Psalms 38 KJV
A Prayer of a Suffering Sinner
About This Psalm
David is crushed by guilt and physical suffering. No excuses, no blame-shifting - just raw confession and a plea for help.
1 LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
17 For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
19 But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.
21 Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.
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Did You Know?
The superscription's 'to bring to remembrance' (lehazkir) links the psalm to the memorial offering in Leviticus 2, suggesting possible use in temple rites where sin-induced affliction required public acknowledgment before God.
Its opening plea duplicates Psalm 6:1 verbatim, revealing a deliberate liturgical formula that multiple penitential laments employ to seek measured discipline instead of unbridled wrath.
The imagery of festering wounds and loins filled with burning parallels ancient Near Eastern descriptions of divine arrows as both judgment and diagnostic signs of hidden sin, without naming leprosy or any specific malady.
Though enemies scheme and companions withdraw, the psalm contains no imprecation against them, channeling all response through confession and silent waiting, a restraint uncommon among other individual laments.
Early Christian writers such as Augustine read the closing cry 'Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation' as foreshadowing Christ's forsaken agony, despite the psalm's explicit confession of personal guilt.