Psalm 06

This psalm is written completely in a minor key. It contains a complaint of a sick person. The caption in the NIV says: "For the director of music. With stringed instruments. according to sheminith. A psalm of David. A footnote suggests that sheminith is probably a musical term.

Adam Clarke's Commentary says here: "This Psalm has the following inscription: To the chief Musician on Neginoth, upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David, which the Chaldee translates 'To be sung on neginoth, a harp of eight strings.' The various interpretations given to this inscription, both by ancients and moderns, show us that nothing is known concerning it. We have already seen that neginoth probably signifies all instruments which emitted sounds by strokes, or stringed instruments in general. This Psalm was to be accompanied with such instruments, but one of a particular kind is specified, namely, sheminith, so called from its having eight strings."

One translation gives as a title: "A prayer in danger of death."¹ The thought of death is definitely prevalent in the psalm.

This psalm is the first in a series of seven which are called "Penitential Psalms."² The early church treated them as psalms related to the crucifixion of Christ. We have to read this psalm against that background; otherwise, it degenerates to the complaint of a sick man and nothing more.

Some commentators believe that David wrote this psalm after his sin with Bathsheba and a subsequent sickness, but there is no ground for such a supposition. Reading those commentaries, one would come to believe that the time after his sin with Bathsheba was, from a literary viewpoint, the most fruitful period of David's life!

There are some thoughts expressed in this psalm which are fundamental for the comprehension of God's purpose for suffering. First, it suggests that David's sickness is connected with God's anger over some sin that was committed, which is not mentioned in this context. Secondly, it indicates that sickness in itself is an enemy, which, in this psalm is personified, and finally, it implies that God permits this hostile power to do its work in David's body in order to achieve a goal, which is not mentioned in the context of this psalm either.

It is, of course, an established fact that sickness and death are related to sin and to the power of the devil. Before the arrival of sin, death had no place in God's creation. When sin arrived, death started to reign as an absolute monarch. This does not necessarily mean that every single incident of sickness can be traced to some particular sin the patient would have committed. Even if this were the case for David, we cannot elevate this theory to a doctrinal truth. David, however, sees his physical condition as God's punishment. He says: "my bones are in agony." The KJV translates it: "my bones are vexed." The Hebrew word is bahal, which can be translated "to tremble inwardly, to be alarmed or agitated." What is probably meant is that he is shaking physically. But at the same time, he speaks about his soul being in anguish. So, the probability exists that the real need is in the soul and that as a result of this he struggles with psycho-somatic symptoms; this, however, makes little difference in practice. Science has not yet established whether the current streams from the psychological to the physical or the other way around. There is probably a reciprocation between these two phases in the life of man.

As we stated at the beginning, however, we should treat this psalm in the light of the cross of Christ. There we find the real meaning the Holy Spirit wants to express here; He speaks here, not in the first place about David's sickness only, but also about the suffering Savior. Isaiah describes our suffering Savior: "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, ... But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."³

We have no indication in the Scriptures that Jesus recited this psalm to Himself during His crucifixion, as we know He quoted Psalm 22. Yet, we may believe that, from a prophetic viewpoint, this psalm was written for that occasion. On the other hand, it is obvious that David, when he wrote this psalm, experienced physical pain and felt a need that stimulated him to compose this poem. David wrote because he was sick. From his position he could not draw a line between his own condition and the sufferings of Christ, as we can do now. This seems to be one of the great lessons for us in this psalm. God wants us to related our personal experiences with sickness and death to the cross of Christ and to place our circumstances against this background and judge our circumstances accordingly. The words of the apostle Peter are particularly applicable to this psalm. We read: "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things."⁴ It was the Spirit of Christ in David which made him predict the sufferings of Christ. And David was given to understand that he was not serving himself. The significance of his own sickness went far beyond the boundaries of his fever and pain. We should, therefor, draw the first and most important lessons from this psalm that, if God allows us to be sick, we have to understand why we are sick and what we should do with our sickness.

"O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath." David's prayer has been answered by God for each of His children. For us, who belong to Jesus Christ, sickness is no longer a punishment for our sins. "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him!"⁵ This can never be undone again. If God allows sickness in our lives, we have to take that as an opportunity to examine ourselves. If there are sins which we have not yet laid upon Jesus, God may use sickness to draw our attention to the fact. C. S. Lewis said: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, He speaks to us in our conscience; but He shouts to us in our pain."⁶ That is why James establishes a connection between confession of sin and healing. We read in his epistle: "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."⁷ We make a mistake if we always, immediately connect sickness with certain sins. As far as we are concerned, sickness is no longer the result of the anger of God; that stage has passed away in Jesus Christ. In Christ, God is for us, not against us.⁸ This should take away the fear of sickness and death for us. We should, however, ask ourselves what God's intention is with us, when He allows sickness in our lives and the search for divine healing should have priority in our thinking.

The Hebrew word for "rebuke" David uses is yakach, which has a wide variety of meanings. It can mean: "to justify or convict," but it can also mean "to rebuke," or "to reprove." David does not want to be convicted, but to be taught. David does not plead with God on the basis of his merits, as did Hezekiah, but he bases his supplication on the merits of something outside himself. In doing so, David, again, points in the direction of "The Man of Sorrows." When Hezekiah is told by Isaiah that he will die, we read: "Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 'Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly."⁹

We do not know what caused David's suffering at that moment. That agony, or vexation in his bones, could mean that his body was weakened to the point that he could not stand up straight. It might have been a form of rheumatic pain. Whatever it was, it influenced him psychologically, as most physical suffering does. His soul was in anguish. This means more than that he simply was not feeling well. Words like that give the impression of an overwhelming fear, or a depression. It is a known fact that most symptoms of physical sickness bear upon our spirit as well as upon our soul and diminish our sense of fellowship with God.

But David also knew that his condition was temporary. The cryptic words, "How long, O LORD, how long?" remind us of Moses' prayer: "Relent, O LORD! How long will it be?"¹⁰ David felt as if God had abandoned him. Sickness has a way of diminishing our sense of reality; as such, it is an attack upon our faith. After all, faith gives us an understanding of the true character of life; it is the proof of things unseen. David's prayer: "Relent, O LORD! How long will it be?" indicates that David considered his sickness to be an abnormality. It was not a situation in accordance with God's original plan for man.

We also get the impression that David longs for more than his physical healing alone. There is in his words something of the sigh of the whole of nature, of the longing for the moment when God will return to what is His and will heal all that is bent and broken. The New Testament prayer is: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."¹¹ Therefore, we should always look at our sicknesses as being a part of a fallen creation. We are never an isolated incident in the history of the universe.

Where the NIV says: "Turn, O LORD, and deliver me," the KJV renders the phrase with: "Return, O LORD, deliver my soul." The Hebrew word nephesh can be rendered in various ways. The literal meaning is "a breathing creature," but it can also mean "myself." Evidently, David asks, in the first place, that the Lord will keep him alive on earth a little longer. In the context of his time and age, he saw death as the end of existence. It is a strange phenomenon that the people of Israel had lost the knowledge of resurrection from the dead during the most glorious period of their history. I say, "lost" because in previous periods in the Bible, we read that people believed in life after death. In the oldest book of the Bible, Job, this is overwhelmingly clear. With Solomon the question is raised anew, whether this life on earth actually offers all there is. I believe this is the basic philosophy of the Ecclesiastes. Only at the resurrection of Christ, does the Bible let the full rays of light fall upon the glorious hope we have now. With the major Old Testament prophets, the light begins to dawn again. Isaiah says: "But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead."¹² C. S. Lewis says in one of his books that he was grateful that God did not give him insight in the doctrine of the resurrection immediately after his conversion, but that he had to learn to trust the Lord first, even without hope of life after death. In our day, we seem to find ourselves anew where David was in this psalm. Modern man sees no future after death. Evidently, this does not exclude fellowship with God. One of the miracles in this psalm is the fact that the Holy Spirit uses the language of the ignorant! The text does not state specifically what David meant, but it does say what the Holy Spirit wanted to express.

Death is proof of the absence of God. Primitive people, such as the Me tribe in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, knew the legend of a Creator who withdrew from this world, by which man lost his eternal life and lost his soul. As God returns, as He did in Jesus Christ, the dead come back to life. Death cannot exist in the presence of God. As Jesus said about God: "He is not the God of the dead but of the living."¹³ So David sees his healing in connection with God's return to the whole of creation, which is the moment in time the apostle Paul calls "the revealing of the sons of God."¹⁴

There is also in David's prayer an expectation for the present time. It is as if David had heard Jesus' admonition to Martha, when she saw the resurrection of her brother, Lazarus, only as something to be hoped for in the future. When Martha answered: "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day," Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies."¹⁵ And even when Paul used the words, "the revealing of the sons of God," he spoke about something that already exists, but is not yet visible. As sons of God, we have the secret of healing and resurrection already within us.

Verses 6-8 do not merely contain David's complaint, but also an inventory of his ailments. In a certain way this means a spiritual breakthrough. He recognizes his condition and who his adversary is. I believe that David does not speak about men who are threatening his life, but about demonic powers. The numbness which is often the result of sickness, the diminishing of our powers of perception, is often much more dangerous than any physical handicap. Seeing who the adversary is and exposing the power that is behind the sickness puts things in focus.

David also recognizes anew who the God is to whom he unburdened his soul. It is the LORD, YHWH, who has heard the cry for mercy and who accepts the prayer of this little human being. As a mother immediately knows the cry of her little baby among the crying of scores of other babies, so does God react immediately to our tears. The fact that God pays attention to our cry elevates us above ourselves and gives us value. This understanding is the beginning of healing.

It is sometimes hard to determine the tense of a verb in Hebrew, but where the NIV says: "The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer," the KJV renders the phrase with: "The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer." This would indicate that, at this point, there has not been any change in David's physical condition. He bases his hope on faith. Twice he uses the word "ashamed." The NIV says: "All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace," but the Hebrew word translated as "disgrace" is the same as the "ashamed" in the first part of the sentence. It is buwsh, which literally means "to pale." The feeling of shame presupposes the knowledge of a moral standard and the realization of a trespass. It is strange that David would use this expression in connection with demons. I do not doubt, however, that the characterization of the Evil One is correct here. He knows better, and he will be ashamed before God. He will experience the same feeling of fear and anxiety that he cultivated and manipulated so cleverly in his victims.

² The other psalms are: 32; 38; 51; 102; 130 and 143

³ Isa. 53:4,5

⁴ I Peter 1:12

⁵ Isa. 53:5

⁶ The Problem of Pain, by C. S. Lewis

⁷ James 5:15,16

⁸ See Rom. 8:31

⁹ II Kings 20:2,3

¹⁰ Ps. 90:13

¹¹ Rev. 22:20

¹² Isa. 26:19

¹³ Matt. 22:32

¹⁴ Rom. 8:19(NKJ)

¹⁵ John 11:24,25

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