My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?
The verse is the cry of a person deeply troubled and distressed in soul, pleading with the Lord to return and act and asking how long the suffering will continue. The question how long is an urgent inward longing and pleading for God that is too deep to be fully put into words. It is David's complaint and prayer in sickness, and it stands among the seven psalms of penitence. Like other psalms of its kind it begins in great need and ends in triumph and confidence in God, so that its words calm the troubled soul and give peace to the wounded conscience. It belongs to the first book of the Psalms as an inspired song given by God to His children to sing and study at all times.
Words and Historical Setting
The soul is deeply troubled and distressed, crying out to the Lord, asking how long the distress and suffering will continue and pleading for God to return and act. It is a prayerful, burdened state of heart. The word soul means the person as the seat of emotion, so to say the soul is sore vexed is to express deep distress. The cry how long is a sign of intense inward longing and pleading with God and urgent waiting for Him to act, whose full force cannot be put into words.
The setting is David's complaint in sickness and his prayer to God to hear him, as the psalm's heading identifies it as spoken in sickness. Psalm 6 belongs to the group of seven psalms known as the Penitential Psalms. The psalm belongs with Psalms 1 to 17, credited to David but not David's song alone, being an inspired song God has given to His children and proper to sing and study at all times. It stands outside direct chronological order with Deuteronomy and belongs to the first of the five books of the Psalms, a great treasure-house that impresses God's Fatherhood and the spiritual truths of Genesis through Job.
Prayer Pattern and Comfort
This cry of deep need belongs to the pattern of psalms that open with the expression of great want and close in triumph and confidence in God. The psalm is precious because its words bring calm to a troubled inner life and peace to a wounded conscience. The same plea from deep distress, asking how much longer suffering will continue, gives voice to grief over being denied an opportunity to defend oneself from Scripture. Its language of profound inner turmoil also describes the troubled condition of Jazer and his desire to be left alone.
The verse is the cry of a person deeply troubled and distressed in soul, pleading with the Lord to return and act and asking how long the suffering will continue. The question how long is an urgent inward longing and pleading for God that is too deep to be fully put into words. It is David's complaint and prayer in sickness, and it stands among the seven psalms of penitence. Like other psalms of its kind it begins in great need and ends in triumph and confidence in God, so that its words calm the troubled soul and give peace to the wounded conscience. It belongs to the first book of the Psalms as an inspired song given by God to His children to sing and study at all times.
Words and Historical Setting
The soul is deeply troubled and distressed, crying out to the Lord, asking how long the distress and suffering will continue and pleading for God to return and act. It is a prayerful, burdened state of heart. The word soul means the person as the seat of emotion, so to say the soul is sore vexed is to express deep distress. The cry how long is a sign of intense inward longing and pleading with God and urgent waiting for Him to act, whose full force cannot be put into words.
The setting is David's complaint in sickness and his prayer to God to hear him, as the psalm's heading identifies it as spoken in sickness. Psalm 6 belongs to the group of seven psalms known as the Penitential Psalms. The psalm belongs with Psalms 1 to 17, credited to David but not David's song alone, being an inspired song God has given to His children and proper to sing and study at all times. It stands outside direct chronological order with Deuteronomy and belongs to the first of the five books of the Psalms, a great treasure-house that impresses God's Fatherhood and the spiritual truths of Genesis through Job.
Prayer Pattern and Comfort
This cry of deep need belongs to the pattern of psalms that open with the expression of great want and close in triumph and confidence in God. The psalm is precious because its words bring calm to a troubled inner life and peace to a wounded conscience. The same plea from deep distress, asking how much longer suffering will continue, gives voice to grief over being denied an opportunity to defend oneself from Scripture. Its language of profound inner turmoil also describes the troubled condition of Jazer and his desire to be left alone.