A psalm of David, to bring to remembrance
38
📚 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your wrath or discipline me
in your hot displeasure.
2 📚For your arrows pierce me,
and your hand presses me down.
3 📚There is no soundness 📖
in my flesh because
of your anger;
nor is there any rest
in my bones
because of my sin.
4 📚For my sins have gone
over my head;
like a heavy burden they are
too heavy for me.
38:4 This is true of every single person, but not every one is aware of it as David was.⚜
5 📚My wounds stink and
are corrupt because
of my foolishness.
6 📚I am troubled;
I am bowed down greatly;
I go about mourning
all day long.
38:6,8 The conviction of sin is a very painful experience (vs 17,18; Ps 32:3-4).⚜
7 📚For my loins are filled
with a burning pain,
and there is no
soundness in my flesh.
8 📚I am feeble and utterly
crushed.
I groan because of the roaring
of my heart.
9 📚Lord, all my desire is
before you,
and my sighing is not hidden
from you.
10 📚My heart pants, my strength
fails me.
As for the light of my eyes,
it also has gone from me.
11 📚My loved ones and my friends
stand aloof from my disease,
and my kinsmen stand
at a distance.
38:1-11 This is one of the “penitential” Psalms – that is, Psalms of mourning over personal sins. Others are 6,31,32,51. Here David writes of the sickness of his body, the distress of his mind, and the neglect of his friends. He traces the cause of all this to his own sin, and instead of vain murmuring and complaining about his lot, he makes confession and opens his heart to God. Surely a good example to all of us. This portion is similar to Ps 6; 31:9-12; 102:3-11.⚜
12 📚Also those who seek my life
lay snares for me,
and those who seek my harm
speak of my destruction
and devise deceitful
things all day long.
38:12 When the righteous fall their enemies try to get in a kick at them, and rejoice at their misery (v 16).⚜
13 📚But I, like a deaf man,
do not listen,
like a mute who does not
open his mouth.
14 📚So I am like a man
who does not hear,
and in whose mouth are
no replies.
38:13-14 Unlike Job (before God came to him at the end) David cannot say a word in his own defense – he is conscious that he has sinned and that he deserves everything that has come on him.⚜
15 📚For in you, O LORD, I hope.
You will hear, O Lord my God.
38:15 He is submissive to God and waits for God’s time and God’s way to bring him out of his trouble and anguish. He knows full well that all that has happened to him is his own fault. And he has confessed his sin. Now he is confident that God will give him victory again.⚜
16 📚For I said, “Hear me,
or they will rejoice against me,
when my foot slips;
they will exalt themselves
over me”.
17 📚For I am about to fall,
and my sorrow is
continually before me.
18 📚For I will declare my guilt;
I will be sorry for my sin.
19 📚But my enemies are lively,
and they are strong,
and those who hate me
wrongfully have
increased in number.
20 📚And those who repay evil
for good are my adversaries,
because I follow what is good.
38:20 Though he has spoken of his enormous sin in v 4, here he speaks of seeking to do good. He means that he refuses to remain in his sin. He resolves to forsake it completely. Without this desire and intention confession is vain. He means too that the whole trend of his life is doing good, that his sin was a deviation, an aberration. Sheep do not remain in the mire and wallow like pigs.⚜
21 📚Do not forsake me,
O LORD.
O my God, do not be far
from me.
22 📚Come quickly to help me,
O Lord, my salvation.
38:21-22 Such prayers from a penitent heart are like music in God’s ears.⚜