Salmene 6:4

Det Norsk Bibelselskap

og min sjel er såre forferdet; og du, Herre, hvor lenge?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Return: Psalms 80:14, Psalms 90:13, Malachi 3:7

deliver: Psalms 17:13, Psalms 22:20, Psalms 86:13, Psalms 116:4, Psalms 116:8, Psalms 120:2, Psalms 121:7, Isaiah 38:17

for: Psalms 25:7, Psalms 69:13, Psalms 79:8, Psalms 79:9, Daniel 9:18, Ephesians 1:6, Ephesians 2:7, Ephesians 2:8

Reciprocal: Psalms 12:1 - Help Psalms 31:16 - save Isaiah 38:11 - General Jeremiah 17:14 - Heal

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Return, O Lord,.... By this it seems that the Lord had withdrawn himself, and was departed from the psalmist, wherefore he entreats him to return unto him, and grant him his gracious presence. God is immense and omnipresent, he is everywhere: going away and returning cannot be properly ascribed to him; but he, nay be said to depart from his people, as to sensible communion with him, and enjoyment of him, when he hides his face, withdraws his gracious presence, and the comfortable discoveries and influences of his love; and he may be said to return when he visits them again, and manifests his love and favour to them: the Jewish writers d interpret it,

"return from the fierceness of thine anger,''

as in Psalms 85:3; and though there is no such change in God, as from love to wrath, and from wrath to love; but inasmuch as there is a change in his dispensations towards his people, it is as if it was so; and thus it is apprehended by them;

deliver my soul; from the anxiety, distress, and sore vexation it was now in, for of all troubles soul troubles are the worst: and from all enemies and workers of iniquity which were now about him, and gave him much grief and uneasiness; and from death itself, he was in fear of;

O, save me for thy mercy's sake; out of all troubles of soul and body, and out of the hands of all enemies, inward and outward; and with temporal, spiritual, and eternal salvation; not for his righteousness's sake, as Kimchi well observes; for salvation is according to the abundant mercy of God, and not through works of righteousness done by men, otherwise it would not be of grace.

d Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Return, O Lord, deliver my soul - As if he had departed from him, and had left him to die. The word “soul” in this place is used, as it often is, in the sense of “life,” for in the next verse he speaks of the grave to which he evidently felt he was rapidly descending.

O save me - Save my life; save me from going down to the grave. Deliver me from these troubles and dangers.

For thy mercies’ sake -

(a) As an act of mere mercy, for he felt that he had no claim, and could not urge it as a matter of right and justice; and

(b) in order that God’s mercy might be manifest, or because he was a merciful Being, and might, therefore, be appealed to on that ground.

These are proper grounds, now, on which to make an appeal to God for his interposition in our behalf; and, indeed, these are the only grounds on which we can plead with him to save us.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 6:4. Return, O Lord — Once I had the light of thy countenance, by sin I have forfeited this; I have provoked thee to depart: O Lord, return! It is an awful thing to be obliged to say, Return, O Lord, for this supposes backsliding; and yet what a mercy it is that a backslider may RETURN to God, with the expectation that God will return to him!