_Whole Psalm._—David was a man that was often exercised with sickness
and troubles from enemies, and in all the instances almost that we meet
with in the Psalms of these his afflictions, we may observe the outward
occasions of trouble brought him under the suspicion of God’s wrath and
his own iniquity; so that he was seldom sick, or persecuted, but this
called on the disquiet of conscience, and brought his sin to
remembrance; as in this Psalm, which was made on the occasion of his
sickness, as appears from verse eight, wherein he expresseth the
vexation of his soul under the apprehension of God’s anger; all his
other griefs running into this channel, as little brooks, losing
themselves in a great river, change their name and nature. He that was
at first only concerned for his sickness, is now wholly concerned with
sorrow and smart under the fear and hazard of his soul’s condition; the
like we may see in Psalm xxxviii., and many places more.—_Richard
Gilpin, 1677._
_Verse 1.—“Rebuke me not.”_ God hath two means by which he reduceth his
children to obedience; his word, by which he rebukes them; and his rod,
by which he chastiseth them. The word precedes, admonishing them by his
servants whom he hath sent in all ages to call sinners to repentance: of
the which David himself saith, “Let the righteous rebuke me;” and as a
father doth first rebuke his disordered child, so doth the Lord speak to
them. But when men neglect the warnings of his word, then God as a good
father, takes up the rod and beats them. Our Saviour wakened the three
disciples in the garden three times, but seeing that served not, he told
them that Judas and his band were coming to awaken them whom his own
voice could not waken.—_A. Symson, 1638._
_Verse 1.—“Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger,”_ etc. He does not
altogether refuse punishment, for that would be unreasonable; and to be
without it, he judged would be more hurtful than beneficial to him; but
what he is afraid of is the wrath of God, which threatens sinners with
ruin and perdition. To anger and indignation David tacitly opposes
fatherly and gentle chastisement, and this last he was willing to
bear.—_John Calvin, 1509-1564._
_Verse 1.—“O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger.”_
The anger of the Lord? Oh, dreadful thought!
How can a creature frail as man endure
The tempest of his wrath? Ah, whither flee
To ’scape the punishment he well deserves?
Flee to the cross! the great atonement there
Will shield the sinner, if he supplicate
For pardon with repentance true and deep,
And faith that questions not. Then will the frown
Of anger pass off the face of God,
Like a black tempest cloud that hides the sun.
_Anon._
_Verse 1.—“Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger,”_ etc.; that is, do not
lay upon me that thou hast threatened in thy law; where anger is not put
for the decree, nor the execution, but for the denouncing. So (Matt.
iii. 11, and so Hos. xi. 9), “I will not execute the fierceness of mine
anger,” that is, I will not execute my wrath as I have declared it.
Again, it is said, he executes punishment on the wicked; he declares it
not only, but executeth it, so anger is put for the execution of
anger.—_Richard Stock, 1641._
_Verse 1.—“Neither chasten me in thine hot displeasure.”_
O keep up life and peace within,
If I must feel thy chastening rod!
Yet kill not me, but kill my sin,
And let me know thou art my God.
O give my soul some sweet foretaste
Of that which I shall shortly see!
Let faith and love cry to the last,
“Come, Lord, I trust myself with thee!”
_Richard Baxter, 1615-1691._
_Verse 2.—“Have mercy upon me, O Lord.”_ To fly and escape the anger of
God, David sees no means in heaven or in earth, and therefore retires
himself to God, even to him who wounded him that he might heal him. He
flies not with Adam to the bush, nor with Saul to the witch, nor with
Jonah to Tarshish; but he appeals from an angry and just God to a
merciful God, and from himself to himself. The woman who was condemned
by King Philip, appealed from Philip being drunken to Philip being
sober. But David appeals from one virtue, justice, to another, mercy.
There may be appellation from the tribunal of man to the justice-seat of
God; but when thou art indicted before God’s justice-seat, whither or to
whom wilt thou go but to himself and his mercy-seat, which is the
highest and last place of appellation? “I have none in heaven but thee,
nor in earth besides thee.”... David, under the name of _mercy_,
includeth all things, according to that of Jacob to his brother Esau, “I
have gotten mercy, and therefore I have gotten all things.” Desirest
thou any thing at God’s hands? Cry for _mercy_, out of which fountain
all good things will spring to thee.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 2.—“For I am weak.”_ Behold, what rhetoric he useth to move God
to cure him, “_I am weak_,” an argument taken from his weakness, which
indeed were a weak argument to move any man to show his favour, but is a
strong argument to prevail with God. If a diseased person would come to
a physician, and only lament the heaviness of his sickness, he would
say, God help thee; or an oppressed person come to a lawyer, and show
him the estate of his action and ask his advice, that is a golden
question; or to a merchant to crave raiment, he will either have present
money or a surety; or a courtier favour, you must have your reward ready
in your hand. But coming before God the most forcible argument that ye
can use is your necessity, poverty, tears, misery, unworthiness, and
confessing them to him, it shall be an open door to furnish you with all
things that he hath.... The tears of our misery are forcible arrows to
pierce the heart of our heavenly Father, to deliver us and pity our hard
case. The beggars lay open their sores to the view of the world, that
the more they may move men to pity them. So let us deplore our miseries
to God, that he, with the pitiful Samaritan, at the sight of our wounds,
may help us in due time.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 2.—“Heal me,”_ etc. David comes not to take physic upon
wantonness, but because the disease is violent, because the accidents
are vehement; so vehement, so violent, as that it hath pierced _ad
ossa_, and _ad animam_, “_My bones are vexed, and my soul is sore
troubled_,” therefore “_heal me_;” which is the reason upon which he
grounds this second petition, “_Heal me, because my bones are vexed_,”
etc.—_John Donne._
_Verse 2.—“My bones are vexed.”_ The Lord can make the strongest and
most insensible part of man’s body sensible of his wrath when he
pleaseth to touch him, for here David’s bones are vexed.—_David
Dickson._
_Verse 2._—The term “_bones_” frequently occurs in the psalms, and if we
examine we shall find it used in three different senses. (1.) It is
sometimes applied literally to our blessed Lord’s human body, to the
body which hung upon the cross, as, “They pierced my hands and my feet;
I may tell all my bones.” (2.) It has sometimes also a further reference
to his mystical body the church. And then it denotes all the members of
Christ’s body that stand firm in the faith, that cannot be moved by
persecutions, or temptations, however severe, as, “All my bones shall
say, Lord, who is like unto thee?” (3.) In some passages the term bones
is applied to the soul, and not to the body, to the inner man of the
individual Christian. Then it implies the strength and fortitude of the
soul, the determined courage which faith in God gives to the righteous.
This is the sense in which it is used in the second verse of Psalm vi.,
“_O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed_.”—_Augustine, Ambrose, and
Chrysostom; quoted by F. H. Dunwell, B.A., in “Parochial Lectures on the
Psalms,” 1855._
_Verse 3.—“My soul.”_ Yokefellows in sin are yokefellows in pain; the
soul is punished for informing, the body for performing, and as both the
informer and performer, the cause and the instrument, so shall the
stirrer up of sin and the executer of it be punished.—_John Donne._
_Verse 3.—“O Lord, how long?”_ Out of this we have three things to
observe; first, that there is an appointed time which God hath measured
for the crosses of all his children, before which time they shall not be
delivered, and for which they must patiently attend, not thinking to
prescribe time to God for their delivery, or limit the Holy One of
Israel. The Israelites remained in Egypt till the complete number of
four hundred and thirty years were accomplished. Joseph was three years
and more in the prison till the appointed time of his delivery came. The
Jews remained seventy years in Babylon. So that as the physician
appointeth certain times to the patient, both wherein he must fast, and
be dieted, and wherein he must take recreation, so God knoweth the
convenient times both of our humiliation and exaltation. Next, see the
impatiency of our nature in our miseries, our flesh still rebelling
against the Spirit, which oftentimes forgetteth itself so far, that it
will enter into reasoning with God, and quarrelling with him as we may
read of Job, Jonas, etc., and here also of David. Thirdly, albeit the
Lord delay his coming to relieve his saints, yet hath he great cause if
we could ponder it; for when we were in the heat of our sins, many times
he cried by the mouth of his prophets and servants, “O fools, how long
will you continue in your folly?” And we would not hear; and therefore
when we are in the heat of our pains, thinking long, yea, every day a
year till we be delivered, no wonder it is if God will not hear; let us
consider with ourselves the just dealing of God with us; that as he
cried and we would not hear, so now we cry, and he will not hear.—_A.
Symson._
_Verse 3.—“O Lord, how long?”_ As the saints in heaven have their _usque
quo_, how long, Lord, holy and true, before thou begin to execute
judgment? So, the saints on earth have their _usque quo_. How long,
Lord, before thou take off the execution of this judgment upon us? For,
our deprecatory prayers are not mandatory, they are not directory, they
appoint not God his ways, or his times; but as our postulatory prayers
are, they also are submitted to the will of God, and have all in them
that ingredient, that herb of grace, which Christ put into his own
prayer, that _veruntamen_, _yet not my will, but thy will be fulfilled_;
and they have that ingredient which Christ put into our prayer, _fiat
voluntas_, _thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven_; in heaven
there is no resisting of his will; yet in heaven there is a soliciting,
a hastening, an accelerating of the judgment, and the glory of the
resurrection; so though we resist not his corrections here upon earth,
we may humbly present to God the sense which we have of his displeasure,
for this sense and apprehension of his corrections is one of the
principal reasons why he sends them; he corrects us therefore that we
might be sensible of his corrections; that when we, being humbled under
his hand, have said with his prophet, “_I will bear the wrath of the
Lord because I have sinned against him_” (Mic. vii. 9), he may be
pleased to say to his correcting angel, as he did to his destroying
angel, _This is enough_, and so burn his rod now, as he put up his sword
then.—_John Donne._
_Verse 4.—“Return, O Lord, deliver my soul,”_ etc. In this his besieging
of God, he brings up his works from afar off, closer; he begins in this
Psalm, at a deprecatory prayer; he asks nothing, but that God would do
nothing, that he would forbear him—_rebuke me not, correct me not_. Now,
it costs the king less to give a pardon than to give a pension, and less
to give a reprieve than to give a pardon, and less to connive, not to
call in question, than either reprieve, pardon, or pension; to forbear
is not much. But then as the mathematician said, that he could make an
engine, a screw, that should move the whole frame of the world, if he
could have a place assigned him to fix that engine, that screw upon, so
that it might work upon the world; so prayer, when one petition hath
taken hold upon God, works upon God, moves God, prevails with God,
entirely for all. David then having got this ground, this footing in
God, he brings his works closer; he comes from the deprecatory to a
postulatory prayer; not only that God would do nothing against him, but
that he would do something for him. God hath suffered man to see _Arcana
imperii_, the secrets of his state, how he governs—he governs by
precedent; by precedents of his predecessors, he cannot, he hath none;
by precedents of other gods he cannot, there are none; and yet he
proceeds by precedents, by his own precedents, he does as he did before,
_habenti dat_, to him that hath received he gives more, and is willing
to be wrought and prevailed upon, and pressed with his own example. And,
as though his doing good were but to learn how to do good better, still
he writes after his own copy, and _nulla dies sine linea_. He writes
something to us, that is, he doth something for us every day. And then,
that which is not often seen in other masters, his copies are better
than the originals; his latter mercies larger than his former; and in
this postulatory prayer, larger than the deprecatory, enters our text,
“_Return, O Lord; deliver my soul: O save me_,” etc.—_John Donne._
_Verse 5.—“For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave
who will give thee thanks?”_ Lord, be thou pacified and reconciled to me
... for shouldst 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 magnify 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.—_Henry Hammond, D.D., 1659._
_Verse 6.—“I fainted in my mourning.”_ It may seem a marvellous change
in David, being a man of such magnitude of mind, to be thus dejected and
cast down. Prevailed he not against Goliath, against the lion and the
bear, through fortitude and magnanimity? But now he is sobbing, sighing,
and weeping as a child! The answer is easy; the diverse persons with
whom he hath to do occasioneth the same. When men and beasts are his
opposites, then he is more than a conqueror; but when he hath to do with
God against whom he sinned, then he is less than nothing.
_Verse 6.—“I caused my bed to swim.”_... Showers be better than dews,
yet it is sufficient if God at least hath bedewed our hearts, and hath
given us some sign of a penitent heart. If we have not rivers of waters
to pour forth with David, neither fountains flowing with Mary Magdalen,
nor as Jeremy, desire to have a fountain in our head to weep day and
night, nor with Peter weep bitterly; yet if we lament that we cannot
lament, and mourn that we cannot mourn: yea, if we have the smallest
sobs of sorrow and tears of compunction, if they be true and not
counterfeit, they will make us acceptable to God; for as the woman with
the bloody issue that touched the hem of Christ’s garment, was no less
welcome to Christ than Thomas, who put his fingers in the print of the
nails; so, God looketh not at the quantity, but the sincerity of our
repentance.
_Verse 6.—“My bed.”_ The place of his sin is the place of his
repentance, and so it should be; yea, when we behold the place where we
have offended, we should be pricked in the heart, and there again crave
him pardon. As Adam sinned in the garden, and Christ sweat bloody tears
in the garden. “Examine your hearts upon your beds, and convert unto the
Lord;” and whereas ye have stretched forth yourselves upon your bed to
devise evil things, repent there and make them sanctuaries to God.
Sanctify by your tears every place which ye have polluted by sin. And
let us seek Christ Jesus on our own bed, with the spouse in the
Canticles, who saith, “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul
loveth.”—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 6.—“I water my couch with tears.”_ Not only I _wash_, but also I
_water_. The faithful sheep of the great Shepherd go up from the
_washing_ place, every one bringeth forth twins, and none barren among
them. Cant. iv. 2. For so Jacob’s sheep, having conceived at the
watering troughs, brought forth strong and party-coloured lambs. David
likewise, who before had erred and strayed like a lost sheep, making
here his bed a washing place, by so much the less is barren in
obedience, by how much the more he is fruitful in repentance. In
Solomon’s temple stood the caldrons of brass, to wash the flesh of those
beasts which were to be sacrificed on the altar. Solomon’s father maketh
a water of his tears, a caldron of his bed, an altar of his heart, a
sacrifice, not of the flesh of unreasonable beasts, but of his own body,
a living sacrifice, which is his reasonable serving of God. Now the
Hebrew word here used signifies properly, to cause to swim, which is
more than simply to wash. And thus the Geneva translation readeth it, I
cause my bed every night to swim. So that as the priests used to swim in
the molten sea, that they might be pure and clean, against they
performed the holy rites and services of the temple, in like manner the
princely prophet washeth his bed, yea, he swimmeth in his bed, or rather
he causeth his bed to swim in tears, as in a sea of grief and penitent
sorrow for his sin.—_Thomas Playfere, 1604._
_Verse 6.—“I water my couch with my tears.”_ Let us water our bed every
night with our tears. Do not only blow upon it with intermissive blasts,
for then like fire, it will resurge and flame the more. Sin is like a
stinking candle newly put out, it is soon lighted again. It may receive
a wound, but like a dog it will easily lick itself whole; a little
forbearance multiplies it like Hydra’s heads. Therefore, whatsoever
aspersion the sin of the day has brought upon us, let the tears of the
night wash away.—_Thomas Adams._
_Verses 6, 7._—Soul-trouble is attended usually with great pain of body
too, and so a man is wounded and distressed in every part. There is no
soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, says David. “The arrows
of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my
spirit.” Job vi. 4. Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits,
making all their motions slow and feeble; and the poor afflicted body
does usually decline and waste away; and, therefore, saith Heman, “My
soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.” In
this inward distress we find our strength decay and melt, even as wax
before the fire, for sorrow darkeneth the spirits, obscures the
judgment, blinds the memory as to all pleasant things, and beclouds the
lucid part of the mind, causing the lamp of life to burn weakly. In this
troubled condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is
pale, and wan, and dejected, like one that is seized with strong fear
and consternation; all his motions are sluggish, and no sprightliness
nor activity remains. A merry heart doth good, like a medicine; but a
broken spirit drieth the bones. Hence come those frequent complaints in
Scripture: My moisture is turned into the drought of the summer: I am
like a bottle in the smoke; my soul cleaveth unto the dust: my face is
foul with weeping, and on my eyelid is the shadow of death. Job xvi. 16,
xxx. 17, 18-19. My bones are pierced in me, in the night season, and my
sinews take no rest; by the great force of my disease is my garment
changed. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and
ashes. Many times indeed the trouble of the soul does begin from the
weakness and indisposition of the body. Long affliction, without any
prospect of remedy, does, in process of time, begin to distress the soul
itself. David was a man often exercised with sickness and the rage of
enemies; and in all the instances almost that we meet with in the
Psalms, we may observe that the outward occasions of trouble brought him
under an apprehension of the wrath of God for his sin. (Psalm vi. 1, 2;
and the reasons given, verses 5 and 6.) All his griefs running into this
most terrible thought, that God was his enemy. As little brooks lose
themselves in a great river, and change their name and nature, it most
frequently happens, that when our pain is long and sharp, and helpless
and unavoidable, we begin to question the sincerity of our estate
towards God, though at its first assault we had few doubts or fears
about it. Long weakness of body makes the soul more susceptible of
trouble, and uneasy thoughts.—_Timothy Rogers on Trouble of Mind._
_Verse 7.—“Mine eye is consumed.”_ Many make those eyes which God hath
given them, as it were two lighted candles to let them see to go to
hell; and for this God in justice requiteth them, that seeing their
minds are blinded by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and
the pride of life, God I say, sendeth sickness to debilitate their eyes
which were so sharp-sighted in the devil’s service, and their lust now
causeth them to want the necessary sight of their body.
_Verse 7.—“Mine enemies.”_ The pirates seeing an empty bark, pass by it;
but if she be loaded with precious wares, then they will assault her.
So, if a man have no grace within him, Satan passeth by him, as not a
convenient prey for him, but being loaded with graces, as the love of
God, his fear, and such other spiritual virtues, let him be persuaded
that according as he knows what stuff is in him, so will he not fail to
rob him of them, if in any case he may.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 7._—That eye of his that had looked and lusted after his
neighbour’s wife is now dimmed and darkened with grief and indignation.
He had wept himself almost blind.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 8.—“Depart from me,”_ etc., _i.e._, you may now go your way; for
that which you look for, namely, my death, you shall not have at this
present; _for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping,_ _i.e._, has
graciously granted me that which with tears I asked of him.—_Thomas
Wilcocks._
_Verse 8.—“Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”_ May not too
much familiarity with profane wretches be justly charged upon church
members? I know man is a sociable creature, but that will not excuse
saints as to their carelessness of the choice of their company. The very
fowls of the air, and beasts of the field, love not heterogeneous
company. “Birds of a feather flock together.” I have been afraid that
many who would be thought eminent, of a high stature in grace and
godliness, yet see not the vast difference there is between nature and
regeneration, sin and grace, the old and the new man, seeing all company
is alike unto them.—_Lewis Stuckley’s “Gospel Glass,” 1667._
_Verse 8.—“The voice of my weeping.”_ Weeping hath a voice, and as music
upon the water sounds farther and more harmoniously than upon the land,
so prayers, joined with tears, cry louder in God’s ears, and make
sweeter music than when tears are absent. When Antipater had written a
large letter against Alexander’s mother unto Alexander, the king
answered him, “One tear from my mother will wash away all her faults.”
So it is with God. A penitent tear is an undeniable ambassador, and
never returns from the throne of grace unsatisfied. _Spencer’s Things
New and Old._
_Verse 8._—The wicked are called “_workers of iniquity_,” because they
are free and ready to sin, they have a strong tide and bent of spirit
to do evil, and they do it not to halves but thoroughly; they do not
only begin or nibble at the bait a little (as a good man often doth),
but greedily swallow it down, hook and all; they are fully in it, and
do it fully; they make a work of it, and so are “_workers of
iniquity_.”—_Joseph Caryl._