Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 6
The Sixth Psalm.
TO the ‖Prefect of the stringed instruments See Psalm iv. 1.chief Musitian on Neginoth†on the eighth. upon Shemineth, A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The sixth Psalm was penn'd by David on some occasion of special humiliation, for the*to supplicate for his sin, Arab. foreign confession of his sins, and averting Gods wrath: This he directed. the Master of his Musick to be sung†foreign Chald. upon the Harp of eight strings (such as is mentioned 1 Chron. xv. 21.) and fitted it for it.
1. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
O God of mercy which art slow to wrath, and longsuffering to sinners, and delightest far more in their reformation than their misery, I beseech thee not to deal with me, as most justly thou mightest, in wrath and fury, but in mercy to withdraw thy heavy hand of punishment, which I have so justly provoked, and now lie under.
2. Have mercy upon me O Lord, for I am weak, O Lord heal me fora. my bones are‖set a trembling foreign or troubled, so the Syr. foreign, Lxxii. and so Lat. Aeth. vexed.
O Lord I have by my soul sins wounded my soul, brought it down into a most languishing terrible condition, provoked thee to withdraw thy grace, and give me up to the effects of thy displeasure, This is a sad disease, and of the worst condition, even of the soul, wherewith thou art pleased also that my body, or outward condition should bear consent. And in all this 'tis I that have thus diseased my self, disturbed and miserably wasted the health of my soul, which consists in an exact conformity of my desires and actions to thy will. And now there is no remedy left but one, that of thy pardon and gratious forgiveness, pouring thy wine and oile and healing balsame into my gaping wounds, and this most seasonable mercy I beseech thee to bestow upon me.
3. My soul is also sore vexed, but thou O Lord, how long?
The disquiet and torment hereof doth pierce my soul, there are the sharpest arrows of thy displeasure fixt, and afflict me exceedingly, Lord that it might be at length thy season to asswage thy wrath, to speak peace to me, to afford me some†foreign Chald. how long wilt thou defer to give me some refreshing? refreshing which I cannot hope from any other hand.
4. Return O Lord, deliver my soul, O save me for thy mercies sake.†confess or praise thee foreign
Lord be thou pacified and reconciled to me, and by that means rescue me out of this sad condition, wherein I am involved, under the weight of my sin and thy displeasure. And though there be in me no means to propitiate, but only to avert and provoke thee, yet let thine own mercy, and free bounty of grace have the glory of it; Reflect on that, and from thence worke this deliverance for me.
5. For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave who will ‖ give thee thanks?
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 magnifie 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.
6. I am weary with my groaning. All the night make I my bed to swim, I water my couch with my tears.
The sadness of my present condition under the weight of thy displeasure, and the grievous effects thereof, is such, as extorts those grones from me, which (instead of easing) do only increase my torment. The night which is the appointed season of rest, is to me the time of greatest disquiet, my agonies extort whole rivers of tears from me, and the consideration of my horrible sins, the causes of them, gives me not one minute of intermission.
7. Mine eye is‖fretted, motheaten foreign from foreign corrosus est à tineâ. consumed because of†indignation. foreign Heb. foreign Chal. of which see note on Psal. iv. d. foreign anger, Lxxii. and so Syr. Lat. Arab. Aeth. grief, it waxeth old because of all mine‖distressers oppressers foreign enemies.
The tears which the thought of thy continual displeasure and punishments incessantly draws from me, have corroded, and even exhausted the animal spirits, that maintain my sight, make mine eyes very dim, above what is proportionable to my age, and still there remains a succession of new sorrows, to minde me of my successive sins; one enemy after another still riseth up against me.
8. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.
Whilst I thus bemoan my self before so gratious a God, I cannot but with confidence look up, and expect his speedy return unto my prayers, and consequently assure my self, that all the designes of my rebellious enemies shall be utterly frustrated by him.
9. The Lord hath heard the voice of my supplication, the Lord‖hath received, so all the antient Translations render the future foreign will receive my prayer.
He that hath promised not to despise a broken heart, to comfort the mourner, he whose title it is to be the hearer of prayers, the vindicator of the innocent, will certainly make good these promises to me at this time, in pardoning my sins, and averting these punishments from me.
10 ‖All my enemies shull be put to shame, & terrified greatly, (See v. 2.) they shall be turned back and put to shame—Let b all mine enemies be ashamed, and‖All my enemies shull be put to shame, & terrified greatly, (See v. 2.) they shall be turned back and put to shame— sore vexed, let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
And therefore I am most confident that all my opposers shall be discomfited, and sent back successless in their present designe, and how confident soever now they appear, they shall very suddenly be routed and put to confusion and utterly disappointed in their enterprize.
Annotations on Psalm VI.
V. 2. My bones] The chief difficulty in this verse will be removed by considering the meaning of foreign which we render my bones, foreign& so indeed it often signifies from foreign robustus or fortis fuit, but not only so, but in a greater latitude, the members of the body, and then the body it selfe, nay the substance or being, and not only the body, as Job 11.5. foreign his bone or body is by the Chaldee rendred foreign himself, in opposition to his goods and family, which had been toucht sharply, ch. 1. And so among the Rabbines foreign is oft used for ipsimet, themselves (see Note on Rom. vi. a.) It being an ordinary figure among the Hebrews, to express a thing by the names of the parts of it. Thus Psal. xxxv. 10. All my bones shall say, Lord who is like unto thee, where certainly the bones which say, and praise God, are to signifie the Psalmist himself his tongue, and heart, and every part of him. And so here being in conjunction with [I am weak] and my soul is sore vexed v. 3. it is but a Poetical expression, my bones, i. e. every part of my body. Now the word foreign foreignwhich we render vexed, from foreign in Niphal, signifies any sudden commotion, or disturbance, or trembling, and so being joyned with weak foreign foreignlanguishing from foreign to be sick or faint (and so weak in the notion of foreign in the New Testament, See Note on Rom. viii. m. and Gal. iv. a.) it must signifie a sore affliction, perhaps literally a disease, a terrible shaking fit, as of a Paralytick, and this being founded in, and so including also his sin, the malady of the soul, which is likewise called foreign weaknesse (see 1 Cor. viii. note 6.) the whole verse is the doleful description of him that hath committed any wasting sin, and being cast down under Gods punishments for it, is passionately suing out Gods pardon, the only means possible to recover or heal him again.
V. 10. Let all my enemies] All the Antient Interpreters understand this last verse of the discomfiture and confusion of Davids enemies:foreign foreign saith the Chaldee they shall be confounded] both in the beginning and end of the verse; and the Syriack instead of the latter hath foreign perish] & the LXXII. their [foreign let them be made ashamed] is to the same purpose: and whereas some Copies have for foreign, which might incline to the rendring it of their conversion, or repentance (whereto the Latine convertantur may seem to sound) yet Asulanus's Impression and others have foreign let them be repulsed, and others more largely foreign, let them be turned backward, foreignand so the Arabick reads it, which must needs belong to their flight. That they put it in that mood of wishing, is ordinary with them, when yet the Hebrew is in the Indicative future sence, foreign they shall be put to shame, and so forward. And this surely best connects with the former verse, The Lord hath heard; the Lord will receive my prayer; and then as an effect of that, All mine enemies shall be confounded, &c.