The Psalms

Psalm 38

David moves God to take compassion on his pitiful case, 1-22.

1 [A Psalm of David: to bring to remembrance.]

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your wrath,/
neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.

2  For your arrows stick firmly in me/
and your hand falls heavy upon me.

3  There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger,/
neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

4  For my iniquities have gone over my head./
As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

5  My wounds are offensive and are corrupt/
because of my foolishness.

6  I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly./
I go mourning all the day long.

7  For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease,/
and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8  I am feeble and grievously broken./
I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

9  Lord, all my desire is before you,/
and my groaning is not hid from you.

10 My heart pants. My strength fails me./
As for the light of my eyes, that also is gone from me.

11 My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my affliction,/
and my kinsmen stand afar off.

12 Those who also seek after my life lay snares for me./
And those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things/
and plot deceits all the day long.

13 But I, as a deaf man, did not hear./
And I was as a mute man who does not open his mouth.

14 Thus I was as a man who does not hear,/
and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

15 For in you, O LORD, I hope./
You will hear, O Lord my God.

16 For I said, "Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me./
When my foot slips, they magnify themselves against me."

17 For I am ready to fall,/
and my sorrow is continually before me.

18 For I will declare my iniquity./
I will be sorry for my sin.

19 But my enemies are lively and they are strong,/
and those who hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

20 Those who also render evil for good/
are my adversaries because I follow the thing that is good.

21 Do not forsake me, O LORD./
O my God, do not be far from me.

22 Make haste to help me,/
O Lord my salvation.

Commentary

Matthew Henry Commentary - Psalms, Chapter 38[➚]

Notes

John Calvin's Chapter Summary:

David, suffering under some severe and dangerous malady, as may be conjectured, acknowledges that he is chastened by the Lord, and entreats him to turn away his anger from him. In order the more effectually to induce God to have mercy upon him, he bewails before him the severity of his afflictions in a variety of particulars. These we shall consider separately, and in order.

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