Psalms 6:6

"I am weary with my groaning:

Every night make I my bed to swim;

I water my couch with my tears.

Mine eye wasteth away because of grief;

It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries."

Here we have a classical example of Biblical hyperbole. exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis, as for example, when someone says, "We had a party and everyone came! Did everyone come? Certainly not; but the statement is a legitimate hyperbole, as is the passage before us.

Such tears and grief were ample evidence of David's repentance of the sin that had caused God's displeasure. One does not often see in these days actual tears of repentance; and yet that does not mean that there is any shortage of actual repentance. As Spurgeon once said, quoting a writer named Watson, "It is not so much the weeping eye that God respects as the broken heart."[7]

Nevertheless, genuine sorrow for sin is a vital part of repentance. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance" (2 Corinthians 7:10); and one who has never shed a tear because of his sins might indeed wonder if he ever truly repented.

In respect to the Penitential Psalms, it is recorded of Augustine that in his last sickness he ordered these Psalms to be inscribed in a visible place on a wall in his chamber, where he might fix his eyes and heart upon them, and make their words his own in the breathing out of his soul to God.[8]

There is an abrupt, dramatic change in the tone of this Psalm beginning with verse 8 (below).