Saturday, July 04, 2026

Somebody Else’s Mail (12)

Because so many psalms are prophetic, we are wise when we come to them to ask the question posed to Philip by the Ethiopian eunuch concerning the prophecy of Isaiah that he was reading at the time. He inquired, “About whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

It was an excellent question. We must ask it of ourselves (and of the scriptures) today.

Discipline and Distress

When I started this series, it was in part because I had just finished reading through the Psalms in my morning Bible studies. One thing I noticed on that last pass through David’s psalms in particular is the frequency with which David found himself in deep distress, as is the case in Psalm 6: “deeply troubled”, “languishing”, “weary with my moaning”, “wasting away”, drenching the couch with his weeping, and the list goes on. Moreover, you will also notice that David speaks regularly of being under God’s discipline and in fear of his wrath. Here, he begins with, “Rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.”

As we proceed through Psalms, you will observe these twin themes of being under discipline and being in distress from his enemies occur repeatedly in David’s writing. If we were to weigh all the statements about David’s distress against the times he speaks of being comforted and strengthened, I suspect we might (I think mistakenly) conclude that David spent most of his existence utterly miserable, crying out to God in a state of near panic.

About Whom Does the Prophet Say This?

Now, contrast that picture with the one for which our psalmist is most famous and beloved, Psalm 23, in which the Lord is his shepherd and he spends his time in green pastures beside still waters with his soul restored. “Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”, he writes, as if it is a rare occurrence or even something he has yet to experience. While we know that David did indeed have difficult periods in his life and on occasion experienced the discipline of his heavenly Father, I think most of us would agree that Psalm 23 far more accurately represents David’s regular state of mind when he came to the Lord morning by morning than do Psalm 6 and its ilk.

This being the case, I feel compelled to ask in Psalm 6, “About whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” I believe it’s someone else. Perhaps you will agree as we consider the options. Let’s look at what David has written here.

Psalm 6:1-3 — Inviting Comparison

“O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord — how long?”

Considering Messiah

Whenever we ask ourselves “About whom?”, our first tentative answer is likely to be messianic. That was the answer Philip gave the Ethiopian eunuch, and it the answer to a great many psalms, though not always in their entirety. We will encounter the occasional psalm in which strong and apparently-messianic language is used side by side with statements that could only apply to David personally.

Here we do indeed find familiar words that might reasonably lead us to think of Christ. When David writes, “My soul also is greatly troubled”, we may recall the Lord’s confession in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” or an earlier quote found in John: “Now is my soul troubled.” Likewise, the reference to troubled bones may make us think of another incontestably messianic psalm of David in which he writes, “all my bones are out of joint” and “I can count all my bones”. Even the “How long?” that ends verse 3 may remind us of Matthew 17:17 and other synoptic passages in which the Lord rhetorically comments on the chronic unbelief of even his own disciples.

Problems That Poses

Still, for all that, such statements are common to people in distress. We find similar sentiments plenty of times in passages that are not messianic at all. Job, Jeremiah, and numerous other Psalms ascribe thoughts like these to men going through difficult times. They are far from unique to Christ.

Moreover, beyond that awful moment when he bore the sin of the world on our behalf, can we really picture the Lord Jesus imploring the Father not to rebuke him in anger or discipline him in his wrath or, worse, mouthing the sentiments about death and Sheol found in verse 5? Our Savior knew exactly how long he was going to be in the grave and precisely what would happen in its glorious aftermath. He told his disciples repeatedly. He even told his enemies.

Frankly, reading Psalm 6 as consistently messianic creates more theological problems than it solves.

Psalm 6:4-5 — The Sheol Problem

“Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?”

Not only do these two verses make me reluctant to see Psalm 6 as finding its fulfillment in the experience of the Lord Jesus, they also make it an unlikely fit as an expression of David’s personal beliefs about the grave.

Consider Psalm 16, which reads, “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Yes, David surely speaks of Christ in that psalm, but he cannot have failed to consider the implications for himself. Or take Psalm 23, which ends with “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” I’m pretty sure he wasn’t talking about the tabernacle there. Again, take Psalm 17, which finishes with “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” That’s just incredible faith and prescience. Moreover, Asaph, David’s contemporary, also believed unflinchingly in resurrection. His spectacular faith on display in Psalm 73 was surely preserved for us with David’s stamp of approval.

No, David was in no doubt about what happens after death to men and women of faith. I just don’t think this psalm expresses either his personal convictions or the musings of Messiah.

Psalm 6:6-7 — Every Night

“I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.”

Here again I have difficulty with both personal and messianic applications. “Every night”? Really? Both David and the Lord Jesus experienced deep difficulties during which by faith they entrusted themselves to God, but the level of grief, fear and distress here go beyond David’s worst documented moments and far beyond anything the gospels describe about the experiences of the Lord Jesus.

Psalm 6:8-10 — A Confident Answer

“Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.”

Another Possibility

Let me float another possibility here. My father used to call the Psalms the “Hymnbook of the Remnant”, and I believe that is largely true. Let’s consider how Psalm 6 fits the facts of scripture when we read it as if David speaks for his nation personified, giving voice to the sentiments of repentant Israel:

Rebuked by the Lord? Absolutely.
Disciplined by God in his wrath? Check.
Languishing? You bet.
Troubled? Very much so.
Lacking confidence about what happens after we die? Generally speaking, yes. Just read Hezekiah’s prayer, or consider how the nation could spawn a sect like the Sadducees, who denied resurrection entirely.
Weeping copiously? Just read Psalm 137, Jeremiah 31:9, Jeremiah 50:4, and especially Zechariah 12:10, when the nation will look on the one it has pierced.
“All my foes”? Has any nation in history ever had more enemies than Israel? I think it unlikely.
Maintaining, against all odds, the conviction that the Lord will deliver their nation? In the case of the remnant, absolutely. “Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.”

Most significantly, these twin recurring themes in the Psalms of perpetual distress and the discipline of God find their fulfillment in the historical (and present day) experience of Israel the nation much more fully than in David, and certainly not in Christ. The godly remnant of Israel suffers the enmity of the world alongside Israel’s evildoers and unbelievers, but always while expressing repentance and faith on behalf of their nation.

In every way, a personified Israelite remnant is a perfect fit for the “voice” David uses in Psalm 6. About whom does the prophet say this? I think he says it about his nation across its lengthy and spiritually-inconstant history. I also think we will find this to be true of other psalms as we study them.

Other People’s Mail

Psalm 6 is one of the more obvious instances in which Christians find ourselves reading other people’s mail. It expresses more than a few sentiments that really do not apply to our experience at all. With the clear revelation of the New Testament, we can have even greater confidence than David had concerning life after death. We don’t have to fear Sheol. Nor do Christians ever have reason to fear the wrath of God as Israel legitimately did. Moreover, the Christian experience is characterized by joy, not perpetual distress, even when we are persecuted and surrounded by enemies.

Nevertheless, even if we are only spectators reading Israel’s repentance arc over the shoulder of the remnant, we can find reason to rejoice in the faithfulness of God to his erring people. Who knows what mistakes we too may make along the way?