"O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord—how long?
4 Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?
6 I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment."
Psalm 6
This Psalm is commonly known as the first of the Penitential Psalms (the others be- ing Psalms 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143). There are two lines of interpretation, one par- ticular and the other more general. We look at the one today, and the other in the next Note. We take it first in a particular sense, as it has come to be regarded - the cry of a soul under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God, and the working of true penitence and faith. We draw three lessons in particular, and first of all, the anxious and distracted state of the Psalmist. He is trembling under a deep sense of divine displeasure and anger. The terrors of hell have got hold on him. This is the force of 1: the words 'not in Thine anger' imply, in effect, 'I am conscious of Thy hand heavy upon me, but let it not be the hand of judgment and doom. Chastening for correction I can bear, but let it not be doom'. He fears that it may be just that, and this is what terrifies him so much. His whole being is affected, body as well as soul (2, 3). This is not exaggerated language, but true to experience, as records of past revival movements abundantly show. The loss of such a sense of sin is surely one of the greatest tragedies of our modern age. Felix trembled under Paul's preaching, men were pricked in their hearts by Peter's, and in times of awakening thousands have wept their way to Christ in deepest distress of soul - but to- day, a lighter vein seems to suffice. A sense of separation from God also fills the Psalmist with distress (3, 4a, 6). When we sin, and thereby lose the presence of God, it is by no means easy to recover it. Bunyan's Holy War makes this point very graphically, in the long waiting experienced by the City of Mansoul for the return of Emmanuel after He had been grieved away. True, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive but who can guarantee confession after we have sinned? We have no assurance that we will want to, or be able to, forsake sin, when we like. Repentance is something that God gives to His children. But the Psalmist did break through to peace (8), but this took place in connection with a severance from the workers of iniquity. It is not tears only, but turn- ing that is the critical issue. There has to be a forsaking of sin. God forgives the past - but it has to be past!