Psalms 38:1-6

Psalm 38

1

A psalm of David. For the memorial offering.

1 Please, LORD, don't punish me when you are mad; don't discipline me when you are furious.
2 Your arrows have pierced me; your fist has come down hard on me.
3 There's nothing in my body that isn't broken because of your rage; there's no health in my bones because of my sin.
4 My wrongdoings are stacked higher than my head; they are a weight that's way too heavy for me.
5 My wounds reek; they are all infected because of my stupidity.
6 I am hunched over, completely down; I wander around all day long, sad.

Psalms 38:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 38

\\<>\\. This psalm was composed by David under some sore affliction, and when in great distress of mind by reason of sin, perhaps his sin with Bathsheba; and was written as a memorial of his sense of sin, of his great afflictions, and deliverance from them; and therefore is said to be "to bring to remembrance", or to refresh his memory with the said things. Kimchi and Ben Melech think the psalm was made for the sake of such as are in distress, to put them in mind and teach them how to pray. The Targum calls the psalm, ``a good remembrance concerning Israel;'' and Jarchi says it was to remember the distress of Israel before the Lord, and that it is said with respect to all Israel; though others think the word "lehazcir" is the name of a psalm tune; and Aben Ezra was of opinion that it was the first word of some pleasant poem. The Septuagint version adds, ``concerning the sabbath,'' as if it was wrote to put persons in mind of that day; whereas there is nothing in the whole psalm that has any such tendency.

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