Psalm 38:7-17

7 For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8 I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

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

10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction, and my neighbors stand far off.

12 Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin, and meditate treachery all day long.

13 But I am like the deaf, I do not hear; like the mute, who cannot speak.

14 Truly, I am like one who does not hear, and in whose mouth is no retort.

15 But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

16 For I pray, "Only do not let them rejoice over me, those who boast against me when my foot slips."

17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.

Psalm 38:7-17 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.