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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.

This living, ⁵⁸⁵⁸ Ainsworth reads, “are alive, or living;” “that is,” says he, “lively, lusty, cheerful, hale, and sound, or rich, as the word seemeth to mean in Ecclesiastes 6:8.” Dr Lowth, instead of חיים, chayim, living, proposes to read here חאנם, chinam, without cause — without cause have strengthened themselves. “I think,” says he, “חינם, here for חיים, is a remarkable instance of a reading merely conjectural, unsupported by any authority but that of the context, of the truth of which, no possible doubt can be made. Hare and Houbigant, and I suppose every other competent reader, has hit upon it. You see the two hemistichs are parallel and synonymous, word answering to word.” — Dr Lowth in Mr Merrick’s Note on this place. — Street and Dr Adam Clarke agree in this alteration. which he attributes to his enemies, implies as much as to enjoy continued and abundant prosperity in all things; and therefore he adds, that they are become strong and increase in power I interpret the word רבב, rabbab, in this place, increase in power, because he would speak improperly were he to be understood as saying, that they were multiplied. He does not here complain that they increased in number, but rather exalts their greatness, because the more they acquired of riches, they acquired so much the greater audacity in oppressing the good and the simple. He tells us that he is assailed by them wrongfully, and without cause, that he may induce God to be the more favorable and propitious to him. And surely, if we would have the favor of God for our defense, we must always take care not to injure any man, and to do nothing to provoke the hatred of any against us.

⁵⁸ Ainsworth reads, “are alive, or living;” “that is,” says he, “lively, lusty, cheerful, hale, and sound, or rich, as the word seemeth to mean in Ecclesiastes 6:8.” Dr Lowth, instead of חיים, chayim, living, proposes to read here חאנם, chinam, without cause — without cause have strengthened themselves. “I think,” says he, “חינם, here for חיים, is a remarkable instance of a reading merely conjectural, unsupported by any authority but that of the context, of the truth of which, no possible doubt can be made. Hare and Houbigant, and I suppose every other competent reader, has hit upon it. You see the two hemistichs are parallel and synonymous, word answering to word.” — Dr Lowth in Mr Merrick’s Note on this place. — Street and Dr Adam Clarke agree in this alteration.