Commentary - Psalm 38:1-8

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 38 is one of the seven penitential psalms, and it is a raw, unflinching look at the consequences of sin under the disciplinary hand of a holy God. The title tells us it is a psalm "to bring to remembrance." This means it is a memorial, a testimony. David is not just wallowing in his misery; he is recording it for the instruction of the saints. He wants God to remember His mercy, and he wants the people of God to remember the sheer weight and foulness of sin.

The striking thing here is that David, though crushed, is crying out to God, not running from Him. This is the cry of a true son, not an enemy. He knows exactly where his trouble is coming from, and so he knows exactly where he must go for relief. This psalm teaches us that true repentance involves a brutal honesty about our condition, a clear-eyed recognition of God's hand in our affliction, and a desperate flight to the very one who is disciplining us. It is a portrait of a forgiven sinner with backbone, who knows he is in the wrong but still knows who his God is.

Outline

The Weight of Sin, The Hand of God

A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance.

The superscription here is important. This is not just a diary entry of a bad day. It is a formal, liturgical piece intended "to bring to remembrance." For David to remember the bitterness of his sin, yes, but also for God to remember His covenant promises. When a man of God is in the grip of his own failure, his appeal is not to his own righteousness, but to God's memory. "Remember Your mercy, Lord." And it is for us to remember. We are to remember what sin feels like from the inside, what God's discipline feels like, so that we might walk in wisdom.

1 O Yahweh, reprove me not in Your wrath, And discipline me not in Your burning anger.

David begins by making a crucial distinction. He is not asking to escape discipline altogether. A true son of God knows he needs correction. What he is pleading for is to be spared from God's wrath, His ketsaph, His hot displeasure reserved for His enemies. He is asking for fatherly discipline, not final judgment. He is saying, "Deal with me as a son, not as a rebel destined for destruction." This is a prayer every believer can and should pray. We know that in Christ, the wrath of God has been fully satisfied. But the fatherly displeasure of God is a very real thing in the Christian life, and we should desire His correction, but plead that it be measured out in love, not in fury.

2 For Your arrows have pressed deep into me, And Your hand has pressed down upon me.

David has no confusion about the source of his misery. This is not bad luck. This is not a random virus. This is not the devil getting an upper hand. This is the hand of God. God's arrows are sharp, and they are lodged deep in him. God's hand is heavy, and it is pressing him into the dust. For the ungodly, this is a terrifying reality. But for the saint, there is a strange comfort here. If God is the one aiming the arrows, it means this suffering is not meaningless. It has a purpose. Better to be pinned to the ground by the hand of a loving Father than to be abandoned to the chaos of a world without Him.

3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; There is no health in my bones because of my sin.

Here is the connection, stated plainly. David is sick, and he knows why. The cause is twofold, but it is really one cause viewed from two angles. From God's side, it is His indignation. From David's side, it is his sin. He does not blame God. He does not make excuses. He draws a straight line from his transgression to God's displeasure to his physical affliction. The Bible does not teach that all sickness is a direct result of a specific sin, the book of Job makes that clear. But it absolutely teaches that some of it is. David is mature enough to see the cause and effect in his own life. His body is breaking down because his fellowship with God is broken.

4 For my iniquities go over my head; As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.

The imagery here is of drowning. The flood of his own lawlessness has overwhelmed him. He is under the waves. And the weight of it all is a burden too heavy to bear. This is the point of godly sorrow. God's discipline is designed to make us feel the true gravity of our sin. In our pride, we think we can manage our sin, carry it around in a little satchel. God's discipline shows us it is a crushing weight that will kill us. This is the cry that makes the gospel such good news. Who can bear this burden? Only one has ever been able to, and He bore it for us.

5 My wounds stink and rot Because of my folly.

David is not trying to be poetic here; he is being brutally honest. The consequences of his sin are not noble scars but putrefying sores. They stink. And the source of this corruption is not some tragic flaw, but his "folly." Sin, at its root, is idiocy. It is a profound foolishness that exchanges the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water. The world wants to rebrand sin as a mistake, a weakness, an alternative lifestyle. The Bible calls it what it is: a stinking rot that comes from being a fool.

6 I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long.

The internal burden has an external manifestation. He is physically stooped, crushed under the weight. The joy of his salvation is gone, replaced by a constant, day-long mourning. This is not the cheap, plastic smile of modern evangelicalism. This is the hard reality of a saint feeling the heat of God's corrective hand. And yet, he is still going. He is mourning, but he is still moving, still oriented toward the God who is afflicting him.

7 For my loins are filled with burning, And there is no soundness in my flesh.

The loins were considered the seat of strength and vitality. For them to be filled with a "loathsome disease" or a "burning" is to say that his very core is diseased and inflamed with shame. He repeats the phrase from verse 3, "no soundness in my flesh," to emphasize the totality of his condition. There is no healthy spot, no place of relief. The affliction is comprehensive.

8 I am faint and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart.

He is at the end of his rope. The word for "groan" here can also be translated as "roar." This is not a quiet whimper; it is the roar of a wounded animal. It comes from the "agitation," the disquiet, the turmoil of his heart. This is the groaning of a man who knows he is utterly broken and that his only hope lies with the very one whose arrows are stuck deep within him. This is the kind of honest brokenness that God will not despise.

Application

This psalm is a hard medicine, but a necessary one. First, it teaches us to be honest about our sin. We must not minimize it or make excuses for it. We must see it as the heavy, stinking, foolish burden that it is. Honesty about our sin is the first step toward healing.

Second, it teaches us to see the hand of God in our trials. Not all suffering is discipline for a particular sin, but all suffering is under the sovereign hand of God and has a purpose. For the believer, that purpose is always corrective and sanctifying, never damning. God's discipline is a mark of our sonship (Heb. 12:6). It is a severe mercy.

Finally, and most importantly, this psalm drives us to the cross. David felt the arrows of God's discipline for his own sin. But on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater David, took the full volley of God's wrath for all the sins of His people. He bore the burden that was too heavy for us. He was crushed so that we could be healed. Because He took the wrath, we can now receive the discipline. We can pray this psalm with the confidence that our Father hears us, not as a wrathful judge, but as a loving Father who is committed to making us holy as He is holy.