Psalm 6

Psalm 6. Where the King James Version gives the superscription (perhaps the postscript of Psalm 5) as "on Neginoth upon Sheminith," the New King James gives the likely translation "On an eight-stringed harp."

In Psalm 6, David is distressed by an illness that he senses God has sent as a punishment for his own sinfulness (verse 1). He suffers intense pain—"my bones are troubled" (verse 2)—with no remission in sight: "My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long?" (verse 3). He believes the illness to be mortal (verse 5).

We do not know when this situation occurred. David wrote a number of psalms associated with serious illness that may concern the same time. Some have speculated that this came on him after the episode of taking a census of Israel, which focused more on national strength than the need for God's help (see 2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). God sent a plague on the people, who were likely complicit in self-sufficient thinking. Yet David, who had ordered the census despite Joab's warning, took responsibility. As 2 Samuel 24:17 says: "Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, 'Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house.'" Perhaps his concluding words here came to pass when the plague on the nation was halted, though we cannot know for sure.

Whatever sin it was that apparently brought on his illness, David calls on God's mercy—His unfailing love (Psalm 6:4). As in Psalm 5, the word here again is hesed. Says The Nelson Study Bible: "Perhaps the most significant single term in the Hebrew text regarding the character of God is the word rendered mercies here. The Hebrew word describes what some prefer to call the loyal love of God. The translations vary because the word has much depth. Aside from the personal name of God (Yahweh), it may be the single most important term describing Him as the object of praise in the Book of Psalms" (note on 6:4).

David warns his enemies in verses 8-10 that he is confident in God's healing and that they will be ashamed, dismayed, and suddenly disgraced for reviling him and, in so doing, dishonoring God, who declared David His servant.