Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 6:1

"O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger, Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure." — Psalms 6:1 (ASV)

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger - as if God was rebuking him through the affliction He was bringing upon him. This is the point on which the psalmist's attention is now fixed. He had apparently been contemplating his afflictions and inquiring into their cause. He was led to the conclusion that his suffering might be for his sins, and that his trials were to be interpreted as proof that God was angry with him. He speaks, therefore, of God as visiting him in His anger and in His hot displeasure, and pleads with Him that He would not thus rebuke and chasten him.

The word rebuke here, like the word rendered chasten, properly refers to the reproof of an offender by words, but may also be used to denote the reproof God administers by His providential dealings when He brings judgment upon anyone for his sins. This is the meaning here. The psalmist did not anticipate that God would openly reprove him for his sins; but he regarded God's dealings with him as such a reproof, and he pleads that the tokens of this reproof might be taken away. The whole language indicates a connection between suffering and sin—the feeling we have when afflicted that it must be on account of our sins.

Neither chasten me - This word denotes substantially the same thing and is used here in the sense of punishing.

In your hot displeasure - literally, in your heat. We speak of anger or wrath as burning or consuming. Compare Genesis 39:19; Numbers 11:33; Deuteronomy 11:17; Psalms 106:40; Job 19:11; Job 32:2–3; and Psalms 2:12.