Psalms / Chapter 6

Psalms 6

11 verses • Westminster Leningrad Codex

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Psalm 6 is the first of the seven traditional penitential psalms and the Psalter's first sustained cry of physical and emotional suffering. The psalmist begs God not to rebuke in anger, describes bones shaking and a soul in terror, asks 'how long?', weeps through the night until his bed is drenched, and then pivots suddenly to confidence that God has heard. It is raw, embodied prayer from the edge of death.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The pivot between verses 8 and 9 is one of the sharpest in the Psalter. For seven verses the psalmist weeps, trembles, and begs. Then in verse 9 (Hebrew v. 10), without explanation, certainty arrives: 'The LORD has heard my weeping.' No answer is described; no vision is recounted. Something shifts in the act of praying itself. The psalm records the moment when lament becomes confidence — not because circumstances changed but because the psalmist experienced being heard. This is the Psalter's testimony that prayer works on the one who prays.

Translation Friction

The superscription mentions sheminit ('the eighth'), possibly referring to an eight-stringed instrument or a lower octave — the musical setting matches the psalm's gravity. The theological question the psalm raises but does not answer is whether the suffering is punishment (the psalmist asks God not to rebuke 'in anger') or undeserved affliction. The psalmist never confesses a specific sin, leaving the cause of suffering ambiguous. The argument from Sheol in verses 6 (Heb. v. 6) — that the dead cannot praise God — is a pragmatic appeal to God's self-interest: if I die, You lose a worshiper.

Connections

This is the first of the seven penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) in Christian tradition. The cry 'how long?' (ad matai) appears in Psalms 13, 35, 74, 79, 80, 89, and 90. The Sheol argument recurs in Psalm 30:10, Psalm 88:11-13, and Isaiah 38:18. The drenching of the bed with tears reappears in Psalm 42:4. Jesus quotes the phrase 'depart from me, all workers of evil' (v. 9) in Matthew 7:23.

Psalms 6:1

לַמְנַצֵּ֣חַ בִּ֭נְגִינוֹת עַֽל־הַשְּׁמִינִ֗ית מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד׃

For the director of music. With stringed instruments, on the eighth. A psalm of David.

KJV To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Sheminit ('the eighth') may refer to an eight-stringed instrument, a musical mode, or a lower octave (contrasting with alamot, 'maidens,' possibly a higher register, in Psalm 46:1). The term also appears in 1 Chronicles 15:21 in a musical context. Whatever its precise meaning, the combination of stringed instruments and the sheminit designation sets a somber tonal register appropriate to the psalm's content.
Psalms 6:2

יְֽהוָ֗ה אַל־בְּאַפְּךָ֥ תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי וְאַל־בַּחֲמָתְךָ֥ תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי׃

O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger; do not discipline me in Your wrath.

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. This opening is repeated nearly verbatim in Psalm 38:2, the second penitential psalm. The request assumes that God does rebuke and discipline — the psalmist does not question that. The prayer is for moderation, not exemption. It reflects the wisdom tradition's view that divine discipline is part of the father-child relationship (Proverbs 3:11-12, 'the LORD disciplines those He loves').
Psalms 6:3

חׇנֵּ֥נִי יְהוָ֗ה כִּ֤י אֻמְלַ֫ל אָ֥נִי רְפָאֵ֥נִי יְהוָ֑ה כִּ֖י נִבְהֲל֣וּ עֲצָמָֽי׃

Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am wasting away. Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are shaking.

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The language of bones (etsem) suffering appears frequently in the Psalms (Psalm 22:15, 31:11, 32:3, 38:4, 42:11, 102:4). In Hebrew anthropology, bones represent the structural core of a person — when bones shake, the entire self is destabilized. Bone-language in the Psalter always signals suffering that has reached the deepest level of the person.
Psalms 6:4

וְ֭נַפְשִׁי נִבְהֲלָ֣ה מְאֹ֑ד וְאַתָּ֥ה יְ֝הוָ֗ה עַד־מָתָֽי׃

My whole being is deeply shaken — and You, O LORD — how long?

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The broken sentence 'and You, O LORD — how long?' is one of the most powerful lines in the Psalter precisely because it refuses to finish itself. The dash after 'how long' leaves the question open-ended, mirroring the experience of suffering that has no visible endpoint. The psalmist has run out of words but not out of address — he is still talking to God.
Psalms 6:5

שׁוּבָ֣ה יְ֭הוָה חַלְּצָ֣ה נַפְשִׁ֑י ה֝וֹשִׁיעֵ֗נִי לְמַ֣עַן חַסְדֶּֽךָ׃

Turn back, O LORD, rescue my life; save me because of Your faithful love.

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The appeal le-ma'an chasdekha ('for the sake of Your chesed') is a covenant argument. The psalmist reminds God of His own commitment. This is not manipulation but the exercise of covenant relationship — the weaker partner invoking the stronger partner's pledged loyalty. Abraham, Moses, and the prophets all use this form of argument with God.
Psalms 6:6

כִּ֤י אֵ֣ין בַּמָּ֣וֶת זִכְרֶ֑ךָ בִּ֝שְׁא֗וֹל מִ֣י יוֹדֶה־לָּֽךְ׃

For in death there is no memory of You; in Sheol, who will praise You?

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The Sheol argument reflects early Israelite theology in which the afterlife was not a place of reward or punishment but a dim, diminished existence where the dead 'slept' without meaningful consciousness. Later Jewish theology (and Christian theology after it) would develop resurrection hope that changes this calculus, but the psalmist prays from within the limits of his own theology. His horizon is this life, and the argument is: this life is where praise happens.
Psalms 6:7

יָגַ֤עְתִּי ׀ בְּאַנְחָתִ֗י אַשְׂחֶ֣ה בְכׇל־לַ֭יְלָה מִטָּתִ֑י בְּ֝דִמְעָתִ֗י עַרְשִׂ֥י אַמְסֶֽה׃

I am exhausted from my groaning; every night I flood my bed; with my tears I drench my couch.

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The flooding-bed image is deliberate exaggeration (hyperbole) deployed for emotional truth rather than literal accuracy. The psalmist is not reporting water levels but communicating the experience of night after night of unrelenting grief. The bed — which should be a place of peace (Psalm 4:9) — has become a place of drowning.
Psalms 6:8

עָשְׁשָׁ֣ה מִכַּ֣עַס עֵינִ֑י עָֽתְקָ֗ה בְּכׇל־צוֹרְרָֽי׃

My eye has grown dim from grief; it has aged because of all my enemies.

KJV Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The physical deterioration of the eye — wasting and aging — connects weeping (v. 7) to its bodily consequences. The Psalter does not separate emotional suffering from physical deterioration; the body bears what the soul endures. This integrated view of human suffering resists any attempt to spiritualize pain into something merely internal.
Psalms 6:9

ס֣וּרוּ מִ֭מֶּנִּי כׇּל־פֹּ֣עֲלֵי אָ֑וֶן כִּֽי־שָׁמַ֥ע יְ֝הוָ֗ה ק֣וֹל בִּכְיִֽי׃

Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Jesus uses the phrase 'depart from me, all you workers of evil' in Matthew 7:23 and Luke 13:27, applying the psalmist's dismissal of enemies to the final judgment. The original context is personal deliverance; the New Testament application is eschatological. Both contexts share the core reality: those who practice evil cannot remain in the presence of the one whom God vindicates.
Psalms 6:10

שָׁמַ֣ע יְ֭הוָה תְּחִנָּתִ֑י יְ֝הוָ֗ה תְּפִלָּתִ֥י יִקָּֽח׃

The LORD has heard my plea for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The shift from 'has heard' (perfect tense, completed action) to 'accepts' (imperfect tense, ongoing action) suggests that God's reception of prayer is not a single event but an ongoing reality. God heard the specific weeping and continues to receive prayer as an ongoing practice.
Psalms 6:11

יֵבֹ֤שׁוּ ׀ וְיִבָּהֲל֣וּ מְ֭אֹד כׇּל־אֹיְבָ֑י יָ֝שֻׁ֗בוּ יֵבֹ֥שׁוּ רָֽגַע׃

All my enemies will be ashamed and deeply shaken; they will turn back — ashamed in an instant.

KJV Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The repetition of bahal ('to be terrified') links the enemies' future fate to the psalmist's past suffering — the same word used for his bones (v. 3) and soul (v. 4) now applies to the enemies (v. 11). This verbal echo creates a sense of exact justice: the terror flows from the innocent to the guilty.
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