Psalm 6: David on the Night Watch
To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. 2 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. 3 My soul also is greatly troubled; but You, O Lord—how long!
Jesus will come as a a thief in he night, suddenly and one person will be taken [in the first death] and the other remain. “‘O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure’— Chastened David desires to be, as Jeremiah 10:24, 1 Corinthians 11:32, Hebrews 12:7-8; but in mercy, and in measure, 1 Corinthians 10:13.” (Trapp) This entire phrase is used "in the sense of [Judgment and thus] ‘punishing.’— ‘In your hot displeasure - literally, ‘in thy heat.’ We speak of anger or wrath [of God] as ‘burning,’ or ‘consuming.’ Compare Genesis 39:19; Numbers 11:33; Deuteronomy 11:17; Psalm 106:40; Job 19:11; Job 32:2-3; Psalm 2:12.” (Albert Barnes) Our God is a consuming fire who will consume His adversaries. (Hebrews 12:29) "But You, O Lord— how long!"
4 Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! 5 For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave who will give You thanks?
Here is a longing for Christ to come in glory, rather than to destroy, to save his soul [body] from the grave. “‘For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave (Sheol) who will give You thanks?’ Hezekiah made use of this very argument, and a sweet one it is, and proved most successful. Is 38:18.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary) The testimonies of God concerning the grave can be multiplied. “‘Sheol’ means the mysterious grave world where the dead go, and where they are only shadows without real life, in the land of silence and forgetfulness from where no man could return (Psalms 30:9; Psalms 88:10-12; Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 31:17; Ezekiel 32; Job 3:17).” (Peter Pett)
6 I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. 7 My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies. 8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping. 9 Yahweh has heard my supplication; Yahweh will receive my prayer
David’s watchful meditation is used to keep himself on the path of obedience. “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized.” (Hebrews 6:9-11) “His enemies mock him as one forsaken of God, but even in the face of his enemies he becomes conscious that this is not his condition. Thrice in Psalms 6:9, Psalms 6:10 his confidence that God will answer him flashes forth: He hears his loud sobbing, the voice of his weeping that rises towards heaven; He hears his supplication; and He graciously accepts his prayer. The twofold שׁמע expresses the fact and יקח its consequence. That which he seems to have to feared, shall in reality be the lot of his enemies, viz., the end of those who are rejected of God: they shall be put to shame…” (Keil & Delitzsch), if they do not repent of their evil deeds.
10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.
“Instead of seeking vengeance and blood [wrath], he bids his enemies return suddenly to better sentiments. The reign of grace controlled his passions: the fire of the altar hallowed his soul, and overpowered the martial flame. Oh how powerful is prayer: oh what grace can do in conquering the most rebellious hearts of men.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
MEDITATION ON THE END- FROM MY REVELATION COMMENTARIES
“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” (Revelation 16:15) “Jesus appeals to people in His day of visitation as well as now “to orient their lives in the present toward the coming eschatological reality.”(Boring, Revelation) "Behold, I am coming as a thief...'
... This warning of the Second Advent of Christ has the utility of emphasizing the spiritual nature of the conflict and the individual responsibility of Christians not to be taken unaware. This forbids our looking for any great deployment of world armies in this 'war.' Absolutely nothing in this whole passage justifies the notion of massive world armies deployed in some gargantuan military conflict... ‘Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments.’ This verse is the order of the day for the soldiers of Christ. It is not preparation for a literal battle of some kind, but a matter of prayer and watchfulness, and of 'keeping' one's garments of purity, morality, and fidelity to Christ...." (Burton Coffman)
“And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:16) ” —“the expression of an idea; the idea that swift and overwhelming destruction shall overtake all who gather themselves together against the Lord.” (Robert Milligan)
Armageddon— ”‘Mount Megiddo,’ the valley of which was remarkable for two great slaughters: one of the Israelites, 2 Kings 23:29, the other of the Canaanites, Judges 4:16; Judges 5:19... What is the battle of Armageddon? How ridiculous have been the conjectures of men relative to this point! Within the last twenty years this battle has been fought at various places, according to our purblind seers and self-inspired prophets! At one time it was Austerlitz, at another Moscow, at another Leipsic, and now Waterloo! And thus they have gone on, and will go on, confounding and being confounded." (Adam Clarke)
“The old battle-ground becomes the symbol of the decisive struggle. It is raised in meaning: it is a type, not a locality. The war of principles, the war of morals, the war of fashion culminates in an Armageddon. The progress of the spiritual struggle in individual men must lead in the same way to a mountain of decision, where the long-wavering heart must take sides, and the set of the character be determined. ‘There is no waving of banners and no prancing of horses’ hoofs; the warfare is spiritual, so that there is in sight neither camp nor foe.’ It is that conflict which emerges out of various opinions and diverse principles: ‘the religious tendencies of the times’ are powers marshalling themselves for the battle of Armageddon. We must not look for great and startling signs: the kingdom and the conflict of the kingdom is within and around us...” (C. J. Ellicott)