Psalm 38:7

7 verumtamen in imagine pertransit homo sed et frustra conturbatur thesaurizat et ignorat cui congregabit ea

Psalm 38:7 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 38:7

For my loins are filled with a loathsome [disease]
The word here used has the signification of burning ^F11; and the Targum renders it, "my loins are filled with burning"; a burning fever was upon him, or there was an inflammation in those parts; a hot burning ulcer, which might be nauseous; and so was true in both senses. Aben Ezra interprets it abominable and vile; something not fit to be mentioned; and so Kimchi and Ben Melech. The word is rendered sometimes "lightly esteemed"; as in ( 1 Samuel 18:23 ) ; and Jarchi thinks it has this sense here; and the meaning is, that he was vile in his own eyes, and mean in his own esteem. Doubtless the psalmist has reference to something more than a bodily disease; at least not to that only, but to the disease of his soul also, sin, which has the nature of a disease; it is an hereditary one, which is derived from one to another by propagation; it is universal, and reaches to all men, and to all the parts of the body and powers of the soul; it is a complication of disorders: it is in its own nature mortal, and ever incurable but by Christ; and, as here, it is a loathsome one; it is loathsome to God, and to all sensible sinners: and when the psalmist says his loins were filled with it, it may signify that it was an internal disorder that was in him; sin that dwelt in him, a law in his members; and may denote the aboundings of sin in him, the swarms of corruptions that were in him; as also the pain it gave him, and the quick sense he had of it;

and [there is] no soundness in my flesh:
which is repeated, see ( Psalms 38:3 ) ; partly for confirmation's sake, and partly to show the continued sense of it, as persons under a disorder are continually making mention of it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 R. Joseph Kimchi & Abendana (hlqn) "ardore", Pagninus, Vatablus; "ardens ulcus", Musculus, so some in Vatablus; "tostione", Piscator; "adustione", Gejerus; so the Targum; "adusto", Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 742.

Psalm 38:7 In-Context

5 locutus sum in lingua mea notum fac mihi Domine finem meum et numerum dierum meorum quis est ut sciam quid desit mihi

6 ecce mensurabiles posuisti dies meos et substantia mea tamquam nihilum ante te verumtamen universa vanitas omnis homo vivens diapsalma

7 verumtamen in imagine pertransit homo sed et frustra conturbatur thesaurizat et ignorat cui congregabit ea

8 et nunc quae est expectatio mea nonne Dominus et substantia mea apud te est

9 ab omnibus iniquitatibus meis erue me obprobrium insipienti dedisti me