Psalms 38:1-6

Prayer of a Suffering Sinner

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A Davidic psalm for remembrance.

1 Lord, do not punish me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.[a]
2 For Your arrows have sunk into me, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
3 There is no soundness in my body because of Your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
4 For my sins have flooded over my head; they are a burden too heavy for me to bear.
5 My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.
6 I am bent over and brought low; all day long I go around in mourning.

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.

Footnotes 1

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