Do Not Forsake Me, O Lord

Psa 38:1  A Psalm of David; to bring to remembrance and make memorial. O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure.

Psa 38:2  For Your arrows have sunk into me and stick fast, and Your hand has come down upon me and pressed me sorely.

Psa 38:3  There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; neither is there any health or rest in my bones because of my sin.

Psa 38:4  For my iniquities have gone over my head [like waves of a flood]; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.

Psa 38:5  My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness.

Psa 38:6  I am bent and bowed down greatly; I go about mourning all the day long.

Psa 38:7  For my loins are filled with burning; and there is no soundness in my flesh.

Psa 38:8  I am faint and sorely bruised [deadly cold and quite worn out]; I groan by reason of the disquiet and moaning of my heart.

Psa 38:9  Lord, all my desire is before You; and my sighing is not hidden from You.

Psa 38:10  My heart throbs, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.

Psa 38:11  My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; and my neighbors and my near ones stand afar off. [Luk 23:49]

Psa 38:12  They also that seek and demand my life lay snares for me, and they that seek and require my hurt speak crafty and mischievous things; they meditate treachery and deceit all the day long.

Psa 38:13  But I, like a deaf man, hear not; and I am like a dumb man who opens not his mouth.

Psa 38:14  Yes, I have become like a man who hears not, in whose mouth are no arguments or replies.

Psa 38:15  For in You, O Lord, do I hope; You will answer, O Lord my God.

Psa 38:16  For I pray, Let them not rejoice over me, who when my foot slips boast against me.

Psa 38:17  For I am ready to halt and fall; my pain and sorrow are continually before me.

Psa 38:18  For I do confess my guilt and iniquity; I am filled with sorrow for my sin. [2Co 7:9-10]

Psa 38:19  But my enemies are vigorous and strong, and those who hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

Psa 38:20  They also that render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow the thing that is good.

Psa 38:21  Forsake me not, O Lord; O my God, be not far from me.

Psa 38:22  Make haste to help me, O Lord, my Salvation.

Psalms 38:1-22

Psalm 38: Sorrow for Sin

We might think that this Psalm describes the suffering of the Savior were it 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 as He suffered 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 admittedly connected to some sin he had committed.

38:1-4 First David thinks of his sufferings as the rebuke of an angry God and the chastening of His hot displeasure, and he asks the LORD to lift the siege. The arrows of the Almighty have found their mark in the psalmist's mind and body, and God's hand has come down with crushing pressure upon him. As a result of divine wrath his whole body is sick. The illness has seeped into his very bones—and all because of his 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.

38:5-8 Foul and festering wounds have broken out over his body, and he has no doubt why this has happened. He is doubled over in pain, laid low with weakness—a living specter of grief. His body is racked with a high fever, and there is no part of his anatomy that has escaped. He has no more fight left in him. Thoroughly whipped, he can do nothing but groan to express how he feels.

38:9-11 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. But still his heart is palpitating wildly, his strength rapidly draining away, and all sparkle vanishing from his eyes. His loved ones and his friends avoid him as if he were a leper, and even his relatives are reluctant to visit him.

38:12-14 Nor have his would-be assassins given up their plots, threats, and villainy. But David is deaf to all their threats and remains silent as far as defense, self-vindication, or rebukes are concerned.

38:15-17 Yet no matter how dark the present situation is, he is not without hope. He still has the confidence that God will answer him. He asks that his adversaries might not have the pleasure of celebrating his complete calamity. But right now he is continually racked with pain and near the limit of human endurance.

38:18 With refreshing candor and brokenness and with no attempt to gloss over his sin, David confesses his iniquity and says "I'm sorry!" 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 (Pro 28:13). If this were not so, all men would be hopelessly doomed.

38:19, 20 David's thoughts go back to his enemies once more. Though he is weak and sickly, they are vigorous and strong. He then acknowledges the justice of God's chastenings but protests that his adversaries have no valid cause for their malice. He has been kind to them but gets only hatred in return. At the bottom of their hostility is the fact that David is a follower of God and of good.

38:21, 22 So he appeals to God not to forsake him, but to stay close by and to hurry to his rescue—to truly be the psalmist's Savior-God!