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Psalm 38

A Penitent Sufferer’s Plea for Healing

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.

O L ord, do not rebuke me in your anger,

or discipline me in your wrath.

For your arrows have sunk into me,

and your hand has come down on me.

There is no soundness in my flesh

because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

because of my sin.

For my iniquities have gone over my head;

they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.

My wounds grow foul and fester

because of my foolishness;

I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;

all day long I go around mourning.

For my loins are filled with burning,

and there is no soundness in my flesh.

I am utterly spent and crushed;

I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

O Lord, all my longing is known to you;

my sighing is not hidden from you.

My heart throbs, my strength fails me;

as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.

My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,

and my neighbors stand far off.

Those who seek my life lay their snares;

those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin,

and meditate treachery all day long.

But I am like the deaf, I do not hear;

like the mute, who cannot speak.

Truly, I am like one who does not hear,

and in whose mouth is no retort.

But it is for you, O L ord, that I wait;

it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

For I pray, “Only do not let them rejoice over me,

those who boast against me when my foot slips.”

For I am ready to fall,

and my pain is ever with me.

I confess my iniquity;

I am sorry for my sin.

Those who are my foes without cause are mighty,

and many are those who hate me wrongfully.

Those who render me evil for good

are my adversaries because I follow after good.

Do not forsake me, O L ord;

O my God, do not be far from me;

make haste to help me,

O Lord, my salvation.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

11 My friends and my companions stand away from my sore Here David enumerates other circumstances to show the aggravated character of his misery, that he might excite the compassion of God. One of these is, that he finds no help or solace among men. In saying that his friends stand away from him, he means, that they cease from performing any of the offices of humanity towards him. This might happen either from pride or fear. If they withdrew from this poor afflicted man because they despised him, they were cruel and proud; and if they refused him their assistance for fear of being brought into odium, it was most unpardonable cowardice. But in the meantime, it augmented not a little the calamity of David, that even his friends and kinsfolk dared not to show any token of compassion towards him. It is, indeed, a very sore trial, when a man, who has had a great number of friends, comes to be abandoned by them all.

12 They also that sought for my life have laid snares for me, etc.. Here another circumstance is added, that the enemies of David laid snares for him, and talked about his destruction, and framed deceits among themselves. ⁵⁴⁵⁴ ”Et machine des finesses pour le surprendre.” — Fr. “And devised stratagems for ensnaring him.” The purport of what is stated is, that while his friends cowardly sit still and will do nothing to aid him, his enemies vigorously bestir themselves, and seek by every means to destroy him. He says that they seek his life, for as they were his deadly enemies and blood-thirsty men, they were not content with doing him some common injury, but furiously sought his destruction. He, however, here complains not so much that they assailed him by force of arms and with violence, as he accuses them of guileful conspiracy, which he designates in the first place metaphorically by the term snares, and afterwards adds in plain terms, that they talk about his destruction, and secretly consult among themselves how they might do him hurt. Now, as it is certain that David borrows not an artificial rhetoric from the bar, (as profane orators ⁵⁵⁵⁵ “Comme celles des orateurs profanes.” — Fr. do when they plead their cause,) in order to win the favor of God, but rather draws his arguments from the Word of God, the sentences which he here brings together for the confirmation of his faith we ought to appropriate to our own use. If we are altogether destitute of human aid and assistance, if our friends fail us in the time of need, and if others seek our ruin, and breathe out nothing but destruction against us, let us remember that it is not in vain for us to lay these things in prayer before God, whose province it is to succor those who are in misery, to take under his protection those who are perfidiously forsaken and betrayed, to restrain the wicked, and not only to withstand their violence, but also to anticipate their deceitful counsels and to frustrate their designs.

⁵⁴ ”Et machine des finesses pour le surprendre.” — Fr. “And devised stratagems for ensnaring him.”

⁵⁵ “Comme celles des orateurs profanes.” — Fr.