Psalm Chapter 6

Psalm 6: The Bed That Became an Altar

Here is the first of the penitential psalms, and it is raw in a way that polite religion rarely permits. David does not theorize about suffering — he drowns in it. His bones are vexed, his soul is sore vexed, and every night his bed swims with tears. That image alone is worth pausing over: a grown man, a king no less, weeping so violently that his couch is soaked. We are not accustomed to such honesty from our heroes. And yet it is precisely here, in the watery wreckage of his own grief, that David makes his most astonishing turn. He does not argue his case or list his virtues. He simply asks for mercy — mercy because he is weak, not because he is worthy. And then, between one verse and the next, something shifts. The man who was drowning suddenly stands. "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping." Not will hear, but hath heard. The tears themselves were the prayer, and God was listening to every one.

00:00 A Cry for Mercy
00:18 Bones and Soul in Anguish
00:32 The Bed of Tears
00:44 The Lord Has Heard My Weeping
01:00 Enemies Put to Shame