A PSALM OF DAVID. A petition.
1O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2For your arrows have pierced me,
and your hand has come down upon me.
3Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
4My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.
5My wounds fester and are loathsome
because of my sinful folly.
6I am bowed down and brought very low;
all day long I go about mourning.
7My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.
8I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.
9All my longings lie open before you, O Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
10My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.
11My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbors stay far away.
12Those who seek my life set their traps,
those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
all day long they plot deception.
13I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear,
like a mute, who cannot open his mouth;
14I have become like a man who does not hear,
whose mouth can offer no reply.
15I wait for you, O LORD;
you will answer, O Lord my God.
16For I said, “Do not let them gloat
or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
and my pain is ever with me.
18I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin.
19Many are those who are my vigorous enemies;
those who hate me without reason are numerous.
20Those who repay my good with evil
slander me when I pursue what is good.
21O LORD, do not forsake me;
be not far from me, O my God.
22Come quickly to help me,
O Lord my Savior.
Original Meaning
THIS PSALM IS a lament,1 a plea for deliverance from trouble—in this case, severe physical anguish and suffering that the psalmist acknowledges as the consequences of personal sin (38:3–4, 18). The debilitating suffering provides the occasion for attacks by his enemies, and even the psalmist’s friends and acquaintances are withdrawing their support (38:11–12). The psalm begins with an invocation of Yahweh to withdraw his physical rebuke (38:1–4); it continues with a narrative of the psalmist’s anguished suffering (38:5–20), twice punctuated by personal address to Yahweh (38:9, 15–16); and it concludes with a final plea for deliverance (38:21–22).
Because of its twenty-two verses, the psalm falls into that category that Craigie and Kraus have called “alphabetizing” psalms, although it shows no evidence of any acrostic pattern.2 Further, there is no suggestion of the traditional language or concerns of wisdom normally associated with the acrostic psalms.
The Heading (38:0)
IN ADDITION TO the familiar attribution to David,3 the heading includes the technical term lehazkir (“cause to remember”; NIV “a petition”), which also appears in the heading of Psalm 70. Delitzsch calls attention to 1 Chronicles 16:4, where Levitical singers are appointed by David to serve before the ark of the covenant “to make petition [lehazkir], to give thanks [lehodot], and to praise [lehallel] the LORD, the God of Israel.” These three terms relate clearly to major form-critical categories of psalms: lament, thanksgiving, and praise. Delitzsch further suggests that psalms such as 38 and 70 accompanied the memorial (Heb. ʾazkarah) sacrifice, in which a portion of the offering was burned on the altar, sending smoke into the heavens to recall the offerer to the mind of Yahweh.4 Our psalm, however, demonstrates little evidence of a cultic connection.
The Invocation of Yahweh (38:1–4)
VERSES 1–4 ESTABLISH the perspective and tone for the remainder of the composition. The psalmist experiences physical suffering as the rebuke of Yahweh for personal sin. He does not deny the assumed accusation but freely admits his guilt (38:3–4).
The affirming parallelism of the first two lines sets out the picture of Yahweh as teacher/instructor who “rebukes” (or “reproves, sets right”) and “disciplines” (or “teaches”) the psalmist. The setting is less the courtroom than the classroom, and Yahweh is less a judge than a teacher correcting a student. This nuance is important in that the description of divine discipline in the following verses is severe, but the underlying theme of instruction provides hope of ultimate improvement and deliverance.
From the psalmist’s view Yahweh is acting out of “anger” and “wrath,” regular terms used to describe the experience of God’s displeasure with human sin. However, the atmosphere of instruction fostered here provides a context that somewhat mitigates the harshness of divine anger/wrath by understanding it as a part of divine instruction.
The discipline God metes out is expressed in terms of an attack with “arrows.” Rather than a strictly military image, the arrow most likely represents the onset of a particularly virulent and painful physical ailment. The Canaanite god Resheph is known as an archer whose arrows bring pestilence.5 It may also be the pain, inflammation, and suffering associated with wounds from poisoned arrows that the psalmist has in mind.6 It is clear, in any case, that the psalmist understands this attack as from God, whose “hand has come down upon” him (38:2).
The consequences of this divine attack is a rapid decline of the psalmist’s physical health. The exact nature of the ailment has been variously diagnosed,7 but Craigie is probably correct in assuming that this approach is misleading.8 The enduring power of the psalm that led to its preservation over time is probably its ability to mirror the painful circumstances of a variety of ailments experienced by penitents, who can see themselves in the words of this psalm. Craigie’s suggestion that the litany of complaints in Psalm 38 may well represent not a single disease but “a lifetime of disease in the person of the poet” is instructive.9
The effects of the disease are all-consuming. The psalmist’s “body” has “no health” (metom [“uninjured spot”]) at all (38:3), and his “bones” have “no soundness” (šalom [“wholeness, completeness”]). This alternation likely describes inner as well as outer physical pain and deterioration. Add to this the psychological torment of “guilt” (38:4), and the psalmist’s absorption by disease is complete.
Narrative of Suffering (38:5–20)
AFTER THE INITIAL and most general description of the psalmist’s experience of pain and its origin in sin, he provides an extended narrative of suffering in more specific detail. This account encompasses sixteen verses and can be divided into two parts: verses 5–10, where the focus is on the physical consequences of suffering; and verses 11–20, where relational effects between the psalmist and friends or enemies are explored.
Physical consequences. The description uses language of extreme gangrenous infection. The afflicted psalmist’s diseased body exhibits “wounds” or sores that emit a foul odor (38:5). They “fester and are loathsome.” The sickening smell of diseased flesh must have surrounded him and has influenced the reaction of friends and companions, who avoid contact (38:11).
The psalmist is “bowed down” (ʿwh [“become agitated?”]) and “brought very low” by this malady (38:6); he experiences searing back pain as well (38:7).10 It is not clear whether this is another symptom—the doubling over because of pain in the abdominal region—or whether he is adopting the position and attitude of mourning prostration. In any case, he acknowledges the suffering as a consequence of personal sin and “folly” (ʾiwwelet [“impious foolishness”]),11 to which he now responds with mourning and repentance.
The psalmist feels “feeble and utterly crushed,” and he is able to respond only with inarticulate groans and sighs (38:8–9). The longing desire he is unable to express God is still able to understand (38:9), since it “lies open” and “is not hidden” from him. This first subsection of the narrative concludes with a picture of the psalmist in desperate straits—perhaps nearing death. A wildly beating heart, general weakness, and glazed vision herald the end.12
Relational consequences. The psalmist’s condition has disruptive effects on relationships with others. Those whom he might count as positive relationships—friends, companions, neighbors—distance themselves “because of my wounds” (38:11).13 At the same time, his opponents consider the sickness an opportunity to take advantage of. They are mentioned in terms already encountered in 35:4 and 37:32: “those who seek my life” and “those who would harm me.”14 They plot the ruin of the narrator, using threats and deception (38:12).15
I am like a deaf man . . . a mute. The psalmist—beset within and without, consumed with the pain of disease and of deteriorating relationship—is unable (or unwilling) to respond to the attacks of his enemies (38:13–14). We have no indication of the content of these attacks other than the vague reference to “slander” in 38:20, so we remain uncertain whether the accusations are false, or perhaps true but a harsh public airing of the details of the psalmist’s sin. In any case, the psalmist assumes the demeanor of the deaf who cannot hear the words of his detractors. Since he clearly does hear the enemy’s attacks, it may well be that the deafness is a way of shutting out what cannot otherwise be avoided. Similarly, the psalmist makes no reply, acting as if mute.
You will answer, O Lord my God. Unable to answer his accusers, the psalmist waits for Yahweh to act as defender and vindicator (38:15). He is confident that Yahweh will prevent his enemies from “gloating” (śmḥ [“rejoice over”]) over his misfortune or pressing their advantage to completion during this time of weakness (“when my foot slips,” 38:16). The narrator feels at a crisis point (“about to fall”)16 and is wracked with pain (38:17). This sense of vulnerability and lack of control leads him at last to the full confession of sin and an expression of remorse.17
This section of the psalmist’s narrative concludes with a complaint regarding the opposition. Here the description seems to move beyond the circumstances of illness to encompass more long-standing enmities. These numerous and “vigorous enemies” (38:19) are not simply opportunists taking advantage of a moment of vulnerability but implacable opponents, who seek to counter the psalmist’s every attempt to do “good” with a disproportionate and baseless response of “evil” (38:20).
If the aura of disease seems to recede into the background at this point, it may indicate that the disease motif is employed as imagery to speak to difficult and painful circumstances of physical, emotional, and relational disintegration growing as the result of personal sin and guilt. There is the connection of feeling overwhelmed by outside forces beyond one’s control.
Final Plea for Deliverance (38:21–22)
THE PSALMIST RETURNS at the end to directly address Yahweh, pleading for God’s immediacy of presence in deliverance. The sense of forsakenness (lit., “don’t abandon me”) and isolation from God (“be not far from me”) are coupled with the language of urgency (“come quickly to help me”) to emphasize the psalmist’s vulnerability and imminent doom. At the bottom of personal resources and hope, he recognizes that Yahweh is synonymous with salvation: “O Lord my Savior.”
Bridging Contexts
MY LORD, MY SALVATION. Although God is, at the beginning of this psalm, the source of the psalmist’s rebuke for sin (38:1–4), by the final lines he has become both Lord and salvation. The term used for “salvation” here is tešuʿah, the less common of two nouns of similar meaning drawn from the verb yšʿ (“help, deliver, save”). The more common of the two (yešuʿah) has the broader pattern of meaning encompassing “help given, deeds of help,” and by extension “salvation.” The word in our text is more narrowly focused on the end product of “deliverance” or “salvation.”18 The two are, however, closely related and together provide a context of meaning that sheds light on our psalm.
The particular turn of phrase that characterizes the faith of our psalmist is to acknowledge that God is “my salvation” (38:22; NIV “Savior”). This final cry is directed to God but is done within the hearing of the community of faith, so that it bears the earmarks of both plea for divine response and testimony of faithful reliance. The psalmist is both in need of divine deliverance (calling for it) and acknowledges that there is but one source of hope (the delivering God). A similar realization appeared at the end of Psalm 37, where we hear that “the salvation [tešuʿah] of the righteous comes from the LORD” (37:39).
The fifty-seven occurrences of these two related nouns are scattered throughout the Psalter and punctuate all five books.19 Within these occurrences the following pattern emerges. Humans are called to acknowledge that Yahweh/God is the only sure source of salvation or deliverance.20 Beginning with the clear proclamation in 3:8 that “salvation belongs to the LORD” (lit. trans.), the psalmists continue with affirmations such as “the salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD” (37:39); “you are the rock of my salvation” (89:26, lit. trans.); “say to my soul, ‘I [Yahweh] am your salvation’ ” (35:3). Salvation is so much the possession of Yahweh alone that it can be spoken of as his salvation: “My heart rejoices in your salvation” (13:5); “The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations . . . all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (98:2–3).21
Along with this acknowledgment of God’s saving power comes the admission that all human attempts to save ultimately fail. In simple terms, “human salvation is worthless” (60:11 = 108:12, lit. trans.). Or in the words of 33:16–17: “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance [tešuʿah]; despite its great strength it cannot save.” Similar sentiments are found at the conclusion of the Psalter: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no salvation [tešuʿah]” (146:3).22
Not only do the psalmists recognize the inadequacy of human power to save and call on Yahweh as the only trustworthy source of deliverance; they also feel called to testify to their experience and knowledge of God in the worshiping congregation. Psalm 40:9–10 is particularly clear in this regard: “I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.” This kind of testimony is, of course, at the heart of the psalms. Whenever the psalmists describe or proclaim the deliverance they experience, they are giving voice to this witness.23
There is one last, darker aspect of the psalmists’ awareness that salvation belongs to Yahweh. If salvation is God’s possession, if it is in some sense particularly his, then it is in his control and not simply at the beck and call of humans—no matter how righteous they may be. This awareness of the freedom of God to give or withhold his deliverance is not as clearly expressed in the psalms as in, let’s say, Job, Ecclesiastes, or the prayer of the three friends of Daniel (Dan. 3:16–18). It is in the final analysis not deliverance but God whom the three friends of Daniel, the psalmists, and Job seek to know and experience. It is this realization that lies behind the psalmist’s exclamation at the conclusion of Psalm 38, “O Yahweh, my salvation!” (pers. trans.). Even if the desired deliverance delays or does not come, God is the continuing source of hope and salvation, now and into the future.
Contemporary Significance
GUILT AND HEALING. Often the awareness of our sin leads to an attack from without. When our own sensation of guilt is heightened, every word of attack and criticism can seem true. For our psalmist, the acute sense of guilt and divine displeasure that dominates the opening lines (38:1–8) leads to a moment of capitulation. His strength is spent, all hope of self-deliverance is gone, and his heartfelt longing is laid before God, the only source of hope (38:8–10).
At this point—when all hideouts are dismantled and reality rushes in—guilt threatens to overwhelm the psalmist like a tidal wave (38:4), so that he is left vulnerable and defenseless in hopelessness against the attacks of friend and foe alike. Especially when they are made public, moments of moral failure can lead to debilitating consequences. The public today thrives on the fall of heroes, or just good men or women gone wrong. Perhaps it is a way of excusing our own failings, but we are often drawn to the scene of sinful collapse like vultures surrounding a dying animal—unwilling to depart until every recess has been revealed and every bone picked clean.
Such public outcry and continuing humiliation can lead to the destruction of useful human beings and prevents their rehabilitation. Fear of public exposure and its consequences to sinner and family alike can delay the acknowledgment of sin until it becomes a festering sore that can no longer be contained, so that it breaks out with the most destructive consequences possible. Often Christian leaders enmeshed in moral failures feel unable to confess their sin or to seek help, because of their fear of public humiliation for themselves as well as the innocent members of their family. Some even choose suicide rather than confession.
Our psalm helps us to see that acknowledging sin is the only way out of this trap of fear and destruction. The phrase used in Twelve-Step circles is true: “We are only as sick as our secrets.” As long as we refuse to acknowledge our sin, we feed the fear that controls us and allow it to work its destructive way within and without. Confessing our sin to God and even a single trustworthy person can have the effect of removing the power our secrets wield over us. It does not mean that the destructive consequences set in motion by our sinful actions can always be fully avoided. We may still have to restore what we have taken or pay the legal price of our acts. We may have to deal with the destructive results of an adulterous affair and work long and hard to rebuild lost trust and effectiveness. But confession can remove the fear of discovery and enable us to accept the forgiveness of God.
This is especially true when those who know our secrets have themselves experienced the gracious forgiveness of a merciful God and thus can lead us to hear the power behind the simple passage from 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Psalm 38 cautions those of us who sin not to let our fear of discovery and the attacks of those who are looking for a chance to humiliate us prevent us from acknowledging our sins and experiencing the gracious forgiveness of God.
Nevertheless, the psalm also calls those of us who too often join the humiliating catcalls of the crowd to be examples of those who lend a caring and listening ear. We can be examples of God’s forgiveness unleashed among his faithful community—examples who can encourage those with hidden sin to acknowledge their need for confession and restoration. Only in such a community can we really reflect the wholeness of God, who desires all to know their sin as well as to experience his forgiving power. Otherwise, Christ our Lord has gone to the cross in vain!