Psalm 6:2 NKJV
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
The Prayer of a Withered Soul
MY NOTES
“Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.” — Psalm 6:2 (NKJV)
Psalm 6 is one of David’s most vulnerable prayers. He isn’t hiding behind royal strength or past victories—he’s trembling, hurting, and honest. And in verse 2, he gives us a window into the kind of prayer God loves: humble, desperate, and real.
David isn’t offering a polished, stately prayer from a royal throne. He is crying out from the dust. The original Hebrew word used here for “weak” (‘umlal) paints a vivid picture: it describes a plant that is blighted, drooping, or wilting away under a scorching drought. David feels like a flower withered by grief, his energy drained and his vitality dry.
When David prays, “for my bones are troubled,” he is describing anguish that penetrates to the very center of his being. The bones are the structural framework of the body—the solid pillars that keep us standing tall. When David says his bones are “vexed” or shaken, he means that the very core of his strength has given way.
While physical illness may well have been present, David’s deepest battle was in his inner man. Soul-trouble is truly the soul of trouble. A person can endure a physical ailment if their spirit remains steadfast, but when the soul itself is wounded under the weight of trial, conviction, or sorrow, the pain becomes overwhelming.
Yet look at how David responds to his complete weakness:
“Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak…”
David doesn’t try to hide his frailty or parade his past achievements as a king, warrior, or psalmist. He presents no moral credentials to God. Instead, he simply throws himself on the unmerited favor of the Lord: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.” True prayer begins when we stop pretending to be strong and openly confess our deep need for the grace that comes from the Lord.
“O LORD, heal me…”
David doesn’t limit his petition to merely easing his symptoms; he asks for real, complete restoration: “O Lord, heal me.” God is the designer and restorer of both body and spirit. Whether our hearts are heavy from the consequences of sin, the weight of grief, or the heavy toll of physical sickness, the Lord takes notice of our frailty.
Yet even here, he prays. Even here, he hopes. Even here, he seeks healing.
Even the strongest saints—kings like David or heroes of the faith—experience seasons where their health fails, or their spirits falter. Human strength will always bow, but God’s mercy remains limitless. When your soul feels sick, and your bones feel shaken, you don’t need to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You are invited to run directly to the Physician who heals both body and soul.
Prayer
Abba, I come to You today feeling weak, like a plant withered for lack of rain. My heart is heavy, and even my body feels the deep weight of my sorrow and strain. Have mercy on me, O Lord. I bring no merits of my own, but cast myself entirely upon Your lovingkindness and grace. Touch my body, calm my anxious mind, and bring healing to my troubled soul. Surround my suffering with the sweet assurance that I am held securely in Your love. I ask You and thank You for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- Honesty Before God: God doesn’t require us to hide our weakness; confessing our helplessness is the very doorway to receiving His strength and mercy.
- Soul-Trouble Requires Divine Healing: External difficulties are heavy, but internal anguish requires the personal touch of the Lord, who alone forgives sin and restores the human spirit.
- Frail Nature, Unfailing Grace: Human strength, status, or righteousness will eventually fail us, but throwing ourselves on God’s covenant mercy brings true peace and healing.
Cross-References (Complete NKJV Text)
- Psalm 41:4
“I said, ‘Lord, be merciful to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.’” - Isaiah 24:7
“The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, All the merry-hearted sigh.” - Psalm 103:2–3
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,” - Proverbs 18:14
“The spirit of a man will sustain his sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?”
Proverb for Today
Through pride and presumption come nothing but strife, But [skillful and godly] wisdom is with those who welcome [well-advised] counsel. Proverbs 13:10 AMP
Daily Scripture
And we made ordinances to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the Lord; to bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God; to bring the firstfruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God; and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all our farming communities. Nehemiah 10:35-37 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Summary of Commentaries:
David’s plea in Psalm 6:2 reveals a profound collapse of both body and mind. These commentators note that David was completely drained, like a plant wilting in a drought. His physical framework—his “bones”—trembled under sickness, but his true agony was a deeply troubled soul. Feeling the weight of his sin and God’s displeasure, David offered no self-righteous excuses. Instead, he threw himself entirely on God’s mercy, desperately seeking healing from the Great Physician.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.” Here he prays for healing, not merely the mitigation of the ills he endured, but their entire removal, and the curing of the wounds which had arisen therefrom. His bones were “shaken,” as the Hebrew has it. His terror had become so great that his very bones shook; not only did his flesh quiver, but the bones, the solid pillars of the house of manhood, were made to tremble. “My bones are shaken.” Ah, when the soul has a sense of sin, it is enough to make the bones shake; it is enough to make a man’s hair stand up on end to see the flames of hell beneath him, an angry God above him, and danger and doubt surrounding him. Well might he say, “My bones are shaken.” Lest, however, we should imagine that it was merely bodily sickness— although bodily sickness might be the outward sign—the Psalmist goes on to say, “My soul is also sore vexed.” Soul-trouble is the very soul of trouble. It matters not that the bones shake if the soul be firm, but when the soul itself is also sore vexed, this is agony indeed.
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Enduring Word
I am weak…my bones are troubled: David knew the trial of physical weakness and pain. In the midst of this kind of chastisement, he cried out to God for mercy. (Guzik)
i. “So we may pray that the chastisements of our gracious God, if they may not be entirely removed, may at least be sweetened by the consciousness that they are ‘not in anger, but in his dear covenant love.’” (Spurgeon)
My soul also is greatly troubled: David knew the trials of spiritual weakness and pain. The difficulty of these trials drove David to seek mercy from God. (Guzik)
i. These trials of body and soul were amplified by David’s sense of God’s anger against him. When we are not confident in God’s love and assistance, even small trials feel unbearable. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
Have mercy upon me, O Lord — That is, be gracious to me; or, show me compassion. This language may be used either in view of sin, of suffering, or of danger. It is a cry to God to interpose, and remove some present source of trouble, and may be employed by one who feels that he is a sinner, or by one on a bed of pain, or by one surrounded by enemies, or by one at the point of death, or by one who is looking out with apprehension upon the eternal world. It is commonly, indeed (compare Psalms 51:1), a cry to God in view of sin, pleading for pardon and salvation; but here it is a cry in view of trouble and danger, outward sorrow and mental anguish, that had overcome the strength of the sufferer and laid him on a bed of languishing. See introduction to the psalm, Section 3.
For I am weak — The original word here, אמלל ‘ûmlal, means properly to languish or droop, as plants do that are blighted, Isaiah 24:7, or as fields do in a drought, Isaiah 16:8, and is here applied to a sick person whose strength is withered and gone. The condition of such an one is beautifully compared with a plant that withers for lack of moisture; and the word is used in this sense here, as referring to the psalmist himself when sick, as the result of his outward and mental sorrows. Such an effect has not been uncommon in the world. There have been numberless cases where sorrow has prostrated the strength – as a plant withers – and has brought on languishing sickness.
O Lord, heal me — This is language which would be properly applied to a case of sickness, and therefore, it is most natural to interpret it in this sense in this place. Compare Isaiah 19:22; Isaiah 30:26; Job 5:18; Genesis 20:17; Psalms 60:2; 2 Chronicles 16:12; Deuteronomy 28:27.
For my bones are vexed — The word “vexed” we now commonly apply to mental trouble, and especially the lighter sort of mental trouble – to irritate, to make angry by little provocations, to harass. It is used here, however, as is common in the Scriptures, in reference to torment or to anguish. The bones are the strength and framework of the body, and the psalmist means here to say that the very source of his strength was gone; that that which supported him was prostrated; that his disease and sorrow had penetrated the most firm parts of his body. Language is often used in the Scriptures, also, as if the “bones” actually suffered pain, though it is now known that the bones, as such, are incapable of pain. And in the same manner, also, language is often used, though that use of the word is not found in the Scriptures, as if the “marrow” of the bones were especially sensitive, like a nerve, in accordance with what is the common and popular belief, though it is now known that the marrow of the bones is entirely insensible to suffering. The design of the psalmist here is to say that he was crushed and afflicted in every part of his frame.
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John Gill
Have mercy upon me, O Lord,…. He knew he was a sinner, both by original sin and actual transgression, which he was always ready to own; he knew that what he had done deserved the wrath of God, even his hot displeasure; and that for such things it came upon the children of disobedience: he knew that there was mercy with God through Christ, and therefore he flees unto it, pleads for it, and entreats the manifestation of forgiving love: he pleads no merits of his own, nor makes any mention of former works of righteousness done by him, but throws himself upon the mercy of God in Christ; giving this as a reason,
for I [am] weak; either in body, through some disease upon him; or in soul, being enfeebled by sin, and so without spiritual strength to do that which was good of himself; to exercise grace, and perform duty, and much less to keep the law of God, or make atonement for sin, or to bear the punishment of it;
O Lord, heal me; meaning either his body, for God is the physician of the body, he wounds and he heals; so he healed Hezekiah and others; and he should be sought to in the first place by persons under bodily disorders: or else his soul, as in Psalm 41:4; sin is the disease of the soul, and a very loathsome one it is, and is incurable but by the balm of Gilead, and the physician there; by the blood of Christ, and forgiveness through it; and the forgiveness of sin is the healing of the diseases of the soul, Psalm 103:3;
for my bones are vexed; with strong pain; meaning his body, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra observe; because these are the foundation of the body, and the more principal parts of it: and this may be understood of his grief and trouble of heart for his sins and transgressions, which is sometimes expressed by the bones being broke, and by there being no rest in them, Psalm 51:8.
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Matthew Henry
He complains of bodily pain and sickness (v. 2): My bones are vexed. His bones and his flesh, like Job’s, were touched. Though David was a king, yet he was sick and pained; his imperial crown could not keep his head from aching. Great men are men, and subject to the common calamities of human life. Though David was a stout man, a man of war from his youth, yet this could not secure him from distempers, which will soon make even the strong men to bow themselves. Though David was a good man, yet neither could his goodness keep him in health. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Let this help to reconcile us to pain and sickness, that it has been the lot of some of the best saints, and that we are directed and encouraged by their example to show before God our trouble in that case, who is for the body, and takes cognizance of its ailments.
He complains of inward trouble: My soul is also sorely vexed; and that is much more grievous than the vexation of the bones. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, if that be in good plight; but, if that be wounded, the grievance is intolerable. David’s sickness brought his sin to his remembrance, and he looked upon it as a token of God’s displeasure against him; that was the vexation of his soul; that made him cry, I am weak, heal me.
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Miscellaneous Comments
In some passages the term bones is applied to the soul, and not to the body, to the inner man of the individual Christian. Then it implies the strength and fortitude of the soul, the determined courage which faith in God gives to the righteous. This is the sense in which it is used in the second verse of Psalm 6, “O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.”
—Augustine, Ambrose, and Chrysostom; quoted by F. H. Dunwell, B.A., in “Parochial Lectures on the Psalms,” 1855.
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