Read Psalm 6 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraph:
6:1-10 {p} Assurance that the answer is forthcoming when YHVH hears the believers’ prayer
The Chiastic Structure:
In vs. 1, David requests of YHVH that He does not rebuke him.
In vs. 10, David is assured that it is his enemies whom YHVH will rebuke.
In vs. 3, David’s bones and soul are sorely vexed. We learn later (vs. 7) that his vexation is caused by his adversaries.
In vs. 10, David is assured that it is his enemies who will be sorely vexed.
Something happened between vs. 7 and vs. 8 to change David’s outlook. For the first seven verses of the psalm, David is in such deep distress that he begins to despair of life itself (vs. 5). Then suddenly in vs. 8, David rises up with assurance that everything is going to turn around. The turning point for him, was knowing that YHVH had heard and received his prayer for mercy and request for deliverance.
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 Joh 5:14-15
In the Hebraic worldview, “hearing,” Strong’s H8085 שמע shama, means more than just receiving sound with the ear. According to the Hebrew Root Words, someone has not truly heard until they act on what they have heard; so in the old translations, shama is often translated to hearken (to pay heed to what has been said, to regard it, to obey or comply). Thus in Torah, God admonishes His people to hear (shama) His commandments, meaning, to not just hear them, but to hear and then obey.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey (shama) My voice, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. Exo 19:5
Now we see that the flip side also applies: When God has heard (shama) the believer’s prayer, meaning, to not just hear, but to hear and then to answer, then David has assurance that the answer to his prayer is on its way.
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