“The first of the seven Penitential Psalms. It has been said that there is much of grief in it, but nothing of penitence. This, however, is an error. The tears shed by David over Absalom (2 Sam. 18:33) came, we are sure, from the fountain of a penitent heart. He knew well that Absalom’s rebellion was permitted by God as a penal consequence of his sin.”—Kay.

upon Sheminith—the eighth—an instrument for the eighth key; or, more probably, the bass, as it is contrasted with Alamoth (the treble, Ps 46:1)

“Only in love, not in wrath.”—Kay.

“There is a chastisement which proceeds from God’s love to the man as being pardoned, and which is designed to purify or to prove him; and a chastisement which proceeds from God’s wrath against the man, as striving obstinately against, or as fallen away from, favour, and which satisfies Divine justice.”—Delitzsch.

1. The one is measured, the other overwhelming.

2. The one destroys, the other perfects.

3. The one is temporal, the other eternal.

“The Hindoos, in extreme grief or joy, declare: ‘Our bones are melted;’ that is, like boiling lead, they are completely dissolved.”—Roberts.

“My soul is also sore vexed” (ver. 3). “His soul is still more shaken than his body. The affliction is therefore not a merely bodily ailment, in which only a timorous man loses heart. God’s love is hidden from him. God’s wrath seems as though it would wear him completely away. It is an affliction beyond all other afflictions.”—Delitzsch.

If we despise the chastisements of the Lord—that is, if we resent them, and rise up defiantly against them—they must continue punitive and destructive; but if our strength, pride, self-will, are utterly broken down, and we lie emptied of self at God’s feet, then we may look for the punitive chastisements of the just God to change into the loving chastisements of the Merciful One.

how long This cry is common in lament psalms (e.g., Ps 13:1; 35:17; 74:10; 90:13). The psalmist desperately cries out for God to act, expressing concern that God allows his suffering to continue.

Turn, O Yahweh The psalmist emphatically petitions Yahweh for deliverance. Using three different Hebrew terms that can be translated “turn” (shuv), “deliver” (chalats), and “save” (yasha’), the psalmist appeals to Yahweh to deliver his life

The Hebrew word shuv (“turn”) often describes Yahweh turning away from His anger (2 Kgs 23:26; Jonah 3:9).

Some speak slightingly of repentance and sorrow for sin, but such sorrow is required from saints and sinners.

“In respect to the Penitential Psalms, it is recorded of St. Augustine that in his last sickness he ordered these psalms to be inscribed in a visible place on a wall of his chamber, where he might fix his eyes and heart upon them, and make their words his own in the breathing out of his soul to God.”—Wordsworth.

Many true penitents perplex themselves touching this matter of sorrow for sin. They think that they do not feel enough, feel long enough, &c., &c.

Night is about the Psalmist, and the night about him is an emblem of the night within him. He cannot sleep; all the night he waters his couch with his tears. The fact is, his sins have found him out, and he walks in darkness and in the shadow of death—the night of repentance.

There is darkness in the Psalmist’s soul, the felt absence of God. “Return, O Lord” (ver. 4). God is away, the sun of the soul.

Darkness means misery. How great the sorrow here pictured! “Weak.” “Bones vexed.” “Soul also sore vexed” Sinner, be sure some day or other sin will make your soul weep and bleed. (2.) Darkness means guilt and fear (ver. 1). Here the Psalmist feels his guilt, and dreads the unknown terrors of God’s wrath. (3.) Darkness means death. The Psalmist here dreads lest he should sink lower than the grave (ver. 5). He feels that his sin has brought him to the verge of everlasting destruction.

how long This cry is common in lament psalms (e.g., Ps 13:1; 35:17; 74:10; 90:13). The psalmist desperately cries out for God to act, expressing concern that God allows his suffering to continue.

How swiftly time goes when we are living joyfully! How long the hours, the months of suffering and unhappiness! Seven years are not long to a man with health, innocence, and freedom; but think of that period spent in a jail upon a treadmill!

Depart from me While the psalmist’s enemies are not the cause of his suffering, they aggravate his despair. The psalmist rebukes them.

“All mine enemies” (ver. 7). The Psalmist felt circumvented by enemies, and in his enemies he saw his sins. Men commit sins, and pass on as if they were to know those sins no more, but the day comes when they all live again.

all return to accuse and condemn. Be sure that some day or other your sin will find you out; and a thousand spectres will people the darkness, and fill you with agony and fear.