Bible Commentary - Psalms 6

This psalm is another prayer of David, and it maintains the rather generic tone of the prayers so far.  We can sense that David has perhaps sinned in some way, such that he pleads for mercy and for God to withhold his wrath (v. 1-2).

Otherwise, the rest of the psalm seems like a prayer for relief from whatever is distressing him, and it doesn’t really get any more specific than that.  Verse 7 gives us a hint that David is concerned about “his adversaries” and verse 10 refers to “his enemies”.  This suggests that David’s prayer has something to do with political or military opponents of some kind.  David had many of them over many years, from foreign kings to his own sons trying to usurp the throne.

Besides that, the only clear message we really get here is David’s grief.  David is “dismayed” (v. 2-3) and swimming in a bed of tears (v. 6-7).

Structurally, this psalm follows a progression through three different thoughts.  The first thought in verses 1-5 is David’s core prayer.  This is where David is asking for the LORD’s assistance.  Notice the recurring use of the LORD’s name five consecutive times, opening each of five consecutive couplets beginning in verse 1.  He says, “Be gracious to me, oh LORD”, “heal me, oh LORD”, “but you, oh LORD”, “return, oh LORD”.  This is the structural backbone of the prayer, with repeated invocations of the divine name and pleas for mercy, healing and the LORD’s presence to return to him.

In verse 5, he gives more or less the rationale for his prayer; if God does not save him and David dies, then David would not be able to praise God in sheol, therefore denying God the honor and praise that he deserves.  This is an interesting twist on the more common “save us for your name’s sake” that we saw in e.g. Exodus or Numbers when Moses was praying for God’s mercy towards Israel.  It’s a similar concept in that David is appealing for mercy not for his own sake, but for the sake of God’s glory.

The second thought is David’s expression of personal grief, in verses 6-7.  This is perhaps the nadir of the psalm when David reaches his lowest moment.  This is also the moment that stands between his prayer requested and his prayer granted.  We could also possibly group this together with verse 5 and call this “the why”.  Why should God grant David his request?  And his answer is first, for your glory, and second, to assuage his grief and suffering at his present circumstances.

The third and final thought is the prayer granted, in verses 8-10.  This is when David asserts that “the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping”, and as a consequence all of David’s enemies will be ashamed and embarrassed by their sudden defeat whenever God presumably comes in and strikes them down.

This final section also has a brief chiasmus.  It begins with, “depart from me all you who do iniquity”.  Then it has three statements asserting that God hears David, and then it concludes with David’s enemies being ashamed and depending on your translation, it may also say that they “turn back”.  This is another A-B-A pattern where it begins by talking about David’s enemies, then in the middle is David’s answered prayer, and then in the end it talks about David’s enemies.