Psalm 38:1-11

1 A psalm of David, serving as a reminder: ADONAI, don't rebuke me when you are angry or discipline me when you are enraged,

2 for your arrows penetrate me deeply, and your hand is pressing me down.

3 Your indignation left no part of me intact; my sin made my whole body sick;

4 for my iniquities loom high over my head as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.

5 I have stinking, festering wounds because of my foolishness.

6 I am bent down, prostrate completely; I go about mourning all day long.

7 For my insides burn with fever, and my whole body is sick.

8 I am numb, completely crushed; my anguished heart makes me groan aloud.

9 Adonai, all my longing is known to you; my sighing is not hidden from you.

10 My heart is throbbing, my strength is gone, and the light in my eyes has left me.

11 My friends and companions shun my disease; even the closest keep their distance.

Psalm 38:1-11 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.