Psalm 6

 

PSALM 6

This original posting was on Saturday 16 May 2020 and taken from a book by Bill Crowder titled “My Hope is In You – Psalms that comfort and mend the soul”.

O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

² Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

³ My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?

⁴ Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies' sake.

⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

⁶ I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

⁷ Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

⁸ Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.

⁹ The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.

¹⁰ Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Paul McCartney in the Beatles song, “Let it Be” released in 1970 used the words “Mother Mary”.  Many thought this was a religious reference to the Virgin Mary but in fact if you listen to the rest of the words he states “coming to me in times of trouble.”  It was not a religious icon he longed for but it was his own mother Mary McCartney who had died when Paul was a youngster.  He missed her, he longed to talk to her when life was filled with pain.  His words “let it be” speak of the great vacuum left in his life by the absence of the loved and lost.  I have personally known that sense of loss with my own mother 25 years ago.  I would love to have had my mother’s wisdom through these years.  Yes there is a huge vacuum and I can attest to that – you miss your mother more than anyone I think.

Grief is so personal and felt in the most private ways.  It is also messy because it is personal, regardless of how public or sweeping the causes of grief may be.  Grief is so very personal – just this week the news told us of the death of a mother and her young 3 year old daughter on a farm quad accident.  The other daughter Hannah aged 5 is in a critical condition.  Ryan the father’ grief is so very personal to him. 

In this psalm we don’t know the specific cause of David’s grief.  He talks in the last few verses of people that have caused his heartache.  They are not the main focus of this psalm.  David is being very honest in his responses to real life circumstances of actual emotion we feel.  Notice the language used here - it is so very personal.  David cries for help from God.  He thinks God has deserted him.  He thinks God is punishing him – “rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.”  C H Spurgeon remarked that David is not resistant to God’s rebuke but he does not want to be rebuked in anger.  He wants God’s rebuke to be formative rather than punitive in his life.  So many feelings when you go through grief – joy at a loved one whose pain is over, anger that they have been taken so young, bitterness and guilt that we didn’t do more in their last few days, resentment at the loss – yes I have experienced these all and know only too well the range of emotions when mum died.  Now I am nearing her age I just think of how cruel for mum not to have known her own granddaughter, seen us in our own home, but all these do not matter when I think of how much pain she was in and it was such a relief for her to go home to heaven.

“My soul is also sore vexed”.  He is so deeply troubled and disturbed  C H Spurgeon said “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”  Not some superficial matter that David can shrug off easily or quickly.  It is a pain that cuts him to the quick.  He reaches to God in the moment of his struggle.  This is deep – the soul is involved – imagine!  Yet there is only one who can hep us in the matter of our soul - God himself.

“But thou, O LORD, how long?” – basically “until when?”  David is simply asking “How long will I endure with this pain alone?”  He is pouring out his heart to God but hears only silence in return.  He unloads everything he is feeling on God who he thinks has abandoned him in his time of grief.  His grief has been compounded by his perception of God’s distance from him in his time of need.  That is so very real, the windows of heaven being closed, that feeling of being cut off.  Somehow you are walking this path on your own.

“Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.” David is telling God that the grief in his heart has shaken him down to his very frame.  It is a crisis.  Crisis force us to fundamentally reorganise the way we live our lives.  This is the kind of crisis that rocks your world and unsettles your heart.  We are currently living in a crisis, COVID 19.  It has shaken our world to its very core and we have had to reorganise our lives.  It certainly has rocked our lives and unsettled everyone.

“Return, O LORD, deliver my soul oh save for thy mercies’ sake.  For in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”  David acknowledges his pain is too great and his grief too deep for him to be able to handle it alone.  He needs help and only God’s help will do – “return and deliver” becomes the cry of his heart.  It is not to be rescued because he deserves it – it is only because of the character of the great God that he still trusts, in spite of his grief.  It is a trust rooted in God’s lovingkindness – His mercy that endures forever – Psalm 136.

“I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.  Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.” David’s grief has manifested itself in 4 ways – fatigue or tiredness, tears, sorrow and fears.

“All the night” – in times of grief it is difficult to sleep because your dreams are haunted by words and deeds that somehow interact with the grief.

“I am weary with my groaning” – this creates a weariness, a fatigue.  It is in the darkness, after others have gone their way, that the private expressions of grief take form, which is another reason sleep eludes us in times of grief.

“Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.”  David’s judgment may be clouded by his emotions, because in a state nearing depression, he is not seeing with clarity and accuracy the situations that surround him.  David’s enemies have worn him down.  These were human foes.  Grief of this magnitude feels inconsolable and perhaps even worse, inescapable.  Our response to our grief drives us to the private agony of spirit that seems to have no remedy – unless we see the only way out; the way of trust.

“the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.  The LORD hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer”  God answers his prayers even in the midst of his grief and pain.  It is David’s confidence in a present reality that impacts his long view of life and his attitude in it all.  Think of Job – “though he slay me I will hope in Him.” (Job 13 verse 14) and “As for me, I now that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” (o 19 verse 25)

David tells his enemies that God is still with him, in spite of the struggles he faces.  He is still weeping.  He is still feeling the depths of his pain.  But he no longer feels abandoned.  He recognises that the God who loves him also hears his prayers.  3 times he affirms his confidence in a prayer-hearing God.  God does not always answer our prayers in ways that we understand, but He always hears our cries.  He does not turn His back on us, or ignore us.  He is not too busy to listen.  He is never disinterested.

“Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed; let them return and be ashamed suddenly."  David anticipates victory yet to come.  Remember when Jesus was in the Upper Room with his disciples - "therefore you too have grief now but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one will take your joy away from you." (John 16 verse 22)

This is purposeful grief.  If we can learn to allow our grief to have purpose - to inform our living and loving and serving - then our own moments of sorrow can prepare us for great opportunities for spiritual impact.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1 verses 3 and 4.

Updated: 22 April 2025 - From Teach Me To Feel by Courtney Reissig

Psalm 6 is a psalm that speaks of great pain. David says that his "bones are vexed". God is not surprised by that kind of pain; nor does he leave  us alone in it.

This is a psalm of David, but besides that we don't know much about the context of his prayer for relief. This is helpful because it allows us freedom to apply the psalm to a variety of circumstances. Because of the general nature of the psalm, we can find comfort in whatever pain we face. All David tells us is that his suffering is affecting him physically and spiritually (verses 2 and 3, 5). This tis the way of physical pain - it is so debilitating because it affects our emotions and spiritual life too. You can't limit it to "just" your physical nature, because you feel pain. Pain is as much an emotional experience as it is a physical one.

This psalm is meant to be sung by God's people The heading includes multiple references to the musical nature of the poem.

The psalmist expect us to sing the praise and the lament together. The psalmist expects us to pour our hearts out to God in joy and in pain - in worship.  This psalm was to be sung by the choir, leading the congregation: which tells us that the experience of pain is normal, and also that expressing pain to God is necessary. You can cry out to God in worship, and it will be beautiful to God. You can lament to God in your pain and be a faithful Christian.

In Psalm 6 David is teaching us to pray. We often think that prayer should be about praising God for who he is and what he's done, and it does include those elements, but prayer is also about desperate people begging God to do what they can't do for themselves. That's what David gets to here right from the outset - verses 1 and 2 begin a passionate plea for God to remember him and be gracious to him. So David shows us how to feel, he shows us how to worship and he shows us how to pray, all in this psalm that is filled with great anguish. That's encouraging as we wrestle through pain that doesn't seem to let up. God is guiding us along in our difficulty, because when pain is ravaging your body, you don't have the energy to figure out what to say or how to worship. Here God says to us, through David, Let me help you find the words you need.

The words David finds for his pain and anguish are raw, and they are common when we are overcome with pain.

"O LORD, rebuke me not in thin anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me; O LORD, for I am weak, O LORD heal me: for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed, but thou, O LORD how long?"

Pain can make you feel that God is againt you. It can even make you feel that God hates you. At the height of our suffering, our mind can play tricks on us - hurling doubt on even the most fervent believers. Psalm 6 is a collective exhalation. Our feelings might not be true, but they are most certainly real. In that raw emotion, we ask "How long?"

So pain can lead to anxiety and doubting. It can even make you weak or sick. And pain is emotionally draining:

"I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim, I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief, it waxeth old because of all mine enemies."

Pain has some hard side-effects that tend to hang on and drain us of any energy that is left. You get the sense from David that for him, this is a near-constant battle. It is happening all throughout the night. It has gone on for a long time.

Pain questions what we know and believe, and it doesn't let up. Pain asks many questions but never gives any answers. Pain confuses us. It doesn't let any light in. You wonder when the pain will end, and like David, you may cry out all night long.

And pain can do one of 2 things to us.

First, it can either move us towards God in trust because we know God and we know he loves us, despite what the pain suggests:

"Return, O LORD, deliver my soul, oh save me for thy mercies sake."

Or second, it can drive us away from God, causing us to reject him and become hardened against him because of what we see happening in or around us.

In pain you will either listen to God, who is sovereign over your pain; or you will listen to the pain that is screaming at you that God can't help or can't be trusted. Pain has a way of grounding you on the path you've chosen. Or to put it another way, pain has a way of refining you and showing you who you really are. It can expose you in your waywardness and draw you back to God, or draw you closer to the God you've been trusting all along - or it can reveal that you never had any sure footing to begin with, like the seed that fell on the thorny and rocky soils in Matthew 13. And so pain is, strangely, an unasked-for opportunity, if we allow it to be, stripping us of what we may hold too dear, moving us back to where we should be, and showing us that our all-sufficient God is the only one worth trusting (Job 23 verse 10).

This is how David treats his pain. He can respond in faith because of what he knows about God. He's already on the right path, so when suffering comes, he has the tools necessary to hang on even though it is bumpy. You can respond in this way, too, because of what you know about God. The blessed life is found in knowing God through his word. How else will you stand when your bones are troubled and when you are languishing? How will you flourish like a tree planted by streams of water when it feels as if the water supply has dried up? You meditate on the word and you stand in adversity - even in pain.

First David cries out to God and appeals to him based on who he is (Psalm 6 verses 1 to 5); then he goes back to weeping and anguish (verses 6 and 7). Lament is a back and forth struggle "Turn and answer me, Lord! I know who you are" becomes weeping and grief before it becomes confident trust again. This is the pattern of the human experience. We cry out in trust and then we cry out in anguish, and then we cry out in trust again. Pain is hard and it is real, and there is sometimes a road for us to walk  to get to that place of trust. But the road eventually will lead us back to the God who hears, who understands, and who is ready to comfort us in our pain. 

Your Lord is not going to push you beyond what he will also give you the grace to endure. He is not going to look down on you and he is not going to fail to use your pain. Knowing this is how you get the strength to keep crying out to him in pain. With the cry comes the sustaining grace.

In this psalm, david hasn't received deliverance yet.

"Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed; let them return and be ashamed suddenly."

David says that God has heard him, but do you notice the tense of verse 10? It's in the future! David doesn't say that God has done this to his enemies. He says he will do it to his enemies. David is turning to God in trust before the deliverance comes. How can he do that? Because of what is true in Psalm 2 and all throughout the bible. Remember Psalm 2 sets up the Psalter by telling us God's plan for all time - to establish his kingdom forever through his Son, Jesus. One day, every enemy will be defeated and that gives David hope One day, this king's king will make all things new - including a pain-filled body. It's this view that encourages us when the pain of life threatens to undo us, as in Psalm 6. It won't last forever.

The future promised to him in Psalm 2 is what enabled David to cry out in faith, even when the deliverance was still far off. The future promised to us in that psalm, in Revelation 21 and 22 - where Christ returns and makes all things new - and even all throughout the New Testament enables us to do the same. We have the same confidence that David had in Psalm 6 verse 1. All of our enemies will be dealt with one day - even the enemy names "pain". As we wait, we cry out with honest pleas to the only one who can sustain us and heal us, the only one who can redeem our pain by using it and then removing it - the Lord, who reigns over all.

So we cry, "Come Lord Jesus". And we know that when he does, we will cry no more.

Micah 1 verses 10 to 16

 

MICAH 1 VERSES 10 to 16

Tell it not in Gath^[a];
    weep not at all.
In Beth Ophrah^[b]
    roll in the dust.
¹¹ Pass by naked and in shame,
    you who live in Shaphir.^[c]
Those who live in Zaanan^[d]
    will not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
    it no longer protects you.
¹² Those who live in Maroth^[e] writhe in pain,
    waiting for relief,
because disaster has come from the Lord,
    even to the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³ You who live in Lachish,
    harness fast horses to the chariot.
You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began,
    for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
¹⁴ Therefore you will give parting gifts
    to Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib^[f] will prove deceptive
    to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵ I will bring a conqueror against you
    who live in Mareshah.^[g]
The nobles of Israel
    will flee to Adullam.
¹⁶ Shave your head in mourning
    for the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the vulture,
    for they will go from you into exile.

 

MICAH by Dale Ralph Davis

Micah doesn’t simply say he will lament – he writes out his lamentation with all its word-plays and choppy grammar.   Micah isn’t trying to be witty; he is uttering despair - and this may help to explain the difficulties and conundrums in the text. 

The towns Micah mentions are in the Shephelah, the low-lying foothills to the west of the hill country of Judah, an area about 27 miles long and 10 miles wide.  The disasters the prophet foresees need not be the result of Sennaherib’’s ravages in about 701 BC, but could well have occurred while Ahaz ruled Judah (735 – 715 BC) when Syria, Israel, Edom and Philistia pummelled Judah from all sides (2 Chronicles 28).

Verse 10

Tell it not in Gath^[a];
    weep not at all.
In Beth Ophrah^[b]
    roll in the dust.

Gath was one of the premier towns of Philistia.  Scholars still debate the exact site; perhaps Tell es-Safi gets the most votes – about 25 miles south-south-east of Joppa and the same distance (as the crow flies) west-south-west of Jerusalem.  Micah uses a verb (nagad, to tell) whose ‘g’ sound might play off of that in ‘Gath’; hence, ‘Don’t gab about it in Gath.’  Micah is, I think adapting a line from David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1 verse 20.  The shame of Israel’s defeat was so grievous that David, as it were, didn’t want their enemies the Philistines to hear of it, either from Israelites or, perhaps more likely, from ecstatic, returning Philistine warriors.  It’s as though David says, “There has been utter disaster – let there be a media blackout.”

Micah’s next line reads literally, ‘Weeping, do not weep’.  The repetition of the verb root intensifies the prohibition – ie, ‘Don’t go weeping at all.’  Perhaps the idea is that if his people gave vent to their grief, others will realise that disaster has befallen them.  They should not do anything to publish their disgrace or to give the world a clue about the devastation of their land.

Though word of the catastrophe that has befallen Israel and/or Judah should be kept from enemies, this does not mean that those who will suffer cannot express their distress in the own locality.  So the prophet tells anyone in Beth-le-aphrah (House of Dust, Dust-town – site unknown) to ‘roll yourself in dust’ (apar, a word-play on the town name).  This was probably a mourning rite, expressing anguish over the crushing defeat an enemy would inflict.

Verse 11

¹¹ Pass by naked and in shame,
    you who live in Shaphir.^[c]
Those who live in Zaanan^[d]
    will not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
    it no longer protects you.

Here Micah ties us in grammatical and geographical knots!  Geographically, he mentions 3 towns in this verse, and we don’t know the exact location of any of them (except that they were, apparently, in the Shephelah).  Grammatically, he begins with a feminine singular verb, ‘Pass by’ which agrees with the feminine singular ‘resident’ and immediately inserts a masculine plural pronoun, “for yourselves’.  It is, I suppose, as though Micah addresses the town’s population as a single representative, and yet has in view the whole lot of them at the same time.  In any case, this sort of thing is not that rare.  (One tends to get used to it when reading Micah!)

Shaphir comes from a root meaning ‘to be beautiful’ – hence we could dub it ‘Beautyburg’.  The catch comes in the contrast; Micah tells the resident of Beautyburg to leave town in ‘shameful nakedness’.  The inhabitants may have lived in Beautyburg, but they will leave town in the opposite condition – stripped, as they are carted off as captives of war.

The place name Zaanan contains 2 letters of the verb ‘to go’ or ‘march forth’.  I have tried to pick up the word-play in ‘the residents of Marchville do not march forth’.  That is, they stay inside the town walls, afraid to venture out and fight the invading enemy.

The last 2 lines of this verse are terribly difficult.  ‘Lamentation in Beth-ha-ezel’ may be an exclamation.  The lamentation is because the place is no more.  Beth-ha-ezel could mean ‘house of taking away’ but one can’t be sure.  The last line literally reads, ‘He will take away from you its (or ‘his’) standing place.’  This may mean that the town has no place of defence, no position from which the inhabitants can make a stand against the invaders.  That would certainly be the case if the population was decimated, as the ‘lamentation’ implies.

Verse 12

¹² Those who live in Maroth^[e] writhe in pain,
    waiting for relief,
because disaster has come from the Lord,
    even to the gate of Jerusalem.

Maroth is associated with bitterness – hence ‘Bitterton’.  Bitterton’s people long for ‘good’ – for help, welfare, deliverance.  However ‘disaster has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.’  If Jerusalem itself is ready to crumble, there will surely be no help or relief for the likes of Bitterton.  “Jerusalem’ comes like a thud at the end of verses 10 – 12, for if Jerusalem goes under the whole show is over, the game is up for everyone.  What hope can these outlying communities have if the premier city is herself under assault?

Verse 13

¹³ You who live in Lachish,
    harness fast horses to the chariot.
You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began,
    for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

We can find Lachish on the map.  It is Tel ed-Duweir, 29 miles west-south-west of Jerusalem.  Lachish guarded important access routes into the interior of the land.  It was heavily fortified – during the divided kingdom it had double defensive walls, the upper one 19 feet (under 6 metres) thick, the lower 13 (4 metres).  When Sennacherib finally took Lachish in around 701 BC, he took up 70 linear feet (over 21 metres) of his palace wall to depict his conquest.  (What else could he do? He had failed to conquer Jerusalem.)

There is a sound-play between ‘horses’ (rekesh) and ‘Lachish’.  The Lachishites, however are not hitching chariots to horses in order to fight but to flee.  They should get out of town before the enemy assaults them. Sadly, the prophet accuses Lachish of being infectious – she had apparently embraced the ‘rebellions of Israel’, the twisted, syncretistic worship of the northern kingdom and then became a conduit that transmitted this corrupt worship into the life of the southern kingdom.  I take ‘Israel’ here as referring to the northern kingdom.

Verse 14

¹⁴ Therefore you will give parting gifts
    to Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib^[f] will prove deceptive
    to the kings of Israel.

Moresheth-Gath seems to be the full name of Micah’s home town, located 6 miles north-east of Lachish.  The verb form, ‘you will give’ (or ‘you must give’) is a feminine singular.  Some think it refers to ‘Daughter Zion’, ie, Jerusalem in verse 13.  However it could just as well refer to Lachish.  Since the people of Lachish want to make a quick getaway to avoid their attackers, they certainly cannot expect their satellite towns like Moresheth-gath to stick with them; they might just as well dismiss them and allow them to do their best on their own.

The word for ‘parting gifts’ is used 2 other times in the OT.  The first is in Exodus 18 verse 2, where it seems to mean ‘dismissal’ ie Moses sends his wife back to her father’s house while the furore in Egypt is heating up.  The second is in 1 Kings 9 verse 16, where Pharaoh gave Gezer, which he had conquered, to his daughter as a wedding gift when she became Solomon’s wife.  In any case, Lachish must release Moresheth-gath, either to be on her own or to be given over to another (in this case, not to a husband, but to an invader).

In the second part of verse 14 Micah plays on the town name Achzib (from kazab, to lie; hence, ‘Deceitville’) – it has proven ‘akza (deceptive, disappointing) and this to ‘the kings of Israel.’  This last phrase really has the commentators scratching their heads.  Many hold that which Micah says ‘Israel’ he really means ‘Judah’ since they assume that Micah’s lament is primarily connected to Sennacherib’s devastation of Judah in 701 BC, some years after the northern kingdom had ceased to exist.  But if Micah’s lament takes in both Samaria and Jerusalem (see 1: 1, 5 – 6), it might well encompass all that is going to take place from, say 735 BC onwards, and might therefore include Assyria’s strangulation of Israel, as well as the pummelling of Judah to within an inch of its life by Israel and Syria.  If so – and obviously this is a conjecture – Judah could have been forced to cede territory to Israel, including Moresheth-gath and Achzib; but the prophet may be saying that such ‘victories are empty, nothing Israel’s kings can hang their hats on, because the big Assyrian nation-smasher is going to chew up Israel and spit her out.

Verse 15

¹⁵ I will bring a conqueror against you
    who live in Mareshah.^[g]
The nobles of Israel
    will flee to Adullam.

The first person verb, ‘I will ... bring’ assumes that Yahweh is speaking.  The threat is against Mareshah, Tell Sandakhanna, about 4 miles east-north-east of Lachish and 2 miles south of Moresheth-gath. There is a word or sound-play between the root for ‘conqueror’ (yaras) and the town name Mareshah; hence the translation, ‘I will bring the conqueror to you, resident of Conquest.’ Mareshah will go the way of all her sister towns; a victor will conquer Victory.

The ‘glory of Israel’ in the second line could refer to Yahweh coming to inflict judgment or to the king, or people who are ‘upper-class’ citizens (cf Isaiah 5 verse 13, where ‘glory’ = ‘men of rank’) coming to seek refuge – probably the latter.  Adullam was east-north-east of Moresheth-gath and 12 to 13 miles west-south-west of Bethlehem.  In his outlaw days David used a cave near Adullam as a hideout for himself and his ragtag outfit (cf 1 Samuel 22 verses 1 and 2).  Micah may see an ironic twist here; as David once had to run for his life to Adullam, now Israel’s high-ranking citizens become refugees, fleeing to David’s place because their country is going down the drain.  ‘Israel’ may well mean the northern kingdom here.

Verse 16

¹⁶ Shave your head in mourning
    for the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the vulture,
    for they will go from you into exile.

Finally, Micah probably calls on Mother Jerusalem (the imperatives are feminine singulars) to mourn over the tragedy of her children (the population throughout Judah).  Israel was forbidden to practise pagan mourning rites that involved ritualized shaving of the head (Deuteronomy 14 verse 1); however, as here, some shaving of the head was allowable, or even ordered, as an appropriate sign of anguish and mourning (Isaiah 22 verse 12; Jeremiah 7 verse 29; Ezekiel 7 verse 18; cf Amos 8 verse 10).  In fact, Jerusalem was to shear her own head over her beloved children, leaving it as bald as the griffon-vulture’ appears to be – its head is covered with short, creamy down which looks bare from a distance.

Her anguish is because her children ‘have gone ... into exile’ from her.  Micah, in his prophetic vision, sees these deportations as having already taken place.  The reference to ‘exile’ need not point to the Babylonian exile (s), for the Assyrians were in the habit of carting off populations and relocating them.

APPLICATION

The word – and sound-plays show that, from a human standpoint, he gave careful thought to how he would express the ravaging that was coming on Judah.  And yet he didn’t ‘clean it up’ – ie he didn’t polish up the diction and correct all the grammatical anomalies that litter his lament.  So Micah leaves it in the rough draft, so that we can sense his own anguish and se what a savage disaster Yahweh’s judgement is going to inflict.  ‘Here in chapter 1 verses 10 to 16 we seem to have the raw product, straight from the soul of the prophet, who could not restrain the torrent of words (or sounds) – an almost incoherent speech forced from his lips by the Spirit of God.’

Micah said he would lament and wail and this is it.  He wants Jerusalem to respond in a frenzy of anguish which might lead to repentance.  At the same time, recording his own torment fulfils part of this prophetic vocation of grieving over Yahweh’s judgement falling on Yahweh’s people (cf Amos 7 verses 1 – 6, Jeremiah 14 verse 7 to 9, 19  - 22, Ezekiel 9 verses 8, 11 and 13).

The prophet should be a model for us.  Far too often divine judgement is a doctrine we affirm rather than a reality we abhor.  We have far too little of the prophet’s agony.  He wailed over a people who had the scriptures and their promises, who had know the works and deliverances of God and who were turning their back on it all. 

 

THE ENDURING WORD BIBLE COMMENTARY

a. Tell it not in Gath: The city of Gath belonged to the Philistines, and it hurt Micah to think that the Philistines would rejoice at the pain of God’s people.

b. In Beth Aphrah roll yourself in the dust: Continuing to the end of the chapter, Micah uses puns and plays on words to talk about the judgment coming upon the cities of Judah. These towns were clustered in the Shephelah – the lowlands between the coastal region and the mountains of Judah.

i. Though Micah used puns, this wasn’t about clever word games – it went back to the ancient idea that a name wasn’t just your name but that it described your character and your destiny, sometimes prophetically. In showing how the name of these cities was in some way a prophecy of their destiny, Micah showed how our character becomes our future.

c. Beth Aphrah: To Micah, Aphrah sounded like the Hebrew word for dust, so he told the citizens of Beth Aphrah to roll in the dust in anticipation of coming judgment.

d. Shaphir: The name of this town sounded like the word for beautiful. It wouldn’t be beautiful for long, and Micah warned the citizens of Shaphir to prepare for judgment.

e. Zaanan: The name of this town sounded like the Hebrew word for exit or go out. When the enemy’s siege armies would come, the Jewish people would not exit at all – they would be shut up in the city until they fell.

f. Beth Ezel: The name of this town means the nearby city. When the army of judgment comes, it won’t be near and helpful to any other city.

g. Maroth: The name of this town means bitterness, and when the army of judgment comes, the citizens of Maroth will know plenty of bitterness.

h. Lachish: The name of this town sounded like the Hebrew word for to the horses. Lachish was an important fortress city, and its people should go to the horses to fight, but ironically, they would go to the horses [Lachish] to flee the army of judgment.

i. Moresheth: The name of this place – Micah’s hometown – sounded like the Hebrew word for betrothed. Here he spoke of giving the city wedding gifts as she passed from the rule of one “husband” (Judah) to another (the invading army).

j. Aczib: The name of this town sounds like the Hebrew word for deceitful or disappointing. This city would fall so quickly it would be a deception and a disappointment for Israel.

k. Mareshah: The name of this town is related to the Hebrew word for possessor or heir. The invading army would soon possess this city.

l. Adullam: This was the place of refuge for David when he fled from King Saul. It would again be a place of refuge for the high and mighty among Israel, when they would be forced to hide out in Adullam.

 

Micah 1 verses 1 to 9

 

MICAH 1 verses 1 to 9

The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.  Call to hear the Lord’s testimony

For behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. Description of the Lord’s coming

For the transgression of Jacob is all this and for the sins of the house of Israel, what is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?  Explanation of the Lord’s ‘appearance’

Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof.

And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.  Announcement of the Lord’s plan

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls.

For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.  Reaction of the Lord’s servant

 

 

Micah 1 verse 1

The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Micah starts with a claim and a fact.  This is “the word of the Lord.”  It “came” to him.  That is, it was just there, present, imposing itself.  There is sovereignty about Yahweh’s word.  The prophet does not control it; God presses it upon him.  This divine word does not shrink from using a human instrument.

“The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite” – refers to Micah’s home town, apparently Moresheth-gath, some 25 miles south-west of Jerusalem, among the lowland hills of western Judah.

“which he saw” – verb haza as used here, refers to seeing in a prophetic vision, one of the ways Yahweh conveyed his word to the prophets.  It seems to indicate that there is a visual component in the receiving of Yahweh’s word which then results in the verbal communication of that word. 

The circumstances in which God’s word came to Micah – “in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah”.  Micah did not prophesy from the very beginning of Jotham’s reign to the very end of Hezekiah’s, it only means that he prophesied during the reigns of these 3 kings, perhaps from about 735 – 700 BC.  When we read Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, we should also read another name, though it’s not actually in the text – Assyria.  These 3 kings ruled during the Assyrian decades.  True, Assyrian pressure and assaults initially affected the northern kingdom (Israel) more than Micah’s Judah but the big red Assyrian machine came running into Judah in 701BC, bleeding Hezekiah’s kingdom within an inch of its life.  In short, Micah served in fearful times.  Even in scary times Yahweh does not cease bringing his word to his people.

APPLICATION

Yahweh came  - consider the kindness and grace of having a God who speaks and is not silent.  He does not allow his people to walk in darkness but rather causes his word to come to his servant Micah, so that they will clearly know his will and his assessment of things!  Grace provides clarity.

Secondly, ponder the gratitude we owe for this digest of Micah’s proclamation.

“Thus what took Micah some 38 to 40 years to preach, we can read within an hour.  How immense our ingratitude, then, if seeing that Micah laboured all of his life to exhort the people of his era, and that God has so graciously provided such a brief summary of his teachings for us, we should fail to esteem them, or neglect to cast our eyes upon them.” John Calvin

Thirdly, observe how little detail Micah provides about himself.  Only his name, date (in reference to 3 kings) and postcode.  Nothing more – not his family, his hobbies, nothing.  “What after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe.” 1 Corinthians 3 verse 5)

Micah 1 verses 2 to 9

Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.  Call to hear the Lord’s testimony

For behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. Description of the Lord’s coming

For the transgression of Jacob is all this and for the sins of the house of Israel, what is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?  Explanation of the Lord’s ‘appearance’

Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof.

And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.  Announcement of the Lord’s plan

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls.

For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.  Reaction of the Lord’s servant

 

 

The verses divide in two – the Lord’s coming verses 2 to 7 and secondly the prophet’s response verses 8 and 9. 

“Hear, all ye people: hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.”

All the “people throughout the whole earth” are to pay attention.  The Lord God is going to bring his case against (“be a witness against”) the peoples of the world.  Yahweh is both judge and plaintiff.  His “holy temple” is, as in Psalm 11 verse 4, his heavenly temple of which the earthly temple is, we might say, a vastly scaled-down replica.  Here is no ghetto deity, no mere provincial “lordlet” of a chunk of Near-Eastern real estate.  Here is the Lord of all the earth summoning all the peoples of the earth to hear his case against them.  First off, the reader gets hit between the eyes with how big Micah’s God is – “he will judge the world.”

“For behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.   And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.”

Yahweh is not only the witness who accuses but the judge who comes.  That’s how Micah depicts the Lord here.  His picture implies that Yahweh is neither distant (verse 3) nor safe (verse 4).  He is not removed, not off somewhere in the nether reaches of the universe; rather he comes forth, comes down, treads (verse 3).  When he comes the world seems to fall apart (verse 4).

If mountains melt and valleys are torn up, if everything turns to hot wax or plunging water, we have got devastation on our hands.  Micah uses such graphic language to generate a proper fear of Yahweh.  This is the advent of the Lord of all the earth.  Micah wants us to tremble.

“For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel.  What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?”

Micah gives us the reason for the Lord’s coming 2 phrases.  Yahweh is coming in judgment because of, or on account of the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel.  In the last 2 lines of verse 5 Micah specifies that the whole covenant people stands guilty; both the northern kingdom (Samaria) and the southern (Jerusalem) are hotbeds of rebellion and sin. They are the leading source or centre of corruption (perhaps pointing to the leadership of both nations in particular).  “High places” were cult shrines where idolatrous and/or deviant worship was conducted.  By equating Jerusalem with the high places of Judah, Micah implies that Jerusalem itself is one huge high place where such illegitimate worship goes on.

Micah slams his literary fist right into the solar plexus of his hearers.  In verses 2 to 4 Micah is preaching doctrine that his hearers accept without question: Yahweh is coming to judge the world.  The corollary of this doctrine is that when the nations are judged Israel will be delivered  Just as folk are tempted to say “Amen” to Micah’s preaching, he delivers the withering punchline: “All this” – all this fury and terror of the Lord’s coming in judgment – is “because of the rebellion of Jacob”; it’s for the depravity of Samaria and Jerusalem, the covenant people.  Prophets knew how to do this.  In verses 2 to 4 he preaches the doctrine they love, the Lord’s coming and in verse 5 he adds “and this is very bad news for you?”  Micah demonstrates that one can be Yahweh’s prophet and a clever communicator at the same time.

Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field and as plantings of a vineyard and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.  And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

Here Yahweh himself speaks (I will make Samaria as an heap) and proclaims a double devastation, for both the site (verse 6) and the religion of the city (verse 7).

Samaria had been the pet project of kings Omri (880 BC)and Ahab.  It sat on an oval hilltop 300 feet high isolated from the hills around it (except to the east), beside the ridge road running north-south, 40 miles north of Jerusalem and 25 east of the Mediterranean – an excellent defensive position, on the whole.

Yahweh will turn Samaria into a heap of ruins, with the slopes of its hill useful at least for viticulture; such slopes were prime locations for vineyards.  Yahweh will heave the stones of her walls and/or buildings into the valley below. 

Verse 7 depicts how Yahweh will eradicate the religion of Samaria – indeed, that of the northern kingdom.  Yahweh will be venting his anger on their defiance of the first and second commandments; he does not chide them for failure to institute an urban renewal programme.

We wonder how “the hire of an harlot” can appear as a parallel term with “graven images” and “idols”.  This may be an allusion to “sacred prostitution” and fertility rites which permeated popular religion.  A worshipper comes to the shrine, pays a fee for the services of one of the “holy whores” on the staff and engages with her in his “act of devotion”.  Such fees may have been collected and used to purchase more images and idols.  Burning the prostitutes’ wages with fire may refer, then, to burning what those wages purchased – namely, more images and pagan paraphernalia.

“and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.”  Perhaps the idea is that Samaria’s conquerors will plunder the accrued funds of Samaria ‘s shrines, take them home (to Assyria?) and use them to make more images for worshipping their false gods.  Or it may be simpler than that: the soldiers who plunder Samaria’s chapels will use their loot to buy a night in a girl’s bed.

“Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.  For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah, he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.”

Here is Micah’s own reaction to is prophecy and the reason for that reaction.  He gives us both the audio (“I will wail and howl”) and the visual (“I will go stripped and naked”) versions of his response.  His are not the quiet tears deemed appropriate in the West; his anguish is of the Near-Eastern, ear-splitting variety.

Going “stripped naked” may be associated with grief, but also fits the description of a captive of war who is being carted off to an unknown land.  Perhaps Micah is suggesting that he is ready to act the part of an Israelite captive suffering under an Assyrian “relocation programme.”

Why is Micah’s reaction so extreme? “For her wound is incurable”.  There is no “fix” for Samaria, no recovery; she is too far gone and can expect only the blows of Yahweh’s judgement.  But his anguish is aggravated because those “wounds” (perhaps both her sinfulness and Yahweh’s judgement) are infectious – it has all “come unto Judah”.  Micah’s own people will be ploughed under the furrows of history.

APPLICATION

This passage depicts the dark side of the gospel truth,  Micah begins by proclaiming “gospel doctrine” that his people would gladly accept; the Lord is coming to judge the world; then he turns that doctrine on them.  The Lord will “come” in judgement on his own professing people.  They approve of the doctrine, but are oblivious to the danger.  Matters can be much the same today; you may be outwardly one of God’s Jesus – you may even have definite views about his coming – and yet have no part in the blessing of that coming.  Jesus himself has warned us that just because we have been on the ‘Jesus’ bandwagon is no indication that we have a place in his kingdom.

This passage also shows us the deep anguish of God’s servant.  Micah is beside himself with grief over the catastrophe coming on Samaria and Jerusalem.  Think what this shows us about a (true) prophet.  A prophet is a man who fearlessly threatens God’s people with God’s judgement and stands against them – and then goes home and weeps shamelessly over the judgement because he cares so much for the people who are to be judged.  And can we not see in Micah one greater than Micah?  Doesn’t the prophet Jesus respond in the same way to the judgement that is coming on Jerusalem? Those who had closed their ears and eyes and hearts to him will receive what they deserve – and Jesus sobs over it. 

“I think he will weep over the lost as he did over Jerusalem.  It will be something to be said for ever in heaven, “Jesus wept as he said, Depart, ye cursed.”  But then it was absolutely necessary to say it.” Andrew Bonar.