Psalm 6 is a particularly troubled psalm, describing the torments and anguish which overcome the speaker. He fears that the Lord is angry with him, and feels weak and sorely troubled. He fears death also, because it will give no opportunity to remember or to thank the Lord. He can only groan, and weeps through the night.

Then, suddenly, the tone of the psalm changes; the speaker tells all evils to depart from him, for the Lord has heard his voice.

This psalm addresses intense grief, in this case stemming from fear that the very God we worship has abandoned us. The speaker’s anxiety surrounding death refers to death in a spiritual sense. Spiritual life ceases when the Lord is altogether forgotten, and we do not renew ourselves by thanking Him (see Swedenborg’s work, Arcana Caelestia 10363).

Verse 3 is a cry of desperation: “O Lord, how long?” When we sink into such a despondent state, it is easy to wonder why the Lord would allow us to suffer. However, the speaker has come to the Lord for deliverance, and in time, he feels that his enemies can be dismissed as powerless. The Lord will deliver us when we see the damage caused by our grieving, and we want to bring it to an end. To do that, we must bring ourselves back to the Lord, who is always waiting to release us and build us up (see Swedenborg’s work, Divine Love and Wisdom 130).