O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
What does Psalms 6:1 mean?
These verses speak the language of a heart truly humbled, of a broken and contrite spirit under great afflictions, sent to awaken conscience and mortify corruption.
Key themes
Read with
Keep this verse inside its immediate passage and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on Psalms 6:1
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger - As if God was rebuking him by the affliction which he was bringing upon him. This is the point on which the attention of the psalmist is now fixed. He had been apparently contemplating his afflictions, and inquiring into their cause, and he was led to the conclusion that it might be for his sins, and that his trials were to be interpreted as proof that God was angry with him. He speaks, therefore, of God as visiting him in his "anger," and in his "hot displeasure," and pleads with him that he would "not" thus rebuke and chasten him.
Context in Psalms 6
Show chapter context
Psalms 6 belongs to the early movement of the book, especially the section often described as Book I. Psalms is the Bible’s great book of sung prayer, teaching the full range of faithful speech from anguish and repentance to jubilation and doxology. Read this chapter with the wider themes of prayer, praise, and lament in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
Related topics
Explore by topic
Passages on trusting God, receiving Christ, persevering without sight, and the relation between faith and lived obedience.
Passages on asking, persistence, confession, dependence, and the way prayer shapes Christian life and attention.
Bible verses about thankfulness and gratitude
Passages on thanksgiving to God, grateful worship, and the discipline of remembering God’s goodness in ordinary life.
Bible verses about grief and loss
Passages for sorrow, bereavement, lament, and the difficult work of hoping in God without denying what has been lost.