Day 38 of Searching the Psalms

Please share your thoughts in the comments below each day so that we can
learn and grow together as we seek to know God and live justly.


Psalm 38 (NIV)


1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Your arrows have pierced me,
and your hand has come down on me.
3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.
4 My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.

5 My wounds fester and are loathsome
because of my sinful folly.
6 I am bowed down and brought very low;
all day long I go about mourning.
7 My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.
8 I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.

9 All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.
11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbors stay far away.
12 Those who want to kill me set their traps,
those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
all day long they scheme and lie.

13 I am like the deaf, who cannot hear,
like the mute, who cannot speak;
14 I have become like one who does not hear,
whose mouth can offer no reply.
15 Lord, I wait for you;
you will answer, Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Do not let them gloat
or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.”

17 For I am about to fall,
and my pain is ever with me.
18 I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin.
19 Many have become my enemies without cause[b];
those who hate me without reason are numerous.
20 Those who repay my good with evil
lodge accusations against me,
though I seek only to do what is good.

21 Lord, do not forsake me;
do not be far from me, my God.
22 Come quickly to help me,
my Lord and my Savior.

Comments

  1. She Wields A SwordSeptember 7, 2020 at 6:30 AM

    Like David, I can cry out to the Lord in my distress.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KathleenSeptember 8, 2020 at 11:49 AM

    This is such a hard psalm. But I think it may be a pattern for us to follow:
    1. Acknowledge our own sins before God and accept what has been "fastened to us" by the Lord (which I believe is the very knowledge of the gravity of our own sins).

    2. Then turn a deaf ear and a mute tongue to those who rail against us, because we know that our hope is in no human being but in God.

    3. And lastly, to never depart from/forsake the Lord who is our only salvation.

    ReplyDelete

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