Mystical Psalter: Psalm 6

Psalm 6

1 O Yahweh, rebuke me not in Your anger, neither chasten me in Your displeasure.
2 Have mercy upon me, O Yahweh, for I am weak; O Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul is also very troubled, but You, O Yahweh, how long?
4 Return, O Yahweh, deliver my soul, save me for Your mercies’ sake.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol who will give You thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning. All the night I make my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
7 My eye is consumed because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping!
9 Yahweh has heard my supplication! Yahweh will receive my prayer!
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and very troubled; they shall turn back and be ashamed suddenly.

The Psalmist here prays to God out of great distress. He is sick and in danger of death—a prospect that fills his enemies with delight. He knows that he has sinned, and he accepts his sickness as God’s judgment for it—for, like all the ancients, he knew that sickness and death were God’s general judgments on a sinful world.

Nevertheless, he trusts in God’s love and mercy, and so he prays that Yahweh would not rebuke him in His anger against the children of men, nor chasten him with worsening sickness. Rather, he entreats Yahweh to have mercy upon him, and to heal him. He was weak and his bones (that is, his interior health) were troubled and were failing. More than that, his very soul (that is, his life) was very troubled, and death was approaching. He looked to Yahweh for help, but there was no response. Now he cried out in panic: Yahweh, how long would it be before He came to his rescue? Yahweh seemingly had abandoned him, and gone away. Let Yahweh return to him, let Him deliver his soul, let Him rescue his life.

For why should God let him die? For in death there is no remembrance of Him, no rehearsing of His mighty deeds in adoring worship. In Sheol, the land of the dead, who will give Him thanks in grateful sacrifice? If God should let him perish, all such worship would cease.

The psalmist pours out his suffering to God—he is exhausted, weary with his groaning and suffering. His pain will not let him rest, and all the night he makes his bed to swim as he waters his couch with his tears. He has cried so much that his eye, he says, is consumed because of his grief, and he can no longer see. When he thinks of his enemies, and how they gloat over his plight, he cries even more—his eye grows old and dim, worn out with weeping. The situation is desperate.

But, despite his sins, the psalmist trusts in Yahweh’s love and care, and the psalm ends on a note of relief and victory. God indeed intervened, and brought healing. Let David’s enemies, those workers of iniquity, depart from him! They had all crowded around him, eager to see him breathe his last—let them back off, and slink away! David crows triumphantly, exulting in God. Yahweh has heard the voice of his weeping! Yahweh has heard his supplication! Yahweh will receive his prayer and bring healing. All his enemies shall be ashamed and very troubled, utterly dismayed and deprived of their hope. They shall turn back, for God Himself will send them packing.

This psalm expresses the conviction that, whatever suffering we may have to endure, God will not abandon us, even if our situation seems hopeless. In the prophetic application of this psalm to Jesus, the sinless Son of David, we see how God vindicated Him and brought Him up from Sheol, the land of dead, raising Him on the third day, even after His plight seemed hopeless and He Himself seemed to be utterly defeated. When He arose victoriously from the dead, His enemies were suddenly ashamed. The sudden reversal of fortune celebrated in this psalm found final fulfillment in Christ. That is why Christ makes His own the psalmist’s cry of triumph, "Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity" (v. 8). For on the Last Day, Christ will utter these words to God’s foes, turning them back to their final doom (see Mt. 7:23, Lk. 13:27).