Salmi 6:7 Commento

David was a weeping prophet as well as Jeremiah, and this psalm is one of his lamentations: either it was penned in a time, or at least calculated for a time, of great trouble, both outward and inward. Is any afflicted? Is any sick? Let him sing this psalm. The method of this psalm is very observable, and what we shall often meet with. He begins with doleful complaints, but ends with joyful praises; like Hannah, who went to prayer with a sorrowful spirit, but, when she had prayed, went her way, and her countenance was no more sad. Three things the psalmist is here complaining of: - 1. Sickness of body. 2. Trouble of mind, arising from the sense of sin, the meritorious cause of pain and sickness. 3. The insults of his enemies upon occasion of both. Now here, I. He pours out his complaints before God, deprecates his wrath, and begs earnestly for the return of his favour (Psa 6:1-7). II. He assures himself of an answer of peace, shortly, to his full satisfaction (Psa 6:8-10). This psalm is like the book of Job. To the chief musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 6 To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, a Psalm of David. What is designed by "the chief musician", and what is meant by "neginoth", have been observed preciously, See Gill on Psa 4:1. As for "sheminith", it seems to be one particular sort of the "neginoth", or stringed instrument, which this man had the care of; see the title of Psa 12:1, which most of the Hebrew writers (y) understand of the harp of eight strings, to which this psalm was set; and which, from the number of its strings, was called "sheminith", which signifies "the eighth": and this receives confirmation from Ch1 15:21. The eighth string was added to the harp by Simonides, according to Pliny (z): but if such an harp is here meant, this refutes it, for David lived long before Simonides. Though some (a) have thought it refers to a poem or song of eight notes, to the tune of which this psalm was sung; or to the eighth note, which was grave, and which we call the bass. As for the eighth day of circumcision, of which some Jewish writers mystically interpret it; or the eighth, that is, the first day, or Lord's day, to which some of the ancient Christian writers refer it, or the eighth age, or millennium, as Theodoret; these can by no means be admitted of. The occasion of it was either some bodily disease the psalmist laboured under, or some distress of soul, on account of sin; and the rather this seems to be the case, seeing the psalm begins with the same words as Psa 38:1, in which the psalmist so much bewails his iniquity. Some have thought it was drawn up for the use of any and every sick person; and others say it was written on the account of Israel in captivity, who were then as sick persons (b): but rather the occasion of it was bodily sickness, inward guilt of conscience for sin, and distress by enemies; as appears from, Psa 6:3. (y) Targum, Jarchi, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc. (z) Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56. (a) In Aben Ezra in loc. (b) Vid. Kimchi & Aben Ezra in loc.

Mine eye is consumed because of grief,.... Either by reason of the affliction he laboured under, which could not he joyous, but grievous; or because, of the sin that was in him, and those that he had committed, which were grieving to him; or through the sins of other professors of religion, or profane sinners, whom he beheld with grief of heart and weeping eyes: the word (f) used signifies anger and indignation, and sorrow arising from thence, and may denote either indignation in himself at his enemies, who were rejoicing at his calamities; or the sense he had of the anger of God, and his hot displeasure, which he feared he was rebuking and chastening him with; and now his heart being filled with grief on one or other of these accounts, or all of them, vented itself in floods of tears, which hurt the visive faculty; for through much weeping the eye is weakened and becomes dim; and through a multitude of tears, and a long continuance of them, it fails; see Job 17:7; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies; saints have many enemies, sin, Satan, and the world; and these are very oppressive ones, as the word (g) here signifies; such as beset them about, straiten them on all hands, and press them sore; and they must be pressed down by them, were it not that he that is in them is greater than he that is in the world; and David's enemies gave him so much trouble, and caused him to shed such plenty of tears, that his eye waxed old, was shrunk up, and beset with wrinkles, the signs of old age; or it was removed out of its place, as the word is rendered in Job 18:4; or the sight was removed from that, it was gone from him, Psa 38:10. (f) "prae ira", Pagninus; "prae indignatione", Montanus, Musculus; "ex indignatione", Piscator. (g) "angustiatores", Montanus; "angustiis afficientes me", Vatablus; "oppressores meos", Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus.

Our life is a struggle, and our existence beset with countless foes who prove to be stronger when we fall into sin. Hence we should do everything to escape their clutches and never come to terms with them; this, after all, is the surest path to insecurity. Paul touches on the horde of those enemies in saying, “Our wrestling is not with flesh and blood but with the powers and the authorities and the cosmic rulers of darkness of this age.” Since, then, the horde of enemies is of this kind, we must constantly be on the alert and avoid the assault of sin.

"My eye is disordered by anger" [Psalm 6:7]: is it by his own, or God's anger, in which he makes petition that he might not be reproved, or chastened? But if anger in that place intimate the day of judgment, how can it be understood now? Is it a beginning of it, that men here suffer pains and torments, and above all the loss of the understanding of the truth; as I have already quoted that which is said, "God gave them over to a reprobate mind"? [Romans 1:28] For such is the blindness of the mind. Whosoever is given over thereunto, is shut out from the interior light of God: but not wholly as yet, while he is in this life. For there is "outer darkness," [Matthew 25:30] which is understood to belong rather to the day of judgment; that he should rather be wholly without God, whosoever while there is time refuses correction. Now to be wholly without God, what else is it, but to be in extreme blindness? If indeed God "dwell in inaccessible light," [1 Timothy 6:16] whereinto they enter, to whom it is said, "Enter into the joy of your Lord." It is then the beginning of this anger, which in this life every sinner suffers. In fear therefore of the day of judgment, he is in trial and grief; lest he be brought to that, the disastrous commencement of which he experiences now. And therefore he did not say, my eye is extinguished, but, "my eye is disordered by anger." But if he mean that his eye is disordered by his own anger, there is no wonder either in this. For hence perhaps it is said, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath;" [Ephesians 4:26] because the mind, which, from her own disorder, is not permitted to see God, supposes that the inner sun, that is, the wisdom of God, suffers as it were a setting in her.

For in quarrels the very light of the soul, the light of good intent, is blocked. Whence the Psalmist says, "Mine eye is troubled because of anger." And what remains in us of well-doing, if we lose peace from the heart, without which we cannot see the Lord?

For there are many things which are allowed and legitimate, and yet we are to some extent defiled in the doing of them; as often we attack faults with anger, and disturb the tranquillity of our own mind. And, though what is done is right, yet it is not to be approved that the mind is therein disturbed. For instance, he had been angry against the vices of transgressors who said, "Mine eye is disturbed because of anger." For, since the mind cannot, unless it be tranquil, lift itself up to the light of contemplation, he grieved that his eye was disturbed in anger, because, though assailing evil doings from above, he still could not help being confused and disturbed from contemplation of the highest things. And therefore his anger against vice is laudable, and yet it troubles him, because he felt that he had incurred some guilt in being disturbed.

Listen to the psalmist tell how anger clouds the eye of the heart: “My eyes are dimmed,” he says, “with sorrow.”

Next, when he says "My eye is troubled," he sets forth the failure of reason. For sorrow is the cause of anger; and therefore one who is sorrowful easily grows angry. But anger always disturbs the eye of reason. And those who are disturbed foresee less well. And therefore he says: "My eye is troubled," that is, my reason, "but by the fury of others." For David was angry and troubled when he saw that Absalom his son and his counselors had risen against him. Or "by his own fury," because he was troubled against his own sins. For he recognized, in the state of that persecution, that he was justly afflicted on account of his sins; and this anger does not blind, but disturbs. But another kind of anger does blind. Or "by your fury," O Lord God, by which you punish me, as if provoked by me, because I have troubled you: Is. 38: "My eyes are weakened by looking upward": Job 16: "My face is swollen from weeping and lamentation," etc. Third, he shows the weakness of strength when he says, "I have grown old," etc. When someone in his youth was victorious and strong, but afterward suffers not only from a stranger but also from his own kin, he is considered to be growing old. So David, who in his youth had conquered all, but now was fleeing from his own son, says, "I have grown old," namely in the estimation of others, "among all my enemies," both open and hidden: Heb. 8: "But what grows old and ages is near to destruction." Or the sinner grows old by departing from the newness of Christ, of which the Apostle speaks, Rom. 6: "Let us walk in newness of life, that we may serve in newness of spirit." Rom. 7, the Gloss says: "Let us serve in the works of the new man, that is, of Christ, which we attain not by our own powers or by the law, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit." "Knowing that our old man was crucified together with him," Rom. 6, "so that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we might no longer serve sin." Through which servitude one is reduced to the oldness of sin, having become a member of the old man. For this reason the Apostle urges and persuades, Rom. 12: "Be reformed in the newness of your sense, or of your mind." "Be reformed," says the Gloss, "because in Adam you were deformed in newness," etc. The new man, namely Christ. That is, in imitation of this oldness and wretchedness of deformity, the prophet laments under a question, saying, Bar. 3: "What is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? You have grown old in a foreign land," etc. And this agrees with what is said here, "I have grown old among all my enemies": whether demons, or all the sins to which I have consented. And so what he says, "I have grown old," in this sense is the matter of groaning; as if to say: therefore "I will wash," etc., because I have grown old, having imitated the old man, subjecting myself to all vices. And then what was said, "My eye is troubled," etc., is referred to the state of the penitent. Or it can be referred to the matter of justice, and this with regard to the state of sin; as if to say: therefore I have grown old, that is, I have sinned, because my eye, that is, my flesh, was troubled by fury, that is, by the impulse of passion: Ps. 57: "Fire," namely of concupiscence, according to Augustine's Gloss, "fell upon them, and they did not see the sun," namely of justice: Dan. 13: "Concupiscence subverted your heart." Likewise: "They burned with desire for her," etc., "so that they did not remember just judgments." From the impulse of passion, therefore, David says that the eye of reason was disturbed in him, so that he did not see heaven; and this was the concupiscence for Bathsheba, 2 Kgs. 11, whom he summoned to himself and knew. And afterward, having learned that she was pregnant, to the crime of adultery he added the crime of murder. Hence he ordered Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to be treacherously killed; for which most grave sins, by the just judgment of God, he suffered persecution from his son.

On Neginoth (See on Psa 4:1, title) upon Sheminith--the eighth--an instrument for the eighth key; or, more probably, the bass, as it is contrasted with Alamoth (the treble, Psa 46:1) in Ch1 15:20-21. In deep affliction the Psalmist appeals to God's mercy for relief from chastisement, which otherwise must destroy him, and thus disable him for God's service. Sure of a gracious answer, he triumphantly rebukes his foes. (Psa 6:1-10) He owns his ill desert in begging a relief from chastisement.

consumed--or, "has failed," denoting general debility (Psa 13:3; Psa 38:10). waxeth old--or, "dim." grief--mingled with indignation.