Psalms 38:11-21

11 My loved ones and friends stand back from my affliction, and my relatives stand at a distance.
12 Those who seek my life set traps, and those who want to harm me threaten to destroy me; they plot treachery all day long.
13 I am like a deaf person; I do not hear. I am like a speechless person who does not open his mouth.
14 I am like a man who does not hear and has no arguments in his mouth.
15 I put my hope in You, Lord; You will answer, Lord my God.
16 For I said, "Don't let them rejoice over me- those who are arrogant toward me when I stumble."
17 For I am about to fall, and my pain is constantly with me.
18 So I confess my guilt; I am anxious because of my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous and powerful;[a] many hate me for no reason.
20 Those who repay evil for good attack me for pursuing good.
21 Lord, do not abandon me; my God, do not be far from me.

Psalms 38:11-21 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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