Psalms 6King James Version

David's first penitential psalm, a raw plea from physical and emotional collapse. He opens asking God not to rebuke in wrath, acknowledges bones vexed and soul troubled to the point of death, and then pivots on God's lovingkindness. Enemies taunt; he weeps through the night; but suddenly in verse 8 the tonal shift comes hard: the LORD has heard. They are the ones who must depart.

In the depths of illness, guilt, and the contempt of enemies, the sudden shift is not from despair to happiness but from silence to being heard.

verse: "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping." The pivot from drowning to authority is abrupt and deliberate.

Superscription: 'To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith.' Sheminith may indicate a lower octave or bass instrument. The physical collapse (vv2-3, 7) suggests genuine illness, not metaphor. The 'enemies' who mock (v7-8) likely seized on David's weakness as divine abandonment. Penitential tradition used this psalm in Ash Wednesday and Lenten rites.

David as the suffering speaker; God addressed; unnamed enemies who 'trouble' him and must ultimately depart; the soul addressed in v3.

First of the seven traditional penitential psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) that shaped Christian liturgy of confession and absolution. The psalm's brutal physical description of grief (tears, watering a bed, soul consumed) established the language of penitential prayer for two millennia.

For when illness and guilt are simultaneous and you cannot tell if God's silence is punishment or simply absence. The psalm ends before the physical healing arrives but after the hearing has been confirmed.