Psalms 38

Psalm 38

A Penitent Sufferer’s Plea for Healing

1O Lord , do not rebuke me in your anger[#Ps 6.1]

or discipline me in your wrath.

2For your arrows have sunk into me,[#Job 6.4; Ps 32.4]

and your hand has come down on me.

3There is no soundness in my flesh[#Ps 6.2; Isa 1.6]

because of your indignation;

there is no health in my bones

because of my sin.

4For my iniquities have gone over my head;[#Ezra 9.6]

they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.

5My wounds grow foul and fester[#Ps 69.5]

because of my foolishness;

6I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;[#Ps 35.14; 42.9]

all day long I go around mourning.

7For my loins are filled with burning,[#v 3 ; Ps 102.3]

and there is no soundness in my flesh.

8I am utterly spent and crushed;[#Job 3.24; Ps 22.1]

I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

9O Lord, all my longing is known to you;[#Ps 6.6; 10.17]

my sighing is not hidden from you.

10My heart throbs; my strength fails me;

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

11My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,[#Ps 31.11; Lk 23.49]

and my neighbors stand far off.

12Those who seek my life lay their snares;[#Ps 35.4, 20; 54.3; 140.5]

those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin

and meditate on treachery all day long.

13But I am like the deaf; I do not hear;[#Ps 39.2, 9]

like the mute, who cannot speak.

14Truly, I am like one who does not hear

and in whose mouth is no retort.

15But it is for you, O Lord , that I wait;[#Ps 17.6; 39.7]

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

16For I pray, “Only do not let them rejoice over me,[#Ps 13.4; 35.26]

those who boast against me when my foot slips.”

17For I am ready to fall,[#Ps 13.2]

and my pain is ever with me.

18I confess my iniquity;[#Ps 32.5; 2 Cor 7.9]

I am sorry for my sin.

19Those who are my foes without cause are mighty,[#Ps 18.17; 35.19; #38.19 Q ms: MT my living foes]

and many are those who hate me wrongfully.

20Those who render me evil for good[#Ps 35.12; 1 Jn 3.12]

are my adversaries because I follow after good.

21Do not forsake me, O Lord ;[#Ps 35.22]

O my God, do not be far from me;

22make haste to help me,[#Ps 27.1; 40.13, 17]

O Lord, my salvation.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ