I'm in the process of catching up on my weekly quiet time write-ups, and, today, we'll be looking at Psalm 6. There is a variety of opinion about how to interpret Psalm 6. On the surface, Psalm 6 looks like your typical "Lord, deliver me from my enemies" Psalm. But even a passage of Scripture that appears to be banal can generate a lot of thought and discussion. (This is not to deny that deliverance from enemies is a serious issue, for those who need such deliverance may indeed find comfort in Psalm 6, or actually pray it. The same goes with the issue of sickness, which is also in Psalm 6. But, at this stage in my life, the Psalm doesn't resonate with me a great deal.) Here are some issues that are debated:
1. The Psalm is said to be on or concerning Sheminith, which means "eighth." What is the significance of "eighth" in Psalm 6 (or Psalm 5, in the case of E.W. Bullinger, who generally applies the superscription to the previous Psalm)? Some interpret eighth in terms of an eight-stringed harp, or an octave, or an eighth division (of a choir, I presume). Those who go the musical route in their interpretation of Shiminith often refer to I Chronicles 15:21, which refers to people playing the harps al ha-sheminith.
Others interpret it as a reference to circumcision. I see this in the medieval Midrash on the Psalms, and E.W. Bullinger states that Sheminith means "true worshippers...circumcised on the eighth day." The idea may be that God should heal and deliver the Psalmist because he's part of God's covenant people, and the covenant is marked by circumcision.
Others go on an eschatological route. St. Augustine refers to those who believed that Christ would return seven thousand years after Adam, a puzzling view that existed in early Christianity (see my post, Quickly--In a Few Thousand Years!); the idea is that Christ would reign during the eight thousandth year (thus the association with Sheminith, eighth). Augustine dismisses this view because Mark 13:32 says that no person knows the day or the hour of Christ's return, then, through a comparison with Deuteronomy 13:3, Augustine denies that Mark 13:32 means that Christ does not know the day or the hour. (For Augustine, Mark 13:32 is saying that the Son does not cause others to know the day or the hour of his return, not that he himself does not know). But Augustine still associates the number eight with a time of judgment---for eight is a number of new beginning, since it comes after seven, a number that relates to a completed creation. For Augustine, Psalm 6 is the church asking God for mercy in light of God's judgment.
In the Midrash on the Psalms, Sheminith is applied to the eighth kingdom that will subjugate Israel---right before God delivers Israel from Gentile captivity. Many of us see four kingdoms in Daniel's vision in Daniel 2: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, or, for a lot of scholars, Babylon, Media, Persia, then Greece (which leads to Antiochus, the little horn). But a Jewish interpretation sees eight kingdoms in the image, which has two arms, two thighs, two legs, and two feet (making a total of eight). These kingdoms are Babylon, Chaldea, Media, Persia, Greece, Macedon, Ishmael, and Edom. The idea may be that Psalm 6 is asking God to heal Israel and to deliver her from her Gentile enemies. Augustine and the Midrash on the Psalms both go on an eschatological route in their interpretation of Sheminith in Psalm 6, albeit in different ways.
There are other interpretations of Sheminith, particularly in the Midrash on the Psalms, but I'll move on. Hopefully, you've gotten a taste of how various the interpretations of the term can be!
2. Is Psalm 6 a confession of sin? Christians have indeed treated it as a penitential Psalm, and it came to be used for Ash Wednesday. In v 1, the Psalmist asks God not to rebuke him in his anger. Many (but not all) agree that Psalm 6 is saying that God has caused the Psalmist's sickness, and, indeed, the ancient world (including many voices in the Hebrew Bible) believed that the divine realm punished people with disease. But is Psalm 6 really penitential? Some say "yes," for the Psalm is similar to Psalm 38, in which the Psalmist actually confesses his sin. Others say "no" precisely because there is no explicit confession of sin in Psalm 6. Peter Craigie says that, in this case, the Psalmist either sinned in ignorance and cannot repent, or God is afflicting him even though he's done nothing that deserves disease (like Job).
Craigie also mentions the possibility that Psalm 6:1 does not mean that God is causing the Psalmist's sickness; rather, the Psalmist could be asking God not to be angry at his prayer for healing (cp. Genesis 18:30). Sigmund Mowinckel interprets Psalm 6 to mean that the Psalmist's enemies cursed him with sickness---for curses carried a lot of weight in the ancient world. Is the Psalmist in Psalm 6 asking God to counter his enemies' curses by healing him? Or is he just upset that his enemies are rejoicing and taking advantage of his sickness, and he wants God to show them who's boss? Maybe it's a little of both!
3. Is the Psalmist's prayer answered or not? In Psalm 6:8-9, the Psalmist confidently declares to his enemies that the LORD has heard and received his prayer. Some believe that the Psalmist inserted this into the Psalm after his prayer was answered. Others say he was looking forward in faith. Still others say that he was gaining strength from the comforting words of the priest or temple functionary, who spoke for God and assured him that God had heard his prayer (see I Samuel 1:7).
This is one debated Psalm!