Psalms 38:6-16

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 sorely broken; I have groaned because of the disquiet of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desires are known to Thee; and my groaning is not hidden from Thee.
10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me; as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
11 My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off.
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me; and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and devise deceits all the day long.
13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in Thee, O LORD, do I hope; Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, "Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me; when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me."

Psalms 38:6-16 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.

Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.