Psalms 6

Shared plea—do not rebuke in anger or discipline in wrath. Wesley frames the psalm as misery presented after offense against God: the sick in body and mind still asks for correction without destroying displeasure. Own the offense; ask that discipline not become ruin.

Calvin: David ascribes affliction to God as just recompense of sin, yet beseeches him not to deal according to the utmost rigor of the law. He does not refuse all punishment—that would be more hurtful than beneficial—but fears wrath that threatens ruin and perdition. To anger he tacitly opposes fatherly and gentle chastisement.

He pleads to be spared God’s destroying wrath. The path is confession of desert joined to a plea for fatherly bounds, not a charge that God is cruel without cause.

Wesley: Bones—my inmost parts.

Shared cry—grace and healing for the languishing. Weakness is reason to ask mercy, not to despair. Bring the troubled inmost frame to the LORD who heals.

Calvin: he betakes himself to mercy alone, desiring nothing else than not to be dealt with according to strict justice. Weak means cast down and broken; when subdued under the rod, the gate is opened for mercy. Heal me: all blessings flow from free goodness; we are delivered from chastisements when he has had mercy upon us. Fear in the bones marks grief that shook the strongest frame.

Grace comes first, and healing follows. Mercy is the fountain; healing is not bargained by desert.

Shared anguish—soul greatly troubled, and the unfinished cry, how long? Grief may cut speech short; keep praying the question to God rather than to despair.

Calvin: the elliptical “how long?” marks vehemence of grief that breaks speech mid-sentence. More probably: how long wilt thou delay thy mercy? God seems far when help does not appear. He permits us to ask him to make haste, yet after free complaint we must submit the timing to his will.

Troubled soul and patient urgency. Complaint is allowed; haste beyond God’s seeming good is not.

Shared turn—ask God to return with tokens of favor, deliver life, and save for steadfast love’s sake. Wesley: he begs the return of God’s favour. The ground is love, not self-desert; the asker must still turn and plead.

Calvin: after bewailing God’s absence he requests tokens of presence—happiness is to be objects of divine regard. Save me for thy mercy’s sake: the only quarter of hope. Men will never find a remedy for miseries until, forgetting their own merits, they betake themselves to the free mercy of God.

He asks deliverance on the ground of God’s steadfast love. Hope is located in free mercy alone, not in a ledger of deserts.

Wesley: In death—among the dead. Remembrance—the celebration of God’s grace in the land of the living, to the edification of the church and the propagation of true religion; which is not done in the other life.

Shared motive—ask life so praise may continue among the living. Death silences the public remembrance that builds the church; plead to live and praise.

Calvin: if delivered, he will keep God’s benefits in grateful remembrance; removal would cut off opportunity to commend God’s name in the society of men. This does not prove the dead have no feeling—only that mutual celebration of grace belongs to the land of the living. David also dreaded judgment if death befell him under wrath, which makes praise dumb.

Praise among the living as the end of life. The plea is gratitude’s continuance, not denial of the soul’s affection toward God after death.

Wesley: With my tears—it well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender under tokens of God’s displeasure. David who could face Goliath melts into tears at remembrance of sin and apprehension of divine wrath—no diminution to his character.

Shared weariness—moaning and night tears. Strength is not hardness; relenting under displeasure is fitting piety, not weakness to hide.

Calvin: hyperbole that still declares truly how bitter the sorrow was. Affliction rose less from bodily wound than from regarding God as greatly displeased—as if hell were open. The more devoted to God, the more severely disquieted by sense of wrath. Night after night he wasted with sorrow, yet never ceased praying.

Protracted tears under divine displeasure. Conscience-terror may exceed other sorrows; prayer continues through the nights.

Shared cost—grief that wastes the eye, and foes that wear it down. Inner anguish and outward opposition meet; bring both before God.

Calvin: grief of mind makes its way to the eyes; the eye waxes old as if failing through age. Protracted sorrow among persecutors marks how enemies’ triumph deepens the trial.

Visible wasting under grief and foes. Oppression is not ignored; it is named in the lament.

Wesley: Hath heard—by the workings of God’s grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was accepted. His tears had a voice in the ears of the God of mercy. Silent tears are no speechless ones. Our tears are cries to God.

Shared turn—workers of evil must depart because weeping was heard. Assurance rises as grace-worked knowledge that the prayer was accepted; tears themselves cry.

Calvin: after disburdening grief into God’s bosom he assumes a new character—assurance after long despondency. Ungodly triumph was part of the temptation; grace is the only light of life. He ascribes deliverance to God: if we would receive fruit from prayer, we must believe God’s ears have not been shut. Weeping marks earnest mourning wholly occupying him.

Heard weeping, evil workers dismissed. Confidence rests on God’s hearing and favor, not on the mockers’ verdict.

Shared triple confidence with v. 8—heard plea, accepted prayer. Wesley’s answer of peace is assurance that God has received the cry. Keep asking; receive the settled sense that prayer is not cast off.

Calvin: David repeats three times that his prayers were heard, testifying that he ascribes deliverance to God and confirming that he had not betaken himself to God in vain.

The LORD has heard and accepted his prayer. Repetition trains trust that prayer to God is not empty motion.

Wesley: Ashamed—of their vain confidence. Return—repent of their sins and return to their obedience.

Shared outcome—enemies ashamed and troubled. Wesley hears in “return” a possible turning from sin to obedience; vain confidence collapses. The sudden shame of foes does not undo the call that rebels repent.

Calvin: by “suddenly” he signifies that when no means of deliverance appear and all seems desperate, the faithful are delivered by God’s power contrary to expectation. Sudden change from affliction to joy manifests God’s power more illustriously.

Enemies ashamed in a moment. The stress is God’s unexpected reverse of hopeless cases, confounding those who mocked the godly as lost.