A Prayer Through Psalms: Chapter 6

O Lord, Deliver My Life

Psalm 6

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

1 O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,

   nor discipline me in your wrath.

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

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

3 My soul also is greatly troubled.

   But you, O Lord—how long?

4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;

   save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;

   in Sheol who will give you praise?

6 I am weary with my moaning;

   every night I flood my bed with tears;

   I drench my couch with my weeping.

7 My eye wastes away because of grief;

   it grows weak because of all my foes.

8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,

   for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

9 The Lord has heard my plea;

   the Lord accepts my prayer.

10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;

   they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

This Psalm of lament written by David is presumably written during a great sickness. David cries out for the Lord's help and ends the Psalm with faith that God will be good to him.

6:1- David asks the Lord to refrain from punishing him verbally or physically. However, Hebrews 12: 1-13 tells us that God does indeed discipline His children, but it's for their good, not destruction.

6:2- David is suffering, either very sick or in some state of spiritual distress.

6:3- David is asking God how long his suffering is going to continue. He is seeking relief from the one place he knows it can come from.

6:4- David implies that God has turned his back on him and asks God to turn back and save him.

6:5- This passage is very interesting and really lays out the difference between the Old and New Covenant. David and the other Israelites under the Old Covenant didn't have as clear of and understanding of death as you and I under the New Covenant do. The New Testament clearly teaches that there is a life after death and the body of believers will be Resurrected and bring glory to God after death. However, the Old Testament does not make that clear, so David is seeking to make each and every moment of his life glorifying to God because he thinks that he will loose that ability after death. Sheol simply means "death."

6:6- David is very very sad...

6:7- The salt water of his tears are slowly wearing away at his eyes. He is losing sight because of all the evil surrounding him.

6:8- It is likely that the "foes" referred to in this and the preceding verses are like Job's friends who blamed his troubles on some past sin that he may or may not have committed.

6:9-10- God was faithful in the end and provided relief.

My prayer for this morning goes out to all those who are unwell or struggling with spiritual depression. I pray that you will remain strong in the Lord, remembering that He can provide relief in your suffering. I pray that God will hear the cry of those in need and provide them with much needed peace. I also thank God for His past faithfulness in the my life and the lives of the psalmists who called on his name.