PSALM 38

A Penitent Sufferer’s Plea for Healing

Psalm 38:1 O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath!

Psalm 38:2 For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.

Psalm 38:3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.

Psalm 38:4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.

Psalm 38:5 My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness,

Psalm 38:6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.

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

Psalm 38:8 I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

Psalm 38:9 Lord, all my longing is known to you, my sighing is not hidden from you.

Psalm 38:10 My heart throbs, my strength fails me; and the light of my eyes it also has gone from me.

Psalm 38:11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Psalm 38:12 Those who seek my life lay their snares, those who seek my hurt speak of ruin, and meditate treachery all the day long.

Psalm 38:13 But I am like a deaf man, I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

Psalm 38:14 Yes, I am like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

Psalm 38:15 But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O LORD my God, who will answer.

Psalm 38:16 For I pray, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”

Psalm 38:17 For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.

Psalm 38:18 I confess my iniquity, I am sorry for my sin.

Psalm 38:19 Those who are my foes without cause  are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.

Psalm 38:20 Those who render me evil for good are my adversaries because I follow after good.

Psalm 38:21 Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me!

Psalm 38:22 Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!