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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 6:4 - 6:4
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(Heb.: 6:5-8) God has turned away from him, hence the prayer שׁוּבָה, viz., אֵלַי. The tone of שׁוּבָה is on the ult., because it is assumed to be read שׁוּבָה אֲדֹנָי. The ultima accentuation is intended to secure its distinct pronunciation to the final syllable of שׁובה, which is liable to be drowned and escape notice in connection with the coming together of the two aspirates (vid., on Psa 3:8). May God turn to him again, rescue (חִלֵּץ from חלץ, which is transitive in Hebr. and Aram., to free, expedire, exuere, Arab. chalaṣa, to be pure, prop. to be loose, free) his soul, in which his affliction has taken deep root, from this affliction, and extend to him salvation on the ground of His mercy towards sinners. He founds this cry for help upon his yearning to be able still longer to praise God, - a happy employ, the possibility of which would be cut off from him if he should die. זֵכֶר, as frequently הִזְכִּיר, is used of remembering one with reverence and honour; הֹודָה (from וָדָה) has the dat. honoris after it. שְׁאֹול, Psa 6:6, ἅδης (Rev 20:13), alternates with מָוֶת. Such is the name of the grave, the yawning abyss, into which everything mortal descends (from שָׁאַל = שׁוּל Arab. sâl, to be loose, relaxed, to hang down, sink down: a sinking in, that which is sunken in,
(Note: The form corresponds to the Arabic form fi‛âlun, which, though originally a verbal abstract, has carried over the passive meaning into the province of the concrete, e.g., kitâb = maktûb and ilâh, אֱלֹוהַּ = ma‛lûh = ma‛bûd (the feared, revered One).)
a depth). The writers of the Psalms all (which is no small objection against Maccabean Psalms) know only of one single gathering-place of the dead in the depth of the earth, where they indeed live, but it is only a quasi life, because they are secluded from the light of this world and, what is the most lamentable, from the light of God's presence. Hence the Christian can only join in the prayer of v. 6 of this Psalm and similar passages (Psa 30:10; Psa 88:11-13; Psa 115:17; Isa 38:18.) so far as he transfers the notion of hades to that of gehenna.
(Note: An adumbration of this relationship of Christianity to the religion of the Old Testament is the relationship of Islam to the religion of the Arab wandering tribes, which is called the “religion of Abraham” (Din Ibrâhim), and knows no life after death; while Islam has taken from the later Judaism and from Christianity the hope of a resurrection and heavenly blessedness.)
In hell there is really no remembrance and no praising of God. David's fear of death as something in itself unhappy, is also, according to its ultimate ground, nothing but the fear of an unhappy death. In these “pains of hell” he is wearied with (בְּ as in Psa 69:4) groaning, and bedews his couch every night with a river of tears. Just as the Hiph. הִשְׂחָה signifies to cause to swim from שָׂחָה to swim, so the Hiph. הִמְסָה signifies to dissolve, cause to melt, from מָסָה (cogn. מָסַס) to melt. דִּמְעָה, in Arabic a nom. unit. a tear, is in Hebrew a flood of tears.
In Psa 6:8 עֵינִי does not signify my “appearance” (Num 11:7), but, as becomes clear from Psa 31:10; Psa 88:10, Job 17:7, “my eye;” the eye reflects the whole state of a man's health. The verb עָשֵׁשׁ appears to be a denominative from עָשׁ: to be moth-eaten.
(Note: Reuchlin in his grammatical analysis of the seven Penitential Psalms, which he published in 1512 after his Ll. III de Rudimentis Hebraicis (1506), explains it thus: עשְׁשָׁה Verminavit. Sic a vermibus dictum qui turbant res claras puras et nitidas, and in the Rudim. p. 412: Turbatus est a furore oculus meus, corrosus et obfuscatus, quasi vitro laternae obductus.)
The signification senescere for the verb עָתֵק is more certain. The closing words בְּכָל־צֹורֲרָי (cf. Num 10:9 הַצַּר הַצֹּרֵר the oppressing oppressor, from the root צר Arab. tsr, to press, squeeze, and especially to bind together, constringere, coartare
(Note: In Arabic צִיר dir is the word for a step-mother as the oppressor of the step-children; and צִרְר dirr, a concubine as the oppressor of her rival.)),
in which the writer indicates, partially at least, the cause of his grief (כַּעַס, in Job 18:7 כַּעַשׁ), are as it were the socket into which the following strophe is inserted.