Tyndale Open Study Notes

Verse 1

Ps 6 The occasion for this lament might have been sickness or a mental or spiritual depression from which the psalmist sought healing.

6:1-3 The psalmist asks for God’s favor and restoration at a difficult time.

6:1 don’t rebuke me . . . or discipline me: The psalmist does not explicitly connect God’s discipline with sin here (cp. 39:8-11), but it might be implied.

Verse 2

6:2-3 In his longing for God’s response to his prayer, the psalmist grew physically weak (6:6; see 77:3; 119:81; 142:1-3; see also Ps 101). Fasting might have played a part in his agony, but this is not mentioned.

Verse 4

6:4-5 The experience was so painful that the psalmist might as well have been dead, or perhaps he feared for his life.

Verse 5

6:5 from the grave? Hebrew from Sheol? In the Old Testament, Sheol is the abode of the dead. It is not necessarily associated with punishment.

Verse 6

6:6-7 The psalmist is exhausted to the depths of his being from the anguish of his spiritual distance from the Lord (22:1; 31:9-10; 102:5). • When eyes dim, the body is failing (see 13:3; 31:9; 38:10; Matt 6:22).

Verse 8

6:8-10 In a closing note of triumph, the psalmist reasserts his confidence in the Lord.