Psalms 6 commentary

These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent to awaken conscience and mortify corruption. Sickness brought sin to his remembrance, and he looked upon it as a token of God's displeasure against him. The affliction of his body will be tolerable, if he has comfort in his soul. Christ's sorest complaint, in his sufferings, was of the trouble of his soul, and the want of his Father's smiles. Every page of Scripture proclaims the fact, that salvation is only of the Lord. Man is a sinner, his case can only be reached by mercy; and never is mercy more illustrious than in restoring backsliders. With good reason we may pray, that if it be the will of God, and he has any further work for us or our friends to do in this world, he will yet spare us or them to serve him. To depart and be with Christ is happiest for the saints; but for them to abide in the flesh is more profitable for the church.

What a sudden change is here! Having made his request known to God, the psalmist is confident that his sorrow will be turned into joy. By the workings of God's grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was accepted, and did not doubt but it would, in due time, be answered. His prayers will be accepted, coming up out of the hands of Christ the Mediator. The word signifies prayer made to God, the righteous Judge, as the God of his righteousness, who would plead his cause, and right his wrongs. A believer, through the blood and righteousness of Christ, can go to God as a righteous God, and plead with him for pardon and cleansing, who is just and faithful to grant both. He prays for the conversion of his enemies, or foretells their ruin.

PSALM 6.

David, being afflicted by the hand of God, acknowledges that he had provoked the Divine wrath by his sins, and, therefore, in order to obtain relief, he prays for forgiveness. At the same time, he regrets, that by being taken out of the world, he would be deprived of an opportunity of praising God. Then, having obtained confidence, he celebrates the grace of God, and directs his discourse to his enemies, who triumphed over his calamities.

To the chief musician on Neginoth, upon the eighth. A song of David.

The name of Song shows that David composed this psalm, in which he describes the passionate workings of his grief in the time of his troubles after he had obtained deliverance from the evils which he deplores. What the kind of chastisement was of which he speaks is uncertain. Those who restrict it to bodily disease do not adduce in support of their opinion any argument of sufficient weight. They insist on the word אמל, amal, which occurs in verse third, where he says, “I am weak,” which indeed signifies to be sick; but it is more probable that it is here used metaphorically. They allege that Hezekiah, after his recovery from sickness, sung in the same strains as are here recorded, concerning death. But in <19B601>Psalm 116, where no mention is made of bodily disease, the same complaint is uttered by the Psalmist in the name of the whole Church. We can, indeed, gather from these words that the life of David was in the utmost danger, but it may have been some other kind of affliction than bodily sickness under which he labored. We may, therefore, adopt this as the more certain interpretation, that he had been stricken by some severe calamity, or that some punishment had been inflicted upon him, which presented to his view on every side only the shadow of death. It ought also to be considered, that this psalm was not composed at the very time when he presented to God the prayers recorded in it; but that the prayers which he had meditated and uttered in the midst of his dangers and sadness were, after he had obtained respite, committed to writing. This explains why he joins the sorrow with which he certainly had struggled for a time with the joy which he afterwards experienced. With respect to the word eighth, as we have before said that נגינות, Neginoth, signifies a musical instrument, I do not know whether it would be correct to say, that it was a harp of eight strings. I am rather inclined to the opinion that it refers to the tune, and points out the particular kind of music to which the psalm was to be sung. Sheminith, or the eighth, “is thought to be the shrillest or loftiest note, as Alomoth is the lowest; of which see 1 Chronicles 15:20, 21. But all this is only conjecture; and the Jews themselves have no certain knowledge of their ancient music, and of the signification of the terms belonging to it.” — Poole’s Annotations. However, in a matter so obscure and of so little importance I leave every one at liberty to form his own conjecture.

Psalm 6:1

1. Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger, and chastise me not in thine indignation.

The calamity which David now experienced had, perhaps, been inflicted by men, but he wisely considers that he has to deal with God. Those persons are very unsuitably exercised under their afflictions who do not immediately take a near and a steady view of their sins, in order thereby to produce the conviction that they have deserved the wrath of God. And yet we see how thoughtless and insensible almost all men are on this subject; for while they cry out that they are afflicted and miserable, scarcely one among a hundred looks to the hand which strikes. From whatever quarter, therefore, our afflictions come, let us learn to turn our thoughts instantly to God, and to acknowledge him as the Judge who summons us as guilty before his tribunal, since we, of our own accord, do not anticipate his judgment. But as men, when they are compelled to feel that God is angry with them, often indulge in complaints full of impiety, rather than find fault with themselves and their own sins, it is to be particularly noticed that David does not simply ascribe to God the afflictions under which he is now suffering, but acknowledges them to be the just recompense of his sins. He does not take God to task as if he had been an enemy, treating him with cruelty without any just cause; but yielding to him the right of rebuking and chastening, he desires and prays only that bounds may be set to the punishment inflicted on him. By this he declares God to be a just Judge in taking vengeance on the sins of men. “En faisant vengence des forfaits des hommes.” — Fr. But as soon as he has confessed that he is justly chastised, he earnestly beseeches God not to deal with him in strict justice, or according to the utmost rigour of the law. He does not altogether refuse punishment, for that would be unreasonable; and to be without it, he judged would be more hurtful than beneficial to him: but what he is afraid of is the wrath of God, which threatens sinners with ruin and perdition. To anger and indignation David tacitly opposes fatherly and gentle chastisement, and this last he was willing to bear. We have a similar contrast in the words of Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 10:24,) “O Lord,” says he, “correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger.” God is, indeed, said to be angry with sinners whenever he inflicts punishment upon them, but not in the proper and strict sense, inasmuch as he not only mingles with it some of the sweetness of his grace to mitigate their sorrow, but also shows himself favorable to them, in moderating their punishment, and in mercifully drawing back his hand. But, as we must necessarily be stricken with terror whenever he shows himself the avenger of wickedness, it is not without cause that David, according to the sense of the flesh, is afraid of his anger and indignation. The meaning therefore is this: I indeed confess, O Lord, that I deserve to be destroyed and brought to nought; but as I would be unable to endure the severity of thy wrath, deal not with me according to my deserts, but rather pardon my sins, by which I have provoked thine anger against me. As often, then, as we are pressed down by adversity, let us learn, from the example of David, to have recourse to this remedy, that we may be brought into a state of peace with God; for it is not to be expected that it can be well or prosperous with us if we are not interested in his favor. Whence it follows, that we shall never be without a load of evils, until he forgive us our sins.

Psalm 6:2-3

2. Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am weak; heal me, O Jehovah, for my bones are afraid. 3. And my soul is exceedingly troubled; Or greatly terrified. This is a very correct rendering of the original words נבהלה מאד; nibhalah meod: and they are very like those uttered by the Savior in his agony, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” and thou, O Jehovah, how long? “Mais toy, Seigneur, jusques a quand m’affligeras-tu?” — Fr. “But thou, O Lord, how long wilt thou afflict me?”

PSALM 6

Psa 6:1-10. On Neginoth (See on Psa 4:1, title) upon Sheminith--the eighth--an instrument for the eighth key; or, more probably, the bass, as it is contrasted with Alamoth (the treble, Psa 46:1) in 1Ch 15:20,21. In deep affliction the Psalmist appeals to God's mercy for relief from chastisement, which otherwise must destroy him, and thus disable him for God's service. Sure of a gracious answer, he triumphantly rebukes his foes.

1. He owns his ill desert in begging a relief from chastisement.

2. I am weak--as a culled plant (Is 24:4).

my bones--the very frame.

are vexed--(Psa 2:5)--shaken with fear.

3. how long?--shall this be so (compare Psa 79:5).

but--or, "and."

thou--The sentence is incomplete as expressive of strong emotion.

4. Return--that is, to my relief; or, "turn," as now having His face averted.

for thy mercies' sake--to illustrate Thy mercy.

5. (Compare Psa 115:17, 18; Is 38:18). There is no incredulity as to a future state. The contrast is between this scene of life, and the grave or Sheol, the unseen world of the dead.

give ... thanks--or, "praise for mercies."

6. By a strong figure the abundance as well as intensity of grief is depicted.

7. consumed--or, "has failed," denoting general debility (Psa 13:3; 38:10).

waxeth old--or, "dim."

grief--mingled with indignation.

8-9. Assured of God's hearing, he suddenly defies his enemies by an address indicating that he no longer fears them.

10. and knows they will be disappointed and in their turn (compare Psa 6:3) be terror-stricken or confounded.

O Lord, rebuke me not - This Psalm, Which is one of the seven Penitential Psalms, is supposed to have been written during some grievous disease with which David was afflicted after his transgression with Bath-sheba. It argues a deep consciousness of sin, and apprehension of the just displeasure of God. It is the very language of a true penitent who is looking around for help, and who sees, as Bishop Horne well expresses it, "above, an angry God, ready to take vengeance; beneath, the fiery gulf, ready to receive him; without, a world in flames; within, the gnawing worm." Of all these, none so dreadful as an angry God; his wrath he particularly deprecates. God rebukes and chastens him, and he submits; but he prays not to be rebuked in anger, nor chastened in hot displeasure. because he knows that these must bring him down to total and final destruction.

Have mercy - I have no merit. I deserve all I feel and all I fear.

O Lord, heal me - No earthly physician can cure my malady. Body and soul are both diseased, and only God can help me.

I am weak - אמלל umlal. I am exceedingly weak; I cannot take nourishment, and my strength is exhausted.

My bones are vexed - The disease hath entered into my bones.

How long? - How long shall I continue under this malady? How long will it be before thou speak peace to my troubled heart?

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!

In death there is no remembrance of thee - Man is to glorify thee on earth. The end for which he was born cannot be accomplished in the grave; heal my body, and heal my soul, that I may be rendered capable of loving and serving thee here below. A dead body in the grave can do no good to men, nor bring any glory to thy name!

Mine eye is consumed - עששה asheshah, is blasted, withered, sunk in my head.

Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity - It seems that while he was suffering grievously through the disease, his enemies had insulted and mocked him; - upbraided him with his transgressions, not to increase his penitence, but to cast him into despair.

The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping - The Lord pitifully beheld the sorrows of his heart, and mercifully forgave his sins.

Ashamed and sore vexed - May they as deeply deplore their transgressions as I have done mine! May they return; may they be suddenly converted! The original will bear this meaning, and it is the most congenial to Christian principles.

Bones - My inmost parts.

In death - Among the dead. Remembrance - He speaks of the remembrance or celebration of God's grace in the land of the living, to the edification of God's church, and the propagation of true religion among men; which is not done in the other life.

With my tears - It well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender, and to relent under the tokens of God's 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.

Hath heard - By the workings of God's grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was accepted. His tears had a voice, in the ears of the God of mercy. Silent tears are no speechless ones. Our tears are cries to God.

Ashamed - Of their vain confidence. Return - Repent of their sins and return to their obedience.

1. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger , neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure .

(i. e.) Do not chasten or correct me, as the next Clause explains it, and as this word is frequently used, as Iob 22. 4. Psal. 50. 21. Isa. 37. 4. Revel. 3. 19.

With rigour or severity, as my Sins deserve, but with gentleness and moderation, Ier. 10. 24. and 46. 28. or so as it may not be the effect of thy strict Justice or Anger, but of thy Mercy and Faithfulness.

The same thing repeated after the manner.

Marginal references: Psal. 38.

2. Have mercy upon me , O LORD, for I am weak : O LORD, heal me for my bones are vexed .

I plead not my merit, but thy free Mercy.

Or, I languish, my Body pines away and my Spirit fails through my excessive pains or troubles.

(i. e.) The distempers of my Soul and Body, of both which this word is used, Psal. 41. 4. and 107. 18, 20.

My torment is so deep and so general, that it reacheth, and is very grievous even to my Bones, tho they are inward, and might seem to be out of the reach of it, and also strong and senseless, and therefore can best bear it. See the like expressions, Iob 4. 14. and 33. 19. Psal. 38. 3. and 51. 8.

3. My soul is also sore vexed : but thou, O LORD, how long ?

Partly by sympathy with my Body; and partly with the burthen of my Sins, and the sence of thine Anger, and my own danger and misery.

Wiltst thou suffer me to ly and languish in this condition? It is a Figure called Aposiopesis, very agreeable to men in pain or anguish, who use to cut their words short.

4. Return , O LORD, deliver my soul : oh, save me for thy mercies sake.

Unto me, from whom thou hast withdrawn thy self, and thy smiling Countenance, and thy helping Hand.

(i. e.) Save me, or my life, as the Soul oft signifies, as Gen. 9. 5. and 12. 5. Iob 36. 14. Psal. 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 God's Glory and Kingdom in the World. Comp. Isa. 38. 1, 2, 3.

5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee : in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Amongst the dead: or in the grave, as it follows.

To wit, by me David, consisting both of Soul and Body; and no such remembrance, to wit, in way of thankfulness and praise, as the next Clause of the Verse limits and explains it; which he might fear would be true, not only because he should not have occasion to praise God for this deliverance, but also because he was in grievous agonies of Conscience, and under terrors of God's wrath, and his eternal damnation; which being oft incident to the Saints of God under the new Testament, it is not strange if it were so also under the old Testament. Besides he speaks of the remembrance or celebration of God's Name and Grace in the Land of the Living, to the enlargement and edification of God's Church, and the propagation of true Religion among men; which is not done in the other life, and was justly prized at so high a rate by David and other holy men, to whom therefore it must needs be a great grief to be for ever deprived of such Opportunities. For otherwise David very well knew, and firmly believed that Souls departed were not extinct, but did go to God, Eccles. 12. 7. and there remember and adore and enjoy God, tho quite in another way than that of which he here speaks.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 30. 9. [illegible: 1 word]. 11. & 11. 17. & [illegible: 1 word]. 17.; [illegible: 1 word]. 33. 18. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]

6. I am weary with my groaning, all the night make I my bed to swim ; I water my couch with my tears.

He mentions this time, by way of aggravation of his misery, because that season, which is to others by God's 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 and silence of the Night gave him to think of his own Sins, or his Enemies Perfidiousness and Malice, or God's Displeasure, or his future Estate.

To wit, with tears. See the like [illegible: 1+ letters]yperbole Ier. 9. 1. Lam. 3. 48, 49.

Or, my bedstead.

Marginal references: Or, every [illegible: 1 word].

7. Mine eye is consumed because of grief ; it waxeth old because of all mine Enemies.

Or, grown dim or dull, through plenty of salt tears which I shed: Or, through the decay of my Spirits.

(i. e.) My grief arising from mine Enemies, as the next Clause interprets it, and from the consideration of their multitude and rage, and falseness.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 17. 7. [illegible: 1 word]. 31. 9. & [illegible: 1 word] 10. [illegible: 1 word]. 5. 17.

8. Depart from me , all ye workers of Iniquity ; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping .

I advise you for your own sakes to cease from opposing or molesting me, or insulting over me, or approaching to me, with design of deceiving and betraying me: for all your labor will be lost.

All you wicked Enemies of mine.

(i. e.) He will hear, the past time being put for the future, as is usual in prophetical Passages, such as this was; David having received by the Spirit of God particular assurance that God would hear and deliver him.

(i. e.) Of my fervent Prayers joyned with my Tears.

Marginal references: Mat. 7. 23. & 25. 41. Luk. 13. 27. P[illegible: 1+ letters]l. [illegible: 1+ letters] 19. 115.; Psal. 31. 22.

9. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.

And therefore will hear, as it follows. He draws an Argument from his former Experience.

10. Let all mine Enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly .

Of their vain hopes and confidence of conquering and destroying me. Or, they shall be ashamed, because of their great and unexpected disappointment.

To wit, from their wicked ways, from their hostile and malicious practises against me, and let them come and submit to me, from whom they have revolted. Or, let them turn back, as it is expressed Psal. 56. 9. let them be put to flight. Or, let them be converted. (i. e.) Repent of their Sins and return to their Obedience to me. Although it seems more probable both from the foregoing and following words, that this turning or returning is rather penal than penitential. Or, they shall turn or return. Or this Verb may be taken adverbially and joyned to the following Verb, as it is frequently in other places, and both may be thus rendered, Let them, or They shall be again ashamed, clothed, as it were, with double shame.

Sooner than I could hope, or they did expect or believe.

A Cry for Mercy under Judgement

The morning prayer, Psa 5:1-12, is followed by a “Psalm of David,” which, even if not composed in the morning, looks back upon a sleepless, tearful night. It consists of three strophes. In the middle one, which is a third longer than the other two, the poet, by means of a calmer outpouring of his heart, struggles on from the cry of distress in the first strophe to the believing confidence of the last. The hostility of men seems to him as a punishment of divine wrath, and consequently (but this is not so clearly expressed as in Ps 38, which is its counterpart) as the result of his sin; and this persecution, which to him has God’s wrath behind it and sin as the sting of its bitterness, makes him sorrowful and sick even unto death. Because the Psalm contains no confession of sin, one might be inclined to think that the church has wrongly reckoned it as the first of the seven (probably selected with reference to the seven days of the week) Psalmi paenitentiales (Psa 6:1, Psa 32:1, Psa 38:1, Psa 51:1, Psa 102:1, Psa 130:1, Psa 143:1). A. H. Francke in his Introductio in Psalterium says, it is rather Psalmus precatorius hominis gravissimi tentati a paenitente probe distinguendi. But this is a mistake. The man who is tempted is distinguished from a penitent man by this, that the feeling of wrath is with the one perfectly groundless and with the other well-grounded. Job was one who was tempted thus. Our psalmist, however, is a penitent, who accordingly seeks that the punitive chastisement of God, as the just God, may for him be changed into the loving chastisement of God, as the merciful One.

We recognise here the language of penitently believing prayer, which has been coined by David. Compare Psa 6:2 with Psa 38:2; Psa 6:3 with Psa 41:5; Psa 6:5 with Psa 109:26; Psa 6:6 with Psa 30:10; Psa 6:7 with Psa 69:4; Psa 6:8 with Psa 31:10; Psa 6:10 with Psa 35:4, Psa 35:26. The language of Heman’s Psalm is perceptibly different, comp. Psa 6:6 with Psa 88:11-13; Psa 6:8 with Psa 88:10. And the corresponding strains in Jeremiah (comp. Psa 6:2, Psa 38:2 with Jer 10:24; Psa 6:3 and Psa 6:5 with Jer 17:14; Psa 6:7 with Jer 45:3) are echoes, which to us prove that the Psalm belongs to an earlier age, not that it was composed by the prophet (Hitzig). It is at once probable, from the almost anthological relationship in which Jeremiah stands to the earlier literature, that in the present instance also he is the reproducer. And this idea is confirmed by the fact that in Jer 10:25, after language resembling the Psalm before us, he continues in words taken from Psa 79:6. When Hitzig maintains that David could no more have composed this disconcertedly despondent Psalm than Isaiah could the words in Isa 21:3-4, we refer, in answer to him, to Isa 22:4 and to the many attestations that David did weep, 2Sa 1:12; 2Sa 3:32; 2Sa 12:21; 2Sa 15:30; 2Sa 19:1.

The accompanying musical direction runs: To the Precentor, with accompaniment of stringed instruments, upon the Octave. The lxx translates ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀγδόης, and the Fathers associate with it the thought of the octave of eternal happiness, ἡ ὀγδόη ἐκείνη, as Gregory of Nyssa says, ἥτίς ἐστιν ὁ ἐφεξῆς αἰών. But there is no doubt whatever that על־השּׁמינית has reference to music. It is also found by Psa 12:1-8, and besides in 1Ch 15:21. From this latter passage it is at least clear that it is not the name of an instrument. An instrument with eight strings could not have been called an octave instead of an octachord. In that passage they played upon nablas על־עלמות, and with citherns על־השּׁמינית. If עלמות denotes maidens = maidens’ voices i.e., soprano, then, as it seems, השּׁמינית is a designation of the bass, and על־השׁמינית equivalent to all' ottava bassa. The fact that Psa 46:1-11, which is accompanied by the direction על־עלמות, is a joyous song, whereas Psa 6:1-10 is a plaintive one and Psa 12:1-8 not less gloomy and sad, accords with this. These two were to be played in the lower octave, that one in the higher.

Psa 6:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_6:2-4) There is a chastisement which proceeds from God’s love to the man as being pardoned and which is designed to purify or to prove him, and a chastisement which proceeds from God’s wrath against the man as striving obstinately against, or as fallen away from, favour, and which satisfies divine justice. Psa 94:12; Psa 118:17; Pro 3:11. speak of this loving chastisement. The man who should decline it, would act against his own salvation. Accordingly David, like Jeremiah (Jer 10:24), does not pray for the removal of the chastisement but of the chastisement in wrath, or what is the same thing, of the judgment proceeding from wrath [Zorngericht]. בּאפּך and בּחמתך stand in the middle, between אל and the verbs, for the sake of emphasis. Hengstenberg indeed finds a different antithesis here. He says: “The contrast is not that of chastisement in love with chastisement in wrath, but that of loving rescue in contrast with chastisement, which always proceeds from the principle of wrath.” If what is here meant is, that always when God chastens a man his wrath is the true and proper motive, it is an error, for the refutation of which one whole book of the Bible, viz., the Book of Job, has been written. For there the friends think that God is angry with Job; but we know from the prologue that, so far from being angry with him, he on the contrary glories in him. Here, in this Psalm, assuming David to be its author, and his adultery the occasion of it, it is certainly quite otherwise. The chastisement under which David is brought low, has God’s wrath as its motive: it is punitive chastisement and remains such, so long as David remains fallen from favour. But if in sincere penitence he again struggles through to favour, then the punitive becomes a loving chastisement: God’s relationship to him becomes an essentially different relationship. The evil, which is the result of his sin and as such indeed originates in the principle of wrath, becomes the means of discipline and purifying which love employs, and this it is that he here implores for himself. And thus Dante AlighieriProvided he is the author of I sêtte Salmi Penitenziali trasportati alla volgar poesia, vid., Dante Alighieri’s Lyric poems, translated and annotated by Kannegiesser and Witte (1842) i. 203f., ii. 208f. correctly and beautifully paraphrases the verse:Signor, non mi riprender con furore, E non voler correggermi con ira, Ma con dolcezza e con perfetto amore.

In חנּני David prays God to let him experience His loving-kindness and tender mercy in place of the punishment He has a right to inflict; for anguish of soul has already reduced him to the extreme even of bodily sickness: he is withered up and weary. אמלל has Pathach, and consequently seems to be the 3 pers. Pul. as in Joe 1:10; Nah 1:4; but this cannot be according to the rules of grammar. It is an adjective, like רענן, שׁאנן, with the passive pointing. The formation אמלל (from אמל Arab. aml, with the primary meaning to stretch out lengthwise) is analogous to the IX and XI forms of the Arabic verb which serve especially to express colours and defects (Caspari §59). The two words אני אמלל have the double accent Mercha-Mahpach together, and according to the exact mode of writing (vid., Baer in my Psalter ii. 492) the Mahpach, (the sign resembling Mahpach or rather Jethib), ought to stand between the two words, since it at the same time represents the Makkeph. The principal tone of the united pair, therefore, lies on aani; and accordingly the adj. אמלל is shortened to אמלל (cf. אדמדּם, הפכפּך, מרמס, and the like) - a contraction which proves that אמלל is not treated as part. Pul. (= מאמלל), for its characteristic a4 is unchangeable. The prayer for healing is based upon the plea that his bones (Job 4:14; Isa 38:13) are affrighted. We have no German word exactly corresponding to this נבהל which (from the radical notion “to let go,” cogn. בּלהּ) expresses a condition of outward overthrow and inward consternation, and is therefore the effect of fright which disconcerts one and of excitement that deprives one of self-control.We have translated Dr. Delitzsch’s word erschrecht literally - the vexed of the Authorized Version seems hardly equal to the meaning.

His soul is still more shaken than his body. The affliction is therefore not a merely bodily ailment in which only a timorous man loses heart. God’s love is hidden from him. God’s wrath seems as though it would wear him completely away. It is an affliction beyond all other afflictions. Hence he enquires: And Thou, O Jahve, how long?! Instead of אתה it is written את, which the Kerî says is to be read אתּה, while in three passages (Num 11:15; Deu 5:24; Eze 28:14) אתּ is admitted as masc.

Psa 6:4-7 (Hebrew_Bible_6:5-8) God has turned away from him, hence the prayer שׁוּבה, viz., אלי. The tone of שׁוּבה is on the ult., because it is assumed to be read שׁוּבה אדני. The ultima accentuation is intended to secure its distinct pronunciation to the final syllable of שׁובה, 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 (חלּץ from חלץ, which is transitive in Hebr. and Aram., to free, expedire, exuere, Arab. chalaṣa, 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. זכר, as frequently הזכּיר, is used of remembering one with reverence and honour; הודה (from ודה) has the dat. honoris after it. שׁאול, Psa 6:6, ἅδης (Rev 20:13), alternates with מות. Such is the name of the grave, the yawning abyss, into which everything mortal descends (from שׁאל = שׁוּל Arab. sâl, to be loose, relaxed, to hang down, sink down: a sinking in, that which is sunken in,The form corresponds to the Arabic form fi‛âlun, which, though originally a verbal abstract, has carried over the passive meaning into the province of the concrete, e.g., kitâb = maktûb and ilâh, אלוהּ = ma‛lûh = ma‛bûd (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.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 Ibrâhim ), 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 (בּ as in Psa 69:4) groaning, and bedews his couch every night with a river of tears. Just as the Hiph. השׂחה signifies to cause to swim from שׂחה to swim, so the Hiph. המסה signifies to dissolve, cause to melt, from מסה (cogn. מסס) to melt. דּמעה, in Arabic a nom. unit. a tear, is in Hebrew a flood of tears.

In Psa 6:8 עיני 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 עשׁשׁ appears to be a denominative from עשׁ: to be moth-eaten.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: עשׁשׁה 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 עתק is more certain. The closing words בּכל־צוררי (cf. Num 10:9 הצּר הצּרר the oppressing oppressor, from the root צר Arab. tsr, to press, squeeze, and especially to bind together, constringere, coartareIn Arabic ציר dir is the word for a step-mother as the oppressor of the step-children; and צרר dirr, a concubine as the oppressor of her rival.), in which the writer indicates, partially at least, the cause of his grief (כּעס, in Job 18:7 כּעשׁ), are as it were the socket into which the following strophe is inserted.

Psa 6:8-10 (Hebrew_Bible_6:9-11) Even before his plaintive prayer is ended the divine light and comfort come quickly into his heart, as Frisch says in his “Neuklingende Harfe Davids.” His enemies mock him as one forsaken of God, but even in the face of his enemies he becomes conscious that this is not his condition. Thrice in Psa 6:9, Psa 6:10 his confidence that God will answer him flashes forth: He hears his loud sobbing, the voice of his weeping that rises towards heaven, He hears his supplication, and He graciously accepts his prayer. The twofold שׁמע expresses the fact and יקח its consequence. That which he seems to have to suffer, shall in reality be the lot of his enemies, viz., the end of those who are rejected of God: they shall be put to shame. The בּושׁ, Syr. behet, Chald. בּהת, בּהת, which we meet with here for the first time, is not connected with the Arab. bht, but (since the Old Arabic as a rule has t` as a mediating vowel between ש and t, )ת with Arab. bât, which signifies “to turn up and scatter about things that lie together (either beside or upon each other)” eruere et diruere, disturbare, - a root which also appears in the reduplicated form Arab. bṯṯ: to root up and disperse, whence Arab. battun, sorrow and anxiety, according to which therefore בּושׁ (= בּושׁ as Arab. bâta = bawata) prop. signifies disturbare, to be perplexed, lose one’s self-control, and denotes shame according to a similar, but somewhat differently applied conception to confundi, συγχεῖσθαι, συγχύνεσθαι. ויבּהלוּ points back to Psa 6:2, Psa 6:3 : the lot at which the malicious have rejoiced, shall come upon themselves. As is implied in יבשׁוּ ישׁבוּ, a higher power turns back the assailants filled with shame (Psa 9:4; Psa 35:4).

What an impressive finish we have here in these three Milels , jashûbu jebôshu rāga ), in relation to the tripping measure of the preceding words addressed to his enemies! And, if not intentional, yet how remarkable is the coincidence, that shame follows the involuntary reverse of the foes, and that יבשׁו in its letters and sound is the reverse of ישׁבו! What music there is in the Psalter! If composers could but understand it!!

David's Complaints.

1 O 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 mercies' 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.

These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled under humbling providences, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent on purpose to awaken conscience and mortify corruption. Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them; but those are getting ready for mercy who, under God's rebukes, sow in tears, as David does here. Let us observe here,

I. The representation he makes to God of his grievances. He pours out his complaint before him. Whither else should a child go with his complaints, but to his father? 1. He complains of bodily pain and sickness (v. 2): My bones are vexed. His bones and his flesh, like Job's, were touched. Though David was a king, yet he was sick and pained; his imperial crown could not keep his head from aching. Great men are men, and subject to the common calamities of human life. Though David was a stout man, a man of war from his youth, yet this could not secure him from distempers, which will soon make even the strong men to bow themselves. Though David was a good man, yet neither could his goodness keep him in health. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Let this help to reconcile us to pain and sickness, that it has been the lot of some of the best saints, and that we are directed and encouraged by their example to show before God our trouble in that case, who is for the body, and takes cognizance of its ailments. 2. He complains of inward trouble: My soul is also sorely vexed; and that is much more grievous than the vexation of the bones. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, if that be in good plight; but, if that be wounded, the grievance is intolerable. David's sickness brought his sin to his remembrance, and he looked upon it as a token of God's displeasure against him; that was the vexation of his soul; that made him cry, I am weak, heal me. It is a sad thing for a man to have his bones and his soul vexed at the same time; but this has been sometimes the lot of God's own people: nay, and this completed his complicated trouble, that it was continued upon him a great while, which is here intimated in that expostulation (v. 3), Thou, O Lord! how long? To the living God we must, at such a time, address ourselves, who is the only physician both of body and mind, and not to the Assyrians, not to the god of Ekron.

II. The impression which his troubles made upon him. They lay very heavily; he groaned till he was weary, wept till he made his bed to swim, and watered his couch (v. 6), wept till he had almost wept his eyes out (v. 7): My eye is consumed because of grief. David had more courage and consideration than to mourn thus for any outward affliction; but, when sin sat heavily upon his conscience and he was made to possess his iniquities, when his soul was wounded with the sense of God's wrath and his withdrawings from him, then he thus grieves and mourns in secret, and even his soul refuses to be comforted. This not only kept his eyes waking, but kept his eyes weeping. Note, 1. It has often been the lot of the best of men to be men of sorrows; our Lord Jesus himself was so. Our way lies through a vale of tears, and we must accommodate ourselves to the temper of the climate. 2. It well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender, and to relent, under the tokens of God's displeasure. David, who could face Goliath himself and many another threatening enemy with an undaunted bravery, yet melts into tears at the remembrance of sin and under the apprehensions of divine wrath; and it was no diminution at all to his character to do so. 3. True penitents weep in their retirements. The Pharisees disguised their faces, that they might appear unto men to mourn; but David mourned in the night upon the bed where he lay communing with his own heart, and no eye was a witness to his grief, but the eye of him who is all eye. Peter went out, covered his face, and wept. 4. Sorrow for sin ought to be great sorrow; so David's was; he wept so bitterly, so abundantly, that he watered his couch. 5. The triumphs of wicked men in the sorrows of the saints add very much to their grief. David's eye waxed old because of his enemies, who rejoiced in his afflictions and put bad constructions upon his tears. In this great sorrow David was a type of Christ, who often wept, and who cried out, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, Heb. v. 7.

III. The petitions which he offers up to God in this sorrowful and distressed state. 1. That which he dreads as the greatest evil is the anger of God. This was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery; it was the infusion of this that made it indeed a bitter cup; and therefore he prays (v. 1), O Lord! rebuke me not in thy anger, though I have deserved it, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. He does not pray, "Lord, rebuke me not; Lord, chasten me not;" for, as many as God loves he rebukes and chastens, as a father the son in whom he delights. He can bear the rebuke and chastening well enough if God, at the same time, lift up the light of his countenance upon him and by his Spirit make him to hear the joy and gladness of his loving-kindness; the affliction of his body will be tolerable if he have but comfort in his soul. No matter though sickness make his bones ache, if God's wrath do not make his heart ache; therefore his prayer is, "Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; let me not lie under the impressions of that, for that will sink me." Herein David was a type of Christ, whose sorest complaint, in his sufferings, was of the trouble of his soul and of the suspension of his Father's smiles. He never so much as whispered a complaint of the rage of his enemies—"Why do they crucify me?" or the unkindness of his friends—"Why do they desert me?" But he cried with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Let us thus deprecate the wrath of God more than any outward trouble whatsoever and always beware of treasuring up wrath against a day of affliction. 2. That which he desires as the greatest good, and which would be to him the restoration of all good, is the favour and friendship of God. He prays, (1.) That God would pity him and look upon him with compassion. He thinks himself very miserable, and misery is the proper object of mercy. Hence he prays, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord! in wrath remember mercy, and deal not with me in strict justice." (2.) That God would pardon his sins; for that is the proper act of mercy, and is often chiefly intended in that petition, Have mercy upon me. (3.) That God would put forth his power for his relief: "Lord, heal me (v. 2), save me (v. 4), speak the word, and I shall be whole, and all will be well." (4.) That he would be at peace with him: "Return, O Lord! receive me into thy favour again, and be reconciled to me. Thou hast seemed to depart from me and neglect me, nay, to set thyself at a distance, as one angry; but now, Lord, return and show thyself nigh to me." (5.) That he would especially preserve the inward man and the interests of that, whatever might become of the body: "O Lord! deliver my soul from sinning, from sinking, from perishing for ever." It is an unspeakable privilege that we have a God to go to in our afflictions, and it is our duty to go to him, and thus to wrestle with him, and we shall not seek in vain.

IV. The pleas with which he enforces his petitions, not to move God (he knows our cause and the true merits of it better than we can state them), but to move himself. 1. He pleads God's mercy; and thence we take some of our best encouragements in prayer: Save me, for thy mercies' sake. 3. He pleads God's glory (v. 5): "For in death there is no remembrance of thee. Lord, if thou deliver me and comfort me, I will not only give thee thanks for my deliverance, and stir up others to join with me in these thanksgivings, but I will spend the new life thou shalt entrust me with in thy service and to thy glory, and all the remainder of my days I will preserve a grateful remembrance of thy favours to me, and be quickened thereby in all instances of service to thee; but, if I die, I shall be cut short of that opportunity of honouring thee and doing good to others, for in the grave who will give the thanks?" Not but that separate souls live and act, and the souls of the faithful joyfully remember God and give thanks to him. But, (1.) In the second death (which perhaps David, being now troubled in soul under the wrath of God, had some dreadful apprehensions of) there is no pleasing remembrance of God; devils and damned spirits blaspheme him and do not praise him. "Lord, let me not lie always under this wrath, for that is sheol, it is hell itself, and lays me under an everlasting disability to praise thee." Those that sincerely seek God's glory, and desire and delight to praise him, may pray in faith, "Lord, send me not to that dreadful place, where there is no devout remembrance of thee, nor are any thanks given to thee." (2.) Even the death of the body puts an end to our opportunity and capacity of glorifying God in this world, and serving the interests of his kingdom among men by opposing the powers of darkness and bringing many on this earth to know God and devote themselves to him. Some have maintained that the joys of the saints in heaven are more desirable, infinitely more so, than the comforts of saints on earth; yet the services of saints on earth, especially such eminent ones as David was, are more laudable, and redound more to the glory of the divine grace, than the services of the saints in heaven, who are not employed in maintaining the war against sin and Satan, nor in edifying the body of Christ. Courtiers in the royal presence are most happy, but soldiers in the field are more useful; and therefore we may, with good reason, pray that if it be the will of God, and he has any further work for us or our friends to do in this world, he will yet spare us, or them, to serve him. To depart and be with Christ is most happy for the saints themselves; but for them to abide in the flesh is more profitable for the church. This David had an eye to when he pleaded this, In the grave who shall give thee thanks? Ps. xxx. 9; lxxxviii. 10; cxv. 17; Isa. xxxviii. 18. And this Christ had an eye to when he said, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world.

We should sing these verses with a deep sense of the terrors of God's wrath, which we should therefore dread and deprecate above any thing; and with thankfulness if this be not our condition, and compassion to those who are thus afflicted: if we be thus troubled, let it comfort us that our case is not without precedent, nor, if we humble ourselves and pray, as David did, shall it be long without redress.

Confidence in God.

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.

What a sudden change is here for the better! He that was groaning, and weeping, and giving up all for gone (v. 6, 7), here looks and speaks very pleasantly. Having made his requests known to God, and lodged his case with him, he is very confident the issue will be good and his sorrow is turned into joy.

I. He distinguishes himself from the wicked and ungodly, and fortifies himself against their insults (v. 8): Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. When he was in the depth of his distress, 1. He was afraid that God's wrath against him would give him his portion with the workers of iniquity; but now that this cloud of melancholy had blown over he was assured that his soul would not be gathered with sinners, for they are not his people. He began to suspect himself to be one of them because of the heavy pressures of God's wrath upon him; but now that all his fears were silenced he bade them depart, knowing that his lot was among the chosen. 2. The workers of iniquity had teased him, and taunted him, and asked him, "Where is thy God?" triumphing in his despondency and despair; but now he had wherewith to answer those that reproached him, for God, who was about to return in mercy to him, had now comforted his spirit and would shortly complete his deliverance. 3. Perhaps they had tempted him to do as they did, to quit his religion and betake himself for ease to the pleasures of sin. But now, "depart from me; I will never lend an ear to your counsel; you would have had me to curse God and die, but I will bless him and live." This good use we should make of God's mercies to us, we should thereby have our resolution strengthened never to have any thing more to do with sin and sinners. David was a king, and he takes this occasion to renew his purpose of using his power for the suppression of sin and the reformation of manners, Ps. lxxv. 4; ci. 3. When God has done great things for us, this should put us upon studying what we shall do for him. Our Lord Jesus seems to borrow these words from the mouth of his father David, when, having all judgment committed to him, he shall say, Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity (Luke xiii. 27), and so teaches us to say so now, Ps. cxix. 115.

II. He assures himself that God was, and would be, propitious to him, notwithstanding the present intimations of wrath which he was under. 1. He is confident of a gracious answer to this prayer which he is now making. While he is yet speaking, he is aware that God hears (as Isa. lxv. 24, Dan. ix. 20), and therefore speaks of it as a thing done, and repeats it with an air of triumph, "The Lord hath heard" (v. 8), and again (v. 9), "The Lord hath heard." By the workings of God's grace upon his heart he knew his prayer was graciously accepted, and therefore did not doubt but it would in due time be effectually answered. His tears had a voice, a loud voice, in the ears of the God of mercy: The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. Silent tears are not speechless ones. His prayers were cries to God: "The Lord has heard the voice of my supplication, has put his Fiat—Let it be done, to my petitions, and so it will appear shortly." 2. Thence he infers the like favourable audience of all his other prayers: "He has heard the voice of my supplication, and therefore he will receive my prayer; for he gives, and does not upbraid with former grants."

III. He either prays for the conversion or predicts the destruction of his enemies and persecutors, v. 10. 1. It may very well be taken as a prayer for their conversion: "Let them all be ashamed of the opposition they have given me and the censures they have passed upon me. Let them be (as all true penitents are) vexed at themselves for their own folly; let them return to a better temper and disposition of mind, and let them be ashamed of what they have done against me and take shame to themselves." 2. If they be not converted, it is a prediction of their confusion and ruin. They shall be ashamed and sorely vexed (so it maybe read), and that justly. They rejoiced that David was vexed (v. 2, 3), and therefore, as usually happens, the evil returns upon themselves; they also shall be sorely vexed. Those that will not give glory to God shall have their faces filled with everlasting shame.

In singing this, and praying over it, we must give glory to God, as a God ready to hear prayer, must own his goodness to us in hearing our prayers, and must encourage ourselves to wait upon him and to trust in him in the greatest straits and difficulties.

PSAL. VI.

To the master of the musicke on Neginoth, upon the eight; a Psalme of David.

IEhovah, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chastise me in thy wrathfull heat. Be gracious to me, Iehovah, for I am weake; heale me, Iehovah, for my bones are troubled. And my soule is troubled vehemently: and thou Iehovah, how long? Returne Iehovah, release my soule: save me for thy mercies sake. For in the death is no memorie of thee: in hell who shall confesse to thee? I faint with my sighing, I make my bed to swim in every night, I water my bedstead with my teares. Mine eye is gnawne with indignation: it is waxen old, because of all my distressers. Away from me, all yee that worke painfull iniquitie, for Iehovah hath heard the voice of my weeping. Iehovah hath heard my supplication for grace, Iehovah hath accepted my prayer. All my enemies let be abasht and troubled vehemently; let them returne, be abasht in a moment.

Annotations. VPon the eight] or after the eight: meaning the eight tunc, which was grave, as that which we call the base. So David fetching home Gods Arke, appointed some Levites with harps upon the eighth, for the honour and service of God, 1 Chron. 15. 21. And so the Chaldee here translateth, To sing with playing upon the harpe of eight strings. Vers. 2. wrathfull heat] or choler. This word noteth the inward affection, as the former doth the outward appearance. David prayeth not simply against correction, (for as many as God loveth, hee doth rebuke and chastise, Rev. 3. 19. but would have his nurture with moderation, lest it broke him in peeces; as Ieremy likewise prayeth, Ier. 10. 24. So after in Psal. 38. 2. Vers. 3. heale me] recure me. Though this may have reference here to bodily sicknesse, Psal. 107. 18. 20. yet is it also applied to soule-sicknesse, and curing of it; as Psal. 41. 5. heale thou my soule, for I have sinned against thee. Vers. 4. how long?] or till when? An imperfect speech, through trouble of mind, which may thus be supplied: how long wilt thou cease, or deferre to helpe, or, how long wilt thou afflict me? So Psal. 90. 13. The Chaldee supplieth the want thus, Let me have a refreshing. Vers. 5. release] loosen, or deliver my soule or me; meaning from death, as is expressed, Psal. 116. 8. Vers. 6. for in the death] This doctrine King Hezekiah explaineth thus; For hell shall not confesse thee, death shall not praise thee; they that goe downe the pit shall not hope for thy truth: the living the living, he shall confesse thee as I doe this day: the father to the children shall make knowne thy truth, Isa. 38. 18, 19. So after in Psal. 115. 17, 18. [illegible: 1 letter]ell] or the grave, the place or state of the dead. See the note on Psal. 16. 10. confesse] or, give thankes, celebrate with praise & commendation. This same word is also used for confessing of sins, Psal. 32. 5. Vers. 7. I faint] or am over awed with my sighing; the like speech Baruch useth, Ier. 45. 3. The originall word Iagaghn, signifieth awing, toile, turmoile and sore labour of body or mind, and consequently fainting through wearinesse, and is opposed to rest or quietnesse, Lam. 5. 5. every night] or, the whole night. The Chaldee expoundeth it, I speak in my sorrow all the night (or every night) upon my bed. I water] that is, bathe, or dissolve into water; or I melt my bedstead. These are excessive figurative speeches, to expresse the greatnesse of his sorrow. In the Hebrew they are also in the future time, I shall melt, I shall make swim, that is, I usually melt & bathe, noting the continuance of his affliction. Vers. 8. mine eye] This may be taken for the whole face or visage: as in Num. 11. 7. the eye is used for the colour or appearance. gnawne] in Greek, troubled. The Hebrew, Ghnashash, is to gnaw and fret, and so to make deformed and ugly, and to consume. Hereof Ghnash is a moth-worme, Ps. 39. 12. that fretteth garments. A like speech Iob useth, mine eye is dimmed with indignation, Iob 17. 7. but gnawne here, is a word more vehement. So after in Psal. 31. 10, 11. with indignation] for griefe that I take, being provoked by the enemies. Vers. 11. let be abasht] or, shall be abasht, The Hebrew Bosh signifieth to be abasht, wax pale & wan; as when the colour fadeth and withereth; and noteth both disappointment of ones expectation, Iob 6. 20. and confusion or destruction, Ier. 48. 1. 20. opposed unto joy, Esa. 65. 13. let them returne] or, recoile; a signe also of discomfiture and shame: so Psal. 56. 10. in a moment] or in a minute, that is, a short space, or suddenly.

PSAL. VI.

TO the chief Muſician on Neginoth] See Pſal. 4. Title.

Upon Sheminith] or upon the eight, i.e. Intentiſſimo ſono & clariſſimo voce, Vatab. to be ſung aloud. An Eight is the higheſt Note in Muſick. See 1 Chron. 15.21. Others ſay, that hereby is meant the Baſe and Tenor, as fitteſt for a Mourner.

Verſ. 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger] In this and ſome other Pſalms, David begins ſo heavenly, ends ſo merrily, that one might think they had been compoſed by two men of a contrary humour, as Moulin obſerveth.De L' amont Divin. Every new man is two men, Rom. 7. The Shulamite hath in her as it were the company of two Armies, Cant. 6.13. The Lord alſo chequereth his Providences white and black, hee ſpeckleth his work; (repreſented by thoſe ſpeckled Horſes, Zach. 1.8.) Mercies and Croſſes are inter-woven.

Neither chaſten me in thy hot diſpleaſure] Chaſtened, David deſires to be, as Jer. 10.24. 1 Cor. 11.32. Heb. 12.7, 8. But in Mercy, and in meaſure, 1 Cor. 10.13 Fury is not in me, ſaith God, however it may ſometimes ſeem to be, Iſa. 27.4. Of furious people the Philoſopher giveth this Character, that they are angry, [non-Latin text not transcribed] againſt thoſe whom they ſhould not. 2 [non-Latin text not transcribed] for matters they ſhould not. 3 [non-Latin text not transcribed] more than they ſhould be. But none of all theſe can be affirmed of God. Anger is not in him ſecundum affectum, but ſeemeth ſo to be ſecundum effectum, when he chideth and ſmiteth (as angry people uſe to do) when there is no other remedy, 2 Chron. 36.16. his anger is in Scripture put, 1 For his threatnings, Hoſ. 11.9. Jon. 3.10. 2. For his puniſhments, Mat. 3.7. Rom. 2.8. But as God therefore threatneth that he may not puniſh, Amo. 4.12. ſo in the midſt of Judgement he remembreth Mercy, and it ſoon repenteth him concerning his people.

Verſ. 2. Have mercy upon me, O Lord] As the woman in ſtory appealed from Philip to Philip; ſo doth David fly from Gods anger to Gods grace; for he had none elſe in Heaven or Earth to repair to, Pſal. 73.25. he ſeekes here to eſcape him, by cloſing with God, and to get off, by getting within him.

For I am weak] or cruſhed, gnaſhed, extreamly dejected with ſickneſs of body and trouble of mind. Baſil expounds it of his ſoul ſins into which he fell of infirmity, and for which hee was threatned with Judgements by the Prophet Nathan.

O Lord heal me] On both ſides heal my ſoul, for I have ſinned againſt thee, Pſal. 41.4. heal my body which is full of dolours and diſeaſes, Pſal. 107.18.20. for thou art Jehovah the Phiſician, Exod. 15.26. Heal mine eſtate, which is very calamitous by reaſon of mine enemies, who wiſh my death, and would gladly revel in my ruines. See Hoſ. 6.2. Iſa. 30.26.

For my bones are vexed] viz. by reaſon of my leanneſs, and long lying. For albeit the bones of themſelves are inſenſible, and ake not. yet the membranes and tunicles do, that compaſs the bones.

Verſ. 3. My ſoul is alſo ſore vexed] This was worſe than all the reſt. A light load to a raw ſhoulder is very grievous. A little water in a leaden veſſel is heavie, ſo is a little outward grief to a laden ſoul. Hence Job ſo complaineth, and Jeremy prayeth; be not thou a terrour unto me, O Lord; and then I much matter not what becomes of me.

But thou, O Lord, how long?] ſoil. Wilt thou ſtand off, and not haſt to my help? This is plena affectus Reticentia, Vatab. an emphatical and affectionate Apoſiopeſis, ſuch as is ordinary with thoſe that are in pain, and durance.

Verſ. 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 beggs of him to return, not by change of place, for God filleth all places (being Entèr, praeſentèr Deus hic & ubi que potentèr.)

But Miſerationis ſerenitate by a beam of his mercy, and by a diſpenſation of his gracious providence, altering his condition for the better, Deut. 30.9. Act. 15.16.

O ſave me for thy mercies ſake] Quàm pulcherrimè iſta ſupplicatio propriis & proficicuis ſermonibus explicatur, ſaith Caſſiodore concerning this text, i.e. How finely and fitly is this requeſt ſet forth? David pleadeth not Merit, but humbly craveth Mercy. The Heart (that peice of proud fleſh) muſt be brought to ſuch a temper and tameneſs, as to crouch to God, for the crums that fall from his table.

Verſ. 5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee] Some Heathens were of opinion that when a man dyed all dyed with him; neither was there any further ſenſe of weal or woe for ever. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Ethic. 1.3. c. 9 Socrates doubted, but Ariſtotle affirmed it to be ſo, for ought he knew. Euſebius and Augustine make mention of certain Arabian Hereticks, who held that the Soul dyed with the Body, and ſo remained dead till the laſt day, and then they revived with the reſurrection of the body. This was long ſince exploded for a foul errour, contrary to that which the Scripture holdeth forth in many places. All that David would ſay here is, that dead men remember not, that is, they mention not Gods worthy Acts; to the quickning of others; their praiſes cannot provoke other men to beleeve in God, or ſerve him, as in their lifetime they might, therefore David would fain live to do more good. A certain Martyr going to ſuffer ſaid, he was ſorry that he was going to a place where hee ſhould do God no more work,Seven Epiſt. 3. but be receiving wages only. Domine ſi adhuc populo tuo ſim neceſſarius non recuſo laborem, ſaid a dying Saint, Lord, if I may be yet uſeful to thy people, I ſhould be very well content it might be ſo. See Iſa. 38.18.19. David and Hezekiah prayed hard that they might not yet dye, leſt Religion, and the true Worſhip of God, which they had begun to vindicate and eſtabliſh, ſhould by their deceaſe fall to the ground, through the wickedneſs of their ſurvivers and ſucceſſors.

In the grave who ſhall give thee thanks?] ſcil. Palani & cum aliis, ſaith Aben-Ezra, openly and exemplarily, in the company of others. Some render it, In Hell who ſhall conſeſs to thee? Hereby is ſhewed the fear of Gods Children (ſaith Diodate) anguiſhed by the feeling of his Wrath, leaſt they ſhould dye out of his grace unreconciled, and by that means be excluded and debarred from their deſired aime, to be everlaſtingly inſtruments of his glory. But it is better to take Sheol here for the place and ſtate of the dead, after their diſſolution; though Dilrio will needs have it to be always in Scripture meant of Hell: which if it be ſo, then why ſhould Job ſo earneſtly deſire to be hid in it, chap. 14.13. That was a ſingular example of Paul the Hermite,Adag. Sacr. in 2 Sam. 22. Digreſſ. 2. Hier. in Vit. Paul. who though dead, ſeemed to be ſerving God, and affected thoſe that beheld him. For he was found (ſaith Hierom) dead kneeling upon his knees, holding up his hands, lifting up his eyes; ſo that the very dead corps ſeemed yet, by a kind of religious geſture, to pray unto God.

Verſ. 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 ſighes at leaſt, if not a ſhower of tears; ſome ſorrow is above tears, ſome conſtitutions are dry, and will not yeeld tears, and in ſuch caſe dry ſorrow may be as available as wet. Shee that touched the heth of Chriſts 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] So one hours ſin brought many nights pain.Tranſit voluptas, mani[illegible: 1 letter] dolo. Nocet emp[illegible: 1 letter] dolore voluptas. Biſhop Pilkiton on Nehem. 1.4. Did we but fore-think what ſin will coſt us, we durſt not but be innocent. But now adays (ſaith a reverend Writer) weep a man may not, for disfiguring his face; faſting is thought Hypocriſie and ſhame; and when his panch is full, then as Prieſts with their drunken Now is ſaid Mattens, and belched out, Eruct avit cor meum verbum, with good devotion as they thought; ſo hee bluſters out a few bluſtering words, and thinks it repentance ſufficient, &c. Another deſcants thus upon the text. As in Sicilia there is Fons Solis, the Fountain of the Sun, out of which at Mid-day, when the Sun is neareſt, floweth cold water; at Mid-night,D. Playfere Pſal. 6.6. when the Sun is further off, floweth hot water: So the Patriarch Davids head is full of water, and his eyes a fountain of tears, who, when he enjoyed his health as the warm Sun-ſhine, was cold in confeſſing his ſins. But being now viſited with ſickneſs, his reins chaſtiſing him in the night ſeaſon, he is ſo ſore troubled, and withall ſo hot, and ſo fervent, that every night he waſheth his bed,Simſon in Lo[illegible: 1 letter] and watereth, nay even melteth his Couch with tears. &c. A third makes this good Note upon theſe words; The place of Davids ſin (his Bed) is the place of his repentance, and ſo it ſhould be; yea when we behold the place where wee have offended, we ſhould be prickt in heart, and there again crave him pardon: As Adam ſinned in the Garden, and Chriſt ſweat bloudy tears in the Garden; ſanctify by tears every place which we have polluted by ſin, and let us ſeek Chriſt Jeſus in our Bed, with the Spouſe in the Canticles, who ſaith, In my bed by night I ſought him whom my ſoul loved, Cant. 3.1.

I Water my Couch with my tears] By Couch ſome underſtand that whereon David lay in the day time for eaſe and refreſhing, the ſame perhaps which David aroſe off when he beheld Bathſheba waſhing her ſelf; where began his miſery, 2 Sam. 11.2. Others take it for his Pallet, his under-bed, which he alſo watered by the abundance of his penitent tears. Ainſworth rendreth it, I water, or melt my bed-ſtead. Theſe are all exceſſive figurative ſpeeches, to ſet forth the greatneſs of his grief, and the multitude of his tears. Weeping becomes not a King, ſaith Euripides. But King David was of another mind, and ſo was he who ſaid — Faciles motus mons generoſcapit.Ovid.

Tears inſtead of Gems were the ornaments of Davids bed, ſaith Chryſoſtom.

Verſ. 7. Mine eye is conſumed] Heb. gnawn, moth eat[illegible: 1 letter]n. That eye of his that had looked, and luſted after his Neighbours Wife, is now dimmed, and darkned with grief and indignation, he had wept himſelf almoſt blinde;Prideaux his Introduct. to Hiſt. p. 289. as it is ſtoried of Fauſtus the Son of King Vortiger by his own Daughter, that he wept himſelf ſtark blinde for the abominable inceſt of his Parents.

It waxeth old] or, is ſunk in my head. Doth not do its office, but is become like an old duſty window that lets in little light. An heavie affliction to thoſe whoſe eyes have been loop-holes of Luſt, and windows of wickedneſs, the remembrance whereof is a thorn to their blinde eyes, and puts them to grievous pain, eſpecially when their enemies ſhall have got it by the end, as Davids had his ill pranks, and ſpared not to lay it in his diſh.

Verſ. 8. Depart from me all yee workers of iniquity] What a ſtrange change is here all on the ſudden? well might Luther ſay, Oratio eſt birudo animae; Prayer is the Leech of the Soul, that ſucks out the venom and ſwelling thereof. Prayer, ſaith another, is an Exoriſt with God, and an Exorciſt againſt ſin and miſery. The Prophet I ſaiah calleth it a Charm, chap. 26.16 becauſe it lays our Soul-diſtempers, and like Davids Harp, drives away the evil ſpirit that is upon us. Pray therefore when out of order, though not ſo fit to pray, fall upon the duty by Davids example here, and that will further fit thee for the duty. Thy leaden lumpiſh heart caſt into this holy fire, will heat and melt. Quoties me oratio, quem poeè diſperantem ſuſceperat, reddidit expultantem & pr[illegible: 1 letter]ſumentem de venia, ſaith Bernard? How oft hath prayer found me deſpairing almoſt, but left me triumphing and well aſſured of pardon? The ſame in effect ſaith David here, Depart from me, &c. What a word is that to his inſulting enemies, Avoyd, come out, vaniſh. Theſe bee words uſed to Devils, and doggs, but good enough for a Doeg, or a Shimei. And the Son of David ſhall ſay the ſame to his enemies, when he comes to Judgement.

For the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping] Tears then have a voyce (as well as Bloud hath) and God hath an Ear for them. And as Muſick upon the waters ſoundeth further, and more harmoniouſly than upon the Land; ſo do prayers joyned with tears,R. Obad. Gaon in Pſal. 6. Portae Lachrymarum ne ſint clauſae, let not the wounds of godly ſorrow be ever ſo healed up in us, but that they may bleed afreſh upon every juſt occaſion.

Verſ. 9. The Lord hath heard my ſupplication] And thereby ſealed up ſweeteſt love to my Soul; as Ahaſhuerus afterwards did to his Heſter, by granting her requeſt. But how knew David, and how may another man in like ſort know that God hath heard his prayer, though as yet no viſible return appeareth?

I anſwer; This he may know.

1 By a caſt of Gods pleaſed countenance.

2 By the teſtimony of his own Conſcience, Phil. 4.6, 7. and by the aſſurance of faith, which faith to a man as the Angel once did to Cornelius, Thy prayers are heard and anſwered. Of Luther we read, that having been once wraſtling hard with God by prayer, for the proſperous proceeding of the Reformation in Germany, about which there was a general meeting of the States at that time, he came leaping out of his Cloſet with Vicimus, Vicimus, in his mouth, that is, we have prevailed, we have got the day. God ſometimes anſwereth his people before they pray, ſometimes whiles they are praying, as here, and ſometimes after they have prayed, but ſooner or later they ſhall be ſure of it.

The Lord will receive my prayer] He hath, and therefore he will. This is the Language of faith, this is the triumph of truſt.

Verſ. 10. Let all mine enemies be aſhamed] When they ſee all their hopes of my death and downfall diſappointed.

Let them return] Retrocedant & in terram cadant, ſaith the Arabick Interpreter, let them go backward, and fall to the earth. Some make this a Prayer, ſome a Prophecy, it comes all to one.

And be aſhamed ſuddenly] Let them be double aſhamed, or deboſht, and that in a moment. Theſe ſudden and ſtill revenges are very terrible. God uſually premoniſheth before he puniſheth; but not always. Now as bleſſings the more unexpected, the more welcome; ſo Judgments, the more ſuddain, the more grievous.

Having read through the first division, in order to see it as a whole, we will now look at it verse by verse. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger." The Psalmist is very conscious that he deserves to be rebuked, and he feels, moreover, that the rebuke in some form or other must come upon him, if not for condemnation, yet for conviction and sanctification. "Corn is cleaned with wind, and the soul with chastenings." It were folly to pray against the golden hand which enriches us by its blows. He does not ask that the rebuke may be totally withheld, for he might thus lose a blessing in disguise; but, "Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger." If thou remindest me of my sin, it is good; but, oh, remind me not of it as one incensed against me, lest thy servant's heart should sink in despair. Thus saith Jeremiah, "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." I know that I must be chastened, and though I shrink from the rod yet do I feel that it will be for my benefit; but, oh, my God, "chasten me not in thy hot displeasure," lest the rod become a sword, and lest in smiting, thou shouldest also kill. So may we pray that the chastisements of our gracious God, if they may not be entirely removed, may at least be sweetened by the consciousness that they are "not in anger, but in his dear covenant love."

"Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak." Though I deserve destruction, yet let thy mercy pity my frailty. This is the right way to plead with God if we would prevail. Urge not your goodness or your greatness, but plead your sin and your littleness. Cry, "I am weak," therefore, O Lord, give me strength and crush me not. Send not forth the fury of thy tempest against so weak a vessel. Temper the wind to the shorn lamb. Be tender and pitiful to a poor withering flower, and break it not from its stem. Surely this is the plea that a sick man would urge to move the pity of his fellow if he were striving with him, "Deal gently with me, 'for I am weak.'" A sense of sin had so spoiled the Psalmist's pride, so taken away his vaunted strength, that he found himself weak to obey the law, weak through the sorrow that was in him, too weak, perhaps, to lay hold on the promise. "I am weak." The original may be read, "I am one who droops," or withered like a blighted plant. Ah! beloved, we know what this means, for we, too, have seen our glory stained, and our beauty like a faded flower.

"O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed." Here he prays for healing, not merely the mitigation of the ills he endured, but their entire removal, and the curing of the wounds which had arisen therefrom. His bones were "shaken," as the Hebrew has it. His terror had become so great that his very bones shook; not only did his flesh quiver, but the bones, the solid pillars of the house of manhood, were made to tremble. "My bones are shaken." Ah, when the soul has a sense of sin, it is enough to make the bones shake; it is enough to make a man's hair stand up on end to see the flames of hell beneath him, an angry God above him, and danger and doubt surrounding him. Well might he say, "My bones are shaken." Lest, however, we should imagine that it was merely bodily sickness — although bodily sickness might be the outward sign —the Psalmist goes on to say, "My soul is also sore vexed." Soul-trouble is the very soul of trouble. It matters not that the bones shake if the soul be firm, but when the soul itself is also sore vexed this is agony indeed. "But thou, O Lord, how long?" This sentence ends abruptly, for words failed, and grief drowned the little comfort which dawned upon him. The Psalmist had still, however, some hope; but that hope was only in his God. He therefore cries, "O Lord, how long?" The coming of Christ into the soul in his priestly robes of grace is the grand hope of the penitent soul; and, indeed, in some form or other, Christ's appearance is, and ever has been, the hope of the saints.

Calvin's favourite exclamation was, "Domine usquequo" —"O Lord, how long?" Nor could his sharpest pains, during a life of anguish, force from him any other word. Surely this is the cry of the saints under the altar, "O Lord, how long?" And this should be the cry of the saints waiting for the millennial glories, "Why are his chariots so long in coming; Lord, how long?" Those of us who have passed through conviction of sin knew what it was to count our minutes hours, and our hours years, while mercy delayed its coming. We watched for the dawn of grace, as they that watch for the morning. Earnestly did our anxious spirits ask, "O Lord, how long?"

"Return, O Lord; deliver my soul." As God's absence was the main cause of his misery, so his return would be enough to deliver him from his trouble. "Oh save me for thy mercies' sake." He knows where to look, and what arm to lay hold upon. He does not lay hold on God's left hand of justice, but on his right hand of mercy. He knew his iniquity too well to think of merit, or appeal to anything but the grace of God. "For thy mercies' sake." What a plea that is! How prevalent it is with God! If we turn to justice, what plea can we urge? but if we turn to mercy we may still cry, notwithstanding the greatness of our guilt, "Save me for thy mercies' sake."

Observe how frequently David here pleads the name of Jehovah, which is always intended where the word LORD is given in capitals. Five times in four verses we here meet with it. Is not this a proof that the glorious name is full of consolation to the tempted saint? Eternity, Infinity, Immutability, Self-existence, are all in the name Jehovah, and all are full of comfort.

And now David was in great fear of death —death temporal, and perhaps death eternal. Read the passage as you will, the following verse is full of power. "For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?" Churchyards are silent places; the vaults of the sepulchre echo not with songs. Damp earth covers dumb mouths. "O Lord!" saith he, "if thou wilt spare me I will praise thee. If I die, then must my mortal praise at least be suspended; and if I perish in hell, then thou wilt never have any thanksgiving from me. Songs of gratitude cannot rise from the flaming pit of hell. True, thou wilt doubtless be glorified, even in my eternal condemnation, but then O Lord, I cannot glorify thee voluntarily; and among the sons of men, there will be one heart the less to bless thee." Ah! poor trembling sinners, may the Lord help you to use this forcible argument! It is for God's glory that a sinner should be saved. When we seek pardon, we are not asking God to do that which will stain his banner, or put a blot on his escutcheon. He delighteth in mercy. It is his peculiar, darling attribute. Mercy honours God. Do not we ourselves say, "Mercy blesseth him that gives, and him that takes?" And surely, in some diviner sense, this is true of God, who, when he gives mercy, glorifies himself.

The Psalmist gives a fearful description of his long agony: "I am weary with my groaning." He has groaned till his throat was hoarse; he had cried for mercy till prayer became a labour. God's people may groan, but they may not grumble. Yea, they must groan, being burdened, or they will never shout in the day of deliverance. The next sentence, we think, is not accurately translated. It should be, "I shall make my bed to swim every night" (when nature needs rest, and when I am most alone with my God). That is to say, my grief is fearful even now, but if God do not soon save me, it will not stay of itself, but will increase, until my tears will be so many, that my bed itself shall swim. A description rather of what he feared would be, than of what had actually taken place. May not our forebodings of future woe become arguments which faith may urge when seeking present mercy?

"I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all my enemies." As an old man's eye grows dim with years, so, says David, my eye is grown red and feeble through weeping. Conviction sometimes has such an effect upon the body, that even the outward organs are made to suffer. May not this explain some of the convulsions and hysterical attacks which have been experienced under convictions in the revivals in Ireland? Is it surprising that some souls be smitten to the earth, and begin to cry aloud; when we find that David himself made his bed to swim, and grew old while he was under the heavy hand of God? Ah! brethren, it is no light matter to feel one's self a sinner, condemned at the bar of God. The language of this Psalm is not strained and forced, but perfectly natural to one in so sad a plight.

Hitherto, all has been mournful and disconsolate, but now —

"Your harps, ye trembling saints,

Down from the willows take."

Ye must have your times of weeping, but let them be short. Get ye up, get ye up, from your dunghills! Cast aside your sackcloth and ashes! Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

David has found peace, and rising from his knees he begins to sweep his house of the wicked. "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." The best remedy for us against an evil man is a long space between us both. "Get ye gone; I can have no fellowship with you." Repentance is a practical thing. It is not enough to bemoan the desecration of the temple of the heart, we must scourge out the buyers and sellers, and overturn the tables of the money changers. A pardoned sinner will hate the sins which cost the Saviour his blood. Grace and sin are quarrelsome neighbours, and one or the other must go to the wall. "For the Lord hath hear the voice of my weeping." What a fine Hebraism, and what grand poetry it is in English! "He hath heard the voice of my weeping." Is there a voice in weeping? Does weeping speak? In what language doth it utter its meaning? Why, in that universal tongue which is known and understood in all the earth, and even in heaven above. When a man weeps, whether he be a Jew or Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, it has the same meaning in it. Weeping is the eloquence of sorrow. It is an unstammering orator, needing no interpreter, but understood of all. Is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail? Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear its way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way. My God, I will "weep" when I cannot plead, for thou hearest the voice of my weeping.

"The Lord hath heard my supplication." The Holy Spirit had wrought into the Psalmist's mind the confidence that his prayer was heard. This is frequently the privilege of the saints. Praying the prayer of faith, they are often infallibly assured that they have prevailed with God. We read of Luther that, having on one occasion wrestled hard with God in prayer, he came leaping out of his closet crying, "Vicimus, vicimus;" that is, We have conquered, we have prevailed with God." Assured confidence is no idle dream, for when the Holy Ghost bestows it upon us, we know its reality, and could not doubt it, even though all men should deride our boldness. "The Lord will receive my prayer." Here is past experience used for future encouragement. He hath, he will. Note this, O believer, and imitate its reasoning.

"Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed." This is rather a prophecy than an imprecation, it may be read in the future, "All my enemies shall be ashamed and sore vexed." They shall return and be ashamed instantaneously, —in a moment; —their doom shall come upon them suddenly. Death's day is doom's day, and both are sure and may be sudden. The Romans were wont to say, "The feet of the avenging Deity are shod with wool." With noiseless footsteps vengeance nears its victim, and sudden and overwhelming shall be its destroying stroke. If this were an imprecation, we must remember that the language of the old dispensation is not that of the new. We pray for our enemies, not against them. God have mercy on them, and bring them into the right way.

Thus the Psalm, like those which preceed it, shews the different estates of the godly and the wicked. O Lord, let us be numbered with thy people, both now and forever!

Whole Psalm. David was a man that was often exercised with sickness and troubles from enemies, and in all the instances almost that we meet with in the Psalms of these his afflictions, we may observe the outward occasions of trouble brought him under the suspicion of God's wrath and his own iniquity; so that he was seldom sick, or persecuted, but this called on the disquiet of conscience, and brought his sin to remembrance; as in this Psalm, which was made on the occasion of his sickness, as appears from verse eight, wherein he expresseth the vexation of his soul under the apprehension of God's anger; all his other griefs running into this channel, as little brooks, losing themselves in a great river, change their name and nature. He that at first was only concerned for his sickness, is now wholly concerned with sorrow and smart under the fear and hazard of his soul's condition; the like we may see in Psalm 38, and many places more. Richard Gilpin, 1677.

"Rebuke me not." God hath two means by which he reduceth his children to obedience; his word, by which he rebukes them; and his rod, by which he chastiseth them. The word precedes, admonishing them by his servants whom he hath sent in all ages to call sinners to repentance: of the which David himself saith, "Let the righteous rebuke me;" and as a father doth first rebuke his disordered child, so doth the Lord speak to them. But when men neglect the warnings of his word, then God as a good Father, takes up the rod and beats them. Our Saviour wakened the three disciples in the garden three times, but seeing that served not, he told them that Judas and his band were coming to awaken them whom his own voice could not waken. A. Symson, 1638.

"Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger," etc. He does not altogether refuse punishment, for that would be unreasonable; and to be without it, he judged would be more hurtful than beneficial to him; but what he is afraid of is the wrath of God, which threatens sinners with ruin and perdition. To anger and indignation David tacitly opposes fatherly and gentle chastisement, and this last he was willing to bear. John Calvin, 1509 - 1564.

"O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger."

The anger of the Lord? Oh, dreadful thought!

How can a creature frail as man endure

The tempest of his wrath? Ah, whither flee

To 'scape the punishment he well deserves?

Flee to the cross! the great atonement there

Will shield the sinner, if he supplicate

For pardon with repentence true and deep,

And faith that questions not. Then will the frown

Of anger pass from off the face of God,

Like a black tempest cloud that hides the sun. Anon.

"Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger," etc.; that is, do not lay upon me that thou hast threatened in thy law; where anger is not put for the decree nor the execution, but for the denouncing. So (Matthew 3:11, and so Hosea 11:9), "I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger," that is, I will not execute my wrath as I have declared it. Again, it is said, he executes punishment on the wicked; he declares it not only, but executeth it, so anger is put for the execution of anger. Richard Stock, 1641.

"Neither chasten me in thine hot displeasure."

O keep up life and peace within,

If I must feel thy chastening rod!

Yet kill not me, but kill my sin,

And let me know thou art my God.

O give my soul some sweet foretaste

Of that which I shall shortly see!

Let faith and love cry to the last,

"Come, Lord, I trust myself with thee!" Richard Baxter, 1615-1691.

"Have mercy upon me, O Lord." To fly and escape the anger of God, David sees no means in heaven or in earth, and therefore retires himself to God, even to him that wounded him that he might heal him. He flies not with Adam to the bush, nor with Saul to the witch, nor with Jonah to Tarshish; but he appeals from an angry and just God to a merciful God, and from himself to himself. The woman who was condemned by King Philip, appealed from Philip being drunken to Philip being sober. But David appeals from one virtue, justice, to another, mercy. There may be appellation from the tribunal of man to the justice-seat of God; but when thou art indicted before God's justice-seat, whither or to whom wilt thou go but to himself and his mercy-seat, which is the highest and last place of appellation? "I have none in heaven but thee, nor in earth besides thee." . . . . . . David, under the name of mercy, includeth all things, according to that of Jacob to his brother Esau, "I have gotten mercy, and therefore I have gotten all things." Desirest thou any thing at God's hands? Cry for mercy, out of which fountain all good things will spring to thee. Archibald Symson.

"For I am weak." Behold what rhetoric he useth to move God to cure him, "I am weak," an argument taken from his weakness, which indeed were a weak argument to move any man to show his favour, but is a strong argument to prevail with God. If a diseased person would come to a physician, and only lament the heaviness of his sickness, he would say, God help thee; or an oppressed person come to a lawyer, and show him the estate of his action and ask his advice, that is a golden question; or to a merchant to crave raiment, he will either have present money or a surety; or a courtier favour, you must have your reward ready in your hand. But coming before God, the most forcible argument that you can use is your necessity, poverty, tears, misery, unworthiness, and confessing them to him, it shall be an open door to furnish you with all things that he hath. . . . The tears of our misery are forcible arrows to pierce the heart of our heavenly Father, to deliver us and pity our hard case. The beggars lay open their sores to the view of the world, that the more they may move men to pity them. So let us deplore our miseries to God, that he, with the pitiful Samaritan, at the sight of our wounds, may help us in due time. Archibald Symson.

"Heal me," etc. David comes not to take physic upon wantonness, but because the disease is violent, because the accidents are vehement; so vehement, so violent, as that it hath pierced ad ossa, and ad animam, "My bones are vexed, and my soul is sore troubled," therefore "heal me;" which is the reason upon which he grounds this second petition, "Heal me, because my bones are vexed," etc. John Donne.

"My bones are vexed." The Lord can make the strongest and most insensible part of a man's body sensible of his wrath when he pleaseth to touch him, for here David's bones are vexed. David Dickson.

The term "bones" frequently occurs in the Psalms, and if we examine we shall find it used in three different senses. (1.) It is sometimes applied literally to our blessed Lord's human body, to the body which hung upon the cross, as, "They pierced my hands and my feet; I may tell all my bones," (2.) It has sometimes also a further reference to his mystical body the church. And then it denotes all the members of Christ's body that stand firm in the faith, that cannot be moved by persecutions, or temptations, however severe, as, "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee?" (3.) In some passages the term bones is applied to the soul, and not to the body, to the inner man of the individual Christian. Then it implies the strength and fortitude of the soul, the determined courage which faith in God gives to the righteous. This is the sense in which it is used in the second verse of Psalm 6,. "O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed." Augustine, Ambrose, and Chrysostom; quoted by F. H. Dunwell, B.A., in "Parochial Lectures on the Psalms," 1855.

"My soul." Yokefellows in sin are yokefellows in pain; the soul is punished for informing, the body for performing, and as both the informer and performer, the cause and the instrument, so shall the stirrer up of sin and the executor of it be punished. John Donne.

"O Lord, how long?" Out of this we have three things to observe; first, that there is an appointed time which God hath measured for the crosses of all his children, before which time they shall not be delivered, and for which they must patiently attend, not thinking to prescribe time to God for their delivery, or limit the Holy One of Israel. The Israelites remained in Egypt till the complete number of four hundred and thirty years were accomplished. Joseph was three years and more in the prison till the appointed time of his delivery came. The Jews remained seventy years in Babylon. So that as the physician appointeth certain times to the patient, both wherein he must fast, and be dieted, and wherein he must take recreation, so God knoweth the convenient times both of our humiliation and exaltation. Next, see the impatiency of our nature in our miseries, our flesh still rebelling against the Spirit, which oftentimes forgetteth itself so far, that it will enter into reasoning with God, and quarrelling with him, as we may read in Job, Jonas, etc., and here also of David. Thirdly, albeit the Lord delay his coming to relieve his saints, yet hath he great cause if we could ponder it; for when we were in the heat of our sins, many times he cried by the mouth of his prophets and servants, "O fools, how long will you continue in your folly?" And we would not hear; and therefore when we are in the heat of our pains, thinking long, yea, every day a year till we be delivered, no wonder is it if God will not hear; let us consider with ourselves the just dealing of God with us; that as he cried and we would not hear, so now we cry, and he will not hear. A. Symson.

"O Lord, how long?" As the saints in heaven have their usque quo, how long, Lord, holy and true, before thou begin to execute judgment? So, the saints on earth have their usque quo. How long, Lord, before thou take off the execution of this judgment upon us? For, our deprecatory prayers are not mandatory, they are not directory, they appoint not God his ways, nor times; but as our postulatory prayers are, they also are submitted to the will of God, and have all in them that ingredient, that herb of grace, which Christ put into his own prayer, that veruntamen, yet not my will, but thy will be fulfilled; and they have that ingredient which Christ put into our prayer, fiat voluntas, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven; in heaven there is no resisting of his will; yet in heaven there is a soliciting, a hastening, an accelerating of the judgment, and the glory of the resurrection; so though we resist not his corrections here upon the earth, we may humbly present to God the sense which we have of his displeasure, for this sense and apprehension of his corrections is one of the principal reasons why he sends them; he corrects us therefore that we might be sensible of his corrections; that when we, being humbled under his hand, have said with his prophet, "I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him" (Micah 7:9), he may be pleased to say to his correcting angel, as he did to his destroying angel, This is enough, and so burn his rod now, as he put up his sword then. John Donne.

"Return, O Lord, deliver my soul," etc. In this his besieging of God, he brings up his works from afar off, closer; he begins in this Psalm, at a deprecatory prayer; he asks nothing, but that God would do nothing, that he would forbear him — rebuke me not, correct me not. Now, it costs the king less to give a pardon than to give a pension, and less to give a reprieve than to give a pardon, and less to connive, not to call in question, than either reprieve, pardon, or pension; to forbear is not much. But then as the mathematician said, that he could make an engine, a screw, that should move the whole frame of the world, if he could have a place assigned him to fix that engine, that screw upon, that so it might work upon the world; so prayer, when one petition hath taken hold upon God, works upon God, moves God, prevails with God, entirely for all. David then having got this ground, this footing in God, he brings his works closer; he comes from the deprecatory to a postulatory prayer; not only that God would do nothing against him, but that he would do something for him. God hath suffered man to see Arcana imperii, the secrets of his state, how he governs —he governs by precedent; by precedents of his predecessors, he cannot, he hath none; by precedents of other gods he cannot, there are none; and yet he proceeds by precedents, by his own precedents, he does as he did before, habenti dat, to him that hath received he gives more, and is willing to be wrought and prevailed upon, and pressed with his own example. And, as though his doing good were but to learn how to do good better, still he writes after his own copy, and nulla dies sine linea. He writes something to us, that is, he doth something for us every day. And then, that which is not often seen in other masters, his copies are better than the originals; his latter mercies larger than his former; and in this postulatory prayer, larger than the deprecatory, enters our text, "Return, O Lord; deliver my soul: O save me," etc. John Donne.

"For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave who will give thee thanks?" Lord, be thou pacified and reconciled to me. . . . for shouldest thou now proceed to take away my life, as it were a most direful condition for me to die before I have propitiated thee, so I may well demand what increase of glory or honour will it bring unto thee? Will it not be infinitely more glorious for thee to spare me, till by true contrition I may regain thy favour? —and then I may live to praise and magnify thy mercy and thy grace: thy mercy in pardoning so great a sinner, and then confess thee by vital actions of all holy obedience for the future, and so demonstrate the power of thy grace which hath wrought this change in me; neither of which will be done by destroying me, but only thy just judgments manifested in thy vengeance on sinners, Henry Hammond, D.D., 1659.

"I fainted in my mourning." It may seem a marvellous change in David, being a man of such magnitude of mind, to be thus dejected and cast down. Prevailed he not against Goliath, against the lion and the bear, through fortitude and magnanimity? But now he is sobbing, sighing, and weeping as a child! The answer is easy; the diverse persons with whom he hath to do occasioneth the same. When men and beasts are his opposites, then he is more than a conqueror; but when he hath to do with God against whom he sinned, then he is less than nothing.

"I caused my bed to swim." . . . . . . Showers be better than dews, yet it is sufficient if God at least hath bedewed our hearts, and hath given us some sign of a penitent heart. If we have not rivers of waters to pour forth with David, neither fountains flowing with Mary Magdalen, nor as Jeremy, 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 Christ's 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. As Adam sinned in the garden, and Christ sweat bloody tears in the garden. "Examine your hearts upon your beds, and convert unto the Lord;" and whereas ye have stretched forth yourselves upon your bed to devise evil things, repent there and make them sanctuaries to God. Sanctify by your tears every place which ye have polluted by sin. And let us seek Christ Jesus on our own bed, with the spouse in the Canticles, who saith, "By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth." Archibald Symson.

"I water my couch with tears." Not only I wash, but also I water. The faithful sheep of the great Shepherd go up from the washing place, every one bringeth forth twins, and none barren among them. Canticles 4:2. For so Jacob's sheep, having conceived at the watering troughs, brought forth strong and party-coloured lambs. David likewise, who before had erred and strayed like a lost sheep making here his bed a washing-place, by so much the less is barren in obedience, by how much the more he is fruitful in repentance. In Solomon's temple stood the caldrons of brass, to wash the flesh of those beasts which were to be sacrificed on the altar. Solomon's father maketh a water of his tears, a caldron of his bed, an altar of his heart, a sacrifice, not of the flesh of unreasonable beasts, but of his own body, a living sacrifice, which is his reasonable serving of God. Now the Hebrew word here used signifies properly, to cause to swim, which is more than simply to wash. And thus the Geneva translation readeth it, I cause my bed every night to swim. So that as the priests used to swim in the molten sea, that they might be pure and clean, against they performed the holy rites and services of the temple, in like manner the princely prophet washeth his bed, yea, he swimmeth in his bed, or rather he causeth his bed to swim in tears, as in a sea of grief and penitent sorrow for his sin. Thomas Playfere, 1604.

"I water my couch with my tears." Let us water our bed every night with our tears. Do not only blow upon it with intermissive blasts, for then like fire, it will resurge and flame the more. Sin is like a stinking candle newly put out, it is soon lighted again. It may receive a wound, but like a dog it will easily lick itself whole; a little forbearance multiplies it like Hydra's heads. Therefore, whatsoever aspersion the sin of the day has brought upon us, let the tears of the night wash away. Thomas Adams.

Soul-trouble is attended usually with great pain of body too, and so a man is wounded and distressed in every part. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, says David. "The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit." Job 6:4. Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits, making all their motions slow and feeble; and the poor afflicted body does usually decline and waste away; and, therefore, saith Heman, "My soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave." In this inward distress we find our strength decay and melt, even as wax before the fire; for sorrow darkeneth the spirits, obscures the judgment, blinds the memory, as to all pleasant things, and beclouds the lucid part of the mind, causing the lamp of life to burn weakly. In this troubled condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is pale, and wan, and dejected, like one that is seized with strong fear and consternation; all his motions are sluggish, and no sprightliness nor activity remains. A merry heart doth good, like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Hence come those frequent complaints in Scripture: My moisture is turned into the drought of the summer: I am like a bottle in the smoke; my soul cleaveth unto the dust: my face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelid is the shadow of death. Job 16:16, 30:17, 18-19. "My bones are pierced in me, in the night seasons, and my sinews take no rest; by the great force of my disease is my garment changed. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. Many times indeed the trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and indisposition of the body. Long affliction, without any prospect of remedy, does, in process of time, begin to distress the soul itself. David was a man often exercised with sickness and the rage of enemies; and in all the instances almost that we meet with him in the Psalms, we may observe that the outward occasions of trouble brought him under an apprehension of the wrath of God for his sin. (Psalm 6:1, 2; and the reasons given, verses 5 and 6.) All his griefs running into this most terrible thought, that God was his enemy. As little brooks lose themselves in a great river, and change their name and nature, it most frequently happens that when our pain is long and sharp, and helpless and unavoidable, we begin to question the sincerity of our estate toward God, though at its first assault we had few doubts or fears about it. Long weakness of body makes the soul more susceptible of trouble, and uneasy thoughts. Timothy Rogers on Trouble of Mind.

Soul-trouble is attended usually with great pain of body too, and so a man is wounded and distressed in every part. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, says David. "The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit." Job 6:4. Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits, making all their motions slow and feeble; and the poor afflicted body does usually decline and waste away; and, therefore, saith Heman, "My soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave." In this inward distress we find our strength decay and melt, even as wax before the fire; for sorrow darkeneth the spirits, obscures the judgment, blinds the memory, as to all pleasant things, and beclouds the lucid part of the mind, causing the lamp of life to burn weakly. In this troubled condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is pale, and wan, and dejected, like one that is seized with strong fear and consternation; all his motions are sluggish, and no sprightliness nor activity remains. A merry heart doth good, like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Hence come those frequent complaints in Scripture: My moisture is turned into the drought of the summer: I am like a bottle in the smoke; my soul cleaveth unto the dust: my face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelid is the shadow of death. Job 16:16, 30:17, 18-19. "My bones are pierced in me, in the night seasons, and my sinews take no rest; by the great force of my disease is my garment changed. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. Many times indeed the trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and indisposition of the body. Long affliction, without any prospect of remedy, does, in process of time, begin to distress the soul itself. David was a man often exercised with sickness and the rage of enemies; and in all the instances almost that we meet with him in the Psalms, we may observe that the outward occasions of trouble brought him under an apprehension of the wrath of God for his sin. (Psalm 6:1, 2; and the reasons given, verses 5 and 6.) All his griefs running into this most terrible thought, that God was his enemy. As little brooks lose themselves in a great river, and change their name and nature, it most frequently happens that when our pain is long and sharp, and helpless and unavoidable, we begin to question the sincerity of our estate toward God, though at its first assault we had few doubts or fears about it. Long weakness of body makes the soul more susceptible of trouble, and uneasy thoughts. Timothy Rogers on Trouble of Mind.

"Mine eye is consumed." Many make those eyes which God hath given them, as it were two lighted candles to let them see to go to hell; and for this God in justice requiteth them, seeing their minds are blinded by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, God, I say, sendeth sickness to debilitate their eyes which were so sharp-sighted in the devil's service, and their lust now causeth them to want the necessary sight of their body.

"Mine 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, Archibald Symson.

That eye of his that had looked and lusted after his neighbour's wife is now dimmed and darkened with grief and indignation. He has wept himself almost blind. John Trapp.

"Depart from me," etc., i.e., you may now go your way; for that which you look for, namely, my death, you shall not have at this present; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping, i.e., has graciously granted me that which with tears I asked of him. Thomas Wilcocks.

"Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." May not too much familiarity with profane wretches be justly charged upon church members? I know man is a sociable creature, but that will not excuse saints as to their carelessness of the choice of their company. The very fowls of the air, and beasts of the field, love not heterogeneous company. "Birds of a feather flock together." I have been afraid that many who would be thought eminent, of a high stature in grace and godliness, yet see not the vast difference there is between nature and regeneration, sin and grace, the old and the new man, seeing all company is alike unto them. Lewis Stuckley's "Gospel Glass", 1667.

"The voice of my weeping." Weeping hath a voice, and as music upon the water sounds farther and more harmoniously than upon the land, so prayers, joined with tears, cry louder in God's ears, and make sweeter music than when tears are absent. When Antipater had written a large letter against Alexander's mother unto Alexander, the king answered him, "One tear from my mother will wash away all her faults." So it is with God. A penitent tear is an undeniable ambassador, and never returns from the throne of grace unsatisfied. Spencer's Things New and Old.

The wicked are called, "workers of iniquity," because they are free and ready to sin, they have a strong tide and bent of spirit to do evil, and they do it not to halves but thoroughly; they do not only begin or nibble at the bait a little (as a good man often doth), but greedily swallow it down, hook and all; they are fully in it, and do it fully; they make a work of it, and so are "workers of iniquity." Joseph Caryl.

Some may say, "My constitution is such that I cannot weep; I may as well go to squeeze a rock, as think to get a tear." But if thou canst not weep for sin, canst thou grieve? Intellectual mourning is best; there may be sorrow where there are no tears, the vessel may be full though it wants vent; it is not so much the weeping eye God respects as the broken heart; yet I would be loath to stop their tears who can weep. God stood looking on Hezekiah's tears (Isaiah 38:5), "I have seen thy tears." David's tears made music in God's ears, "The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping." It is a sight fit for angels to behold, tears as pearls dropping from a penitent eye. T. Watson.

"The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping." God hears the voice of our looks, God hears the voice of our tears sometimes better than the voice of our words; for it is the Spirit itself that makes intercession for us. Romans 8:26. Gemitibus inenarrabilibus, in those groans, and so in those tears, which we cannot utter; ineloquacibus, as Tertullian reads that place, devout, and simple tears, which cannot speak, speak aloud in the ears of God; nay, tears which we cannot utter; not only utter the force of the tears, but not utter the very tears themselves. As God sees the water in the spring in the veins of the earth before it bubble upon the face of the earth, so God sees tears in the heart of a man before they blubber his face; God hears the tears of that sorrowful soul, which for sorrow cannot shed tears. From this casting up of the eyes, and pouring out the sorrow of the heart at the eyes, at least opening God a window through which he may see a wet heart through a dry eye; from these overtures of repentance, which are as those imperfect sounds of words, which parents delight in, in their children, before they speak plain, a penitent sinner comes to a verbal and a more expressive prayer. To these prayers, these vocal and verbal prayers from David, God had given ear, and from this hearing of those prayers was David come to this thankful confidence, "The Lord hath heard, the Lord will hear." John Donne.

What a strange change is here all of a sudden! Well might Luther say, "Prayer is the leech of the soul, that sucks out the venom and swelling thereof." "Prayer," saith another, "is an exorcist with God, and an exorcist against sin and misery." Bernard saith, "How oft hath prayer found me despairing almost, but left me triumphing, and well assured of pardon!" The same in effect saith David here, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping." What a word is that to his insulting enemies! Avaunt! come out! vanish! These be words used to devils and dogs, but good enough for a Doeg or a Shimei. And the Son of David shall say the same to his enemies when he comes to judgment. John Trapp.

"The Lord hath heard my supplication," etc. The psalmist three times expresses his confidence of his prayers being heard and received, which may be either in reference to his having prayed so many times for help, as the apostle Paul did (2 Corinthians 12:8); and as Christ his antitype did (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44); or to express the certainty of it, the strength of his faith in it, and the exuberance of his joy on account of it. John Gill, D.D., 1697-1771.

"Let all mine enemies be ashamed," etc. If this were an imprecation, a malediction, yet it was medicinal, and had rationem boni, a charitable tincture and nature in it; he wished the men no harm as men. But it is rather prædictorium, a prophetical vehemence, that if they will take no knowledge of God's declaring himself in the protection of his servants, if they would not consider that God had heard, and would hear, had rescued, and would rescue his children, but would continue their opposition against him, heavy judgments would certainly fall upon them; their punishment should be certain, but the effect should be uncertain; for God only knows whether his correction shall work upon his enemies to their mollifying, or to their obduration. . . . In the second word, "Let them be sore vexed," he wishes his enemies no worse than himself had been, for he had used the same word of himself before, Ossa turbata, My bones are vexed; and Anima turbata, My soul is vexed; and considering that David had found this vexation to be his way to God, it was no malicious imprecation to wish that enemy the same physic that he had taken, who was more sick of the same disease than he was. For this is like a troubled sea after a tempest; the danger is past, but yet the billow is great still; the danger was in the calm, in the security, or in the tempest, by misinterpreting God's correction to our obduration, and to a remorseless stupefication; but when a man is come to this holy vexation, to be troubled, to be shaken with the sense of the indignation of God, the storm is past, and the indignation of God is blown over. That soul is in a fair and near way of being restored to a calmness, and to reposed security of conscience that is come to this holy vexation. John Donne.

"Let all mine enemies [or all mine enemies shall] be ashamed, and sore vexed," etc. Many of the mournful Psalms end in this manner, to instruct the believer that he is continually to look forward, and solace himself with beholding that day, when his warfare shall be accomplished; when sin and sorrow shall be no more; when sudden and everlasting confusion shall cover the enemies of righteousness; when the sackcloth of the penitent shall be exchanged for a robe of glory, and every tear becomes a sparkling gem in his crown; when to sighs and groans shall succeed the songs of heaven, set to angels harps, and faith shall be resolved into the vision of the Almighty. George Horne.

A sermon for afflicted souls.

I. God's twofold dealings. (1) Rebuke, by a telling sermon, a judgment on another, a slight trial in our own person, or a solemn monition in our conscience by the Spirit. (2) Chastening. This follows the other when the first is disregarded. Pain, losses, bereavements, melancholy, and other trials.

II. The evils in them to be most dreaded, anger and hot displeasure.

III. The means to avert these ills. Humiliation, confession, amendment, faith in the Lord, etc.

The believer's greatest dread, the anger of God. What this fact reveals in the heart? Why is it so? What removes the fear?

The argumentum ad misericordiam.

First sentence —Divine healing. (1) What precedes it, my bones are vexed. (2) How it is wrought. (3) What succeeds it.

The impatience of sorrow; its sins, mischief, and cure.

A fruitful topic may be found in considering the question, How long will God continue afflictions to the righteous?

"Return, O Lord." A prayer suggested by a sense of the Lord's absence, excited by grace, attended with heart searching and repentance, backed by pressing danger, guaranteed as to its answer, and containing a request for all mercies.

The praying of the deserted saint.

1. His state: his soul is evidently in bondage and danger;

2. His hope: it is in the Lord's return.

3. His plea: mercy only.

The final suspension of earthly service considered in various practical aspects.

The duty of praising God while we live.

Saint's tears in quality, abundance, influence, assuagement, and final end.

The voice of weeping. What it is.

The pardoned sinner forsaking his bad companions.

Past answers the ground of present confidence. He hath, he will.

The shame reserved for the wicked.