Psalm 38:9-15

9 O Lord, you know what I long for; you hear all my groans.

10 My heart is pounding, my strength is gone, and my eyes have lost their brightness.

11 My friends and neighbors will not come near me, because of my sores; even my family keeps away from me.

12 Those who want to kill me lay traps for me, and those who want to hurt me threaten to ruin me; they never stop plotting against me.

13 I am like the deaf and cannot hear, like the dumb and cannot speak.

14 I am like those who do not answer, because they cannot hear.

15 But I trust in you, O Lord; and you, O Lord my God, will answer me.

Psalm 38:9-15 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.