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Psalm 6 · a question people ask

"LORD, don’t rebuke me in your anger" (6:1). Is the psalmist asking God never to correct him?

In the text

The verse names the LORD's "anger" and "wrath" (6:1), and says no more. It doesn't say whether he asks not to be rebuked at all, or not in anger. A prayer in Jeremiah has the verb of Psalm 6:1's discipline and the word of its anger: "LORD, correct me, but gently; not in your anger" (Jeremiah 10:24) (tap discipline). Other verses speak well of the LORD's discipline: "Blessed is the man whom you discipline, LORD" (Psalm 94:12), and "for whom the LORD loves, he corrects" (Proverbs 3:12), where corrects is the verb of Psalm 6:1's rebuke (tap rebuke). Psalm 6 doesn't say how its prayer fits with these verses, and these notes don't choose.

The verses

“For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David. LORD, don’t rebuke me in your anger, neither discipline me in your wrath.”
Psalm 6:1 · World English Bible
“LORD, correct me, but gently; not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.”
Jeremiah 10:24 · World English Bible
“Blessed is the man whom you discipline, LORD, and teach out of your law,”
Psalm 94:12 · World English Bible
“for whom the LORD loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.”
Proverbs 3:12 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 6

Psalm 6: The voice of my weeping

The verb of the psalmist's troubled bones (6:2) and his soul "in great anguish" (6:3) comes back in the last verse for his enemies, "dismayed" (6:10): one Hebrew verb, bahal. And "Return, LORD" (6:4) comes back as "They shall turn back" (6:10): one verb, shuv.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions