PSALM 6
The First Penitential Psalm
Marcel Dion
March 2, 2025
Psalm 6:4-5
Turn, O Lord, save my life;
deliver me for the sake of Your merciful love.
For in death there is no remembrance of You;
in Sheol who can give you praise?
I find it intriguing that there are seven psalms considered penitential . Seven is God's number, the number of spiritual perfection and of Sabbath rest. Might the Holy Spirit be indicating that the peaceful, spiritual rest we all so deeply long for can be found in, and is fruit of, genuine repentance?
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I believe that could be one meaning. Yet repentance and finding that rest can be challenging. It is often painful to face our own limitations and failures. Have we not all, at some time or other, found ourselves in life circumstances in which we could identify with these gut wrenching declarations? Haven't most of us been through seasons when these words resonated in our own spirit?
Psalm 6:2, 3, 6, 7
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is sorely troubled.
But You, O Lord - how long?
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I am weary with my moaning,
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief,
it grows weak because of all my foes
We see further on in this psalm however, that turning to the Lord in humble supplication; that going to God just as we are, despite how wretched we may feel, is truly fruitful. For the psalmist doesn't remain in that troubled place but proclaims to us that the Lord does indeed hear, "...the cry of the poor!" (Psalm 34:6).
It's impossible to know with certainty if the closing verses of this psalm is a declaration of faith in what the Lord is about to do, or a declaration of praise for what the Lord has already done. But this psalm of repentance unmistakably concludes on a victorious note, as is fitting when one sincerely repents, for God, as the psalm first proclaimed, is a God of merciful love.
Psalm 6:8-10
Depart for me, all you workers of evil;
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my supplication;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
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All my enemies shall be ashamed and sorely troubled;
they shall turn back, and be put to shame in a moment.
