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6:1To the chief musician. With stringed instruments. Upon the bass [fn: Lit. ‘upon the eighth’. Perhaps an eight string lyre with bass notes, or for the ‘octave’.] A psalm of David.
Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger, or discipline me in your wrath.
6:2Be gracious to me, Yahweh, for I am weak. Heal me, Yahweh, for my bones are troubled.
6:3My soul also is very troubled. But you, Yahweh—how long?
6:4Come back, Yahweh! Rescue my soul! Save me because of your unfailing love.
6:5For there is no remembrance of you in death. In sheol [fn: The place of the dead.] who gives thanks to you?
6:6I am worn out by my groaning. I drench my bed all night, I dissolve my mattress with my tears.
6:7My eyesight has wasted away from grief. It has grown old because of all my foes.
6:8Get away from me, all you workers of iniquity. For Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping.
6:9Yahweh has heard my request. Yahweh will receive my prayer.
6:10Let all my enemies be ashamed and thoroughly troubled. Let them come back and suddenly be ashamed.
Summary: David the psalmist requests God for mercy in the face of suffering and what the psalmist considers is divine chastisement. This is the first of the seven penitential psalms (also Pss, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 in the Hebrew numbering). David is both physically (v. 2) and emotionally disturbed (v. 3), and takes his suffering to be the discipline of Yahweh. His sleep has been disturbed with his crying (v. 6) and his eyes are worn out by his weeping (v. 7). The occasion of this turmoil seems to have been some enemies who are evildoers (vv. 8, 10). So David cries out to Yahweh for mercy and salvation, as well as relief from his situation and suffering (vv. 1-4). David seems to have been worried about death because he appeals to Yahweh to save him from sheol, and gives Yahweh reasons why he should rescue him from his deathly situation (v. 5). The psalm closes with the confident declaration that David has been heard (v. 9), and him calling on God to bring trouble and shame on his enemies (v. 10).
Verse 1, ‘With stringed instruments’ translates ‘On Neginoth’ as in Psalm 4:1. ‘Upon Sheminith’, literally, ‘on the eighth’, a phrase which may denote a bass instrument, in contrast to ‘According to Alamoth’ (Psalm 46:1), taken to be treble (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown), the part sung by treble voices as the word there means virgins. So the translation, ‘soprano’ (NLT). If the understanding of being sung or accompanied by a bass instrument is correct, then it may be an example of an ancient 'blues' song.
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