Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 6:6
I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
6. I am weary with my groaning ] So Baruch complained, Jer 45:3, R.V. Cp. Psa 69:3.
all the night ] Rather, every night. His sorrow is of long continuance, and knows no respite.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am weary with my groaning – I am exhausted or worn out with it. That is, his sorrows were so deep, and his groaning was so constant, that his strength failed. He became faint under the weight of his sorrows. All persons in trouble have experienced this effect – the sense of weariness or exhaustion from sorrow.
All the night make I my bed to swim – That is, he wept so much that his bed seemed to be immersed in tears. This is, of course, hyperbolical language, expressing in a strong and emphatic manner the depth of his sorrows.
I water my couch with my tears – The word here rendered water means to melt, to flow down; then, in the Hiphil, to cause to flow, to dissolve. The sense here is, that he caused his couch to flow or overflow with his tears. We would say, he flooded his bed with tears. This verse discloses the true source of the trials referred to in the psalm. It was some deep mental anguish – some source of grief – that exhausted his strength, and that laid him on a bed of languishing. No circumstances in the life of David better accord with this than the troubles which existed on account of the ungrateful and rebellious conduct of Absalom, and it is most natural to refer it to this. Many a parent since the time of David has experienced all, both mental and bodily, which is here described as a consequence of the ingratitude and evil conduct of his children. The tragedy of Lear turns entirely on this.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 6:6-7
I am weary with my groaning.
The penitents sorrow
The penitent here expresses the effects which his sorrow had upon him in its outward manifestations. His eye was consumed because of grief, and he was weary with his groaning. An impression now seems generally to prevail that outward manifestations of feeling in matters of religion, instead of being proofs that the feeling is sound, are rather proofs that it is otherwise. Certainly, in themselves they are no unequivocal evidence of sincere and deep feeling; and in assemblies of Gods people it is better in general that they should be repressed than indulged in. But where such feelings exist they must in some way or other be expressed: I am weary with my crying, says the Psalmist; my throat is dried; mine eyes fail, when they waist for my God. They mourn by reason of affliction. I have stretched out my hands daily unto Thee. Tears have been my meat day and night. And we can see no reason in the nature of things why such strong feelings of grief should be absent in religion. Surely, if the prospect of losing an earthly friend–a husband or a brother–causes the eye to run down with tears, the breast to heave and be convulsed with sobs, and the heart to be poured out like water before God–the prospect of losing eternal life may be no less overpowering. Assuredly, if a fall from riches to poverty, from circumstances of comfort to a condition of wretchedness, has shaken men of firm nerves–the prospect of an eternity spent in inconceivable misery, with the worm that dieth not, and in the fire that is not quenched, may appall the stoutest heart. We should therefore be surprised to meet with one who had passed from death to life through the terrors of the law, and yet was wholly a stranger to such feelings. We should regard him as a man of more than mortal mould. But let us observe, that true grief is unobtrusive. It seeks retirement. It is in the night that the Psalmist makes his bed to swim. He speaks not of his tears shed in the assemblies of Gods people. The great question is, What are your feelings towards Him in private? Can the watches of the night bear witness to your meditating on His death and atoning sacrifice, and of your vows to be His, and His alone? Such was the Psalmists experience; and light arose on his darkness. The day spring of hope and gladness broke forth on him. Suddenly be changes the notes of woe for those of exultation, 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 mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. (G. Innes.)
I water my couch with my tears.—
Davids sorrow
These strong expressions imply a sorrow so deep, unusual, and excessive as to provoke the inquiry, what could possibly occasion and justify them? From Psa 6:7-10 we conclude that the sufferer is brought into great and grievous peril by the arts of malicious enemies. But we may better seek the origin of his distress in influences of a more inward and spiritual character. While our affairs are prosperous, nothing is so common as a condition of spiritual heedlessness and self-satisfaction. Let God make a breach upon us, so that suddenly riches depart and enemies rejoice and friends begin to look cold, and then not uncommonly our conscience awakes from its long slumber and brings against us grievous, accusations. The feeling that he is suffering Gods rebuke, smarting under Gods correction, is 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. How can we wonder at the depth and extent of his grief? 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. It is impossible to withhold our deep respect from the stoic, seeing that his endurance of the ills of life implies a control and self-denial almost, if not altogether, sublime. If sorrow, when viewed in relation to its uses, is a good, how can we best apply it to those uses? By acknowledging its existence. Its right to exist, as long as there is sin in our hearts or suffering in the world. Sorrow is but the normal expression of a holy sensibility when excited by the contemplation of suffering or sin; and it is not therefore sorrow in itself, but only the excess and selfishness of it, that is to be restricted and overcome. (J. Moorhouse, M. A.)
Repentance in time will be remembered when repentance is impossible
Oh, let my remembering Thee in life supply the place of my forgetting Thee in death; and when I lie in my grave senseless and silent, be pleased to remember how I have lain in my bed sighing and weeping. (Sir Richard Baker.)
Mourning for sin
First, he sighed and sobbed for his sin, and now he mourneth for the same. Look whereunto our follies tend! The pleasures of sin ever end in displeasure, for which either we must of necessity, mourn in this life, or eternally in the life to come. The measure of his mourning is expressed by the washing and swimming of his bed with tears, which indeed is an hyperbolic speech, and doth express unto the vehemency and greatness of his grief, and that he did not esteem light of his sin, yea, I may affirm never had man greater displeasure for so short a pleasure as had David: neither was he in worse case with God, but rather the multitude of his tears were as many seals of Gods favour towards him, and of the remission of his sins: showers be better than dews, yet it is sufficient if God at least hath bedewed our hearts, and hath given us some signs of a penitent heart: if we have not rivers of waters to pour forth with David, neither fountains flowing with Mary Magdalene, nor as Jeremiah, desire to have a fountain in our head to weep day and night, nor with Peter weep bitterly, yet if we lament that we cannot lament; and mourn that we cannot mourn; yea, if we have the smallest sobs of sorrow and tears of compunction, if they be true and not counterfeit, they will make us acceptable to God: for as the woman with the bloody issue that touched the hem of Christs garment was no less welcome to Christ than Thomas, who put his fingers in the print of the nails, so God looketh not at the quantity, but the sincerity of our repentance. My bed. The place of his sin is the place of his repentance, and so it should be, yea, when we behold the place where we have offended we should be pricked in the heart, and there again crave Him pardon. Sanctify by tears every place which ye have polluted by sin Every night So one hours sin may bring many nights pare, and it may be done in one hour which cannot be amended in our life. Learn, therefore, in time to be careful, and fall not into that ditch, out of which hardly can ye be freed. How easy is it for a man to fall into a pit, but with what difficulty is he delivered therefrom! As the night is secret, so should the work of thy repentance be; repent thou secretly, that the Lord may reward thee openly. Mark here that repentance should be constant, not one night, but every night. It is not seemly to a king to weep for his own private calamities, lest he might seem to be cast down from his courage; but nothing more royal than to mourn for the offence committed against the King of kings. Finally, mark what force tears have with God, that they can blot out the multitude of iniquities: be true and not counterfeit, they will make us acceptable to God. God looketh not on the quantity, but the sincerity of our repentance. (A. Symson, B. D.)
The righteous mans assault by his enemies
The pirates, seeing an empty bark, pass by it; but if she be loaded with precious wares, then they will assault her. So, if a man have no grace within him, Satan passeth by him, as not a convenient prey for him, but being loaded with graces, as the love of God, his fear, and such other spiritual virtues, let him be persuaded that according as he knows what stuff is in him, so will he not fail to rob him of them, if in any case he may. (A. Symson, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
All the night; he mentions this time, by way of aggravation of his misery, because that season, which is to others by Gods appointment a time of rest, was to him very sad and doleful, whether from his disease, which then came upon him more strongly, as it is usual; or from the opportunity which the solitude or silence of the night gave him to think of his own sins, or his enemies perfidiousness and malice, or Gods displeasure, or his future estate.
Make I my bed to swim, to wit, with tears. See the like hyperbole Jer 9:1; Lam 3:48,49.
I water my couch; or, my bedstead.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. By a strong figure theabundance as well as intensity of grief is depicted.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I am weary with my groanings,…. By reason of bodily illness, or indwelling sin, or the guilt of actual transgressions, or the hidings of God’s face, or a sense of divine wrath, or the temptations of Satan, or afflictions and crosses of various kinds, or fears of death, or even earnest desires after heaven and eternal happiness, or the low estate of Zion; each of which at times occasion groaning in the saints, as in the psalmist, and is the common experience of all good men. The psalmist being weary of his disease, or of sin, groaned till he was weary with his groaning; inward groaning affects the body, wastes the animal spirits, consumes the flesh, and induces weariness and faintness; see Ps 102:5;
all the night make I my bed to swim: I water my couch with my tears; these are hyperbolical phrases e, expressing more than is intended, and are not to be literally understood; for such a quantity of tears a man could never shed, as to water his couch and make his bed to swim with them, but they are used to denote the multitude of them, and the excessiveness of his sorrow; see Ps 119:136; and these tears were shed, not to atone and satisfy for sin, for nothing but the blood and sacrifice of Christ can do that; but to express the truth and reality, as well as the abundance of his grief; and this was done “all the night long”; see Job 7:3; when he had leisure to think and reflect upon his sins and transgressions, and when he was clear of all company, and no one could hear or see him, nor interrupt him in the vent of his sorrow, and when his disease might be heavier upon him, as some diseases increase in the night season: this may also be mystically understood, of a night of spiritual darkness and desertion, when a soul is without the discoveries of the love of God, and the influences of his grace; and has lost sight of God and Christ, and interest in them, and does not enjoy communion with them; and throughout this night season weeping endures, though joy comes in the morning. And it may be applicable to David’s antitype, to the doleful night in which he was betrayed, when it was the hour and power of darkness, and when he had no other couch or bed but the ground itself; which was watered, not only with his tears, but with his sweat and blood, his sweat being as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground; so he is often said to sigh and groan in spirit, Mr 7:34.
e See the latter in Homer. Odyss 17. v. 110. Odyss. 19. prope finem.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
These forms of expression are hyperbolical, but it must not be imagined that David, after the manner of poets, exaggerates his sorrow; (89) but he declares truly and simply how severe and bitter it had been. It should always be kept in mind, that his affliction did not proceed so much from his having been severely wounded with bodily distress; but regarding God as greatly displeased with him, he saw, as it were, hell open to receive him; and the mental distress which this produces exceeds all other sorrows. Indeed, the more sincerely a man is devoted to God, he is just so much the more severely disquieted by the sense of his wrath; and hence it is that holy persons, who were otherwise endued with uncommon fortitude, have showed in this respect the greatest softness and want of resolution. And nothing prevents us at this day from experiencing in ourselves what David describes concerning himself but the stupidity of our flesh. Those who have experienced, even in a moderate degree, what it is to contend with the fear of eternal death, will be satisfied that there is nothing extravagant in these words. Let us, therefore, know that here David is represented to us as being afflicted with the terrors of his conscience, (90) and feeling within him torment of no ordinary kind, but such as made him almost faint away, and lie as if dead. With respect to the words, he says, Mine eye hath waxed dim; for grief of mind easily makes its way to the eyes, and from them very distinctly shows itself. As the word עתק athak, which I have translated it hath waxed old, sometimes signifies to depart from one’s place, some expound it, that the goodness of his eyesight was lost, and his sight, as it were, had vanished. Others understand by it that his eyes were hidden by the swelling which proceeds from weeping. The first opinion, however, according to which David complains of his eyes failing him, as it were, through old age, appears to me the more simple. As to what he adds, every night, we learn from it that he was almost wholly wasted away with protracted sorrow, and yet all the while never ceased from praying to God.
(89) “ II ne taut pas penser toutesfois que David amplifie sa tristesse a la facon des Poetes.” — Fr.
(90) “ Des frayeurs de la morte.” — Fr. “ With the terrors of death.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) I water my couch with tears.Comp. Odyssey, xvii. 102:
Say, to my mournful couch shall I ascend?
The couch deserted now a length of years,
The couch for ever watered with my tears.
Popes trans.
Orientals indulge in weeping and other outward signs of emotion, which Western nations, or, at all events, the Teutonic races, try to suppress or hide.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. My bed to swim A hyperbole for copious weeping.
Water my couch Dissolve, saturate, my couch. Another hyperbole, but a lessening of the figure from “swim” in the preceding line. This profuse weeping was in or during all the night, that is, every night. The psalmist thus shows that not without cause had he urged his plea for help, and viewed death as nigh.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I am weary with my groaning.
Every night I make my bed swim,
I water my couch with my tears.
My eye wastes away because of grief,
It grows old because of all those who distress me.
He goes on to describe his present state, groaning both because of his illness and because of his conscience stricken state, so much so that his bed is soaked with tears. Indeed it has affected his eyes, which reveal what he is going through, made worse by his adversaries who mock him in his state. The state of a man’s health is often revealed by his eyes, and here his eye ‘grows old’, that is, wrinkled and careworn.
Very few who are God’s have not experienced such times. Times of distress and smitten conscience, when they grew weary of the sense of sin and longed for deliverance. It is often a prelude to blessing, but it does not seem so at the time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
We need only to compare scripture with scripture, to discover that it is Jesus of whom the prophet here speaks. Psa 22:1-2 . But, Reader! do not hastily pass over this review. Did Jesus cry and groan, and was he weary of it? Whence all this? The answer is at hand: In all this Jesus acted as the sinner’s surety. Hence terror beset him on every side: his holy soul was full of horrors and the darkness of death. He sustained all that was the sinner’s due, that he might expiate sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hence the surety bleeds, and groans, and dies, that the principal, for whom he suffered, might go free. Hence Jesus trembles, and complains of being forsaken, that his people, his redeemed, might have the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Isa 61:3 . And was this the cause for which Jesus groaned and died? Oh! love unequalled! Oh! matchless grace! Shall my soul ever lose sight of thee, and of thy love? Shall I ever, by unbelief and disobedience, doubt thy love anymore, thou blessed Jesus?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Ver. 6. I am weary with my groaning ] I have laboured therein even unto lassitude. There must be some proportion between our sin and our sorrow. A storm of sighs, at least, if not a shower of tears; some sorrow is above tears, some constitutions are dry and will not yield tears, and in such case dry sorrow may be as available as wet. She that touched the hem of Christ’s garment only was as welcome to him as Thomas, who put his fingers into the print of the nails.
All the night make I my bed to swim
I water my couch with my tears
Faciles motus mens generosa capit (Ovid).
Tears, instead of gems, were the ornaments of David’s bed, saith Chrysostom.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 6:6-7
6I am weary with my sighing;
Every night I make my bed swim,
I dissolve my couch with my tears.
7My eye has wasted away with grief;
It has become old because of all my adversaries.
Psa 6:6-7 The psalmist describes his physical and emotional trauma caused by his adversaries (BDB 865, KB 1058, Qal participle, those who show hostility).
1. weary with sighing (BDB 58)
2. bed wet with tears (hyperbole)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Psa 6:6-7
Psa 6:6-7
“I am weary with my groaning:
Every night make I my bed to swim;
I water my couch with my tears.
Mine eye wasteth away because of grief;
It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries.”
Here we have a classical example of Biblical hyperbole. exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis, as for example, when someone says, “We had a party and everyone came! Did everyone come? Certainly not; but the statement is a legitimate hyperbole, as is the passage before us.
Such tears and grief were ample evidence of David’s repentance of the sin that had caused God’s displeasure. One does not often see in these days actual tears of repentance; and yet that does not mean that there is any shortage of actual repentance. As Spurgeon once said, quoting a writer named Watson, “It is not so much the weeping eye that God respects as the broken heart.
Nevertheless, genuine sorrow for sin is a vital part of repentance. “Godly sorrow worketh repentance” (2Co 7:10); and one who has never shed a tear because of his sins might indeed wonder if he ever truly repented.
In respect to the Penitential Psalms, it is recorded of Augustine that in his last sickness he ordered these Psalms to be inscribed in a visible place on a wall in his chamber, where he might fix his eyes and heart upon them, and make their words his own in the breathing out of his soul to God.
There is an abrupt, dramatic change in the tone of this Psalm beginning with Psa 6:8.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 6:6. David was dreading the night that was upon him; the nights were often sleepless and passed in tears.
Psa 6:7. David’s weeping over the insults of his enemies caused his eyes to become sore.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I am: Psa 38:9, Psa 69:3, Psa 77:2-9, Psa 88:9, Psa 102:3-5, Psa 143:4-7, Job 7:3, Job 10:1, Job 23:2
all the: or, every
I water: Psa 39:12, Psa 42:3, Job 16:20, Jer 14:17, Lam 1:2, Lam 1:16, Lam 2:11, Lam 2:18, Lam 2:19, Lam 3:48-50, Luk 7:38
Reciprocal: 1Sa 7:6 – drew water 2Ki 20:3 – wept sore Job 7:4 – When Job 7:13 – My bed Job 16:7 – he hath Job 16:16 – face Psa 30:5 – weeping Psa 38:6 – mourning Psa 38:17 – sorrow Psa 77:4 – holdest Psa 102:5 – the voice Ecc 2:23 – his heart Son 3:1 – night Luk 6:21 – ye that weep Rom 7:24 – wretched
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 6:6-7. All the night Or, every night, as the margin renders , cal lailah; make I my bed to swim With tears, an hyperbole used also elsewhere. It well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender, and to relent under the tokens of Gods displeasure. David, who could face Goliath himself, melts into tears at the remembrance of sin, and under the apprehension of divine wrath, and it is no diminution to his character. Mine eye is consumed Or grown dim, or dull, as , gnosheshah, may be rendered; namely, through the many tears which I shed, or through the decay of my spirits. Because of grief For my sins and miseries, or grief arising from mine enemies; as the next clause interprets it, and from the consideration of their multitude, rage, and falseness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3. Lament over illness 6:6-7
David described his condition in extreme (hyperbolic) language to indicate how terrible he felt. Evidently his adversaries had been responsible for his condition to some extent, perhaps by inflicting a wound.
"From my own experience and pastoral ministry, I’ve learned that sickness and pain either make us better or bitter, and the difference is faith." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 100.]