TRV
Translation
Berean Standard Bible
Turn, O LORD, and deliver my soul; save me because of Your loving devotion.
American Standard Version
Return, O Jehovah, deliver my soul: Save me for thy lovingkindness’ sake.
World English Bible Messianic
Return, LORD. Deliver my soul, and save me for your loving kindness’ sake.
Young's Literal Translation
Turn back, O Jehovah, draw out my soul, Save me for Thy kindness' sake.
In the KJVVerse 13,990 of 31,102
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Commentary on Psalms 6 verses 1–7
1 ¶ To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
2 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
3 My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?
4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled under humbling providences, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent on purpose to awaken conscience and mortify corruption. Those heap up wrath who cry not when God binds them; but those are getting ready for mercy who, under God's rebukes, sow in tears, as David does here. Let us observe here,
I. The representation he makes to God of his grievances. He pours out his complaint before him. Whither else should a child go with his complaints, but to his father? 1. He complains of bodily pain and sickness (Psa 6:2): My bones are vexed. His bones and his flesh, like Job's, were touched. Though David was a king, yet he was sick and pained; his imperial crown could not keep his head from aching. Great men are men, and subject to the common calamities of human life. Though David was a stout man, a man of war from his youth, yet this could not secure him from distempers, which will soon make even the strong men to bow themselves. Though David was a good man, yet neither could his goodness keep him in health. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Let this help to reconcile us to pain and sickness, that it has been the lot of some of the best saints, and that we are directed and encouraged by their example to show before God our trouble in that case, who is for the body, and takes cognizance of its ailments. 2. He complains of inward trouble: My soul is also sorely vexed; and that is much more grievous than the vexation of the bones. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, if that be in good plight; but, if that be wounded, the grievance is intolerable. David's sickness brought his sin to his remembrance, and he looked upon it as a token of God's displeasure against him; that was the vexation of his soul; that made him cry, I am weak, heal me. It is a sad thing for a man to have his bones and his soul vexed at the same time; but this has been sometimes the lot of God's own people: nay, and this completed his complicated trouble, that it was continued upon him a great while, which is here intimated in that expostulation (Psa 6:3), Thou, O Lord! how long? To the living God we must, at such a time, address ourselves, who is the only physician both of body and mind, and not to the Assyrians, not to the god of Ekron.
II. The impression which his troubles made upon him. They lay very heavily; he groaned till he was weary, wept till he made his bed to swim, and watered his couch (Psa 6:6), wept till he had almost wept his eyes out (Psa 6:7): My eye is consumed because of grief. David had more courage and consideration than to mourn thus for any outward affliction; but, when sin sat heavily upon his conscience and he was made to possess his iniquities, when his soul was wounded with the sense of God's wrath and his withdrawings from him, then he thus grieves and mourns in secret, and even his soul refuses to be comforted. This not only kept his eyes waking, but kept his eyes weeping. Note, 1. It has often been the lot of the best of men to be men of sorrows; our Lord Jesus himself was so. Our way lies through a vale of tears, and we must accommodate ourselves to the temper of the climate. 2. It well becomes the greatest spirits to be tender, and to relent, under the tokens of God's displeasure. David, who could face Goliath himself and many another threatening enemy with an undaunted bravery, yet melts into tears at the remembrance of sin and under the apprehensions of divine wrath; and it was no diminution at all to his character to do so. 3. True penitents weep in their retirements. The Pharisees disguised their faces, that they might appear unto men to mourn; but David mourned in the night upon the bed where he lay communing with his own heart, and no eye was a witness to his grief, but the eye of him who is all eye. Peter went out, covered his face, and wept. 4. Sorrow for sin ought to be great sorrow; so David's was; he wept so bitterly, so abundantly, that he watered his couch. 5. The triumphs of wicked men in the sorrows of the saints add very much to their grief. David's eye waxed old because of his enemies, who rejoiced in his afflictions and put bad constructions upon his tears. In this great sorrow David was a type of Christ, who often wept, and who cried out, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, Heb 5:7.
III. The petitions which he offers up to God in this sorrowful and distressed state. 1. That which he dreads as the greatest evil is the anger of God. This was the wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery; it was the infusion of this that made it indeed a bitter cup; and therefore he prays (Psa 6:1), O Lord! rebuke me not in thy anger, though I have deserved it, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. He does not pray, "Lord, rebuke me not; Lord, chasten me not;" for, as many as God loves he rebukes and chastens, as a father the son in whom he delights. He can bear the rebuke and chastening well enough if God, at the same time, lift up the light of his countenance upon him and by his Spirit make him to hear the joy and gladness of his loving-kindness; the affliction of his body will be tolerable if he have but comfort in his soul. No matter though sickness make his bones ache, if God's wrath do not make his heart ache; therefore his prayer is, "Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; let me not lie under the impressions of that, for that will sink me." Herein David was a type of Christ, whose sorest complaint, in his sufferings, was of the trouble of his soul and of the suspension of his Father's smiles. He never so much as whispered a complaint of the rage of his enemies - "Why do they crucify me?" or the unkindness of his friends - "Why do they desert me?" But he cried with a loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Let us thus deprecate the wrath of God more than any outward trouble whatsoever and always beware of treasuring up wrath against a day of affliction. 2. That which he desires as the greatest good, and which would be to him the restoration of all good, is the favour and friendship of God. He prays, (1.) That God would pity him and look upon him with compassion. He thinks himself very miserable, and misery is the proper object of mercy. Hence he prays, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord! in wrath remember mercy, and deal not with me in strict justice." (2.) That God would pardon his sins; for that is the proper act of mercy, and is often chiefly intended in that petition, Have mercy upon me. (3.) That God would put forth his power for his relief: "Lord, heal me (Psa 6:2), save me (Psa 6:4), speak the word, and I shall be whole, and all will be well." (4.) That he would be at peace with him: "Return, O Lord! receive me into thy favour again, and be reconciled to me. Thou hast seemed to depart from me and neglect me, nay, to set thyself at a distance, as one angry; but now, Lord, return and show thyself nigh to me." (5.) That he would especially preserve the inward man and the interests of that, whatever might become of the body: "O Lord! deliver my soul from sinning, from sinking, from perishing for ever." It is an unspeakable privilege that we have a God to go to in our afflictions, and it is our duty to go to him, and thus to wrestle with him, and we shall not seek in vain.
IV. The pleas with which he enforces his petitions, not to move God (he knows our cause and the true merits of it better than we can state them), but to move himself. 1. He pleads God's mercy; and thence we take some of our best encouragements in prayer: Save me, for thy mercies' sake. 3. He pleads God's glory (Psa 6:5): "For in death there is no remembrance of thee. Lord, if thou deliver me and comfort me, I will not only give thee thanks for my deliverance, and stir up others to join with me in these thanksgivings, but I will spend the new life thou shalt entrust me with in thy service and to thy glory, and all the remainder of my days I will preserve a grateful remembrance of thy favours to me, and be quickened thereby in all instances of service to thee; but, if I die, I shall be cut short of that opportunity of honouring thee and doing good to others, for in the grave who will give the thanks?" Not but that separate souls live and act, and the souls of the faithful joyfully remember God and give thanks to him. But, (1.) In the second death (which perhaps David, being now troubled in soul under the wrath of God, had some dreadful apprehensions of) there is no pleasing remembrance of God; devils and damned spirits blaspheme him and do not praise him. "Lord, let me not lie always under this wrath, for that is sheol, it is hell itself, and lays me under an everlasting disability to praise thee." Those that sincerely seek God's glory, and desire and delight to praise him, may pray in faith, "Lord, send me not to that dreadful place, where there is no devout remembrance of thee, nor are any thanks given to thee." (2.) Even the death of the body puts an end to our opportunity and capacity of glorifying God in this world, and serving the interests of his kingdom among men by opposing the powers of darkness and bringing many on this earth to know God and devote themselves to him. Some have maintained that the joys of the saints in heaven are more desirable, infinitely more so, than the comforts of saints on earth; yet the services of saints on earth, especially such eminent ones as David was, are more laudable, and redound more to the glory of the divine grace, than the services of the saints in heaven, who are not employed in maintaining the war against sin and Satan, nor in edifying the body of Christ. Courtiers in the royal presence are most happy, but soldiers in the field are more useful; and therefore we may, with good reason, pray that if it be the will of God, and he has any further work for us or our friends to do in this world, he will yet spare us, or them, to serve him. To depart and be with Christ is most happy for the saints themselves; but for them to abide in the flesh is more profitable for the church. This David had an eye to when he pleaded this, In the grave who shall give thee thanks? Psa 30:9; Psa 88:10; Psa 115:17; Isa 38:18. And this Christ had an eye to when he said, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world.
We should sing these verses with a deep sense of the terrors of God's wrath, which we should therefore dread and deprecate above any thing; and with thankfulness if this be not our condition, and compassion to those who are thus afflicted: if we be thus troubled, let it comfort us that our case is not without precedent, nor, if we humble ourselves and pray, as David did, shall it be long without redress.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–7. Public domain.
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Diodorus of TarsusAD 390
COMMENTARY ON PSALM 6
Treat me lovingly, not because I am worthy but because it becomes you to grant me this, such as I am.… Let this happen completely and quickly, since it becomes you to grant such a thing, merciful as you are, and to be ever mindful of me as a recipient of your kindness.
Didymus the BlindAD 398
FRAGMENTS ON THE PSALMS 6:4, 5
We may understand the word turn in two ways. Sometimes the sense is this: Since you have turned your face away from me, I ask that now you return that mercy and show it to me. Sometimes the significance is this: Since my spirit has turned away into evil, may you, returning and calling that soul back to you (as “You have turned who are given to turning away”) redeem my soul from repeated sins and from the powers causing these evils.
JeromeAD 420
BRIEF COMMENTARY ON PSALM 6
Unless he converts my soul, he can not deliver it from danger.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 6
"Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul" [Psalm 6:4]. Turning herself she prays that God too would turn to her: as it is said, "Turn ye unto Me, and I will turn unto you, says the Lord." [Zechariah 1:3] Or is it to be understood according to that way of speaking, "Turn, O Lord," that is make me turn, since the soul in this her turning feels difficulty and toil? For our perfected turning finds God ready, as says the Prophet, "We shall find Him ready as the dawn." Since it was not His absence who is everywhere present, but our turning away that made us lose Him; "He was in this world," it is said, "and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." [John 1:10] If, then, He was in this world, and the world knew Him not, our impurity does not endure the sight of Him. But while we are turning ourselves, that is, by changing our old life are fashioning our spirit; we feel it hard and toilsome to be wrested back from the darkness of earthly lusts, to the serene and quiet and tranquillity of the divine light. And in such difficulty we say, "Turn, O Lord," that is, help us, that that turning may be perfected in us, which finds You ready, and offering Yourself for the fruition of them that love You. And hence after he said, "Turn, O Lord," he added, "and deliver my soul:" cleaving as it were to the entanglements of this world, and suffering, in the very act of turning, from the thorns, as it were, of rending and tearing desires. "Make me whole," he says, "for Your pity's sake." He knows that it is not of his own merits that he is healed: for to him sinning, and transgressing a given command, was just condemnation due. Heal me therefore, he says, not for my merit's sake, but for Your pity's sake.
Theodoret of CyrusAD 458
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 6:4
Now, it was appropriate for him to add “for your mercy’s sake”: I am not trusting in myself, he is saying, nor do I attribute your help to my own righteousness; instead, I beg to be granted it on account of your mercy.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 6:4 is a profound and urgent lament from a soul in deep distress, crying out to the LORD for immediate divine intervention and salvation. The psalmist, overwhelmed by suffering, implores God to "return" from a perceived distance or withdrawal, seeking deliverance for his very being. This desperate appeal is grounded not in any human merit or righteousness, but solely in the boundless and faithful "mercies" (Hebrew: chesed) of God, highlighting a profound dependence on divine grace in the midst of profound anguish and a plea for restoration.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 6:4 effectively employs several literary devices to convey its urgent message and the psalmist's deep distress. Apostrophe is prominently featured, as the psalmist directly addresses God ("O LORD"), creating an intimate and personal tone that underscores the directness and desperation of the prayer, as if speaking face-to-face with the divine. The use of multiple imperatives ("Return," "deliver," "save") creates a sense of climax and intensification, building the urgency of the plea and emphasizing the psalmist's dire need for immediate action. There is also a strong element of pathos, as the psalmist's raw and vulnerable expression of need is designed to evoke sympathy and a sense of shared human experience in the face of suffering. The phrase "for thy mercies' sake" serves as a powerful motif, grounding the human plea in the divine character and emphasizing the theological foundation of grace, making God's chesed the central reason for hope.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 6:4 encapsulates a fundamental theological truth: humanity's utter dependence on God's gracious character for salvation and deliverance. It affirms that even in the deepest pits of despair, when one feels abandoned or overwhelmed, the ultimate hope lies not in self-effort or human merit, but in the unwavering chesed of God. This verse connects profoundly with the biblical narrative of God's covenant faithfulness, where His promises and actions are consistently rooted in His steadfast love, not the fluctuating obedience of His people. It teaches that legitimate prayer, especially in suffering, is honest, direct, and ultimately trusts in the nature of the One being addressed. The psalmist's appeal to "mercies" sets a precedent for all who seek God's intervention, reminding us that His compassion is the wellspring of our rescue and that His covenantal love is the unshakeable foundation of our hope.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 6:4 offers a profound model for our own prayers in times of distress, validating the raw honesty of lament. It grants us permission to express our deepest anguish, even a sense of God's perceived distance or withdrawal, without pretense or spiritual censorship. The psalmist's plea reminds us that our hope for deliverance—whether from physical illness, emotional turmoil, spiritual struggle, or the consequences of sin—rests entirely on God's character, His abundant mercy, and His steadfast love, not on our own strength, goodness, or perceived deservingness. This verse encourages us to confidently approach God, appealing to His faithfulness and compassion, knowing that He is the ultimate source of salvation and restoration. It is a powerful reminder that even when our world feels like it is falling apart, we can anchor our souls in the unchanging, covenantal love of the LORD, trusting that He hears and will act according to His perfect will and boundless grace, bringing wholeness and peace to our troubled souls.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does the psalmist ask God to "return" if God is omnipresent?
Answer: The psalmist's plea for God to "return" (שׁוּב, shûwb) is not a theological statement about God's omnipresence, but a deeply personal expression of feeling abandoned or that God has withdrawn His active favor and intervention. In the context of lament, "return" signifies a desire for God to turn His attention back to the sufferer, to cease His perceived inaction, and to manifest His saving presence. It reflects the psalmist's subjective experience of suffering, where God's help feels distant or absent, rather than a literal belief that God has physically departed. This is a common motif in the Psalms, where the righteous cry out for God to "awake" or "arise" (e.g., Psalm 7:6), even though God is always present and fully aware. It expresses a longing for God's tangible and effective presence in a time of crisis.
What is the significance of appealing "for thy mercies' sake" rather than based on personal merit?
Answer: Appealing "for thy mercies' sake" (לְמַעַן חֲסָדֶיךָ) is profoundly significant because it grounds the plea for salvation entirely in God's character and covenant faithfulness, rather than in the psalmist's own righteousness, good deeds, or suffering. The Hebrew word chesed (mercies) denotes God's steadfast, loyal, and covenantal love—a love that is both gracious and active. This highlights a core biblical truth that salvation and deliverance are acts of pure grace, flowing from God's unchanging nature and His commitment to His people, not from human deservingness. It acknowledges human unworthiness and places all hope in the boundless compassion and faithfulness of God, as seen throughout Scripture, from the giving of the Law (e.g., Deuteronomy 7:7-8) to the New Covenant. It underscores that God's willingness to save is rooted in His own character, not in any human performance.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 6:4, with its desperate plea for deliverance based on God's mercies, finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The psalmist's cry for salvation from physical and spiritual anguish foreshadows the suffering of Christ, who, in His humanity, experienced the full weight of human pain and even the perceived abandonment by God on the cross, famously crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Yet, it is precisely through Christ's perfect obedience and sacrificial death that God's chesed—His steadfast, loyal love—is most fully and gloriously revealed. Our deliverance and salvation are not merely for "mercies' sake" in a general sense, but specifically for the sake of God's mercy demonstrated in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (e.g., Romans 3:25). Jesus is the ultimate "deliverer of our soul," rescuing us from the power of sin, death, and the grave, not by our merit, but by His perfect work on the cross. His resurrection is the ultimate proof of God's saving power and His enduring chesed, offering eternal life and true restoration to all who believe and call upon His name (e.g., John 3:16). Thus, the psalmist's ancient plea becomes our confident prayer, knowing that in Christ, God has indeed "returned" to us, bringing ultimate salvation grounded in His unfathomable love and covenant faithfulness, making us new creations (e.g., 2 Corinthians 5:17).