Psalm 38
22 verses · Penitential psalm
My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.
Introduction
David, the Sick Man's Confession, Book 1: The book of David, Poetry, Psalms Overview.
David wrote this psalm in a severe illness that he traced to his own sin, and its title adds a direction for worship, to bring to remembrance. It was written for Israelites sick enough to be avoided and guilty enough to know why. The psalm speaks from inside the sickroom, with friends staying away and enemies gathering. It confesses real sin and reports real injustice side by side, and leaves both standing. Listen for the speaker's chosen silence before his accusers, and for the last word of the psalm, which names God as the one who saves.
Context
- Who
- Israelites sick enough to be avoided, and guilty enough to know why
- What
- A penitential prayer from a sickbed that confesses sin and reports injustice in the same breath.
- Where
- A sickroom, with friends keeping their distance and enemies gathering outside it
- When
- The reign of David, about 1010 to 970 BC by the superscription, which names no event.
- Why
- To give a sick man a way to pray while the illness lasted, owning his fault without accepting his neighbours' verdict.
Historical context
The psalm is David's by its title, and the title adds a liturgical direction, to bring to remembrance. The illness is described in detail: wounds that are foul and festering, loins full of burning, a pounding heart, spent strength, and the light of the eyes gone. A disease that made a man unclean put him outside the camp and outside ordinary contact. Friends and kinsmen standing far off were doing what the law required as well as what fear suggested. Verses 13 and 14 describe a chosen silence, a man answering like one who is deaf and has no reply in his mouth. In a culture where a charge was answered publicly or not at all, keeping silent meant letting the charge stand. The psalm's last Hebrew word is salvation, which is where the Berean's my Savior comes from.
Significance
For the first hearers the psalm did something unusual. It confessed real sin at verse 18 and reported real injustice at verses 19 and 20, in consecutive lines, without resolving one into the other. It gave a sick man a way to pray that neither denied his fault nor accepted his neighbours' verdict. It ended with a request, so it could be prayed while the illness lasted.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Rashi reads this psalm as a prayer given to the whole people for a time of trouble, and he says so on its heading:
A song of David, to make remembrance To recite it in time of distress, to make remembrance of the distress of Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He, and he recited it as relating to all Israel. (Rashi on Psalms 38:1:1)
That decides the rest. The sickness and the sores of the psalm become the state of Israel among the nations, and the silence of the sufferer becomes the silence of a people under reproach:
But I am as a deaf person Israel hears their reproach from the nations but does not respond. Why? Because I hoped for You, O Lord, that You would redeem me and save me from them. (Rashi on Psalms 38:14:1)
He reads the readiness for disaster of the eighteenth line as the habit of a people long used to blows, at Rashi on Psalms 38:18:1, and the friends who stand off as men who kept company in the good times, at Rashi on Psalms 38:12:1. The longest comment in the chapter, at Rashi on Psalms 38:3:1, is a grammatical argument about the letter dropped from the word for shot, which shows the kind of work a Jewish commentary does before it reaches any doctrine. The church reads this psalm as the third of its seven penitential psalms, which is a Christian grouping and stands apart from this reading. This site carries the seven at /featured/the-penitential-psalms. Ibn Ezra stands on this chapter at Ibn Ezra on Psalms 38:1:1, 38:2:1, 38:6:1, 38:15:1, 38:16:1, 38:22:1 and 38:23:1, and Sefaria holds no English version of those references, so this card cites them without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records 40 places where the rabbinic literature takes up a line of this psalm, 37 of them in the Midrash. The Midrash on the Psalms treats it at Midrash Tehillim 138:1, 38:1, 6:2, 36:5 and 31:6. Midrash Lekach Tov takes it up at Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 7:14:1, Exodus 12:9:2, Exodus 19:12:4, Genesis 21:23:1 and Genesis 26:26:3, Midrash Sekhel Tov at Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 12:9:3, Shemot 6:21:2 and Bereshit 26:26:5 and Aggadat Bereshit at Aggadat Bereshit 22:2, 31:2 and 70:2. The Talmud takes up lines of the psalm at Gittin 70a:19, Chagigah 2b:5 and Gittin 71a:4. Each is a locator, so the saying stands at its reference and is read there.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Psalms, in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, under a CC-BY licence; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Psalms, cited at Ibn Ezra on Psalms 38:1:1, 38:2:1, 38:6:1, 38:15:1, 38:16:1, 38:22:1 and 38:23:1; Midrash Tehillim, the Midrash on the Psalms, cited at Midrash Tehillim 138:1, 38:1, 6:2, 36:5 and 31:6; The Talmud, cited at Gittin 70a:19, Chagigah 2b:5 and Gittin 71a:4; MannaFest, the penitential psalms, at /featured/the-penitential-psalms, 2026; MannaFest, the Sefaria corpus at scripts/data/sources/sefaria/psalms/38.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
Psalms 38:1-4
rebuke me in Your anger: The psalm opens asking that the discipline not come in anger or wrath. The arrows and the pressing hand are God's own, and the sickness in body and bones is traced to sin. The iniquities are a burden too heavy to bear.
Psalms 38:1
“O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath. Rebuked I must be, for I am an erring child and thou a careful Father, but throw not too much anger into the tones of thy voice; deal gently although I have sinned grievously. The anger of others I can bear, but not thine. As thy love is most sweet to my heart, so thy displeasure is most cutting to my conscience. Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Your arrows have pierced me deeply: Albert Barnes notes that one Hebrew verb, meaning to come down, stands behind both pierced and pressed down. Arrows and hand alike fall on him from above. Ambrose set the verse beside Job 6:4 and heard David mourning wounds of the soul where Job mourned wounds of the body.
Psalms 38:2
“For thine arrows stick fast in me. By this he means both bodily and spiritual griefs, but we may suppose, especially the latter, for these are most piercing and stick the fastest. God's law applied by the Spirit to the conviction of the soul of sin, wounds deeply and rankles long; it is an arrow not lightly to be brushed out by careless mirthfulness, or to be extracted by the flattering hand of self righteousness. The Lord knows how to shoot so that his bolts not only strike but stick.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 38:2
“He shows that he was constrained by dire necessity to ask an alleviation of his misery; for he was crushed under the weight of the burden which he sustained. This rule is always to be observed in our prayers -- to keep God's promises present to our view. But God has promised that he will chastise his servants, not according to their deserts, but as they are able to bear.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
no soundness in my body: The verse gives two causes, Your anger and my sin. Matthew Henry held that when trouble comes from God's anger, the sufferer's own sin is its cause. Albert Barnes takes soundness, a word Isaiah 1:6 uses again, to mean no part of the body was free of disease.
Psalms 38:3
“There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger. Mental depression tells upon the bodily frame; it is enough to create and foster every disease, and is in itself the most painful of all diseases. Soul sickness tells upon the entire frame; it weakens the body, and then bodily weakness reacts upon the mind. One drop of divine anger sets the whole of our blood boiling with misery. Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. Deeper still the malady penetrates, till the bones, the more solid parts of the system, are affected.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
my iniquities have overwhelmed me: Adam Clarke pictured a man sinking in deep waters, the sins closing over him. Albert Barnes saw the sins heaped up like waves until they rose above the head, many in number and heavy in guilt. He compared Psalm 40:12, which dwells on their number.
Psalms 38:4
“For mine iniquities are gone over mine head. Like waves of the deep sea; like black mire in which a man utterly sinks. Above my hopes, my strength, my life itself, my sin rises in its terror. Unawakened sinners think their sins to be mere shallows, but when conscience is aroused they find out the depth of iniquity. As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. It is well when sin is an intolerable load, and when the remembrance of our sins burdens us beyond endurance.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Psalms 38:5-8
foul and festering: The wounds are foul and festering, and the cause given is his own sinful folly. Gill notes the word behind the pain in the loins carries the sense of burning. He is bent, brought low, and mourning all day long.
Psalms 38:5
“My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Apply this to the body, and it pictures a sad condition of disease; but read it of the soul, and it is to the life. Conscience lays on stripe after stripe till the swelling becomes a wound and suppurates, and the corruption within grows offensive. What a horrible creature man appears to be in his own consciousness when his depravity and vileness are fully opened up by the law of God, applied by the Holy Spirit!”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 38:5
“The loathsomeness, corruption, and wasting torture of severe physical disease set forth his mental anguish [Ps 38:6]. It is possible some bodily disease was connected. The loins are the seat of strength.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I am bent and brought low: Albert Barnes notes the Hebrew verb for bent means to curve or writhe in pain. Isaiah 21:3 uses the same word for anguish like a woman's labor. Charles Spurgeon pictured him going about like a mourner who follows a body to the tomb.
my loins are full of burning pain: Spurgeon noted that the second line repeats verse 3. Albert Barnes places the loins at the muscles near the kidneys and reads the phrase as an inflammation there. John Wesley read a burning fever and kept to the literal sense, which he would leave only under necessity.
Psalms 38:7
“For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease —a hot, dry, parching disorder, probably accompanied by loathsome ulcers. Spiritually, the fire burns within when the evil of the heart is laid bare. Note the emphatic words, the evil is loathsome, it is in the loins, its seat is deep and vital—the man is filled with it. Those who have passed through the time of conviction understand all this. And there is no soundness in my flesh.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 38:7
“For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease,.... The word here used has the signification of burning (k); 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.”
Psalms 38:7
“Disease - The disease might be some burning fever, breaking forth outwardly in carbuncles, or boils. It is true, this and the other expressions may be taken figuratively, but we should not forsake the literal sense of the words without necessity.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
I am numb and badly crushed: After the burning of verse 7 comes cold. Albert Barnes notes the word for numb means cold or without warmth, and he compares Genesis 45:26. Charles Spurgeon saw a sick man tossed between heat and cold, and Barnes notes the word behind anguish means a roaring, as of the sea.
Psalms 38:8
“Herein David, in his sufferings, was a type of Christ, who, being in his agony, cried out, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. This is a sorer affliction than any other in this world; whatever God is pleased to lay upon us, we have no reason to complain as long as he preserves to us the use of our reason and the peace of our consciences.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Psalms 38:9-11
my every desire is before You: What has not been said aloud is already before God, the groaning included. The body keeps failing, a pounding heart, spent strength, and the light of the eyes faded. Friends and kinsmen keep their distance from the disease.
Psalms 38:9
“Lord, all my desire is before thee. If unuttered, yet perceived. Blessed be God, he reads the longings of our hearts; nothing can be hidden from him; what we cannot tell to him he perfectly understands. The psalmist is conscious that he has not exaggerated, and therefore appeals to heaven for a confirmation of his words. The good Physician understands the symptoms of our disease and sees the hidden evil which they reveal, hence our case is safe in his hands. And my groaning is not hid from thee.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
My heart pounds: Albert Barnes notes the verb behind pounds first meant to go around, as a trader travels, and so a heart racing about. Theodoret read the light of my eyes two ways, as deep gloom and as the loss of God's care.
Psalms 38:10
“David was famed for his courage and great exploits; and yet, when God contended with him by bodily sickness and the impressions of his wrath upon his mind, his hair is cut, his heart fails him, and he becomes weak as water. Therefore let not the strongman glory in his strength, nor any man set grief at defiance, however it may be thought at a distance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
my kinsmen stand at a distance: Albert Barnes notes the word for disease means a stroke, the word used for the blows God sends in Genesis 12:17 and Exodus 11:1. Adam Clarke said the friends counted him accursed and kept away for fear of catching the disease.
Psalms 38:11
“My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore. Whatever affection they might pretend to, they kept out of his company, lest as a sinking vessel often draws down boats with it, they might be made to suffer through his calamities. It is very hard when those who should be the first to come to the rescue, are the first to desert us. In times of deep soul trouble, even the most affectionate friends cannot enter into the sufferer's case; let them be as anxious as they may, the sores of a tender conscience they cannot bind up.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Psalms 38:12-14
seek my life lay snares: Snares are laid, and destruction and deceit run all day long. He answers like a deaf man and a mute man, with no reply in his mouth. Henry reads the silence as a man keeping close to God by prayer and silencing his own resentment.
Psalms 38:12
“They also that seek after my life,.... His avowed and implacable enemies, whom nothing would satisfy but the taking away of his life: these came too near him; for these, he says, lay snares for me, as Satan does for the souls of men, as the Jews did for Christ, and as wicked men do for the saints, Psa 124:7; and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things; to the injury of his character and reputation: and imagine deceits all the day long; contrive artful schemes to deceive; see Psa 35:20.”
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 38:12
“They also that seek after my life lay snares for me. Alas! for us when in addition to inward griefs, we are beset by outward temptations. David's foes endeavoured basely to ensnare him. If fair means would not overthrow him, foul should be tried. This snaring business is a vile one, the devil's own poachers alone condescend to it; but prayer to God will deliver us, for the craft of the entire college of tempters can be met and overcome by those who are led of the Spirit. They that seek my hurt speak mischievous things.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Psalms 38:12
People who cling to evil thoughts do not stand for truth but for falsehood. They do not stand for righteousness but for iniquity, because their tongue learns to speak lies. They have done evil, never pausing so that they could repent. Persevering with delight in wicked actions, they run to them without even looking back. They even tread underfoot the commandment about neighbors, and instead of loving them, they plot evil against them. As the ancient saint testifies, "Those who plot evil against me have spoken lies and plan treachery all day long."
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Festal Letters 9:4patristic
like a deaf man, I do not hear: The reason for the silence divides the commentators. John Gill saw patience, the silence Christ kept before His accusers in Matthew 27:12 and Isaiah 53:7. Adam Clarke heard a guilty man with no defense to make, and Charles Spurgeon allowed that he may have felt the truth of some charges.
Psalms 38:13
“But I, as a deaf man, heard not,.... He acted the part of a deaf man, and made as if he did not hear the mischievous things his enemies spoke; as Saul, when the sons of Belial spoke against him and despised him, 1Sa 10:27; and as our Lord when his enemies accused him, Mat 27:12; and I was as a dumb man, that openeth not his mouth; made no reply to what they said, and did not render railing for railing; in which Christ was the antitype of him, Isa 53:7.”
3 more voices on this verse
Psalms 38:13
“But I, as a deaf man, heard not. Well and bravely was this done. A sacred indifference to the slanders of malevolence is true courage and wise policy. It is well to be as if we could not hear or see. Perhaps the psalmist means that this deafness on his part was unavoidable because he had no power to answer the taunts of the cruel, but felt much of the truth of their ungenerous accusations. And I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Psalms 38:13
“The just person will want to conform his life to the image and likeness of Jesus, and though accused, he will be silent; if he is hurt, he will forgive. Wrongs done to him he will cover up, not opening his mouth. In this way he will be imitating him who like a lamb was led to the slaughter, never opening his mouth.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalmspatristic
Psalms 38:13
“Herein David was a type of Christ, who was as a sheep dumb before the shearer, and, when he was reviled, reviled not again; and both are examples to us not to render railing for railing. He kept close to his God by faith and prayer, and so both supported himself under these injuries and silenced his own resentments of them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
whose mouth offers no reply: Adam Clarke notes that the word behind reply belongs to the law court, the argument a man makes in his own defense. He stands like the accused in open court, silent. Augustine heard Christ in it, who had rebuked the Pharisees often yet kept silent in His Passion.
Psalms 38:14
“Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. He repeats the fact of his silence that we may note it, admire it, and imitate it. We have an advocate, and need not therefore plead our own cause. The Lord will rebuke our foes, for vengeance belongs to him; we may therefore wait patiently and find it our strength to sit still.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 38:14
“You should walk as one that is deaf and dumb and blind, so that, putting aside the contemplation of him who has been rightly chosen by you as your model of perfection, you should be like one who is blind and not see any of those things that you find to be unedifying. Nor should you be influenced by the authority or fashion of those who do these things and give yourself up to what is worse and what you formerly condemned.”
John Cassian · written before 435 · INSTITUTES 4:41patristic
Psalms 38:15-17
I wait for You: The silence of the verses before rests on this waiting for the LORD to answer. He asks to be heard before his enemies can gloat over a slipping foot. He is ready to fall, and the pain never leaves.
Psalms 38:15
“David committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, and so in patience was able to possess his soul. Hope in God's intervention, and belief in the power of prayer, are two most blessed stays to the soul in time of adversity. Turning right away from the creature to the sovereign Lord of all, and to him as our own covenant God, we shall find the richest solace in waiting upon him.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Albert Barnes takes this as the prayer verse 15 expected God to answer. Barnes hears a man afraid that a fall into sin would make his enemies' charges true. Charles Spurgeon saw the fear turned into an argument in prayer.
Psalms 38:16
“For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me. The good man was not insensible, he dreaded the sharp stings of taunting malice; he feared lest either by his conduct or his condition, he should give occasion to the wicked to triumph. This fear his earnest desires used as an argument in prayer as well as an incentive to prayer. When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
I am ready to fall: Albert Barnes notes the Hebrew word means to lean to one side and limp. Matthew Henry saw him wavering between religion and irreligion. Augustine and Theodoret read a text that has him ready for the scourge, and they took it as a sinner accepting his punishment.
Psalms 38:17
“For I am ready to halt. Like one who limps, or a person with tottering footsteps, in danger of falling. How well this befits us all. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." How small a thing will lame a Christian, how insignificant a stumbling block may cause him to fall! This passage refers to a weakness caused by pain and sorrow; the sufferer was ready to give up in despair; he was so depressed in spirit that he stumbled at a straw.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 38:17
“So here: I was ready to halt, ready to say, I have cleansed my hands in vain. His sorrow was continual: All the day long have I been plagued. ( Ps. lxxiii. 13, 14 ), and it was continually before him; he could not forbear poring upon it, and that made him almost ready to halt between religion and irreligion.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Psalms 38:18-20
I confess my iniquity: The confession is plain, the iniquity named and the sin grieved. Alongside it stand enemies who hate without cause and repay his good with evil. Both hold at once, a guilty man before God and a wronged man before his enemies.
Psalms 38:18
“For I will declare mine iniquity. The slander of his enemies he repudiates, but the accusations of his conscience he admits. Open confession is good for the soul. When sorrow leads to hearty and penitent acknowledgment of sin it is blessed sorrow, a thing to thank God for most devoutly. I will be sorry for my sin. My confession will be salted with briny tears. It is well not so much to bewail our sorrows as to denounce the sins which lie at the root of them.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 38:18
“Two things are required in repentance:-- (1.) Confession of sin: " I will declare my iniquity; I will not only in general own myself a sinner, but I will make a particular acknowledgment of what I have done amiss." We must declare our sins before God freely and fully, and with their aggravating circumstances, that we may give glory to God and take shame to ourselves.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Many are my enemies without cause: The Hebrew text reads that his enemies are living. Adam Clarke proposed changing one letter to read without cause, which matches the second line and Psalm 35:19, and the Berean follows that sense. Albert Barnes kept living and read the enemies as full of vigor while he lay near death.
Psalms 38:19
“But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong. However weak and dying the righteous man may be, the evils which oppose him are sure to be lively enough. Neither the world, the flesh, nor the devil, are ever afflicted with debility or inertness; this trinity if evils labour with mighty unremitting energy to overthrow us. If the devil were sick, or our lusts feeble, or Madame Bubble infirm, we might slacken prayer; but with such lively and vigorous enemies we must not cease to cry mightily unto our God. And they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
repay my good with evil: Albert Barnes takes the line to mean these enemies had once received his kindness, and he compares Psalm 35:12 to 16. Adam Clarke notes the Arabic adds a line about a beloved one pierced with nails, which Ambrose found in some Greek and Latin copies.
Psalms 38:20
“They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries. Such would a wise man wish his enemies to be. Why should we seek to be beloved of such graceless souls? It is a fine plea against our enemies when we can without injustice declare them to be like the devil, whose nature it is to render evil for good. Because I follow the thing that good is. If men hate us for this reason we may rejoice to bear it: their wrath is the unconscious homage which vice renders to virtue.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Psalms 38:21-22
Do not forsake me: Two petitions close the psalm, that God will not forsake him and will not stand far off. The help asked for is help that comes quickly. The psalm's last Hebrew word is salvation, and the Berean names the LORD his Savior.
Psalms 38:21
“Forsake me not, O Lord,.... Or continue not to forsake; for he seems to have been under divine desertion, and might be under apprehensions that God had utterly forsaken him; which he entreats he would not, though his friends had forsook him, and his own strength had failed and left him, Psa 38:10; O my God, be not far from me; as to his gracious presence, and with respect to help and deliverance, otherwise God is not far from any of his creatures, being omnipresent.”
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 38:21
“Forsake me not, O Lord. Now is the time I need thee most. When sickness, slander, and sin, all beset a saint, he requires the especial aid of heaven, and he shall have it too. He is afraid of nothing while God is with him, and God is with him evermore. Be not far from me. Withhold not the light of thy near and dear love. Reveal thyself to me. Stand at my side. Let me feel that though friendless besides, I have a most gracious and all sufficient friend in thee.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
Psalms 38:21
“He pleads, "Thou art my God, whom I serve, and on whom I depend to bear me out; and my salvation, who alone art able to save me, who hast engaged thyself by promise to save me, and from whom alone I expect salvation." Is any afflicted? let him thus pray, let him thus plead, let him thus hope, in singing this psalm.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Come quickly to help me: Charles Spurgeon heard in the closing name for God a salvation already held, and faith giving Him the glory before the answer comes. Albert Barnes saw the troubles of the psalm doing their intended work, driving the sufferer to God.
Psalms 38:22
“Make haste to help me. Delay would prove destruction. The poor pleader was far gone and ready to expire, only speedy help would serve his turn. See how sorrow quickens the importunity of prayer! Here is one of the sweet results of affliction, it gives new life to our pleading, and drives us with eagerness to our God. O Lord my salvation. Not my Saviour only, but my salvation. He who has the Lord on his side has salvation in present possession.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)Particular Baptist
How this psalm is built
The form: The third of the seven penitential psalms, a prayer of one under chastening, as Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The body, gone through part by part | The psalm inventories a man: flesh and bones at verse 3, wounds at verse 5, loins at verse 7, heart at verse 10, strength and the light of the eyes at verse 10. John Gill notes that the word behind the pain in the loins carries the sense of burning. Nothing is left out, and the completeness is the complaint.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Psalm 38:7. | Psalm 38:3, Psalm 38:5, Psalm 38:7, Psalm 38:10 |
| The deaf man and the mute man | At verses 13 and 14 he answers like a man who does not hear and a man who has no reply in his mouth. The silence is chosen. Matthew Henry reads it as a man keeping close to God in prayer and silencing his own resentment, and verse 15 gives the reason: the waiting is for the LORD to answer instead.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Psalm 38:12 to 14. | Psalm 38:13, Psalm 38:14, Psalm 38:15 |
| The arrows and the hand, both God's own | Verse 2 says the arrows have sunk into him and God's hand has pressed him down, so the psalm names God as the source of the trouble in its second line. The request of verse 1 is not that the discipline stop but that it not come in anger, which is the distinction the whole psalm rests on.Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, on Psalm 38:1. | Psalm 38:1, Psalm 38:2 |
| Three circles of distance | Verse 11 sets friends and companions away from his plague and kinsmen standing far off, and verses 12 and 19 put enemies in the space that is left. The people who should be near are absent and the people who should be absent are near, which is the psalm's social picture in one line.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms, 1832 to 1869, on Psalm 38:11. | Psalm 38:11, Psalm 38:12, Psalm 38:19 |
The pattern inside the psalm
6 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 11 stands close to the scene at the cross. Luke 23:49 records that all who knew Jesus stood at a distance watching, and the church has read this verse alongside it since the fathers, though the New Testament does not quote the psalm.
Inside the psalm the silence is the structural pivot. Verses 13 and 14 stop his mouth, verse 15 says why, and everything after verse 15 is addressed to God rather than about his enemies. A psalm that could have become a defence becomes a prayer at that hinge.
The psalm's vocabulary for sin and for sickness overlaps on purpose. Iniquities are a burden too heavy to bear at verse 4, wounds fester at verse 5, and the pain never leaves at verse 17. A reader cannot tell from the words alone whether a line is about the body or the guilt, which is the psalm's point.
Psalm 6 and Psalm 38 open in almost the same words, asking not to be rebuked in anger, and the two are read as a pair for that reason.
The debated concept
The psalm names sin as the cause of the illness at verses 3 to 5, and commentators divide on how far that reading may be carried. Matthew Henry holds that the psalm speaks of one man's case and gives no rule that sickness proves sin, and points to the enemies of verses 19 and 20 who hate without cause as the psalm's own guard against that conclusion. John Gill reads the connection as direct in this instance because the psalm states it. The Evidence Standard requires the claim be kept where the psalm puts it, a man reporting his own case, rather than generalised into a doctrine the text does not state.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms, 1832 to 1869, on Psalm 38, title; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2, 1870, on Psalm 38:13; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, on Psalm 38 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Psalm 38.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 38; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.
The painting
A Column of Oriental Travelers Scattered by a Dust Storm. William West, 1820-40. Wikimedia Commons. CC0.