 6:3 (see full note at Psa 3:2 and Gen 35:18)

Both of these were ways of referring to a person’s innermost life and thoughts. This writer is in great distress and does not know why!

Psa 6:2 As Psa 6:1 asks YHWH for what not to do, Psa 6:2 asks YHWH to (also note Psa 6:4)

1. be gracious to me BDB 335, KB 334, Qal imperative

2. heal me BDB 950, KB 1272, Qal imperative

The verb heal does not necessarily relate to a physical illness (cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 1166, c, cf. Isa 1:5-6), but to the attack of adversaries (cf. Psa 6:7 b, 10). However, Psa 6:2 leaves open the possibility of an illness. If an illness, why are adversaries mentioned? Some would say the enemies made fun of the psalmist (cf. Psa 102:8) in his illness. The ancient Israelites believed sin and sickness were related. See Special Topic: Healing.

Psa 6:3 how long This is the cry of the human person made in God’s image but trapped in a fallen mind, body, and world (cf. Psa 13:1; Psa 74:10; Psa 90:13)! As believers we trust in God, not circumstances, but still we cry outwhy? When will it be over?

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Psa 6:1-10

The sixth psalm is to the chief musician on this stringed instrument and upon the Sheminith. Now the Sheminith is a word that means the eighth, and so it was to be played in octaves. So on a stringed instrument played in octaves. So David, no doubt, made these notations on the psalms as he wrote them, and wrote it as a hymnal for the people.

O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure ( Psa 6:1 ).

Now here is where David is, I am certain, carrying over a human characteristic to God. For we as parents are often guilty of rebuking our children in anger and chastening them in hot displeasure. That is a human characteristic, and it is a failing many times on the part of us as parents. We are angry, and we sometimes over discipline because of our anger.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul also is sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long? Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? ( Psa 6:2-5 )

Now this is David crying out of a soul that is vexed. According to the words of Jesus, these words of David are not correct. He is expressing, as did Job, his own ideas, his own thoughts of death.

For Jesus tells us that when the rich man in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torment and seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus being comforted in Abraham’s bosom, said unto him, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to me that he may take his finger and dip in water and touch my tongue, for I am tormented in this heat.” And Abraham said unto him, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime had good things and Lazarus evil. Now he is comforted while you are tormented. Besides this, there is a gulf that is between us, and it is impossible for you to come over here or those that are here to go over there.” “Then I pray thee, if he cannot come to me, send him back that he might warn my brothers lest they also come to this horrible place.”

There is a consciousness, there is awareness, there is a memory. It isn’t an oblivion as some people would like to think. That is from the word of Jesus, and I would say that He probably knows more about it than anybody else. And I’ll take His opinion and His word for it above anybody else. I think that is prime when you can get the word of Christ on an issue. Especially issue of death and after death and what lies beyond the grave. Man may speculate, but Jesus speaks.

I am weary with my groaning; all night ( Psa 6:6 )

Of course, I would have to say that David is exaggerating. He said,

I make my bed to swim [with my tears] ( Psa 6:6 );

That is a lot of crying, David.

I water my couch with my tears ( Psa 6:6 ).

So this is what is known as speaking in a hyperbole. It’s writer’s license. David is just talking about… and David must have been a melancholy, I guess. He speaks a lot about crying. “I am weary with my groaning.”

My eye is consumed because of grief; it waxes old because of all of my enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly ( Psa 6:7-10 ).

So David’s prayer unto the Lord, out of a spirit that is vexed, that is downcast. But it is interesting how the psalms always seem to end on a high note. “The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer.” “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Here the psalmist asks for a visit from God, for he is sick at heart, heavy and depressed. Be very thankful if that is not your case; but if it is, be very grateful that here is a prayer ready-made for you. Here you are taught how to cry to God, and what to expect from him. If you are very sick and sad, you are not worse off than David was. Send for Davids Physician; you cannot have a better doctor than the royal Physician. He who waited on King David is prepared to wait on you.

Psa 6:1. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger,

Rebuke me; it will do me good; I need it; but not in anger. Be gentle and tender with me: Rebuke me not in thine anger.

Psa 6:1. Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Chasten me; it may be that the rod will be very curative to me; but let not the chastening be given in thy hot displeasure. Be not very angry with thy poor sinful servant. If thou dost not turn away thy rod, yet turn away thy wrath. It is a sweet prayer. Some people cry to God about their sickness; it is much better to cry to God about the cause of it; that is to say, if it be a chastisement for sin, get rid of the sin, and the rod will then be removed.

Psa 6:2. Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak. This was a sweet reason for David to urge: For I am weak. He could not say, For I am worthy. He would not have dared to say that. He could not say that when he said, Have mercy, for mercy is for the unworthy. Justice is for the good; mercy is for those who are guilty. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. Plead the greatness of your disease as a reason for the remedy. Do not come with your self-righteousness; that will hinder you. Come with your sorrow and your sin, your weakness and your pain, and plead these before God.

Psa 6:3. My soul is also sore vexed:

That is worse than the bones being vexed. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

Psa 6:3. But thou, O LORD, how long?

There is the pith of the prayer. David is troubled because God is away from him; he has lost communion with his Lord; he has got out of fellowship with his God, and here comes the most necessary cry of all:

Psa 6:4. Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies sake.

Will not that prayer suit you who are here tonight, you who are full of sin, and are heart-broken about it, and dread the wrath to come? I put this prayer into your mouths, and pray the Holy Spirit to put it into your hearts: Oh save me for thy mercies sake.

Psa 6:5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

As much as to say, If thou lettest me die, thou wilt lose one singer out of thy earthly choir; but if thou wilt let me live, I will remember thee; I will praise thee; I will give thee thanks. Do you feel like saying tonight, Lord, if thou shalt destroy me, thou wilt gain nothing by it; but if thou wilt save me, there will be one who will give thee thanks for ever? I have told you sometimes of that old woman who said, If the Lord does save me, he shall never hear the last of it. And you and I can also say that if he saves us, he shall never hear the last of it; we will praise him throughout eternity for his great salvation.

Psa 6:6. I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

David was in a very sorry case when he wrote these words. So great was his pain, so acute his sorrow, that all the sluices of his eyes were pulled up, and he seemed to float his bed in tears, and to be like George Herbert when he wrote:

O who will give me tears? Come, all ye springs,

Dwell in my head and eyes: come, clouds and rain:

My grief hath need of all the watery things,

That nature hath produced. Let every vein

Suck up a river to supply mine eyes,

My weary, weeping eyes, too dry for me,

Unless they get new conduits, new supplies,

To bear them out, and with my state agree.

Psa 6:7. Mine eye is consumed because of grief;

He had almost wept his eyes out; they grew red with his weeping, so that he could not see.

Psa 6:7. It waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

His eyesight grew dim, like that of an old man. A cataract of grief had put a cataract of blindness into his eyes.

Psa 6:8. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity

He wants his God to come to him, so he bids Gods enemies clear out. If we keep company with the wicked, we cannot invite God to our house, and expect him to come. Depart from me, says David, all ye workers of iniquity. You who are singing what you call a jolly song, be off with you. You who are merry with your jokes against religion, begone far from me.

Psa 6:8. For the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.

And if he has heard my tears, I do not want you to be here. I cannot associate with Gods enemies now that he has heard the voice of my weeping. Is not that a beautiful expression, The voice of my weeping? Why, there was no sound, was there? Yet there are songs without words, and there are voices without sounds.

Psa 6:9. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.

I thought at first that he would not take my petition; but I see be stretches out his right hand, he receives my prayer; and if he receives my prayer, I shall soon receive his answer.

Psa 6:10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Now let us read the eighth Psalm, in which David expresses great wonder that God, whom he had asked to visit him, should deign to do so. I think I see him sitting with his window open. It is night, and he is feeling better; and he bids them throw open the window, and he sits and looks at the stars, glad of the cool, fresh air.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psa 6:8.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Psalm 6:1-3

PRAYER FOR MERCY IN SICKNESS

(FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN;

ON STRINGED INSTRUMENTS;

SET TO THE SHEMINITH.

A PSALM OF DAVID)

For ages, Christian scholars have considered this Psalm to be one of the seven Penitential Psalms, namely, Psalms 6; Psalms 32; Psalms 38; Psalms 51; Psalms 102; Psalms 130; and Psalms 143. However, no sin whatever is mentioned in the Psalm; and it is not exactly clear why David felt that he was under the wrath of God.

Based upon the fact that David’s enemies are mentioned, Leupold supposed that, “It was the opposition of David’s enemies that made him feel that God was angry with him to such an extent that his health was badly impaired.” However, Rhodes believed that David’s illness, from whatever cause, might have caused David’s feelings of sinful guilt. He cited the common belief in those ages that, “Men suffered in proportion to their sins.” Certainly Job’s “comforters” attributed his sickness to sin; and even the apostles of Jesus Christ indicated their acceptance of that generally-accepted opinion (Joh 9:1-3).

Our own view of the passage is that David was indeed guilty of some specific sin, or sins, which had, for a season alienated him from the love of God. The fact that we have no idea whatever regarding the exact nature of such sin has nothing whatever to do with it. Certainly, David himself was conscious of his own guilt and the ensuing wrath of God.

Regarding the ancient superscription (in parenthesis, above), “Set to the Sheminith,” according to the margin in our version, means “set to the eighth,” a reference to some specific tune, much as one of our song leaders would instruct the Church to turn to a certain hymn number.

Psa 6:1-3

“O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger,

Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am withered away,

O Jehovah, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

My soul also is sore troubled:

And thou, O Jehovah, how long?”

“Thine anger … thy hot displeasure.” Such a consciousness of God’s anger and displeasure is always the result of the believer’s indulgence in some sin; but, as noted above, we are not given any hint whatever of what David’s actual sin in this instance might have been.

David’s terrible illness was threatening his very life, and he had earnestly prayed for God’s healing hand to be laid upon him; but that healing had not come. This is evident in the words of Psa 6:3, “O Jehovah, how long?”

“Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah.” In Dr. George DeHoff’s commentary on this verse, he has this priceless little paragraph:

“David did not cry for justice; he cried for mercy. I once participated in a funeral with a splendid young minister who kept saying, “The deceased is in the hands of a just God.” I suggested to him that if he ever had a part in preaching my funeral, I would appreciate it if he would say that, “I am in the hands of a merciful God.” It is mercy and not justice that all of us need.

Leupold also commented on this, writing that, “There is no thought of personal worth that deserves recognition.” David did not plead any innocence or merit upon his own part, but the loving mercy of God as the basis of his plaintive cry for God to help him.

E.M. Zerr:

Psa 6:1-2. In the preceding Psalm David prayed for divine help through the day. In this one he prayed for the help of God as he approached the night. He was weary with the cares and vexations of the day and felt the need of support for his body.

Psa 6:3. Not only did his body feel the strain of the ordeal, but his inner being was vexed. He longingly asked how long he would be compelled to suffer thus.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

This is known as the first of the seven great penitential psalms. It is somewhat weak in its note of true penitence and in this respect is not to be compared with some which follow. It is rather a cry for deliverance from the pain and the sorrow and chastisement than from the sin which causes it.

The first seven verses are full of the misery of the man. He is perfectly conscious of the meaning of his suffering. He knows that it is chastisement, and under the pressure of it he sobs for deliverance. The light breaks on the darkness in his confident consciousness of Jehovah’s attention and willingness to help him. If this be considered a psalm of penitence, it is remarkable rather as a revelation of the tender compassion of Jehovah than of the true note of repentance. There is not a single sentence which reveals any profound consciousness of the sinfulness of sin. The saving grace of it, so far as the sinner is concerned, is that it recognizes Jehovah’s rebuke and chastening. The supreme desire is to escape from suffering and sorrow. Notwithstanding the shallowness of the sense of sin, the fact of the recognition of the hand of Jehovah seems to be enough, and in answering pity and power the deliverance and the comfort sought are granted.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Deliverance in Trouble

Psa 6:1-10

This is the first of the Penitential Psalms, the other six being Psa 32:1-11; Psa 38:1-22; Psa 51:1-19; Psa 102:1-28; Psa 130:1-8; Psa 143:1-12. The earliest verses are a wail, but the psalm ends in a song. It is like a day of rain which clears at evening. Sheminith is a musical term signifying octave.

The elements of the psalmists sorrow are given in Psa 6:1-7. The pressure of Gods displeasure, soul-anguish, sickness, soul-depression, an enemys opposition-all these were ingredients in his cup of bitterness. How touching the plea-I am weak! How expressive the broken sentence, so often on Calvins lips-How long! And that prayer, O Lord, heal me, includes the mental as well as the physical.

The certainty of deliverance looms in sight in Psa 6:8-10. The consciousness of having been heard steals over the soul as a glint of light in the hospital ward. The answer may not be at hand, but it is sure, 1Jn 5:15. Weeping has a voice: God interprets sighs. The r.v. turns the imprecation of Psa 6:10 into prediction. When God returns to us, because we return to Him, our enemies turn back.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

In the sixth Psalm David deals particularly with the judgments of God and the need of mercy upon the part of the individual saint, for strange as it may seem, paradoxical as it may appear to say it, saints are sinners. What I mean by that is that though every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been sanctified in the sense that he is set apart to God in all the value of the finished work and the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore he is perfected forever in His sight, yet the fact remains that the believer himself is daily conscious of failure, and the closer he walks with God the more conscious he is of the sins of his own heart and life, and the more deeply penitent he is because of those shortcomings. It is quite possible, of course, to be so utterly out of fellowship with God that one can imagine he is living a sinless life, because he judges by the standards of the world without, and if he does not curse and swear and get drunk, he thinks he is living a holy life. But as one enters the presence of God and is overwhelmed with a sense of His infinite holiness he realizes there are things in his life so opposed to the holiness of God that it breaks him down in repentance before the Lord. Then the tendency is, not to feel that His dealings are too hard, but to wonder how God can be gracious at all, and it throws one on His mercy. That is the attitude of the Psalmist

Notice the opening verses as he cries for mercy in that day of Jehovahs wrath, O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, how long? In reading some of these Psalms we need to remember that Old Testament saints did not have the full, clear revelation of the grace of God that we have today, and therefore it was proper for David to cry, O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. I do not need to pray that today. I know that Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (Heb 12:6). I know that Gods rebuke will never be in anger; His chastening will never be in hot displeasure. If He allows chastening to come upon me it is because His loving heart sees it is what I need to conform me more fully to the image of His Son. So I must learn to trust in the midst of trial, and glorify God in the fires.

In verses 4 to 7 we see the saint in the greatest distress, in such distress that he is hardly accountable for his own thoughts. He is perplexed, confused; he cannot understand Gods dealings. His case is something like Jobs. He knew that God was righteous; he knew that God was holy, and yet he knew that he had been attempting to walk with God, and so could not understand why the Lord seemed to be withdrawing Himself from him and giving him up to such deep and bitter grief and sorrow. It was the attempt to explain this that forms the problem of the book of Job. Listen to the Psalmist, Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for Thy mercies sake. You can understand, for instance, Gods dear remnant people suffering under the hand of the antichrist, driven away from the ordinary habitations of man, persecuted, cast out, starving to death perhaps or suffering terrible tortures, crying out, O Lord, why is it I have to go through this? Look upon me in grace, save me for Thy mercies sake, and then with death before him the soul cries, For in death there is no remembrance of Thee: in Sheol [not the grave merely but that which is deeper than the grave, the abode of disembodied spirits, the unseen world] who shall give Thee thanks? Do not take this as a doctrinal statement. It is not that. The materialists, the Christadelphians, the Russellites delight in a statement like that and say, Dont you see, the Spirit of God has said, In death there is no remembrance of Thee: in Sheol who shall give Thee thanks? Therefore, when people die they are unconscious until the day of their resurrection. The dead know not any thing (Ecc 9:5). That is what the Old Testament tells us. But he is speaking of the dead bodies. You go out to a cemetery and look around and say, These dead, they know not anything, but that does not touch the question of the spirits of the dead. Here the Psalmist sees death ahead and sees one after another cut down by the enemy and says, Lord, You cannot get any glory out of that Would You not get more glory if they were living here on earth to praise You? We know now with New Testament revelation what the Psalmist was not able to understand clearly. Our Lord Jesus has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2Ti 1:10); and now we know that for the believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and we can say, Yes, even in the unseen world we will give Him thanks; we will praise His name. When Paul was caught up into the third heaven he heard the praise of saints and unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2Co 12:4). But do not try to read back into the Old Testament, truth that it did not please God to reveal until New Testament times. It was when the Lord Jesus came into this scene that He took the cover, as it were, from the unseen world and revealed conditions beyond the grave.

The Psalmist continues, I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Some of you think you have suffered a good deal. Have you ever wept so much that you soaked the bed clothes? David says that he did, when hunted out there by King Saul. You have not suffered as much as he; and think of what the coming remnant will have to go through. We are so inclined to self-pity. We do not remember that we have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin (Heb 12:4). When I hear friends who have returned from Russia, and also during these days from China, tell of the terrible things that saints of God have had to pass through over there, the unspeakable tortures to which they have had to submit, I feel that I have never known anything of suffering, nor anything of trial. David knew much about suffering. The people of God in some of these lands I have spoken of and the people of God in the coming day will have to know much of suffering. We are living in comfort, and the little things that trouble us so much, a few years hence as we look back, will seem as nothing compared to the wonderful goodness of God. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

But now in the closing verses of the Psalm you see the saint rising above these troubles; dreadful as they are he is able to rise above them because he fixes his eyes upon the Lord. When his eyes were upon the troubles they seemed insurmountable, but when he looks away from them to God, he strikes a note of confidence, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. Here we see faith in exercise. In the earlier part of the Psalm it was a poor, troubled heart, cast down and distressed because of unbelief; but now he has his eyes on God, and his troubles seem very small after all, and he cries, Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly. It is a great thing when we have committed things to God, to say, not merely, The Lord will undertake, but The Lord has undertaken. I have put the thing in His hands, and I believe He has taken care of it. Take that beautiful word in another portion of Scripture, Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me (Psa 50:15). I am in the day of trouble; I am distressed and say, Dear me, I do not know what is going to happen. I am afraid everything I have counted on is going to pieces; I have no standing. When I talk this way, I act like a man who does not know the living God at all. He has said, Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me (Psa 50:15). This is my day of trouble, and so I turn to Him and call upon Him, and then what? I go on with my head down just the same as ever. That is not faith. God has said, Call upon Me. Lord, I called upon Thee; Thou hast promised and I dare to believe! That is what lifts me above the trial and enables me to triumph.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Psa 6:3

I. Consider that the principle on which we are less ready than of old to rush to confession under natural national calamities of an ordinary type is a just and noble one, and is a sign of vital progress in our theological conceptions, and our view of our relation to the world and to God. The varied experiences through which we live and work, and in which we are always far more ready to moan when we are cast down than to praise when we are exalted, are parts of a great harmony of blessing which we should only mar and destroy if we could break the sequence and readjust it as we please. The proneness to recognise in natural calamities the chastisements of an angry God, who is scourging us to repentance, springs really out of a narrow and selfish view of God’s dealings with us and with mankind.

II. Note that this progress in the Christian thought of our times runs parallel to the progress in our conceptions of the true nature and the subject-matter of prayer, which is the fruit of growing knowledge and experience in the individual believing soul. As experience widens and deepens, prayer becomes, or ought to become, less a cry of pain and more an act of communion, intercourse with the Father in heaven, whereby His strength, His serenity, His hope, flow into and abide in our hearts.

III. I by no means say that, even in an advanced state of Christian intelligence, there may not be natural national calamities under which it would be wise and right for a nation to humble itself in confession and supplication before God. There may occur calamities so sudden, so terrible, so overwhelming, that a whole nation is plunged into profound and poignant distress. The best safeguard against panic in such a case is national confession and supplication, the best way to assure the blessing and to purge the calamity of all its dread. We need more, not less, national prayer, but of a nobler type, the type in which the trust has mastered the terror. “What time I am afraid,” I will not wail, or moan, or wrestle for an instant deliverance, but calmly trust in, and patiently wait for, Thee.

J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 257.

Psa 6:6

I. The feeling that he was suffering God’s rebuke, smarting under God’s correction, was at once a comfort and a grief to the Psalmist: a comfort when he remembered the loving wisdom that corrected him; a grief when he called to mind the sinful ingratitude that needed correction. It is by the depth and reality, yea the passion and abandon, with which he utters the profoundest feelings of the pious heart, that David has moved so mightily the soul and spirit of the world. When fault is found with him because he does not choose to treat suffering-his own or others-as a plaything or an accident, let it be asked which of these two is the more real man-he who acts magnanimity while he is secretly breaking his heart, or he who owns to God that he is heart and spirit-broken, that he may get strength and healing from on high. If in abolishing pain I quench at the same time sensibility, I may indeed have vanquished sorrow, but I have also destroyed myself; it is not I-it is a petrifaction that triumphs. That therefore is the best system and practice, not which most readily abolishes the pain of sorrow and contrition, but which, on the contrary, makes either of these most fruitful of human excellence.

II. If then sorrow, when viewed in relation to its uses, so far from being an evil, is acknowledged to be a good, the only question which remains is this: How can we best apply it to those uses? how can we most successfully obtain its sweetness while extracting its sting? (1) By acknowledging its existence, yes and its right to exist so long as there is sin in our hearts or suffering in the world. (2) By acknowledging our inevitable human weakness, and so bringing the tale of sorrow and suffering to the ear of our Saviour and our God. Own the fact of your dependence, and seek by faith the grace to stay your human weakness on the omnipotent arm of Christ, and seek a supply from the abundance of the riches of His grace.

Bishop Moorhouse, Penny Pulpit, No. 453.

Psa 6:10

I. Consider those passages in the Bible which are constantly objected to as most inconsistent with toleration-I mean the so-called imprecatory portions of the Psalms. (1) I see little reason for considering these Psalms as the utterance of David’s longing for personal revenge. It is not likely that he should keep malice and anger hoarded up in his soul, and relieve himself of it in the moments when he held communion with his God, cursing just as he saw by faith the battlements of the city of eternal peace. (2) When, under the old covenant, earthly prosperity was the portion of the wicked, and earthly adversity of the pious, the whole moral government of God seemed to be veiled in clouds and darkness. The very fact that immortality was not clearly discovered to him made the pious Israelite long more passionately for the speedy shining forth of God’s power and justice. (3) We must interpret every book by the mind of the author. If so, we must apply this to the Bible, and to the Psalms. Their real Author is the Holy Spirit. It is remarkable that in the first chapter of the Acts the very strongest of these imprecations is applied as a prophecy to the betrayer of our Lord.

II. Notice two passages in the New Testament which give us the very type of the tolerance and the intolerance of the Gospel. For its tolerance, read Luk 9:40, etc. The two incidents inculcate toleration, ecclesiastical and civil, on the spiritual and on the material side. For its intolerance, see 2Jn 1:10 : “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed.” This can have no other meaning than that “the elect lady and her children” should show no kindly hospitality to impugners of the Incarnation. (1) St. John, living when and where he did, realised as we can scarcely do that “the world lieth wholly in wickedness.” (2) He saw as we do not, that its best hope lay in the Incarnation, and so the man who went about bringing men to deny this was the enemy of the human race. (3) The honour of Jesus was dear to His Apostles. In the estimate of him who wrote, “The Word was God,” to deny that Jesus was the God-Man was to question His legitimacy and impugn His truth.

III. Let me commend to you the spirit of tolerance (1) to all whom our Church tolerates; (2) towards those that are without.

Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 106.

Psalm 6

We may get the meaning and help of this Psalm by asking, How did David conduct himself in the time of sickness and trouble?

I. He made his sorrow a question between himself and God. Set it down as a stern fact that there is a moral secret under the whole figure and movement of human life. Wherever you find disorder you find sin.

II. Proceeding from this point, David seeks to make things right between himself and God. In all trouble go first in self-reproach to God, and get at the causes of things.

III. In the third place, David feels that if the Lord’s hand be removed he can bear all other troubles. (1) The pain of trouble is in the feeling that it is deserved. (2) Take away the righteousness of the suffering, and then suffering is as an open door into our life, through which the angels come.

IV. David approaches God in utter self-renunciation. There is no word of self-defence as before God. This is needful in all prayer that is meant to prevail.

V. David prays the more earnestly because his afflictions have brought him within sight of the grave and the world unseen. He would not enter the valley without a sense of forgiveness. Who would? We must enter that dark valley; we enter it either forgiven or unpardoned.

Parker, The Ark of God, p. 132.

References: Psalm 6-I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 145; P. Thomson, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 243.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Psalms 6

1. The cry of repentance (Psa 6:1-3)

2. In deep distress (Psa 6:4-7)

3. Jehovah has heard (Psa 6:8-10)

Psa 6:1-3. Here we have the deep soul exercise of the godly expressed. In the midst of the trials and sorrows they search their hearts. The persecution of the enemies is used under God to bring His people in the dust. And so they feel the trial and sorrow which passeth over them as divine displeasure against sin. They feel it is the chastening hand of God which rests heavily upon them. Perhaps bodily sickness is also indicated. They cry, Jehovah how long? It is a night experience, of deepest woe and agony. We know that all things must work together for good to them that love God and that our loving Father does not chasten in the heat of wrath.

Psa 6:4-7. But there is deeper distress. There is groaning, the couch is covered with tears, the eyes are sunken in because of grief. The remnant is put into the place of dust, and that is the place of blessing and deliverance.

Psa 6:8-10. Faith again is victorious. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping; heard the voice of my supplication; He will receive my prayer. The last verse is prophetic. All the enemies will be ashamed, they shall be suddenly ashamed. That will be when the Lord returns to save His people.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Neginoth Stringed instruments.

Sheminth The word means “the eighth” — in music an octave.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Sheminith: or, the eighth, Psa 12:1, *title 1Ch 15:21, *marg.

rebuke: Psa 2:5, Psa 38:1, Isa 54:9, Isa 57:16, Jer 10:24, Jer 46:28, 1Co 11:31, 1Co 11:32

Reciprocal: Exo 11:8 – a great anger Jdg 3:8 – was hot Job 10:2 – Do not Job 33:26 – pray Psa 4:1 – Neginoth Psa 31:9 – my soul Psa 119:107 – afflicted Isa 27:8 – measure Isa 64:9 – wroth Jer 30:11 – but I Hab 3:2 – in wrath Hab 3:19 – stringed instruments Mat 5:4 – General 2Co 7:7 – mourning Heb 12:5 – nor faint Rev 3:19 – many

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The trial at its deepest felt as divine displeasure against sin, and the need realized of mercy.

To the chief musician, on stringed instruments, upon Sheminith: a psalm of David.

The flutes are silent, and the music of the stringed instruments, better fitted to express the deeper emotions of the heart, follows them: and, indeed, in the bass notes, al-sheminith, “upon the octave” [below]. For, as far as this first series of psalms can go, which are but the beginning, we touch bottom here; and it is no accident that in this fourth of these hymns of experience, which emphasizes the “testing” of a soul, we find also just ten verses,* the responsibility number, according to the full measure of the law, the “ten words.” In this psalm there is felt the pressure of that responsibility, and the failure and guilt realized when man is searched out as to the fulfillment of it.

{*As elsewhere, the title and musical inscription form no part of the psalm proper, as should be plain; and the verses should be numbered apart from this, as is the case in our common versions. That this is right is proved by the alphabetic psalms, such as Psa 9:1-20; Psa 34:1-22, where the alphabet begins only with the numbered verses.}

1. For here is no longer vengeance invoked on others, no longer is there even the same comfort in the thought that “Jehovah has set apart the godly for Himself.” It is, instead, “Jehovah, rebuke me not in Thine anger; and chasten me not in heat of wrath!” The malice of enemies is at work; nay, it is, as we may clearly see, what God has used to bring the soul where it is; but it is as His displeasure that it is realized, and when this presses, the anguish of the thought leaves room for nothing else, the enemies themselves are well-nigh forgotten. It is a cry of repentance and brokenness of heart: for Jehovah’s wrath cannot be causeless, any more than powerless. And it is Jehovah, -it is the Unchangeable: this word, so full of comfort at another time, and to which he clings, too, to the end, for all his hope is in it, -has it not, nevertheless, an aspect of another kind in this time of distress? As Job says, “He is of one mind, and who can turn Him?” And yet how could there be any confidence apart from this?

So the soul pleads, and pleads on, for He is gracious, baring its grief and the effect of it even upon the body. Is He not Creator? Has He not made the body? Does He not feel, who has given the very capacity of feeling? The wasting flesh, the quaking of the very bones, all the strong helpers bowed with this distress: what it speaks of a faith that, more than it might seem, knows the tender pity of Him with whom it has to do! Blessed be God, it is so: underneath all the doubt, and amid the darkness, the groping arms turn to the God that is. The cry may be, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!” But of Him that it would find it dares not doubt. Grace He has, heal He does, though as yet it sorely feels there is no healing; and as to itself the grace appears not.

And it is this delay that searches out the humbled and stricken one. This “how long?” which it is meant that one should feel, and is a question rightly entertained, how it tests the one who has to ask the question! The help so needed, how can it tarry so long, when His messengers are “angels that excel in strength,” and the elements wait upon Him? “How long?” What conditions must be first fulfilled? What survey of the heavens and earth it implies, if to ourselves we would answer it! And this exercise is itself what is wrought in the silence and the darkness, -all the soul awake and alive to its centre, the conscience stirred, the heart attent, the whole man in activity. The travail is, after all, for fullest blessing; the doubtful questioning will at last find assured answer; the heart will be enriched with knowledge of the highest kind, in the joy of which it shall be glad forever.

2. Spite of its crying, the soul descends yet deeper into the darkness, -truly a valley of the shadow of death: for this it is, and as the curse of the broken law, which throws its pall over a living man. And who can plead exemption from death? Here the cry can be only for mercy, -mercy which must be free and sovereign, the bounty of God alone. This is the point to which Israel’s remnant, naturally clinging to covenant-privileges, must be brought. According to covenant they can claim nothing but the covenant-curse. If they are to be saved, it must be upon the same ground as the merest Gentile. Pharisaism, which crucified the Son of God sent to them, must be swept out of existence; the cross they gave Him must be their only hope. Well may the sky darken and the lightnings flash from the dread mount by which they have chosen to abide, and from which divine mercy alone can save them. That is plainly the key to what we have here, while the lesson remains for every one, of every time, who needs it.

Death is seen as the curse of the law, as it truly was. Thank God, it does not dominate eternity, nor shut out the mercy of God as to that. As He never said “Do this, and thou shalt go to heaven,” so neither did He ever say “Break this, and thou shalt go to hell.”* The law itself was handmaid to the gospel, and God had ever in His purpose salvation, through His Son, for believing sinners. Yet as to what was beyond death, the soul that knew no more than law felt, of necessity, its shadow; and from the lips of such as those contemplated in this psalm, the language used in it has no special mystery. To these, and such as these, death as the curse of the law would be the hiding of God’s face, the stilling of the voice of praise, the silence of outer darkness. But this is not the uniform language, even of the Old Testament, as to death, -far from it: it is the language of a special class in a certain state of soul, and that is all.

{*It is well known that what is translated “hell” in the Old Testament is “Sheol,” or “hades,” the abode of the spirits of the dead.}

The effect of this is utter desolation and dismay. We surely see that it is not the ordinary picture of death for all that the psalmist has been drawing. There is no courage to meet what threatens, in which the separation from Jehovah is the overpowering thought. There is no manliness, as we say; no silent submission, even, to the inevitable: and he lets out freely all his emotion, the grief that convulses and unmans him. In the realization of it he floods his couch with tears. He fades away, and shrivels in premature decay. But this is the lowest depth, and having reached and taken it before God, the shadow passes from the soul.

3. In the last portion of the psalm we find this. The enemies are still around, so that circumstances seem not to have appreciably altered. The answer is from God in his heart: what now are the enemies? They are but “workers of vanity,” -powerless with all their seeming might. His supplication is heard, and his soul confirmed. He can then calmly assure himself of the defeat of his enemies, and their final confusion.

But in this conclusion there is a lack which makes itself felt. We have nothing of the ground upon which -little of the manner in which -God’s mercy meets the man who has justly merited His displeasure. The work of Christ is not yet unfolded. What grace implies cannot therefore yet be expressed. All is of the most elementary character: we simply see that it is mercy which alone can be man’s confidence; when that is his plea God comes in for him. Yet even the full and adequate confession of sin as yet there is not, and it is most interesting to see how, after the revelation of the true sin-offering (Psa 22:1-31), that confession is at once found. (Psa 25:1-22.) At present we have but the indication of what is to follow in the book: the finger points the way, but the road is not yet trodden.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Psa 6:1. O Lord, rebuke me not That is, do not chasten or correct me, as the next clause explains it; in thine anger With rigour or severity, as my sins deserve, but with gentleness and moderation, Jer 10:24; or, in such a manner that the chastisement may not be the effect of thy strict justice, or anger, but of thy mercy and faithfulness.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Title. On Sheminith; directing this psalm to be sung with a harp of eight strings, 1Ch 15:21, that the air and the music might the better accord with the sentiments of the song. It is a loss irreparable, both to jews and christians, that we so rarely know the particular occasion on which the psalms were composed. The one before us was evidently written while David was pursued by his enemies, and while his soul was so vexed as to occasion bodily affliction.

Psa 6:4-5. Oh Lord deliver my soul; save me from the sword, for in death there is no remembrance of thee. These were Davids oft-repeated prayers in time of danger; and the ear of heaven always heard his cry. Psalm 30. 116. &c. If he fell by the hand of violence, there would be no memorial of the sure mercies which had been announced by Samuel at his consecration.

Psa 6:6. All the night make I my bed to swim. His princess given to another: his princely hopes fled: Saul and his court in full pursuit of his soul: the Benjamites cursing his name! Here are the causes of grief; here the fountain of his tears; here the anguish which inspired the sublime of prayer.

Psa 6:9. The Lord hath heard my supplication. After a night of weeping, he felt his soul so relieved and refreshed as to be assured of ultimate deliverance. Rallying all his powers, and putting his trust in the Lord, he bids his enemies return with shame and vexation, to better sentiments.

REFLECTIONS.

Happy is the man who has Davids God for his portion. His glorious high throne is the place of our sanctuary in the day of trouble. A smiling sun, after a stormy night, bears no comparison with the joys which inundate the souls of the righteous, after they have uttered their anguish before the Lord. And if our joys be so sweet below, what must they be in heaven. Truly, as rabbi Jacob says, one hour of delectable enjoyments in the world to come, is more than the whole universe of terrestrial delights.

But while Davids heart overflowed with grace, instead of seeking vengeance and blood, he bids his enemies return suddenly to better sentiments. The reign of grace controuled his passions: the fire of the altar hallowed his soul, and overpowered the martial flame. Oh how powerful is prayer: oh what grace can do in conquering the most rebellious hearts of men.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

VI. A Righteous Mans Prayer in Distress.(a) Notice (Psa 6:1-7) the recognition of the fact that suffering is not always the proof of guilt and of Gods wrath. Sometimes it is sent to prove, correct, and purify the righteous. So here 1, Psa 66:8-12, Job 6:17, and especially Pro 3:11 f.*

(b) Reward or penalty, if they come at all, must, according to the general teaching of the Psalter, come in this life; the life beyond the grave is scarcely worthy of the name. The dead are gathered together in the subterranean pit of Sheol. They are cut off from the light of the world, and above all, from the light of Gods presence and from communion with Him. See Psa 30:9; Psa 88:10-12; Psa 115:17, Isa 38:18.

(c) Yahweh has heard the Psalmists prayer and will grant it still more by defeating his enemies (Psa 6:8-10).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

PSALM 6

The exercises of a godly soul who identifies himself with the chastisement that has come upon God’s people; though, by humbling himself, he shows his moral separation from the nation.

(v. 1) In the previous psalm the godly soul had owned that God had no pleasure in wickedness; now he recognizes that the nation has incurred the anger and displeasure of the Lord. While bowing under the rebukes and chastenings of the Lord, so justly incurred, he deprecates the Lord’s displeasure and seeks His favour. The following verses give the soul’s experiences in reaching the sunshine of God’s favour.

(vv. 2-3) Having owned God’s righteous dealings in chastisement, the soul pleads for God’s intervention, first, on the ground of mercy, and, second, on the ground that God cannot be indifferent to the distress of His own, He will put a limit to this distress. Therefore faith can ask, O Lord, how long?

(vv. 4-5) With increasing confidence the soul looks to the Lord to return in blessing, and deliver his soul from going down into death and the grave, that he might live on the earth for the praise of the Lord.

(vv. 6-7) Though submitting to the chastening of the Lord, the soul realizes that the unrepentant mass of the nation is opposed to him as his enemies. To stand alone in the midst of an opposing nation, as Jeremiah in his day, causes the soul acute anguish.

(vv. 8-10) Through these exercises the soul reaches the sense of the personal favour of the Lord. He realizes that the Lord is not unmindful of his tears; has heard his supplications; and received his prayer. This, however, he foresees will involve the shame and defeat of his enemies.

The exercises of this godly soul while prophetically setting forth the experience of the remnant in the midst of the guilty nation of the Jews in a day to come, has a bright expression in the remnant who submitted to the baptism of John the Baptist. There, too, the Lord, by identifying Himself with the remnant, owned that the nation was under the rebuke and chastening of the Lord. Immediately the heavens are opened and the Father’s voice expresses His infinite delight in the Lord. The repentant remnant, identified with Christ, enjoy this favour and escape the displeasure that rests upon the nation.

The principle of owning the chastisement of God’s people, and casting ourselves upon the mercy of God, is right in any day of failure; and yet the experience of the psalm is clearly that of an earthly saint. The Christian looks for his blessing in resurrection, beyond death, in a heavenly scene. The psalmist looks for blessing on earth without going into death.

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

6:1 [To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.] O LORD, {a} rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

(a) Though I deserve destruction, yet let your mercy pity my frailty.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Psalms 6

Many interpreters consider this one of the penitential psalms in which David repented for some sin he had committed and for which he was suffering discipline (cf. Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). [Note: See the excursus on the penitential psalms in Chisholm, pp. 301-2.] This is the first of the seven.

"It was the practice of the early Christians to sing and read the [penitential] psalms on Ash Wednesday as part of their penance for sin. In a strict sense, however, it is not a penitence psalm, for there is no confession of sin or prayer for forgiveness. The psalm is now categorized as an individual lament psalm." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 96.]

Other individual lament psalms are 3-5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 22-23, 27, 31-32, 35, 38-39, 41, 51, 57, 63, 69, 71, 88, 102-103, and 130. We do not know what David did to bring on this illness that almost resulted in his death or how this incident fits into the Scriptural record of his life. Having been chastened by the Lord, David asked for forgiveness. Then, with the assurance that God had heard him, he warned his adversaries to leave him alone because God was about to shame them.

". . . the psalm gives words to those who scarcely have the heart to pray, and brings them within sight of victory." [Note: Kidner, p. 61. Cf. John 12:27.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

1. Plea for relief 6:1-3

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

A more literal translation of this verse would be, "O Lord, not in Your anger rebuke me; not in Your wrath chasten me." By putting the negative first, David emphasized the manner of the Lord’s discipline. David knew his was no ordinary illness, but God had sent it as the consequence of some sin. He felt God was dealing with him very severely and despaired of enduring much more suffering. Sometimes the Lord’s discipline can be so harsh that we may conclude, falsely, that He is angry with us.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 6:1-10

THE theme and progress of thought in this psalm are very common, especially in those attributed to David. A soul compassed by enemies, whose hate has all but sapped the life out of it, “catches at Gods skirts and prays,” and thence wins confidence which anticipates deliverance and victory. There are numerous variations of this leitmotif, and each of the psalms which embody it has its own beauty, its own discords resolved into its own harmonies. The representation of the trouble of spirit as producing wasting of the body is also frequent, and is apparently not to be taken as metaphor, though not to be pressed, as if the psalmist were at once struck with the two calamities of hostility and disease, but the latter is simply the result of the former, and will disappear with it. It is needless to look for a historical occasion of the psalm, but to an ear that knows the tones of sorrow, or to a heart that has itself uttered them, the supposition that in these pathetic cries we hear only a representative Israelite bewailing the national ruin sounds singularly artificial. If ever the throb of personal anguish found tears and a voice, it does so in this psalm. Whoever wrote it wrote with his blood. There are in it no obvious references to events in the recorded life of David, and hence the ascription of it to him must rest on something else than the interpretation of the psalm. The very absence of such allusions is a fact to be dealt with by those who deny the accuracy of the attribution of authorship. But, however that question may be settled, the worth of this little plaintive cry depends on quite other considerations than the discovery of the name of the singer or the nature of his sorrow. It is a transcript of a perennial experience, a guide for a road which all feet have to travel. Its stream runs turbid and broken at first, but calms and clears as it flows. It has four curves or windings, which can scarcely be called strophes without making too artificial a framework for such a simple and spontaneous gush of feeling. Still the transitions are clear enough.

In Psa 6:1-3 we have a cluster of sharp, short cries to God for help, which all mean the same thing. In each of these the great name of Jehovah is repeated, and in each the plea urged is simply the sore need of the suppliant. These are no “vain repetitions,” which are pressed out of a soul by the grip of the rack; and it is not “taking the name of the Lord in vain” when four times in three short verses the passionate cry for help is winged with it as the arrow with its feather. Two thoughts fill the psalmists consciousness, or rather one thought-the Lord-and one feeling-his pains. In Psa 6:1 the Hebrew makes “in Thine anger” and “in Thine hot wrath” emphatic by setting these two phrases between the negative and the verb: “Not in Thine anger rebuke me; not in Thy heat chasten me.” He is willing to submit to both rebuke and chastisement; but he shrinks appalled from that form of either which tends to destruction, not to betterment. There are chastisements in tenderness, which express Gods love, and there are others which manifest His alienation and wrath. This psalmist did not think that all Divine retribution was intended for reformation. To him there was such a thing as wrath which slew. Jeremiah has the same distinction, {Jer 10:24} and the parallel has been made an argument for the later date of the psalm. Cheyne and others assume that Jeremiah is the original, but that is simple conjecture, and the prophets conspicuous fondness for quotations from older authors makes the supposition more probable that the psalm is the earlier. Resignation and shrinking blend in that cry, in which a heart conscious of evil confesses as well as implores, recognises the justice and yet deprecates the utmost severity of the blow. He who asks, “Not in Thine anger rebuke me,” thereby submits to loving chastisement.

Then follow in Psa 6:2-3 three short petitions, which are as much cries of pain as prayers, and as much prayers as cries of pain. In the two former the prayer is put first, and its plea second; in the last the order is reversed, and so the whole is, as it were, enclosed in a circlet of prayer. Two words make the petition in each clause, “Have mercy on me, Jehovah” (tastelessly corrected by Gratz into “Revive me”), and “Heal me, Jehovah.” The third petition is daring and pregnant in its incompleteness. In that emphatic “And Thou, Jehovah,” the psalmist looks up, with almost reproach in his gaze, to the infinite Personality which seems so unaccountably passive. The hours that bring pain are leaden footed, and their moments each seem an eternity. The most patient sufferer may cry, “How long?” and God will not mistake the voice of pain for that of impatience. This threefold prayer, with its triple invocation, has a triple plea, which is all substantially one. His misery fills the psalmists soul, and he believes that God will feel for him. He does not at first appeal to Gods revealed character, except in so far as the plaintive reiteration of the Divine name carries such an appeal, but he spreads out his own wretchedness, and he who does that has faith in Gods. pity. “I am withered away” like a faded flower. “My bones are vexed”; -the physical effects of his calamity, “bones” being put for the whole body, and regarded as the seat of sensibility, as is frequently the usage. “Vexed” is too weak a rendering. The idea is that of the utmost consternation. Not only the body, but the soul, partakes in the dismay. The “soul” is even more shaken than the “bones”; that is to say, mental agitation rather than physical disease (and the latter as the result of the former) troubles the psalmist. We can scarcely fail to remember the added sanctity which these plaintive words have received, since they were used by the Prince of sufferers when all but in sight of the cross.

The next turn of thought includes Psa 6:4-5, and is remarkable for the new pleas on which it rests the triple prayer, “Return; deliver; save.” God is His own motive, and His self-revelation in act must always be self-consistent. Therefore the plea is presented, “for Thy lovingkindness sake.” It beseeches Him to be what He is, and to show Himself as still being what He had always been. The second plea is striking both in its view of the condition of the dead and in its use of that view as an argument with God. Like many other psalmists, the writer thinks of Sheol as the common gathering place of the departed, a dim region where they live a poor shadowy life, inactive, joyless, and all but godless, inasmuch as praise, service, and fellowship with Him have ceased.

That view is equally compatible with the belief in a resurrection and the denial of it, for it assumes continued individual consciousness. It is the prevailing tone in the Psalter and in Job and Ecclesiastes. But in some psalms, which embody the highest rapture of inward and mystical devotion, the sense of present union with God bears up the psalmist into the sunlight of the assurance that against such a union death can have no power, and we see the hope of immortality in the very act of dawning on the devout soul. May we not say that the subjective experience of the reality of communion with God now is still the path by which the certainty of its perpetuity in a future life is reached? The objective proof in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is verified by this experience. The psalmists had not the former, but, having the latter, they attained to at all events occasional confidence in a blessed life beyond. But the tone of such triumphant glimpses as Psa 16:10; Psa 17:15; Psa 49:15; Psa 73:24, is of a higher mood than that of this and other psalms, which probably represent the usual view of devout Hebrews.

The fact, as it appeared to those at the then stage of revelation, that remembrance and praise of God were impossible in Sheol, is urged as a plea. That implies the psalmists belief that God cared for mens praise-a thought which may be so put as to make Him an almighty Selfishness, but which in its true aspect is the direct inference from the faith that He is infinite Love. It is the same sweet thought of Him which Browning has when he makes God say, “I miss my little human praise.” Gods joy in mens praise is joy in mens love and in their recognition of His love.

The third turn of feeling is in Psa 6:6-7. The sense of his own pains which, in the two previous parts of the psalm, had been contending with the thought of God, masters the psalmist in these dreary verses, in which the absence of the name of God is noteworthy as expressive of his absorption in brooding over His misery. The vehemence of the manifestations of sorrow and the frankness of the record of these manifestations in the song are characteristic of the emotional, demonstrative Eastern temperament, and strike our more reticent dispositions as excessive. But however expressed in unfamiliar terms, the emotion which wails in these sad verses is only too familiar to men of all temperaments. All sad hearts are tempted to shut out God and to look only at their griefs. There is a strange pleasure in turning round the knife in the wound and recounting the tokens of misery. This man feels some ease in telling how he had exhausted his strength with groaning and worn away the sleepless night with weeping. Night is ever the nurse of heavy thought, and stings burn again then. The hyperbolical expressions that he had set his bed afloat with his tears and “melted” it (as the word means) are matched by the other hyperboles which follow, describing the effect of this unmeasured weeping on his eyes. He had wept them away, and they were bleared and dim like those of an old man. The cause of this passion of weeping is next expressed, in plain words, which connect this turn of the thought with the next verses, and seem to explain the previously mentioned physical pain, as either metaphorical or consequent on the hostility of “mine adversaries.”

But even while thus his spirit is bitterly burying itself in his sorrows the sudden certainty of the answer to his prayer flashes on him. “Sometimes a light surprises,” as Cowper, who too well knew what it was to be worn with groaning, has sung. That swift conviction witnesses its origin in a Divine inspiration by its very suddenness. Nothing has changed in circumstances, but everything has changed in aspect. Wonder and exultation throb in the threefold assurance that the prayer is heard. In the two former clauses the “hearing” is regarded as a present act; in the latter the “receiving” is looked for in the future. The process which is usually treated as one simple act, is here analysed. “God has heard; therefore God will receive”-i.e., answer-“my weeping prayer.” Whence came that confidence but from the breath of God on the troubled spirit? “The peace of God” is ever the reward of submissive prayer. In this confidence a man can front the close-knit ring of enemies, of whatever sort they be, and bid them back. Their triumphant dismissal is a vivid way of expressing the certainty of their departure, with their murderous hate unslaked and baulked. “Mine enemies” are “workers of iniquity.” That is a daring assumption, made still more remarkable by the previous confession that the psalmists sorrow was Gods rebuke and chastening. But a man has the right to believe that his cause is Gods in the measure in which he makes Gods cause his. In the confidence of prayer heard, the psalmist can see “things that are not as though they were,” and, though no change has passed on the beleaguering hosts, triumphs in their sure rout and retreat. Very significantly does he predict in Psa 6:10 the same fate for them which he bad bewailed as his own. The “dismay” which had afflicted his soul shall pass to them (“sore vexed”). Since God “returns” (Psa 6:4), the enemy will have to “return” in baffled abandonment of their plans, and be “ashamed” at the failure of their cruel hopes. And all this will come as suddenly as the glad conviction had started up in the troubled heart of the singer. His outward life shall be as swiftly rescued as his inward has been. One gleam of Gods presence in his soul had lit its darkness, and turned tears into sparkling homes of the rainbow; one flash of that same presence in his outward life shall scatter all his foes with like swiftness.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary