The Bone Doctor

Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am frail; heal me, Lord, for my bones are horrified.  Psalm 6:2 NASB

Horrified – Have you ever felt that your bones are horrified?  Broken, maybe.  Frail, yes.  Aching, okay.  But “horrified”?  What does that mean?  What does that feel like?  This is an idea we need to understand, especially when it’s used again in the next verse: And my soul is greatly horrified.  We might be able to make sense of this verse.  A horrified soul might be a description of overall trauma since “soul” is better translated “person.”  But how can the same word be applied to bones?

The Hebrew word is bāhal.  Its use in other texts has little to do with orthopedics.

The verb bāhal occurs fifty times, eleven of which are in the Aramaic section of Daniel with similar meaning. Synonyms are ḥārad “tremble, be afraid,” pāḥad “be afraid,” and yāgōr a general word meaning “to fear.” yārēʾrefers to a reverential fear. bāhal usually expresses an emotion of one who is confronted with something unexpected, threatening or disastrous^[1]

Now it makes sense.  “My bones are trembling.”  In other words, David is describing something that is so unexpectedly terrifying that it makes his bones shake.  That’s how it is understood in the next verse: “My whole being is greatly disturbed.”  It’s the translation that fails to capture the real meaning.  But now that we know what bāhal means, another question arises.  If bāhal is unexpected terror, then what is it that makes David shake?  Bāhal is sometimes used to describe the fear that results from confrontation with the divine.  In these circumstances, we can understand bāhal as “trembling awe.”  Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the temple is a perfect example.  When God truly reveals Himself to us, we are afraid to the core.  That doesn’t seem to be the case here.  Let’s see if we can determine what this unanticipated event is that caused David’s bones to shake.

Psalm 6 is about David’s fright before his enemies.  Since bāhal is used three times in this psalm, we can imagine that the threat from his enemies was not anticipated.  He suddenly discovered, much to his dismay, that someone intended him harm.  In fact, with bāhal we might suggest that this sudden realization exposed an enemy within the gates.  Someone close, someone he considered loyal, someone he loved has now been revealed as an enemy.  I suggest that this poem is about David’s realization of betrayal.  Perhaps even the betrayal of a dearly loved son.  That would shake anyone to the core.

We have a tendency to treat David’s emotional poems as if they always involve pleas for forgiveness after recognition of sins.  We think of David as a man who acknowledged the depth of his sins and beseeched God to heal him.  But perhaps we need to broaden our scope.  Many psalms were written in times of emotional turmoil, not always caused by sinful behavior.  The vicissitudes of life are reflected in these poems, changes of circumstance that we all experience.  What shakes us more than betrayal?  What drives us to ask for divine healing more than the wounds caused by someone we love?  This poem might be about David’s discovery of treachery but it isn’t just David’s experience.  It’s ours—and that’s why this poem is so important.

Topical Index: bāhal, unexpected terror, betrayal, Psalm 6:2