Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 6:4
Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
4. Return ] For Jehovah seems to have abandoned him. Cp. Psa 90:13.
O save me for thy mercy’s sake ] R.V., save me for thy lovingkindness’ sake. Jehovah declares Himself to be “a God plenteous in lovingkindness and truth, who keeps lovingkindness for thousands” (Exo 34:7-8), and the Psalmist intreats Him to be true to this central attribute in His own revelation of His character.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4 7. He renews his prayer, and in a calmer tone, reasons with God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Return, O Lord, deliver my soul – As if he had departed from him, and had left him to die. The word soul in this place is used, as it often is, in the sense of life, for in the next verse he speaks of the grave to which he evidently felt he was rapidly descending.
O save me – Save my life; save me from going down to the grave. Deliver me from these troubles and dangers.
For thy mercies sake –
(a) As an act of mere mercy, for he felt that he had no claim, and could not urge it as a matter of right and justice; and
(b) in order that Gods mercy might be manifest, or because he was a merciful Being, and might, therefore, be appealed to on that ground.
These are proper grounds, now, on which to make an appeal to God for his interposition in our behalf; and, indeed, these are the only grounds on which we can plead with him to save us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 6:4
Return, O Lord, deliver my soul.
A postulatory prayer
O Lord, return implies a former presence, a present absence, and a confidence for the future. This is Gods return to us, in a general apprehension. After He hath made us, and blest us in our nature and by His natural means, He returns to make us again, to make us better, first by His preventing grace and then by a succession of His particular graces. In Scripture there are three significations of the word translated return.
1. To return to that place to which a thing is naturally affected. So heavy things return to the centre, and light things to the expansion. The Church is Gods place, Gods centre, to which He is naturally affected.
2. The word is also referred to the passion of God, to the anger of God; and so the returning of God–that is, of Gods anger–is the allaying, the becalming, the departing of His anger. When God returns, God stays; His anger is returned from us, but God is still with us.
3. The word applies to our returning to Him. There goes no more to salvation but such a turning. So that this returning of the Lord is an operative, an effectual returning, that tunes our hearts, and eyes, and hands, and feet to the ways of God, and produces in us repentance and obedience; for these be the two legs which our conversion to God stands upon. When the Lord comes to us by any way, though He come in corrections, in chastisements, not to turn to Him is an irreverent and unrespective negligence We come now to the reasons of these petitions in Davids prayer. His first reason is grounded on God Himself. Do it for Thy mercys sake. And in his second reason, though David himself and all men with him seem to have a part, yet at last we shall see the reason itself to determine wholly or entirely in God, too, and in His glory. Do it, Lord, for in death there is no remembrance of Thee. (John Donne.)
The obscured presence of God
As the sun goeth not out of Thee, though it may be obscured by overcasting clouds, or some other natural impediments, so, albeit the clouds of our sins and miseries hide the fair, shining face of God from us, yet He will pierce through and dissipate those clouds, and, shine clearly upon us in His own appointed time. God is said to return to us, not by change of place, for He is in all places, but by the dispensation of His gracious providence, and declaration of His new mercies and benefits to us. (A. Symson.)
For the sake of mercy
Indeed, this motive, for His mercys sake, is the first mover of all motives to God for showing His favour. He had never delivered the Israelites out of Egypt but for His mercys sake; He had never saved Noah in the ark but for His mercys sake; but, above all, He had never sent His Son to save the world but for His mercys sake. And how, then, can I doubt, and not rather be confident, that for His mercys sake He will also deliver my soul and save me? Never, therefore, my soul, look after any further motives; for upon this motive will I set up my rest. His mercy shall be both my anchor and my harbour; it shall be both my armour and my fortress; it shall be both my ransom and my garland; it shall be both my deliverance and my salvation. (Sir Richard Baker.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Return, O Lord] Once I had the light of thy countenance, by sin I have forfeited this; I have provoked thee to depart: O Lord, return! It is an awful thing to be obliged to say, Return, O Lord, for this supposes backsliding; and yet what a mercy it is that a backslider may RETURN to God, with the expectation that God will return to him!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Return unto me, from whom thou hast withdrawn thyself, and thy smiling countenance, and thy helping hand.
Deliver my soul, i.e. save me or my life, as the soul oft signifies, as Gen 9:5; 12:5; Job 36:4; Psa 33:19. David and other good men in those times were much afraid of death, partly because the manifestations of Gods grace to his people were then more dark and doubtful, and partly because thereby they were deprived of all opportunities of advancing Gods glory and kingdom in the world. Compare Isa 38:1-3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Returnthat is, to myrelief; or, “turn,” as now having His face averted.
for thy mercies’ saketoillustrate Thy mercy.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Return, O Lord,…. By this it seems that the Lord had withdrawn himself, and was departed from the psalmist, wherefore he entreats him to return unto him, and grant him his gracious presence. God is immense and omnipresent, he is everywhere: going away and returning cannot be properly ascribed to him; but he, nay be said to depart from his people, as to sensible communion with him, and enjoyment of him, when he hides his face, withdraws his gracious presence, and the comfortable discoveries and influences of his love; and he may be said to return when he visits them again, and manifests his love and favour to them: the Jewish writers d interpret it,
“return from the fierceness of thine anger,”
as in Ps 85:3; and though there is no such change in God, as from love to wrath, and from wrath to love; but inasmuch as there is a change in his dispensations towards his people, it is as if it was so; and thus it is apprehended by them;
deliver my soul; from the anxiety, distress, and sore vexation it was now in, for of all troubles soul troubles are the worst: and from all enemies and workers of iniquity which were now about him, and gave him much grief and uneasiness; and from death itself, he was in fear of;
O, save me for thy mercy’s sake; out of all troubles of soul and body, and out of the hands of all enemies, inward and outward; and with temporal, spiritual, and eternal salvation; not for his righteousness’s sake, as Kimchi well observes; for salvation is according to the abundant mercy of God, and not through works of righteousness done by men, otherwise it would not be of grace.
d Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 6:5-8) God has turned away from him, hence the prayer , viz., . The tone of is on the ult., because it is assumed to be read . The ultima accentuation is intended to secure its distinct pronunciation to the final syllable of , which is liable to be drowned and escape notice in connection with the coming together of the two aspirates (vid., on Psa 3:8). May God turn to him again, rescue ( from , which is transitive in Hebr. and Aram., to free, expedire, exuere , Arab. chalasa , to be pure, prop. to be loose, free) his soul, in which his affliction has taken deep root, from this affliction, and extend to him salvation on the ground of His mercy towards sinners. He founds this cry for help upon his yearning to be able still longer to praise God, – a happy employ, the possibility of which would be cut off from him if he should die. , as frequently , is used of remembering one with reverence and honour; (from ) has the dat. honoris after it. , Psa 6:6, (Rev 20:13), alternates with . Such is the name of the grave, the yawning abyss, into which everything mortal descends (from = Arab. sal , to be loose, relaxed, to hang down, sink down: a sinking in, that which is sunken in,
(Note: The form corresponds to the Arabic form fialun , which, though originally a verbal abstract, has carried over the passive meaning into the province of the concrete, e.g., kitab = maktub and ilah , = maluh = mabud (the feared, revered One).)
a depth). The writers of the Psalms all (which is no small objection against Maccabean Psalms) know only of one single gathering-place of the dead in the depth of the earth, where they indeed live, but it is only a quasi life, because they are secluded from the light of this world and, what is the most lamentable, from the light of God’s presence. Hence the Christian can only join in the prayer of v. 6 of this Psalm and similar passages (Psa 30:10; Psa 88:11-13; Psa 115:17; Isa 38:18.) so far as he transfers the notion of hades to that of gehenna.
(Note: An adumbration of this relationship of Christianity to the religion of the Old Testament is the relationship of Islam to the religion of the Arab wandering tribes, which is called the “religion of Abraham” ( Din Ibrahim ), and knows no life after death; while Islam has taken from the later Judaism and from Christianity the hope of a resurrection and heavenly blessedness.)
In hell there is really no remembrance and no praising of God. David’s fear of death as something in itself unhappy, is also, according to its ultimate ground, nothing but the fear of an unhappy death. In these “pains of hell” he is wearied with ( as in Psa 69:4) groaning, and bedews his couch every night with a river of tears. Just as the Hiph. signifies to cause to swim from to swim, so the Hiph. signifies to dissolve, cause to melt, from (cogn. ) to melt. , in Arabic a nom. unit. a tear, is in Hebrew a flood of tears.
In Psa 6:8 does not signify my “appearance” (Num 11:7), but, as becomes clear from Psa 31:10; Psa 88:10, Job 17:7, “my eye;” the eye reflects the whole state of a man’s health. The verb appears to be a denominative from : to be moth-eaten.
(Note: Reuchlin in his grammatical analysis of the seven Penitential Psalms, which he published in 1512 after his Ll. III de Rudimentis Hebraicis (1506), explains it thus: Verminavit. Sic a vermibus dictum qui turbant res claras puras et nitidas , and in the Rudim. p. 412: Turbatus est a furore oculus meus, corrosus et obfuscatus, quasi vitro laternae obductus .) The signification senescere for the verb is more certain. The closing words (cf. Num 10:9 the oppressing oppressor, from the root Arab. tsr, to press, squeeze, and especially to bind together, constringere, coartare
(Note: In Arabic dir is the word for a step-mother as the oppressor of the step-children; and dirr, a concubine as the oppressor of her rival.)),
in which the writer indicates, partially at least, the cause of his grief ( , in Job 18:7 ), are as it were the socket into which the following strophe is inserted.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
4. Return, O Lord. In the preceding verses the Psalmist bewailed the absence of God, and now he earnestly requests the tokens of his presence, for our happiness consists in this, that we are the objects of the Divine regard, but we think he is alienated front us, if he does not give us some substantial evidence of his care for us. That David was at this time in the utmost peril, we gather from these words, in which he prays both for the deliverance of his soul, as it were, from the jaws of death, and for his restoration to a state of safety. Yet no mention is made of any bodily disease, and, therefore, I give no judgment with respect to the kind of his affliction. David, again, confirms what he had touched upon in the second verse concerning the mercy of God, namely, that this is the only quarter from which he hopes for deliverance: Save me for thy mercy’s sake Men will never find a remedy for their miseries until, forgetting their own merits, by trusting to which they only deceive themselves, they have learned to betake themselves to the free mercy of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
‘Return, O YHWH, deliver my soul,
Save me for your lovingkindness’ sake,
For in death there is no remembrance of you,
In Sheol who will give you thanks?’
He senses the loss of YHWH’s presence (compare Psa 51:11). He feels that his sins have separated between him and God. So he pleads for Him to come back to him, on the basis of His warm covenant love, His lovingkindness, so as to heal him and restore their relationship. For he points out that he cannot worship YHWH if he dies and goes to the grave.
Sheol means the mysterious grave world where the dead go, and where they are only shadows without real life, in the land of silence and forgetfulness from where no man could return (Psa 30:9; Psa 88:10-12; Psa 115:17; Isa 14:9; Eze 31:17; Ezekiel 32; Job 3:17). And he felt so miserable and sinful, that unlike some other psalmists he could not muster up the thought that he might go to be with God (contrast Psa 16:10-11; Psa 23:6; Psa 49:15; Psa 73:24-25; Psa 139:24).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
When we read this petition as the words of Christ in the flesh, how much strength do we derive from the thought that, if in the long waiting of our souls for the Lord’s manifestation, we find Jesus exercised in the same before us, and therefore are in this way also made in conformity to our glorious Head; so by those exercises of the Son of God, we cannot but know that he takes interest in all that we encounter.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 6:4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
Ver. 4. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul ] He calleth hard upon Jehovah, which sweet name of God he hath now five times in these four first verses made use of, as one that knew, and could improve, the full import of it. Here David begs of him to return, not by change of place, for God filleth all places (being
Enter, praesenter Deus hic et ubique potenter ),
but miserationis serenitate, by a beam of his mercy, and by a dispensation of his gracious providence, altering his condition for the better, Deu 30:9 Act 15:16 .
Oh save me for thy mercies’ sake] Quam pulcherrime ista supplicatio propriis et profieientibus sermonibus explicatur, saith Cassiodore concerning this text, i.e. How finely and fitly is this request set forth! David pleaded not merit, but humbly craveth mercy. The heart (that piece of proud flesh) must be brought to such a temper and tameness, as to crouch to God for the crumbs that fall from his table.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 6:4-5
4Return, O Lord, rescue my soul;
Save me because of Your lovingkindness.
5For there is no mention of You in death;
In Sheol who will give You thanks?
Psa 6:4 As Psa 6:2 asks YHWH to act on the psalmist’s behalf (i.e., be gracious. . .heal), so too, Psa 6:4.
1. return BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal imperative
2. rescue BDB 322, KB 321, Piel imperative
3. save BDB 446, KB 448, Hiphil imperative
Notice the reason given for the requests is not the worth or merit of the psalmist but the unchanging, merciful character of the covenant creator/redeemer Deity!
One wonders what return in this context means. Did the psalmist think YHWH had departed or hid Himself?
lovingkindness See Special Topic: Lovingkindness .
Psa 6:5 Psa 6:5 gives the OT view of the afterlife. Sheol was a place of consciousness but no joy or praise. The whole issue of conscious existence beyond physical death is developed through Scripture. There are only hints in the OT (cf. Job 14:14-15; Job 19:25-27; Psa 16:10; Psa 49:15; Psa 86:13; Isa 25:8; Isa 26:19; Eze 37:12-13; Dan 12:1-2; Hos 13:14). The full truth is revealed in 1 Corinthians 15!
The Hebrew Sheol (BDB 982) refers to the realm of the dead. It is characterized by
1. a dark, gloomy place, Job 10:21-22; Psa 143:3
2. a place of no return, Job 10:21; Job 16:22
3. a place of no praise to God, Ps. 6:5; Ps. 30:9; Ps. 8:10-12; Ps. 115:17 (silence, Psa 94:17)
4. a place separated from God, Psa 88:5; Psa 39:13, yet God is there, Psa 139:8; Pro 15:11!
See SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead? .
Notice the author specifically mentions that in his understanding of Sheol, there is no
1. remembrance (BDB 271)
2. praise (BDB 392, KB 389, Hiphil imperfect, cf. Psa 30:9; Psa 88:10-12; Isa 38:18)
The Tyndale OT Commentary Series (vol. 15, p. 78) lists the imagery used in the OT for Sheol.
1. vast cavern Eze 32:18-32
2. stronghold Psa 9:13; Psa 107:18; Mat 16:18
3. dark wasteland Job 10:22
4. a huge beast with a large mouth Isa 5:14; Jon 2:2; Hab 2:5
Thank God for a New Testament!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
mercies = mercy’s. Hebrew lovingkindness.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 6:4-5
Psa 6:4-5
“Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul:
Save me for thy lovingkindness’ sake.
For in death there is no remembrance of thee:
In Sheol who shall give thee thanks?”
“For thy lovingkindness’ sake.”
All mortals must approach God, not upon the basis of their worth, their innocence, or their merit, but solely upon the basis of God’s mercy, God’s grace, and God’s lovingkindness.
“In death there is no remembrance of thee.” Radical critics have tried to use this statement to prove that, “Life beyond the grave is scarcely worthy of the name.
Whatever this expression means, it cannot reflect upon David’s conviction of life after death, as attested by Psa 16:10. Furthermore, David was doubtless familiar with Job 19:25 ff and other Old Testament passages that provide fleeting glimpses of life after death. Also, as Leupold said, “There is ample evidence of the Davidic authorship of Psalms 16, and that Isaiah 26 can be attributed to none other than Isaiah. This, of course completely frustrates the device of critically late-dating such passages for the false purpose of establishing the alleged late “addition” of the doctrine of the resurrection and life after death to the Divine teaching God granted to the Covenant people. In the New Testament we learn that as far back as Abraham, that patriarch was positively certain of God’s ability to restore life to the dead (Heb 11:19).
Despite the certainty of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead having been effectively mentioned in the Old Testament, as for example in Dan 12:2-3, it nevertheless remained for the Lord Jesus Christ to bring the full revelation of it to mankind in the New Testament. “According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2Ti 2:10).
David’s reference here to the inability of the dead to praise God in all likelihood has no other significance than the fact that dead people cannot go to church and worship God.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 6:4. Return did not mean that the Lord had forsaken David. He meant to pray for a return or repetition of the blessings of God.
Psa 6:5. In death . . . in the grave. These phrases must be considered together to get the thought intended by the writer. It is true that the body knows nothing while in the grave, for it is the part of man that dies and decays.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Return: Psa 80:14, Psa 90:13, Mal 3:7
deliver: Psa 17:13, Psa 22:20, Psa 86:13, Psa 116:4, Psa 116:8, Psa 120:2, Psa 121:7, Isa 38:17
for: Psa 25:7, Psa 69:13, Psa 79:8, Psa 79:9, Dan 9:18, Eph 1:6, Eph 2:7, Eph 2:8
Reciprocal: Psa 12:1 – Help Psa 31:16 – save Isa 38:11 – General Jer 17:14 – Heal
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 6:4-5. Return Unto me, from whom thou hast withdrawn thy smiling countenance and helping hand. Deliver my soul From guilt and fear; or preserve my life, for the word soul often signifies life. David, and other pious men in those times, were much averse to, and afraid of death, partly because the manifestations of Gods love to his people, and the discoveries of an immortal state of glory awaiting them after death, were then more dark and doubtful; and partly because thereby they were deprived of all opportunities of advancing Gods glory and kingdom in the world. For in death Or among the dead, or in the grave, as it follows; there is no remembrance of thee This is meant only of the bodies of persons deceased; not of their souls, which still survive, and do not sleep till the resurrection, as some have vainly imagined: and yet even their souls are incapable, when departed from the body, of remembering, praising, and glorifying God, in his church on earth; of celebrating his mercy and grace in the land of the living; of propagating his worship, or of exciting others to piety by their example: which is the remembrance of God of which he speaks. Hence, also, good men have often desired to have their lives prolonged, even under the Christian, as well as under the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensation, that they might be capable of glorifying God, and of fully executing his will in this world, in order, as the Hebrews speak, to increase the reward of their souls in the world to come.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2. Prayer for deliverance 6:4-5
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
David first appealed for deliverance from his ailment, claiming God’s loyal love to him. God had promised to bless David and had delivered him many times before. The king besought Him to prove faithful to His character and save him again.