Psalms 6:8,9

The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.

A change from sorrow to hope

I. Grateful acknowledgment of mercy. The expressions of the Psalm indicate sorrow of no ordinary kind. Much of this sorrow caused by a sense of the indignation of God against sin (Psalms 6:1). What he pleads for is the pardon of sin, the restoration of the light of the Divine countenance. His plea is God’s mercy and God’s glory.

II. Holy determination to forsake sin. “Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. Those who have experienced God’s pardoning mercy will never be content to continue in sin.

III. Humble confidence. The Lord will receive my prayer. When under the pressure of different causes of sorrow the believer may take confidence from former deliverances. (J. D. Lane, M. A.)

Sorrow and deliverance

The earlier verses of this Psalm are a wail, but it ends in song. It is like a day of rain which clears at evening.

I. The elements of the Psalmist’s sorrow (1-7). There was the pressure of Divine displeasure on account of sin (1, 2), combined with soul-anguish (3, 4), perhaps accompanied with sickness, brining nigh unto death (4, 5), whilst enemies add their hate (6, 7).

II. The certainty of the Psalmist’s deliverance (8-10). The prayer is no sooner uttered than answered. The consciousness of having been heard steals over the weary soul like a glint of light on to a bed in the hospital ward. Weeping has a voice for the ear of God. The Revised Version reads the imprecations of Psalms 6:10 as future tenses--“they shall be ashamed and turn back.” When God returns, cur enemies turn back. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Sin pleasant to begin with, but painful to end with

The work of sin seems pleasant and gainful; but in the end ye shall find it both unpleasant and painful when you get your wages paid you from your master, the devil, you shall know the truth of the saying of the apostle, “the reward of sin is death.” (A. Symson, B. D.)

Workers of iniquity

Let us refuse, therefore, to work any longer task unto Satan, and betake us to a better Master and better service, and work in the Lord’s vineyard. (A. Symson, B. D.)

The voice of weeping.

As David’s prayers were not dumb, but had a voice, so they are not dry but full of tears: those sappy prayers be acceptable to God, which proceed not from a barren and dry heart, but from a heart well watered with the clouds of heaven, hearts planted at the Rivers of waters which we should all pray for. Think ye not that a mother will discern the voice, but much more the weeping of her own child, and the ewe discern the bleating of her own lamb among a thousand; and will not God regard the prayer of His own child being in affliction? (A. Symson, B. D.)