Psalms 6 KJV
A Prayer in Distress
About This Psalm
David is physically ill and emotionally broken, begging God for mercy. Raw honesty about suffering - sometimes faith looks like tears on a pillow.
1 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 merciesโ 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 supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.
10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
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Did You Know?
Psalm 6 opens the traditional sequence of seven Penitential Psalms, a grouping first formalized by Cassiodorus in the sixth century that pairs each psalm with one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The superscription 'upon Sheminith' likely denotes an eight-stringed lyre or a mode linked to the eighth day, evoking covenant renewal and pointing forward to circumcision on the eighth day in later Jewish and early Christian exegesis.
Verse 5's rhetorical question about remembrance in Sheol participates in a wisdom dialogue with Ecclesiastes and Job, underscoring the psalm's contribution to Old Testament reflection on whether the dead can still praise God.
The sudden pivot from desperate lament to confident address of enemies in verses 8-10 exemplifies the 'certainty of a hearing' form-critical pattern identified by Joachim Begrich, illustrating how many individual laments move from plea to assurance before any external change occurs.
The closing phrase 'depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity' is quoted verbatim by Jesus in Matthew 7:23, forging an intertextual bridge between David's distress and eschatological judgment.