Psalm 6 - Overcomer - Lord in wrath rebuke me not
The 3rd Psalm to the overcomer. Lord, correct and rebuke me if needed, only please not in Your anger.
I love this psalm for when I am afraid that I may have angered the Lord. This prayer is not self-justifying.
This Psalm is commonly known as the first of the PENITENTIAL PSALMS, (The other six are 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) and certainly its language well becomes the lip of a penitent, for it expresses at once the sorrow, (verses 3, 6, 7), the humiliation (verses 2 and 4), and the hatred of sin (verse 8), which are the unfailing marks of the contrite spirit when it turns to God. - Charles Spurgeon
You will observe that the Psalm is readily divided into two parts. First, there is the Psalmist's plea in his great distress, reaching from the first to the end of the seventh verse. Then you have, from the eighth to the end, quite a different theme. ... He tunes his note to the high key of confidence, and declares that God hath heard his prayer, and hath delivered him out of all his troubles. - Spurgeon
v1-2 - When others think I have said something seriously wrong, but I think I spoke ok, the tendency is for me to harden my heart against the rebuke of the others. This is a time when I like to sing these verses. Lord, rebuke me if needed, but not in anger. Rebuke me in Your mercy.
ref Jer 10:23
This is the right way to plead with God if we would prevail. Urge not your goodness or your greatness, but plead your sin and your littleness. Cry, "I am weak," therefore, O Lord, give me strength and crush me not. ...
The original may be read, "I am one who droops," or withered like a blighted plant. Ah! beloved, we know what this means, for we, too, have seen our glory stained, and our beauty like a faded flower.. - Spurgeon
v3 - "how long until" says that the Lord will answer in His timing.
Here he prays for healing, not merely the mitigation of the ills he endured, but their entire removal, and the curing of the wounds which had arisen therefrom. - Spurgeon
"But thou, O Lord, how long?" This sentence ends abruptly, for words failed, and grief drowned the little comfort which dawned upon him. The Psalmist had still, however, some hope; but that hope was only in his God. He therefore cries, "O Lord, how long?" ...
Calvin's favourite exclamation was, "Domine usquequo"—"O Lord, how long?" Nor could his sharpest pains, during a life of anguish, force from him any other word. Surely this is the cry of the saints under the altar, (Rev 6:10) "O Lord, how long?" And this should be the cry of the saints waiting for the millennial glories, - Spurgeon
v4 - We need to pray for the Lord to turn, not just for Him to do things. For the Lord to turn means for it to be His will.
He knew his iniquity too well to think of merit, or appeal to anything but the grace of God. "For thy mercies' sake." What a plea that is! How prevalent it is with God! If we turn to justice, what plea can we urge? but if we turn to mercy we may still cry, notwithstanding the greatness of our guilt, "Save me for thy mercies' sake." ...
God delighteth in mercy. It is his peculiar, darling attribute. Mercy honours God. Do not we ourselves say, "Mercy blesseth him that gives, and him that takes?" And surely, in some diviner sense, this is true of God, who, when he gives mercy, glorifies himself. - Spurgeon
Observe how frequently David here pleads the name of Jehovah, which is always intended where the word LORD is given in capitals. Five times in four verses we here meet with it. Is not this a proof that the glorious name is full of consolation to the tempted saint? Eternity, Infinity, Immutability, Self-existence, are all in the name Jehovah, and all are full of comfort. - Spurgeon
v5 - Esteem our portion of remembering the Lord and thanking Him as important.
v6-7 - I have never cried like this, and it is very rare for me to cry at all. My emotions may have been dumbed down by my past. But my wife has cried like this most of the night due to the suffering of one of the children. Her crying feels like it was my crying.