December 13, 2014
Tom Lowe
Title: PSALM 38: Sickness and Suffering Brought on by Sin.
A psalm of David.
PART 1 DAVID’S SIN (VERSES 1-4)
Part 2 David’s Suffering (verses 5-8)
Part 3 David’s Sorrow (verses 9-14)
Part 4 David’s Supplication (verses 15-22)
Psalm 38 (KJV)
Part 1: DAVID’S SIN (verses 1-4)
1 O 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.
Introduction to Psalm 38
This psalm is David’s confession and concerns physical sickness. David is very ill. His body is wasting away. We have no record of him having this illness, but as we have seen before he thanked God for his healing. The Jews, in their services, used this psalm as part of the general confession of sin on the great Day of Atonement. It was also read as an accompaniment to the presentation of that portion of the cereal offering which, mingled with oil, was burned with incense upon the altar as a “memorial offering.” Its purpose was to bring to the Lord’s remembrance the distress of the sufferer. We have here the lament of one suffering from an acute disease. He views his experience from a standpoint, which, previous to the challenge it met in the book of Job was one of the foundation pillars of the Old Testament that all suffering is punishment for sin. In his severe illness he sees the proof of his own wrongdoing. In his physical distress, he cries out to God. There is a wail of despair that haunts this psalm, but it is David’s despair in himself, not in God.
Not all affliction comes from disobedience (John 9:1-3), but physical troubles can be a consequence of sin—“Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14). David doesn’t question the legitimacy of his suffering, for he admitted his sins (38:18), but he wonders why his suffering is so severe. David wanted God to remember him and grant forgiveness and healing.
This is the third of the penitential psalms, of which there are seven (6; 32; 51; 102; 130; 143) and, as you would expect, it has things in common with its predecessors (6, 32). Compare 6:1 with 38:1; 32:3 with 38:3, 8, 13-14; and 32:5 with 38:18. The description here of David’s physical condition is similar to the one in 32, so perhaps both psalms (along with 51) come out of the same situation.
At first glance, we might think this psalm describes the suffering of the Savior if it was not for the references to “my sin (v. 3),” “my iniquities (v. 4),” my foolishness (v. 5),” and “my plague (v. 11).” It might be valid to apply much of the rest of the language to the Lord Jesus because he suffered greatly at the hands of God and of man, but the basic interpretation certainly belongs to David at a time in his life when intense physical and mental distress were admittingly connected to some sin he had committed.
Introduction to Psalm 38, Part 1
We don’t think of the consequences when we start playing with sin. When we first indulge in some evil habit we rarely think of the fearful chains it has in store for us later on. David begins with that, for he was now receiving the due reward of his deeds; his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. He emphasizes two aspects of the consequences of sin; God’s chastening and the heavy burden of sin. We should highlight them in our Bibles and in our memories.
Verses 1 and 2 concern the “Divine anger” (verse 1 is a quotation of Psalm 6:1); verse 3 concerns David’s “Daily Anguish”; and verse 4, “the “Consequence of Sin.”
Commentary
1 O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Pain hurts, and David wasn’t ashamed to write about it, using a number of vivid images to convey to the Lord and to us the severity of his suffering. Like a loving father, the Lord first rebuked David and then chastened him, both of which are evidence of His love—“My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth” (Proverbs 3:11-12; see also Hebrews 12:1-11). If we don’t listen to the words of His heart, we will have to feel the weight of His hand—“For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me . . .” (Psalm 32:4; see also 39:10-11). One commentator compared “hot displeasure” to “hot bubbling lava” about to erupt.
David knew that he both deserved the chastisement and needed it, and though in deep distress, he didn’t argue with God about the justice of his chastisement, nor did he ask God to remove it; he prayed only that God in his wrath may remember mercy (Habakkuk 3:2; Isaiah 57:16). And He had no doubt that the condition in which he found himself was the direct result of God’s judicial dealings with him. Underline that! We don’t get away with sin. God says, for instance, that “marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” That is worth noting in our day of loose morals. Nobody gets away with immorality, God sees to that. Payday may be postponed for a time, but it always comes. In David’s case, it had come almost within the year. The word he uses for God, as he cries out under the chastening hand is “Lord” (Jehovah). In other words, he recognizes the faithfulness of the promise-keeping God in the chastening he is now experiencing.
These are the words of a very sick man. The psalmist believes (a) that God has caused his physical pain in order to discipline, train, educate (rather than chasten) his human child. And (b) that God has done this because his child has sinned against him. Like the archetypical figure of Cain in Genesis 4, however, he exclaims: “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
Sin’s convictions are like “arrows.” God was shooting “arrows” (divine judgments inflicted upon his outward and inward man.) at David, hurling down one affliction after another with great force (Job 6:4; 7:20; 16:12). This discipline was apparently painful and harsh, as the figures of the arrows and hand reflect. When God’s holy law is driven home by the Spirit, we are like hunted deer. There are several images introduced in this passage: the hunted quarry (v. 2); disease (v. 3); the waters rolling over a drowning man (v. 4); a burden which crushes the bearer to the ground (v. 4).
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
David had not thought of the anguish it would cause him when he so cheerfully sent his invitation to Bathsheba. He is thinking of that daily anguish now, as he writes: “There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.” The psalmist description of his physical suffering is meant to strengthen the force of his appeal by awakening God’s pity.
Paul may have been thinking of David’s sin with Bathsheba when he wrote: “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18). God has fearful weapons He can bring against the bodies of those who refuse to listen to Him in the matter of morality. There are more than twenty different sexually transmitted diseases defined in modern medicine, every one of them marked by disgusting symptoms and several of them leads to horrifying complications such as blindness, brain damage, insanity, eye-infection, damage to skin, bone, liver, teeth, consequences to unborn children, and even death. With at least ten to fifteen million Americans being struck every year, with a new infection occurring every forty-five seconds, and with the annual bill in America alone for these kinds of diseases running at over one billion dollars, it is no wonder that public health officials are at their wit’s end.
Even if the immoral person somehow manages to evade disease, God has other weapons for those who break His laws. Some of them are psychological. The anguish they ultimately cause to the mind is no less real than the physical ravages in the body. Probably the illustration which most of us would be familiar with is the abortion of millions of unborn babies every year. I have heard women say that they regret aborting their child and it has weighed heavily on their conscience ever since. What a terrible burden for anyone to bear!
Now, there is forgiveness with God, as David discovered. However, before God showed him that, He allowed him to suffer: “There is no soundness in my flesh,” David wailed, “because of thine anger.” It is not likely that David had contracted venereal disease. His affliction was much more dramatic than that. The point here was that David was suffering, not only from divine anger but also from daily anguish, and all as a result of his immorality. That was the consequence of sin.
4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
“For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.” He hadn’t thought of that, either, when he had cultivated his intimacy with Bathsheba. The word he uses for “inequities” brings out all the wrong and crookedness of sin. There is no excusing his iniquities—he is thoroughly convicted of them. Like gigantic waves, they have dashed over him. Like an enormous weight, they have broken his strength. The word he uses for all these inequities going over his head reminds us of the eastern porters. You can see them in an eastern city staggering along under loads so vast and heavy you are astonished that they can bear them. Their spindly legs seem as though they must snap under the strain. This is how his sin now seemed to David.
David was drowning in a sea of suffering (see 42:7; 69:2, 14; 88:16; 124:4; 130:1-2), and the whole experience became a burden too heavy for him to carry. Notice that the central point of his distress is his sin. It is his inequity that is too heavy for him. His real ailment is spiritual; the wounds that grow foul and fester may be the consequence of his wrongdoing. This man whom God dearly loved could not carry his sin. You and I cannot carry our burdens either, and we definitely cannot carry the burden of sin. We must give that burden to God.
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December 18, 2014
Tom Lowe
Title: PSALM 38: Sickness and Suffering Brought on by Sin.
A psalm of David.
Part 1 David’s Sin (verses 1-4)
Part 2 DAVID’S SUFFERING (verses 5-8)
Part 3 David’s Sorrow (verses 9-14)
Part 4 David’s Supplication (verses 15-22)
Psalm 38 (KJV)
Part 2: DAVID’S Suffering (verses 5-8)
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.
Introduction to Psalm 38, Part 2
Now he delves deeper into his miseries. It is evident from verses 5-7 and from the special word he uses in verse 11 for his “sore” that David was severely inflicted with a loathsome disease. Perhaps no royal scribe would feel at liberty to talk about this aspect of David’s sufferings. But David had no such qualms. The dishonor he had done to Jehovah’s name fully merited the dreadful thing that had now overtaken him. The secret must come out, and who more fitting to confess his shame than David himself? He does so in this and several other psalms. In fact, so thorough is his confession in this psalm, and so sincerely does he want others to learn from his own experience, that he actually adds a subscription[1] to this psalm by addressing it: to the “chief Musician, even to Jeduthun.”
In Chronicles 35:15, Jeduthun is called “the Kings seer.” He was also one of the three chief musicians in charge of the musical side of the organized Jewish religion, so he was both a seer and a singer. Perhaps that is why David assigned this psalm to him. It is as much a sermon as a song.
In any case, David, even in the midst of his sufferings, was so convinced of the justice of what had happened to him that he had no qualms whatever about publicly confessing it and having his record included as part of the performance of the temple choir—to be sung in the ears of all men. What a rare soul was David! Most of us would rather die than confess the kinds of things David confesses, and certainly, we would rather die than have them become public knowledge. But not David! He can learn even from his sins and sufferings. No wonder the Spirit of God calls him “a man after God’s own heart.
Commentary
5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Whatever the malady was that affected him, it was something foul that filled his dwelling with a nauseating stench; something that God caused. I know that someone reading this will say: “God doesn’t cause us pain; look how Jesus fought against pain and suffering.” We should ask ourselves what verses 5-7 really mean. Most expositors find here a reference to the effect of sexual sins, perhaps even of sexual perversion. It was only “yesterday,” so to speak, that the sulfa drugs and penicillin were made available to the world.
In the literature of days gone by we read of horrible, painful deaths, such as that which is being described here—burning pain in the genitals, festering sores all over the body. This was not one isolated sickness but a collection of physical disorders that produced “searing pain”, “fever,” and “inflammation.” He had festering sores (v. 5) that smelled foul and looked ugly, his heart wasn’t functioning properly, his eyes were getting dim (v. 10). His body was unhealthy (vs. 3, 7); one minute he’s was burning with fever, the next minute he became numb with cold (vs. 7-8). His body was feeble and twisted with pain, and he walked about all day like a man at a funeral (vs. 6, 8). At times, his pain was so severe, he cried out like a wild beast (v. 8). All this happened because he had been foolish and had sinned and against the Lord (v. 5; 107:17). We are free to disobey the Lord, but we are not free to change the consequences.
The Bible is not mealy-mouthed about human degradation. It is completely realistic about the effects of my foolishness(“sin”; commonly called folly, which comes through stubborn indifference to discipline: Psalms 49:5; Proverbs 13:16; 14:17; 15:2); otherwise the significance of the Good News, that God can forgive even the most degraded sinner, would not really be able to be grasped by a fallen world. Here we hear the cry of the unwilling homosexual, the pedophile, the lesbian, the drug addict, the cry in fact of all those who have made their own hell in this life, and who are now having to lie in it.
6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
The physical malady that had him in its grip caused far more than pain in his body; it caused him acute distress in his mind. “I go mourning,” that is, in sackcloth and ashes (Isaiah 58:5), the signs of distress due to the burden of guilt. He is doubled over in pain and laid low with weakness—a living specter of grief.
7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
The word for “loathsome” means “burning.” He had a fever; he was inflamed. In the Old Testament, the word “loins” is often used to signify strength.
8 I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Verse eight reflects the tumultuous self-loathing of many who were captives of their own lust. No indeed, God does not create the suffering described in verses 5-7; what He has created is a human body which its owner is free to use or to abuse. On the other hand, in His mercy God may decide to employ the pain of the soars to chasten me in his wrath (v. 1), those very sores which I am responsible for creating in my own body.
One Hebrew authority suggests a different rendering: “I have roared beyond the roaring of a lion” (Ginsburg). The inward anguish of his soul, the great anxiety and torment of his mind caused by the deep sense of his sins and God’s wrath, when added to his bodily pains, makes them even more intolerable, and they found utterance at times in fearful dreadful howls. Anyone who has ever heard a lion roar knows that it is a fearful sound.
He has no more fight left in him. Thoroughly whipped, he can do nothing but groan to express how he feels. The servants in the royal palace must have whispered to themselves at the cries coming from David’s sick room, cries emanating from the very depths of David’s soul. David’s sufferings are all written down to warn us. Sin leads us ultimately into suffering. It is in the very nature of the thing.
Something to think about. Those of us who have endured illness and disease in our body can identify with David in this psalm. And it is the proper thing to do, first to take your case to the Great Physician—and then make an appointment with the best Doctor You can find. Let’s be practical about this. All the skill and wisdom a Doctor has comes from God, whether or not he acknowledges it.
[1] The act of adding one's signature or mark, at the end of a document.
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December 27, 2014
Tom Lowe
Title: PSALM 38: Sickness and Suffering Brought on by Sin
A psalm of David.
Part 1 David’s Sin (verses 1-4)
Part 2 David’s Suffering (verses 5-8)
Part 3 DAVID’S SORROW (verses 9-14)
Part 4 David’s Supplication (verses 15-22)
Psalm 38 (KJV)
Part 3: DAVID’S SORROW (verses 9-14)
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.
Introduction to Psalm 38, Part 3
David describes three things about the inexpressible sorrow of his soul at this dreadful time in his life.
(1) The Spiritual effect (38:9-10)
(2)The Social effect (38:11-12)
(3)The Silent effect (38: 13-14)
Commentary
9 Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
David opened the psalm with “Lord—Jehovah,” and now he addressed God once more, this time as “Lord—Adonai—Master.” He will use both names in verses 15 and 21-22. For a brief moment, he took his eyes off his own sufferings and looked to the Lord, knowing that God saw his heart and knew all his longings. Then he spoke this brief prayer: “I do not utter all these complains, nor do I yell them out, so that You can hear them and know them because You hear and know even my faintest groans; yes, my inward desires, and all my needs. And therefore, I pray that you will take pity on me and deliver me; and I believe that you will. God knows what we want, but he also knows what we need. Then why I pray? Because God has commanded us to pray, and “you do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Furthermore, as we pray, God works in our hearts to give us a clearer understanding of ourselves and of His will for us. Prayer isn’t a theological concept to analyze and explain; it is a privilege to cherish and a blessing to claim.
This is the one point in Psalm 38 at which the poet appeals to God’s justice. He still has a longing (desire) which he can show to God and a sighing (groaning) which has something worthy in it. It is the cry of the prisoner, but of the prisoner who wants to be free. God must surely mark that longing favorably. The record of Christ’s teaching shows that He does.
Wicked men hate goodness, even when they benefit from it. David, in the complaints he makes of his enemies, seems to refer to Christ (Lord). But our enemies can do us no real harm unless they drive us from God and our duty. The true believer’s troubles will be made useful; he will learn to wait for his God, and will not seek relief from the world or himself. The less notice we take of the unkindness and injuries that are done to us the more we can consult the quiet of our own minds. David’s troubles were due to the chastisement of God, which was the consequence of his transgressions; while Christ suffered for our sins, and only for our sins since He had none of His own.
There is a general sense of numbness and incapacity, the inarticulate groaning of an aching heart and a troubled conscience. David had lost all sense of victory, all sense of vitality, all sense of vision. He was defeated, depressed, and in the dark. He was like a lost soul. Yet, all his being cried out for God, Jehovah. It is some comfort to David to realize that the Lord knows the anguish of his heart and the emotions he feels but cannot express.
10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
The psalmist’s words, “My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me” means that his heart is palpitating wildly, his strength rapidly draining away, and all sparkle vanishing from his eyes. That is perhaps the worst thing about the power of conviction when one’s sins come home to roost; one tends to lose all sense of the presence of God.
There was a spiritual dimension even to the horrible affliction which attacked David’s body. The phrase “the light of mine eyes is gone,” could mean that he is at the point of committing suicide.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
David’s focus now turns to the people around him, and he felt abandoned and lonely. The people who should have encouraged and comforted him—his loved ones and friends—kept their distance, along with his enemies, who wanted him to die. David expected his enemies to plot against him, gloat over his fall (v. 16), hate him, slander him, and return evil for the good he did to them (vs. 19-20), but he didn’t think his friends and relatives would turn against him (see Psalm 31:11-12; 41:9; 69:8; 88:8, 18; Job 19:13-19.). But before we criticize them, let’s ask ourselves, “Have we been obeying Galatians 6:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 2:5-11?”
The severity of his suffering is intensified by the conduct toward him of his intimate and trusted friends; he was deserted by his friends and ridiculed by his foes. His extremely poor condition has marked him out in their eyes as sinful before God. Those from whom he might normally expect sympathy stand “aloof.” He feels isolated and alone. But worse than that, supposing him under the punishing rod of God, his friends let their imaginations run riot as they deliberate over him and reflect on what he must have done to be reduced to such a condition. David’s total abandonment has added fresh force to his appeal for God’s help. David, keenly sensing their change in feeling toward him, yet at the same time turning a deaf ear to their false and baseless indictments, he looks expectantly to his God in the certainty of His answering help.
We have now come to the clue for which we have been searching. What kind of disease was it in Israel which set a man apart from family and friends; which drove him as a dreadful pariah outside the camp; which caused him to roar his uncleanness whenever anyone started to approach? What fearful affliction caused the Jews to flee from anyone tainted with it? What was looked upon as the very stroke of God? Surely it was leprosy. David had become a leper! Or so it seems.
That fact alone, perhaps, would help account for the strange silence of the historians about David’s sickness. How could they record that about the best, the bravest, and the most beloved of all their kings? David does not hesitate, however. He says: “My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore.” The word he uses for “sore” is in the word specifically used in the Old Testament for the plague of leprosy. No wonder even his family fled from him. Had it been anyone but David, anyone but the king, he would have been driven outside the camp, forced to cover his lip, forced to cry unceasingly, “Unclean! Unclean!”
David’s sorrows were spiritual—the leper could have no place in the sanctuary. David’s sorrows were social—nobody wanted to come near him
12 Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception.
As he grieved over his sins and over the unconcern of his loved ones, David realized that during this time of distress, his enemies were plotting and scheming to get him out of the way. The phrase “those who seek my life set their traps,” indicates that his would-be assassins have not given up their plotting, threats, and villainy. If his disease does not kill him, they want to destroy him in some other way. They continued to talk about his ruin and destruction, and he heard what they were saying; but he did not reply to their threats or their false accusations.
Seeing that is friends have deserted him, his enemies become bold. Yet, just to be able to tell God about it, to remind God of the torments of the self-damned (condemned), is enough to give the sufferer relief.
13 I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear, like a mute, who cannot open his mouth;
David knew he had sinned, so why put up a feeble defense? But he also knew that his accusers were sinning and really had no cause for deposing him.
So overwhelming was his situation that at times David simply sat deaf and dumb in the presence of God. He had nothing to say. What could he say? His mouth was stopped. The sweet singer of Israel, the man who always had a ready answer, was dumb. David had such an overwhelming sense of guilt that he must behave as though he was unaware of their slanders, for he cannot plead innocence in a matter of greater consequence for him personally.
We can be sure that David never expected anything like this when he first began to play with sin. But then, neither do we. Note that in spite of the “rebuking” and the “chastening” of God, David has not complained of his treatment being unjust. Repentance must begin there. “I am not worthy” is the starting point. The one thing to do is to plead for God’s mercy.
14 I have become like a man who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply.
David did not make any arguments, to convince or to confuse them, or to defend himself. But, just suppose that David did “win his defense and then fall again” (v. 16)? His enemies would then have a stronger case against him. So, the wisest course was to remain silent. That being the case, he kept quiet and turned the matter over to the Lord. He followed the instructions he had been given in Psalm 37. The ultimate example of non-response to taunting and torture may be seen in the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53:7 and 1 Peter 2:23.
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January 5, 2015
Tom Lowe
Title: PSALM 38: Sickness and Suffering Brought on by Sin.
A psalm of David.
Part 1 David’s Sin (verses 1-4)
Part 2 David’s Suffering (verses 5-8)
Part 3 David’s Sorrow (verses 9-14)
Part 4 DAVID’S SUPPLICATION (verses 15-22)
Psalm 38 (KJV)
Part 4: DAVID’S SUPPLICATION (verses 15-22)
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.
21Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.
Introduction to Psalm 38, Part 3
David has a threefold petition:
Lord, Hear Me! (38:15-16)
Lord, Heal Me! (38: 17-18)
Lord, Help Me! (38: 19-22)
Here we have David’s third cry for “help.” He has discovered that he must confess that he is helpless. In his prayer he makes certain points:
(1) Just as the alcoholic or the homosexual or the drug addict cannot help himself, but must first look to a power outside of himself, the poet asked God to stop people crowing over him, since, in his human weakness he confesses he has made a ghastly mess of his life.
(2)He reminds God that he is bearing insufferable pain and that he is “on the point of collapse.”
(3)At long last, he confesses his iniquity to God and finally declares that he is sorry for his sin. Till now he had only been sorry for himself, and had perhaps “blamed society” (as people do today) for the fact that he had slipped (as if he had gone into the gutter). He recognizes that he has become a pariah who finds himself under a compulsion he cannot resist.
(4)However, because he is very human, he does say that the forces of temptation have been mighty strong. Yet why had these forces picked on him? Why, O God, had those temptations, fastened upon him, and not on someone else? In fact, he says to God, these forces had been behaving to me like Satan just when I had been trying hard to live a decent life.
Commentary
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.
The first thing David does after recovering from the dreadful admission of the previous section is to express his confidence in his God, “For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God” (38:15). David may be deaf and dumb in his shock but that does not prevent his whole soul from crying out to God—to Jehovah, His Elohim, the only One who could possibly help. To Jehovah, the God of Covenant—the gracious, merciful compassionate One who of His own free will sought out the poor sons of men in order to reveal Himself as the God of promise. To Elohim, the God of Creation, who could just as easily heal a leper as He could create a universe. “In Thee do I hope,” that is, though friends forsake me, and my enemies plot against me, yet I do not despair, because I have You on my side.
David expresses his concern: “For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise, they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me” (38:16). I said, that is to say, in my heart and prayers; I used this argument, which I knew was prevalent—Rejoice in my destruction, which also will reflect upon You; who hast undertaken to defend and save me, and for whose sake, I suffer so much from these wicked men (38:20). God must not let him down in this delicate and treacherous situation. But David wasn’t praying only for his own deliverance just so he could be comfortable; he wanted God to work so the enemy couldn’t use him as an excuse for sinning (38:19-20; 25:2; 35:19). When they slandered David’s name, they also slandered the Lord (see 2 Samuel 12:14), and David wanted to honor the Lord. He felt like he was about to die (38:17), and he confessed his sins to the Lord in true repentance and faith. Those who are (now) his enemies have become many. With no adequate basis for their hostility they have forced him out like he was something repulsive, and they are just waiting for some calamity to claim him. In the first part of the psalm David is mostly taken up with his malady; in the second part, he is mostly taken up with his maligners, his enemies so ready to capitalize upon his misfortunes.
“Hear me!” He wanted his enemies to know that it was God with whom they would have to reckon. It was one thing for God to enter into judgment with his child; it was something else for others to try to take advantage of the occasion. “When my foot slippeth”; or when I fall either into any gross sin, or into any misery, or into both, as I now have done. “They magnify themselves against me”; they boast that they have triumphed in the accomplishment of their plans or desires.
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.
With refreshing candor and brokenness and with no attempt to gloss over his “sin,” David confesses his iniquity and says,“‘My sorrow is continually before me’; I am deeply and constantly aware of Thy just hand, and of my sins, which is the cause of ‘my sorrow’; I shall be overwhelmed if You do not prevent it.” Any man who sincerely takes this position before God will never be denied forgiveness. The Lord has gone on record to state that He will grant mercy to the one who confesses and forsakes his sin [“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13).]. If this were not so, all men would be hopelessly doomed.
David mentions both his contrition and his confession: “For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.” That is always a good first step; that is getting down to the root of the problem. There are some sicknesses caused by sin; those sicknesses call for a spiritual diagnosis and prescription.“Ready to halt” suggests that he believes he is even now falling into utter destruction (Jeremiah 20:10); “I Am at the end of my rope, and therefore if You do not act quickly to help me, it will be too late.”
This is what we have in the book of James where the sick man calls for the Elders of the church and puts things right with the church in order to be healed. James is not giving a blanket prescription for healing—the sickness and the sin, the confession and the cure are too closely linked. This was certainly David’s case. If he had not repented he would have died a leper.
“For I will declare mine iniquity”; I will confess either to yourself or publicly to the world, because my sins have been public and scandalous. “I will be sorry;” full of grief for what has happened, and anxious and fearful for what may occur in the future, because I could relapse into the same foolishness if I was again tempted, or You were to cut me off for my sins. Therefore, I pray, pity, and pardon, and save me. Again, the psalmist has confessed his sin. What it was he does not tell us, and indeed he does not reveal any deep-seated awareness of concrete sins that he has committed. Yet to the pious soul of his day no one could suffer as he is doing if his sin was not considered great. Accordingly, feeling the load of it upon his soul (38:3-5) as he stands in anxious terror before God, he confesses that he has sinned and thus opens the way for his restoration to the favor of God. The consciousness of sin makes suffering bitter, and suffering rightly received, leads to confession.
Last of all he prays:
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.
21Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.
David is aware of what is happening in his kingdom. The Absalom affair is coming to a head. He desperately needs his health back so that he can once again take over the affairs of state.
David shows in verses 19 and 20, that he never ceased to be astonished at the downright malignity of men. There were the terrible curses of Shimei (for more on Shimei see note below) [“And, behold, there is with thee Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. . .” (1 Kings 2:8; see also 2 Samuel 16:5-13)], for instance, which David had to face a little later. On the whole, his reign had been a good one. He had been concerned for the welfare of others. However, there were those in the kingdom who hated him even for that, especially those who had once been cronies of Saul. His enemies, according to David, are “lively,” that is, thriving, or flourishing, or prosperous, as the word is commonly used. “Lord! Consider my situation!” David prayed. Though he is weak and sickly, they are vigorous and strong. In this Psalm, the language is generally susceptible of application to Christ as a sufferer, David, as such, is a type of Christ.
Shimei. A Benjamite of Bahurim, son of Gera, "a man of the family of the house of Saul" (II Samuel 16:5-14, 19:16-23; I Kings 2:8-9, 36-46). He is mentioned as one of David's tormentors during his flight before Absalom, and as imploring and winning David's forgiveness when the latter returned. David, however, in his dying charge to Solomon, asked to him avenge the insult (I Kings 2:-9).
Verses 21 and 22, form a touching, humble conclusion. The psalmist knows his weakness and still has the kind of fear that is health-giving, for it keeps him on his knees. “O my God, be not far from me!” That prayer will be answered, for God was at his side all the time, stabbing his spirit wide awake.
“They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries,” means that they hate and persecute him, without any provocation on David’s part, as if they were retaliating for the good which I had done to them. “Because I follow the thing that good is,” or rather because I love and diligently practice justice and godliness, which they hate, and which they consider to be a reproach to them, and which I did exercise, whenever I had an opportunity to do so. He has been kind to them but gets only hatred in return.
“Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.” That is always a great appeal to make to God: “Lord, let me remind You that in the last analysis You are my Savior, the Lord of my salvation. I have nothing else to plead but that, and I need nothing else. You must save me because that’s the kind of God you are.” This threefold inducement may provide to some extent the motivation for his final petition. Yet while he makes this appeal to God on the basis of his own conduct under undeserved persecution, this is not the real ground of his confidence. “This rests in God alone, and in His willingness to help.” David is confident that God has forgiven him and would indeed help him, therefore he closed his prayer with three requests. Be with me (“Forsake me not,” 38:21) is answered by Deuteronomy 4:31 and 31:6, 8, and Hebrews 13:5. Be near me (“be not far from me,” 38:21) finds its answer in 16:8, 34:18 and James 4:8. Be for me and help me (“Make haste to help me,” 38:22) leads us to 28:7, Isaiah 41:10 and Romans 8:33-39. These three requests covered just about everything!
So the psalmist’s lament reaches its climax in a passionate petition for God’s presence and help. “Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.”
Then David added a postscript: “Here you are Jeduthun (see note, below). Here is a song worth singing!”
Jeduthun: a Levite of the family of Merari, and one of the three masters of music appointed by David (1 Chr. 16:41, 42; 25:1-6). He is called in 2 Chr. 35:15 "the king's seer." His descendants are mentioned as singers and players on instruments (Neh. 11:17). He was probably the same as Ethan (1 Chr. 15:17, 19). In the superscriptions to Ps. 39, 62, and 77, the words "upon Jeduthun" probably denote a musical instrument; or they may denote the style or tune invented or introduced by Jeduthun, or that the psalm was to be sung by his choir.
