Psalm 6:8 NKJV
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity;
For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.
The Lord Has Heard the Voice of My Weeping
MY NOTES
David has spent the night soaking his bed with tears. He’s groaned until he was exhausted. His eyes were red and worn out from grief. Then something shifts. Right in the middle of the psalm, the tone changes completely:
“Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.” (Psalm 6:8, NKJV)
That’s not the cry of a man still buried in despair. That’s the voice of someone who just got word that heaven heard him. The tears were not wasted. God heard the voice of his weeping.
Sometimes the answer comes while we’re still on our knees. Scripture shows this more than once. God says:
“It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24, NKJV)
Daniel experienced the same thing. While he was still praying and confessing, the answer arrived:
“Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel… yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel… reached me about the time of the evening offering.” (Daniel 9:20-21, NKJV)
David’s sudden confidence is the same kind of breakthrough. The Lord has heard. So he stands up, turns to the evil around him, and says, “Depart from me.” Real repentance is practical. It’s not enough to cry over the mess in our hearts—we have to start cleaning it out. Grace and sin don’t make good roommates. One of them has to go.
David isn’t being dramatic. He’s drawing a hard line. He refuses fellowship with those who work iniquity.
That same clear boundary shows up later when Jesus Himself uses similar words:
“But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’” (Luke 13:27, NKJV)
And again in the final judgment:
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” (Matthew 25:41, NKJV)
David’s words point forward to that day. They also call us to live differently now. When God shows us mercy, the right response is to get serious about holiness.
David later wrote:
“I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.” (Psalm 101:3, NKJV)
And again:
“Depart from me, you evildoers, For I will keep the commandments of my God!” (Psalm 119:115, NKJV)
Tears have a voice before God. They are liquid prayers. You don’t have to form perfect sentences for Him to understand the cry of your heart. Jacob wept and sought favor from the Angel and prevailed (Hosea 12:4). God still leads His people with weeping and supplications (Jeremiah 31:9).
If you’re in a season of heavy tears, take heart. The same God who heard David hears you. And when the assurance comes—whether as a quiet peace or a sudden lift of the burden—stand up and clear the house. Let the workers of iniquity know they no longer have a place.
Prayer
Abba, I thank You that my tears have a voice before You. Thank You that You hear me even when I can barely form the words. Give me the same confidence David found—that You have heard the voice of my weeping. Help me rise up and walk in holiness. Give me courage to say “Depart from me” to every worker of iniquity in my life. Let Your mercy produce real change in me. I ask You and thank You for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- God hears the voice of our weeping even when words fail.
- Assurance of answered prayer can come suddenly and bring deep peace.
- True repentance moves us to separate from sin and those who practice it.
Proverb for Today
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles. Proverbs 21:23 NKJV
Daily Scripture
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 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:
The commentaries below note that David’s night of tears ends in sudden peace. God heard the voice of his weeping—tears themselves speak a language heaven understands. Rising from his knees, he tells the workers of iniquity to leave. Real repentance is practical: grace and sin cannot share the same house. Assurance often comes while we are still praying. When mercy breaks through, we stand up, clear out the evil, and walk forward with quiet confidence that the Lord has truly heard.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
Hitherto, all has been mournful and disconsolate, but now—
Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take.
Ye must have your times of weeping, but let them be short. Get ye up, get ye up, from your dunghills! Cast aside your sackcloth and ashes! Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
David has found peace, and rising from his knees he begins to sweep his house of the wicked. “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” The best remedy for us against an evil man is a long space between us both. “Get ye gone; I can have no fellowship with you.” Repentance is a practical thing. It is not enough to bemoan the desecration of the temple of the heart; we must scourge out the buyers and sellers, and overturn the tables of the money changers. A pardoned sinner will hate the sins which cost the Savior his blood. Grace and sin are quarrelsome neighbors, and one or the other must go to the wall.
“For the Lord hath hear the voice of my weeping.” What a fine Hebraism, and what grand poetry it is in English! “He hath heard the voice of my weeping.” Is there a voice in weeping? Does weeping speak? In what language doth it utter its meaning? Why, in that universal tongue which is known and understood in all the earth, and even in heaven above. When a man weeps, whether he be a Jew or Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, it has the same meaning in it. Weeping is the eloquence of sorrow. It is an unstammering orator, needing no interpreter, but understood of all. Is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail? Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear its way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way. My God, I will “weep” when I cannot plead, for thou hearest the voice of my weeping.
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Enduring Word
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity: It may be that the sin that led David into this chastisement was association with the ungodly. Here we see David acting consistently with his change of heart and telling all ungodly associates to depart. (Guzik)
i. It is important to separate from ungodly associations. J. Edwin Orr describes some of the work among new converts in Halifax during the Second Great Awakening in Britain: “Among them was a boxer who had just won a money-prize and a belt. A crowd of his erstwhile companions stood outside the hall in order to ridicule him, and they hailed the converted boxer with a shout: ‘He’s getting converted! What about the belt? He’ll either have to fight for it or give it up!’ The boxer retorted, ‘I’ll both give it up and you up! If you won’t go with me to heaven, I won’t go with you to hell!’ He gave them the belt but persuaded some of them to accompany him to the services, where another was converted and set busily working.” (Guzik)
The LORD has heard the voice of my weeping: David ended the psalm on a note of confidence. He made his agonized cry to God, and God heard him. (Guzik)
i. Weeping has a voice before God. It isn’t that God is impressed by emotional displays, but a passionate heart impresses Him. David wasn’t afraid to cry before the LORD, and God honored the voice of his weeping.
ii. “Is it not sweet to believe that our tears are understood even when words fail! Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers.” (Spurgeon)
iii. Once Luther wrestled hard with God in prayer and came jumping out of his prayer closet crying out, “Vicimus, vicimus” – that is, “Victory, victory!” David had the same sense of prevailing with God at the end of this prayer. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity — Referring, by the “workers of iniquity,” to his enemies, as if they now surrounded him, and calling on them “now” to leave him, since God had heard his prayer, and they could not be successful in their purposes. This is an indirect but most emphatic way of saying that God had heard his prayer; and the sentiment in this verse is strongly in contrast with the desponding state of feeling – the deep and dreadful sorrow – indicated in the previous verses. Light broke in suddenly upon him; his prayer had come up before God, and, in some way, he was assured that it would be answered. Already he sees his enemies scattered, and his own cause triumphant; and in this exulting feeling he addresses his foes, and commands them to leave him. This is, therefore, a remarkable and striking proof that prayer may be heard, even while we are speaking to God (compare Isaiah 65:24); that the assurance may be conveyed suddenly to the mind that God will hear and answer the prayer which is addressed to him; and also a beautiful illustration of the effect of this on a mind overwhelmed with trouble and sorrow, in giving it calmness and peace.
For the Lord hath heard — That is, my prayer has ascended before him, and I am certain that he regards it favorably, and will answer it. “In what way” he had this assurance he does not inform us. As he was an inspired man, we may suppose that the assurance was given to him directly by the Holy Spirit. “We” are not to expect the “same kind” of assurance that our prayers are heard; we are to look for no revelation to that effect; but there may be “as real” an intimation to the mind that our prayers are heard – as real “evidence” – as in this case. There may be a firm confidence of the mind that God is a hearer of prayer now coming to the soul with the freshness of a new conviction of that truth; and there may be, in trouble and sorrow, a sweet calmness and peace breathed through the soul – an assurance that all will be right and well, as if the prayer were heard, and such as there would be if we were assured by direct revelation that it is heard. The Spirit of God can produce this in our case as really as he did in the case of David.
The voice of my weeping — The voice of prayer that accompanied my weeping, or the voice of the weeping itself – the cry of anguish and distress which was in itself of the nature of prayer.
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John Gill
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity,…. The psalmist being fully assured that God had heard his prayer, that he should recover from his disorder, or be delivered out of his calamities, whether corporeal or spiritual, has on a sudden a spring of joy, faith, and comfort; as sometimes there is a quick transition from comfortable to uncomfortable frames; see Psalm 30:7; so on the contrary, there is as quick a passage from uncomfortable to comfortable ones; see Lamentations 3:18; who may be called “workers of iniquity” See Gill on “Ps 5:5”; and these were either his open enemies, as Saul and his men, or Absalom and the conspirators with him, whom he bids to cease from following and pursuing after him; or his secret ones, hypocritical courtiers, that were about him, who were wishing and hoping for his death. It is the lot of God’s people to be among the workers of iniquity; Lot was among the Sodomites, David was in Meshech and in the tents of Kedar, Isaiah was among men of unclean lips; Christ’s lily is among thorns, and his sheep among goats; and though in some respects a civil conversation with wicked men cannot be avoided, for then good men must needs go out of the world; yet as little company should be kept with them as can be, and no fellowship should be had with them in sinful practices, nor in superstitious worship; and though there will not be a full and final separation from them in the present state of things, there will be hereafter, when these very words will be used by David’s antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ; not only to profane sinners, but to carnal professors of religion, who have herded themselves with the people of God, Matthew 25:41. The reason why the psalmist took heart and courage, and ordered his wicked persecutors, or sycophants, to be gone from him, was his assurance of being heard by the Lord;
for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping; referring to what is said Psalm 6:6; he had not only lifted up his voice in prayer, but he had wept and made supplication, as Jacob did, Hosea 12:4; sometimes God brings his people to the throne of grace weeping, and with supplications leads them, Jeremiah 31:9; and then hears their cry and answers them.
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Matthew Henry
Perhaps they had tempted him to do as they did, to quit his religion and betake himself for ease to the pleasures of sin. But now, “depart from me; I will never lend an ear to your counsel; you would have had me to curse God and die, but I will bless him and live.” This good use we should make of God’s mercies to us; we should thereby have our resolution strengthened never to have anything more to do with sin and sinners. David was a king, and he takes this occasion to renew his purpose of using his power for the suppression of sin and the reformation of manners, Ps. 75:4; 101:3. When God has done great things for us, this should put us upon studying what we shall do for him. Our Lord Jesus seems to borrow these words from the mouth of his father David, when, having all judgment committed to him, he shall say, Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity (Lu. 13:27), and so teaches us to say so now, Ps. 119:115.
He is confident of a gracious answer to this prayer which he is now making. While he is yet speaking, he is aware that God hears (as Isa. 65:24, Dan. 9:20), and therefore speaks of it as a thing done, and repeats it with an air of triumph, “The Lord hath heard” (v. 8), and again (v. 9), “The Lord hath heard.” By the workings of God’s grace upon his heart, he knew his prayer was graciously accepted, and therefore did not doubt, but it would in due time be effectually answered. His tears had a voice, a loud voice, in the ears of the God of mercy: The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. Silent tears are not speechless ones. His prayers were cries to God: “The Lord has heard the voice of my supplication, has put his Fiat-Let it be done– to my petitions, and so it will appear shortly.”
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