Tomorrow I hope to start in earnest on some study on Scripture and the Supper, but I hope to keep a Psalm of the Week ticking over in the background so DV some notes on Psalm 7 (maybe more briefly!) this time next week.
(This week I'm going to organise my notes more by the vv of the Psalm rather than where I got them from!)
Psalm 6
Notes
An anguished prayer for
mercy and deliverance.
Turn to me in mercy, O
LORD, and turn my enemies back in disgrace.
Uses of the Psalm:
In a time of crisis /
illness / when facing opposition / when in anguish or fear / worn out or
sleepless
When God seems not to
answer / act
When suffering seems too
much to cope with
Looking to God for mercy /
deliverance / forgiveness / help
Arguments to use with God
in prayer
A prayer based on the
Psalm:
Father God,
Thank you that you always
hear us when we pray in Jesus’ name.
Thank you for your undeserved,
unfailing, covenant keeping love.
May might life be one of
praise which glorifies you.
Please have mercy on me:
help me, deliver me.
Grant me relief from my
enemies, health and strength and restoring sleep.
Even if I come to the end
of all my strength and all hope seems gone, cause me still to look to you with
humble faith.
Help me to have nothing to
do with evil.
May I look to you with
confidence to vindicate and save me.
Through Jesus Christ our
Lord, Amen.
What the Psalmist asks
for:
Do not rebuke me in your
anger or discipline me in your wrath (v1)
Be merciful to me (v2)
Heal me (v2)
Physical suffering (v2) –
“my bones are in agony”
Spiritual suffering (v3) –
“my soul is in anguish”
Deliverance / help (v4)
Salvation (v4)
V7 – foes / enemies v10,
evil doers (v8)
Why asks for it:
The Psalmist’s weakness
and need (v2-3, v6-7)
God’s own character – his
unfailing love (v4)
God’s praise and glory
(v5) – How would the Psalmist’s death benefit God?
Confidence in coming vindication
(v10)
The Psalmist sees his
desperate need very clearly
He has come to the end of
his own resources
His hope is in God alone
How does the
superscription affect our reading of the Psalm?
Sheminith – lit. an 8th
– musical term? 8 stringed instrument? For the 8th company leading
the ark in 1 Chron 15:21
An individual Psalm to be
sung by the (temple?) community
Of David
V1 – some particular sin
on David’s conscience or not?
Vv2-3 – a physical
illness?
What is the relationship
between David’s sin, suffering, illness and enemies?
Goldingay – the enemies
like Job’s comforters despising and blaming David because of his sickness?
Illness and anguish and
opposition part of the normal experience of authentic believers
Vv1-2 – The Psalmist knows
he is a sinner who deserves God’s judgement
God is rightly angry with
him
He has no claim on God –
no merit to offer
V4 – Turn, O Yahweh
V8 – turn away from me all
workers of wickedness
V10 – all my enemies will
turn back in sudden disgrace
Because Yahweh turns to
me, my enemies will be turned away
God sometimes allows his
people to really go through the mill, to be extremely distressed, at the end of
their tether, hopeless apart from him
God our only remaining
hope, a last hope
Dale Ralph Davis, The
Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life (Christian Focus) – own translation
David dives straight in
with petition – no ACTS prayer here
(1) The agony he knows
(vv1-3)
This is the mess I’m in!
The psalmist’s agony is
fed by:
(a) The problem of wrath
(v1)
(b) The problem of
weakness (v2)
Wiped out
(c) The problem of fear
(vv2b-3a)
Terrified (2b-3a)
Both his bones and his
soul terrified – his whole person affected
(d) The problem of time
(v3b)
What’s the hold up, God?
What are you waiting for?
I can’t hold on any
longer.
Why don’t you intervene?
God not respecting our
schedule, our plans, our ideas of what he should do (cf. Jesus waiting when he
hears Lazarus is sick)
“Our troubles, it seems,
are as much with God as with our circumstances.” (Davis, p75)
When it seems God is angry
with us and we are experiencing his displeasure, we must nevertheless go to him
for grace.
There is nowhere else to
go
Is 19:22 – The same God
who strikes also heals
(2) The argument he brings
(vv4-7)
(a) The God I have (v4)
Hesed (v4) – covenant love
2 Sam 22:51
Ex 34:6
Appeal to God’s promise
and character
(b) The praise I give (v5)
David is assuming that the
whole purpose of his life is to praise Yahweh
(c) The misery I know
(vv6-7)
Looking to God for pity,
compassion – our plight touches God’s heart
Whilst this is a highly
emotional prayer, it also uses arguments with God – “Argument in prayer shows
that we are called to thinking
worship” (Davis, p80)
(3) The assurance he finds
(vv8-10)
A present assurance of
coming deliverance
The LORD hears the sound
of our weeping – cf. Rom 8:26
Is 38:5 – God sees tears
Heb 5:7 – Jesus’ prayer
with loud cries and tears were heard
* * *
Derek Kidner, Tyndale OT Commentary
1st of the
penitential Pss – 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143
V6 onwards, no petition,
weeping then faith
Cf. title of Ps 3 – same
context?
“the Psalm gives words to
those who scarcely have the heart to pray, and brings then within sight of
victory” (Kidner, p61)
(1) Vv1-5, Turn, O Lord
Troubled, same word as in
Gen 45:3 (Joseph’s brothers terrified at his presence) and Judges 20:41
Bones and soul also in
35:9f
(2) Vv6-7, My weeping
(3) Vv8-10, The Lord has
heard
V8, Cf. Mt 7:23, depart
from me you evil doers
* * *
Michael Wilcock, BST
Great emotional intensity
and turmoil, but also artistry and a prayer of lasting value to others
Set written prayers do not
imply falsity
Spontaneity not the same
as deep and authentic spirituality
Chiasmus vv2-3
Lord, heal me
My bones suffer
My soul suffers
How long, Lord?
Bone ‘esem can mean
(it)self, same, very e.g. Ex 24:10, Lev 23:21; Ex 12:17
Bahel, suffer, of bones
and soul and enemies 3x in vv2, 3, 10 – the NIV manages to translate the word
in 3 different ways
Sheminith – eighth – an
octave interval stringed instrument?
“his sin: he needs God’s
mercy (vv2 and 9) and he fears God’s anger (v1)” Kidner, p32
V8 not peevish but the
imperious words of the king
V5 – remembers – memorials
not memories, commemorates
Even in the midst of great
trouble, the Psalmist recognises the priority of praising God and of magnifying
His name
From desperation to
renewed confidence
Jn 12:27, “my heart is
troubled” echoes v3
David and Christ show us
the pattern of all Christian experience of suffering followed by vindication
* * *
Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament
Wisdom and Psalms
Cf. vv4 and 10 – the
reversal of the letters reflects the reversal the words describe
7 penitential Pss
traditionally used in Lent
Bahal (v2), shaking in
dismay – inner panic as well as outer trembling
V3, Jesus in Gethsemane
takes up these words - Mk 14:34
V3 – disjointed “How
long?” – stark and urgent – also in Ps 90:13; Is 6:11; Jer 23:26
V7 – “my eye has wasted
away through aggression” – cf. English, “I cried my eyes out”
Vv8 and 9 – Yahweh has
heard both my weeping and my prayer
V10 repetition of be
shamed
“The double “shaming” [of
v10] follows on the double “listening” [of vv8-9], and their great shaking
[v10] corresponds to the suppliant’s double shaking [vv2-3]. The “turn” of v10
corresponds to the “turn” of v4, and whereas v3 asked “How long?” now the
suppliant knows the shaming will come “instantly.”” (Goldingay, p141)
Luther comments on this
Psalm: “No one who has not been profoundly terrified and forsaken prays
profoundly.” (Selected Psalms 3:141)
* * *
Motyer, Psalms
by the Day
Deep Danger, Great
Deliverance
A1 The terrified soul
(vv1-3)
B1 The first desire: the
returning Yahweh (vv4-5)
C Sorrow upon sorrow
(vv6-7)
B2 The second desire:
departing foes (vv8-9)
A2 The terrified enemies
(v10)
V2, bones, the whole frame
in its stability and resilience – David feels his body can’t take it any more
V6 I flood my bed,
literally I cause it to swim, I saturate it
V6, dissolve, Joshua 14:8;
Ps 39:11; 147:18
V7 ashash, 31:9, 10
V9 – Yahweh and prayer
stressed
V10, be shamed, all their
hopes disappointed
* * *
Feeling my lack of Hebrew
Trying to do some work on
Psalm 6 today, I have really felt my lack of Hebrew. Or at least the desire for
a consistent word for word translation.
As Michael Wilcock points
out in The Bible Speaks Today
Commentary, the NIV manages to translate bahel,
“suffer” (of bones and soul and enemies 3x in vv2, 3, 10) in 3 different ways.
And of course if one’s
translation doesn’t go in for word for wordness, maybe when there are repeated
words they don’t reflect the original. Arrgh!
We are presumably meant to
pay attention to the repetition and patterning that John Goldingay points out,
and to do that we linguistic slow-learners need a translation that brings it
out:
“The double “shaming” [of
v10] follows on the double “listening” [of vv8-9], and their [the enemies’]
great shaking [v10] corresponds to the suppliant’s double shaking [vv2-3]. The
“turn” of v10 corresponds to the “turn” of v4, and whereas v3 asked “How long?”
now the suppliant knows the shaming will come “instantly.”” (Goldingay, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom
and Psalms, p141)
* * *
Wilson, NIV
Application Commentary
Invocation of God (vv1-5)
3 subsections with
parallel grammatical structures: v1, vv2-3, vv4-5
Rebuke (v1) – legal term
for find to be in the wrong
“Yahweh is viewed at once
as both threat and hope” (p178)
V2, hnn, be merciful, lit.
be gracious, show favour
‘umlal can be used of
withering up vegetation – Is 16:8
Bhl, in agony, terrified
out of one’s senses – fear in my very bone
V3 – Yahweh is clearly his
only hope
V3b – almost an accusation
- “You can almost hear the exclamation points after every word” (p179)
The Torment of Suffering
(vv6-7)
Confrontation of Foes
(vv8-10)
V8 - Cf. the evil doers of
5:5
Spurgeon, Treasuring
of David
Expresses aspects of
penitence: sorrow (vv3, 6, 7), humiliation (vv2, 4) and hatred of sin (v8)
Turning point at the end
of v7 from plea to confidence in deliverance
V1 - Cf. Jeremiah,
“correct me, but with judgement not in your anger”
Chasten me not in anger
but in covenant love, sweeten your chastening of me, may it be for my good not
for my ruin!
V2 - I droop!, I am
withered
V2 – my bones are shaken
“Soul-trouble is the very
soul of trouble” (Spurgeon, p57)
V3b – abrupt, words fail
him
God is behind and in
control of all things.
All problems are in his
hands.
The name Yahweh prominent
here – 5x in 4vv – God’s name full of comfort
“Churchyards are silent
places; the vaults of a sepulchre echo not with songs. Damp earth covers dumb
mouths.” (Spurgeon, p57)
V6 - Better to groan to
God than to grumble
V8 – our tears are heard
and understood in heaven even when words fail us
Appealing from the justice
of God to the mercy of God – fleeing from God to God
V3 – God’s timing not
ours, known to him but not to us
Even great David could be
brought very low
The believers state, his hope, his plea, his
confidence
* * *
Willem A. VanGemeren, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary
A Prayer in Deep Anguish
A: Prayer for God’s Favor
(vv1-3)
B: Prayer for God’s Love
(vv4-5)
B’: Need for God’s Love
(vv6-7)
A’: Prayer for God’s Favor
(vv8-10)
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