The sixth psalm is an individual prayer for a person in severe distress, and the cause of this distress is his sin! How upset he is when the people around him scold him for the difference between his faith and his life. How difficult is the distress resulting from his grief for his God whom he loves with the first love!
This man was overcome by his weakness! Is there a way out? He offended God who relied on him! Everything calls for psychological and even physical distress and despair as well, were it not for God’s saving mercy!
(Title) For the chief singer, On the stringed instruments, On the decision, A Psalm of David
All the psalms have titles that refer to the content of the psalm, the way it is performed, or its author. In the Septuagint translation, this psalm has a different title: “In the end, in praise, for the sake of the eighth.” A Psalm of David.”
What is meant here by “in the end” is perhaps what is meant by “the eighth,” that is, the eschatological meaning of the coming age. This age is a week, followed by the eighth day, the beginning of the age to come... The eighth day has a long theology in the Holy Book. The eighth day is therefore the day after the week of this age, it is the Day of Judgment, it is the beginning of the age to come, it is the Day of Resurrection or Pentecost, the day that will not be revealed in the evening.(5). According to Thedemos, the celibate and monastic life that abandoned the worldly matters of this world is a form of life to come.(6). Perhaps this eschatological expectation came to the fore in Psalm 6 because it awaits God’s ultimate just judgment on man’s enemies and the unfavorable circumstances of this age.
(1) O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your anger
With feelings of deep contrition, the psalmist raises his hands and prays to the Lord, sincerely confessing that he truly deserves all divine wrath and wrath as well. This is the just judgment for his great sin. She deserves it all. But God's wrath and wrath for him means absolutely death, as there is no life without God!
Here the psalmist does not reject “discipline.”(7)! “Blessed is the man whom the Lord disciplines”(8). The Lord refines His loved ones like gold in a crucible. The Lord’s discipline is care and a manifestation of love. Therefore, it is narrated that one of the monks began to cry, asking God not to remove the temptations from him. Every trial and tribulation is discipline, in which man, in addition to difficulty, experiences divine support and the companionship of the Lord the Shepherd, and thus experiences divine consolations.
But the psalmist’s feeling is that his sin exceeded the limits of discipline, and deserves every punishment of anger and anger. His sin is grave in his eyes, but there is no way out but to resort to divine compassion instead of His justice! The psalmist was tired of his sin, hated it, and considered it grave, calling for God’s wrath. But this leads him not to despair, but to cry out to the living and compassionate God! When difficulties become severe, we must intensify our prayers and raise the volume of our cries. “Where sin abounds, grace abounds.” Where distress is strong and weakness is great, there is a need for fervent prayer and sincere supplication. “Discipline me fatherly and not judicially. Heal me from the wounds of my weaknesses and do not punish me. Do not exchange my sin for its due punishment, but with your love for humanity and your compassion heal me,” as Theodoretus explains.
Of course, these human images of anger and anger are human natures that are not in God. But the psalmist, like every human being, speaks to God in his human language to express the truth of a spiritual relationship. This is how a father accepts his child’s muttering, even if it is in an unnatural language. A person cannot speak about matters in a language different from his own! It is easy to talk about material things, but talking with or about non-material things (that are different from us) requires symbolic language from our material world. Thus, in daily life, we say: “His evil hurt me,” “I changed my mind,” “My soul became ill.” We describe intangible things with actions from our material framework, and what is intangible with concrete expressions. This applies to the language of our dealings with God as a materially incomprehensible reality, in order to express deep knowledge or true feeling.
(2) Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak
Have mercy on me, O Lord, because I am powerless with my own strength. I ask not only that you turn your anger away from me and not dismay me, but also that you extend a helping hand to me. O Lord, your justice does not save me, only your mercy is my trust, a mercy that forgives and supports!
I am weak in the face of enemies and in the face of adversity that has strengthened me. I am weak in front of the “man-killing enemy,” who stalks me like a lion wanting to devour me. I am weak because sin has exhausted me. I am weak in the face of my whims and whims that overwhelm me. Have mercy on me, Lord! You are merciful to everyone, but at the same time to those who show repentance. You want to have mercy on everyone, but you can only do so with one who has mercy on himself through repentance(9).
“If You are a watcher of sins, O Lord, O Lord, who will stand firm? For from You is forgiveness.”(10) Not revenge or prosecution. He who does not acknowledge his weakness will not accept your mercy. Humility alone attracts mercy, for which nothing is paid.
Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled
My sin hurt me to the bone. When psychological pain reaches great levels, it is reflected in the body's own organs. Such sorrows generate headaches and pain in the stomach, and the worst of them hurts to the bone. The bones were disturbed by unimaginable spiritual pain. Your mercy, O Lord, alone will heal my humiliated bones.
(3) And my soul was greatly troubled(11)
Just as a strong wind hits the sea and reaches its depths, it becomes disturbed and its waves rise, so the enormity of sin struck the depths of my soul, causing it to become disturbed and lose its peace and have no longer rest, according to the expression of Saint John Chrysostom.
§ And you, Lord, until when?
This is the reason for all my suffering, your absence and that you turn your face away from me, because of my sin. This is unbearable pain. Your absence, my lord, has made my bones tingle and my soul disturbed. How long, O Lord, I have exhausted all energy and have reached the end, “Save me before the end.” Your discipline, my lord, came upon me harshly, and your absence is no longer tolerable to me.
(4) Come back, O Lord, save my soul, save me for your mercy’s sake
O Lord, you do not let a person die, but rather you want him to come back and live. Behold, I have reached the brink of the abyss. You are chastised and not destroyed. Come back, Lord, has not the time come for forgiveness? Your anger has exhausted me. Come back, O Lord! My sin drove you out, but come back, Lord, in your mercy. Do not wait, O Lord, for my virtues, but rather act quickly with your mercy.
(5) Because there is no one in death who remembers you, and there is no one in hell who will confess to you
This is what the Jews believed in the time of the Prophet David, that Hell is the terrible place where the dead wait, and God does not visit it! Is there any death more difficult than the absence of God? Come back, O Lord, while there is still time for me to repent. Come back, O Lord, and hasten to my mercy, for I am destroyed. Because there is no repentance or deeds for me after death, there no one remembers you and they do not acknowledge you with thanks and praise.
Contemplating death is a necessary spiritual training in the Christian life. Contemplating death is not a disdain for the present life, but rather an honor for every moment of it. Al-Sulami says: “He who contemplates death does not sin.” The remembrance of death is death every moment.” Death reminds us that every moment of life is of great value. “Walk as long as you have the light,” “Redeem the days, for time is short.” Lord, I was unable to rise on my own. Come back, Lord, time is running out and my time of repentance has not yet begun! O my Lord, hasten to save me and revive me before the end.
(6) I am tired in my sighs, I protect my bed every night, I float my bed with my tears.
Many deep, hot sighs tired me out. Sighing is the ultimate expression of distress and intolerance. Tears are the deepest and noblest manifestation of warm feelings. Here the psalmist teaches us to withdraw every evening into ourselves, examine ourselves, and shed abundant tears over our sins. Every night, the psalmist wept over the turmoil in his relationship with God and the absence of God’s face from him, and lamented his feeling of divine dissatisfaction. “With rain of tears,” the hermits sanctified themselves. No words can surpass these images that attempt to express the pain and wounded longing in the heart of a person who has been exhausted by his alienation from God.
Night is a time for solitude and returning to oneself after a day of work and work. At night, a person collects the price of his day’s work. The night here is calm, serenity, and moments of standing before God in prayer. “Prayer is decisive,” Al-Sulami says. Whoever stands before an earthly ruler understands the meaning of standing in prayer before God!
Tears of repentance wash away. It is a second baptism after baptism with water and the Spirit. “Streams of water for the time of fire, and streams of tears for the time of trial,” says Ephrem the Syrian. “The Holy Fathers summarized all the monk’s activity in the word “The Life of Weeping” (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov). Jesus blessed those who weep because they will laugh. This is the power of tears.
(7) My eyes are troubled with wrath, I am tired in all my members
When you hate sin, then repentance begins. David's eyes brought tears to his anger over his sin! The true dignity of David returned to tears of repentance, just as the dignity of the prodigal son led him to his father’s house from the humiliation of life with the pigs!
I have become free in all my members. Every member of me has grown old as a result of the torment that befell me. There are translations that say, “I was freed among all my enemies,” meaning I became like an old man among my powerful enemies. The meaning is that the psalmist here describes a state of complete collapse, and a state of exhaustion to the extreme as a result of his sin and the absence of God!
(8) Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my crying
A complete coup! Here the doors of repentance were opened for the psalmist! From the cries of weeping and the feeling of the end and reaching the brink of the abyss, the psalmist stands here, voicing divine mercy, and here begins his renaissance and repentance with a cry of unparalleled confidence and spiritual determination.
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity! A large part of his pain was the mockery of non-believers in him and his faith! He rose from his sleep, from his death, and rose to life with God. God’s grace and mercy raised him to repentance.
“The Lord heard the voice of my weeping” and the anguish was gone. The Lord has accepted to turn to me and no longer means anything to me. Neither my weakness nor even my sin can hold me captive in the chains of despair. “I get up” and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” He will accept me as one of his children and not as his servants.
(9) The Lord heard my supplication, the Lord accepted my prayer
“Blessed are those who weep, for they will rejoice!” Divine mercy does not buy our deeds. “The worthy” is only “the oppressed.” There is no way to regain divine satisfaction except through humility and repentance. Tears are a wonderful communion that reconnects the groom with his bride, that is, the Lord and the human soul (Macarius the Great). The weeping eye is a font for the baptism of repentance and renewal. If God had not given us the grace of tears and heard our crying, it would have been impossible for many to be saved (John of Ladder).
(10) Let all my enemies be ashamed and confounded, and let them again be put to shame very quickly.
The psalmist here confirms his “salvation” from his past, and his entry into the world of repentance, the world of renewal. God responded to his tears; Through his tears, he accepted forgiveness and the Lord accepted his repentance. He reconciled with God, after feeling that He had angered Him and deserved nothing but His wrath. Now he is reassured that it is possible for him to address him, to speak to him, to praise him, to ask for his help and to obtain it!
God broke his silence after seeing the tears of the repentant. God has come out, may all His enemies be scattered and put to shame, and indeed put to shame quickly, Amen.
(6) Footnote related to the title: This psalm is recited in the Great Sleep Prayer.
(5) St. Gregory of Nyssa, published by W. Jaeger, p. 84; Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus, [PG 80, 991B]; Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, [PG 23, 120].
(6) PG 39, 1176.
(7) Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus, [PG 80, 991].
(8) Job 5, 7.
(9) Saint John Chrysostom, [PG 55, 72].
(10) Psalm 129.
(11) See: John 12:27.