"Now draw together the weight of feelings in this psalm, and you will see that it cannot be heard without many tears. (1) Everyone who has been rebuked is afraid that the wrath of God is upon him. This fear makes him very uneasy and seems long, and therefore he prays “not to be rebuked in anger,” but in mercy, that is, that this very thing that was mentioned be done to him. (2) He is afraid he will be chastised without fruit while there is only wrath. Therefore he sighs the same prayer because of these two, for it is hard to be struck by one who is angry and to be struck only in a punitive way without constructive result. (3) He is “weak” and unable to withstand or repel these. (4) He cannot easily bear it. And these again are two burdens, namely, that he cannot escape them, and yet cannot bear them either. Therefore he calls himself “weak” and says that his “bones are troubled.” (5) His soul is not only “troubled” because of these, something that happens with all of them, but it is by itself troubled also through its own suffering, and that exceedingly. (6) This fear and excessive trembling seems endless to everyone who experiences it. Therefore he says, “How long?” This delay is an intensification of all those other woes. (7) He says “Turn” because the Lord’s being turned away is cause for weeping. (8) So that the “mercy” of God may not be lost but be glorified, there is here again another kind of feeling of love to God and of worship. (9) “For in death there is no one who remembers Thee,” that is, “who will promote Thy fame before others.” (10) “In Sheol there is no one to confess,” even if he were to “remember Him,” but rather he utters curses. This is a remarkable verse, that the saints dread blasphemy of God more than hell. Thus someone prayed that if he were damned, he would nevertheless praise and glorify God. Therefore he does not say here, “Lest I be in hell,” but, “Lest there be no remembrance of Him,” which is what happens in hell. And not for this reason, that it is hell, does he pray that he may not come to hell, but for the reason that there is no praise of God there. Therefore he prays that his body may be saved from death and his soul from hell. (11) “He has toiled in his groaning” in a singular way. (12) “He washes his bed every night, etc.” (13) He “waters his couch with his own tears.” (14) He abhors his sins [because those which agitate him are great] with a holy and intensive “rage.” (15) All afflict him, and he is alone among them all."
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