Psa 38:1-8 | KD | STEP | The Penitential Psalm, 38, is placed immediately after Ps 37 on account of the similarity of its close to the ת strophe of that Psalm. It begins like -10. If we regard David’s adultery as the occasion of it (cf. more especially ), then Psa 6:1-10; 38; 51; form a chronological series. David is distressed both in mind and body, forsaken by his friends, and regarded by his foes as one who is cast off for ever. The fire of divine anger burns within him like a fever, and the divine withdrawal as it were rests upon him like darkness. But he fights his way by prayer through this fire and this darkness to the bright confidence of faith. The Psalm, although it is the pouring forth of such elevated and depressed feelings, is nevertheless symmetrically and skilfully laid out. It consists of three main paragraphs, which divide into four ( ), three ( ), and four ( ) tetrastichs. The way in which the names of God are brought in is well conceived. The first word of the first group or paragraph is יהוה, the first word of the second אדני, and in the third יהוה and אדני are used interchangeably twice. The Psalm, in common with , bears the inscription להזכּיר. The chronicler, in , refers to these Hazkir Psalms together with the Hodu and Halleluja Psalms. In connection with the presentation of meat-offerings, מנחות, a portion of the meat-offering was cast into the altar fire, viz., a handful of the meal mixed with oil and the whole of the incense. This portion was called אזכּרה, ἀνάμνησις, and to offer it הזכּיר (a denominative), because the ascending smoke was intended to bring the owner of the offering into remembrance with God. In connection with the presentation of this memorial portion of the mincha , the two Psalms are appointed to be used as prayers; hence the inscription: at the presentation of the Azcara (the portion taken from the meal-offering). The lxx adds here περὶ (τοῦ) σαββάτου; perhaps equivalent to לשּׁבּת. In this Psalm we find a repetition of a peculiarity of the penitential Psalms, viz., that the praying one has to complain not only of afflictions of body and soul, but also of outward enemies, who come forward as his accusers and take occasion from his sin to prepare the way for his ruin. This arises from the fact that the Old Testament believer, whose perception of sin was not as yet so spiritual and deep as that of the New Testament believer, almost always calls to mind some sinful act that has become openly known. The foes, who would then prepare for his ruin, are the instruments of the Satanic power of evil (cf. , ישׂטנוּני), which, as becomes perceptible to the New Testament believer even without the intervention of outward foes, desires the death of the sinning one, whereas God wills that he should live.

‏ Psalms 38:1-8

Prayer for the Changing of Merited Wrath into Rescuing Love

The Penitential Psalm, 38, is placed immediately after Ps 37 on account of the similarity of its close to the ת strophe of that Psalm. It begins like Psa 6:1-10. If we regard David’s adultery as the occasion of it (cf. more especially 2Sa 12:14), then Psa 6:1-10; 38; 51; Psa 32:1-11 form a chronological series. David is distressed both in mind and body, forsaken by his friends, and regarded by his foes as one who is cast off for ever. The fire of divine anger burns within him like a fever, and the divine withdrawal as it were rests upon him like darkness. But he fights his way by prayer through this fire and this darkness to the bright confidence of faith. The Psalm, although it is the pouring forth of such elevated and depressed feelings, is nevertheless symmetrically and skilfully laid out. It consists of three main paragraphs, which divide into four (Psa 38:2), three (Psa 38:10), and four (Psa 38:16) tetrastichs. The way in which the names of God are brought in is well conceived. The first word of the first group or paragraph is יהוה, the first word of the second אדני, and in the third יהוה and אדני are used interchangeably twice. The Psalm, in common with Psa 70:1-5, bears the inscription להזכּיר. The chronicler, in 1Ch 16:4, refers to these Hazkir Psalms together with the Hodu and Halleluja Psalms. In connection with the presentation of meat-offerings, מנחות, a portion of the meat-offering was cast into the altar fire, viz., a handful of the meal mixed with oil and the whole of the incense. This portion was called אזכּרה, ἀνάμνησις, and to offer it הזכּיר (a denominative), because the ascending smoke was intended to bring the owner of the offering into remembrance with God. In connection with the presentation of this memorial portion of the mincha, the two Psalms are appointed to be used as prayers; hence the inscription: at the presentation of the Azcara (the portion taken from the meal-offering). The lxx adds here περὶ (τοῦ) σαββάτου; perhaps equivalent to לשּׁבּת.

In this Psalm we find a repetition of a peculiarity of the penitential Psalms, viz., that the praying one has to complain not only of afflictions of body and soul, but also of outward enemies, who come forward as his accusers and take occasion from his sin to prepare the way for his ruin. This arises from the fact that the Old Testament believer, whose perception of sin was not as yet so spiritual and deep as that of the New Testament believer, almost always calls to mind some sinful act that has become openly known. The foes, who would then prepare for his ruin, are the instruments of the Satanic power of evil (cf. Psa 38:21, ישׂטנוּני), which, as becomes perceptible to the New Testament believer even without the intervention of outward foes, desires the death of the sinning one, whereas God wills that he should live. Psa 38:1-8 (Hebrew_Bible_38:2-9) David begins, as in Psa 6:1-10, with the prayer that his punitive affliction may be changed into disciplinary. Bakius correctly paraphrases. Psa 38:2 : Corripe sane per legem, castiga per crucem, millies promerui, negare non possum, sed castiga, quaeso, me ex amore ut pater, non ex furore et fervore ut judex; ne punias justitiae rigore, sed misericordiae dulcore (cf. on Psa 6:2). The negative is to be repeated in Psa 38:2, as in Psa 1:5; Psa 9:19; Psa 75:6. In the description, which give the ground of the cry for pity, נחת, is not the Piel, as in Psa 18:35, but the Niphal of the Kal נחת immediately following (root נח). קצף is anger as a breaking forth, fragor (cf. Hos 10:7, lxx φρύγανον), with ĕ instead of ı̆ in the first syllable, vowels which alternate in this word; and חמה, as a glowing or burning. חצּים (in Homer, κῆλα), God’s wrath-arrows, i.e., lightnings of wrath, are His judgments of wrath; and יד, as in Psa 32:4; Psa 39:11, God’s punishing hand, which makes itself felt in dispensing punishment, hence תּנחת might be attached as a mood of sequence. In Psa 38:4 wrath is called זעם as a boiling up. Sin is the cause of this experiencing wrath, and the wrath is the cause of the bodily derangement; sin as an exciting cause of the wrath always manifests itself outwardly even on the body as a fatal power. In Psa 38:5 sin is compared to waters that threaten to drown one, as in Psa 38:5 to a burden that presses one down. ככבּדוּ ממּנּי, they are heavier than I, i.e., than my power of endurance, too heavy for me. In Psa 38:6 the effects of the operation of the divine hand (as punishing) are wounds, חבּוּרת (properly, suffused variegated marks from a blow or wheals, Isa 1:6; from חבר, Arab. ḥbr, to be or make striped, variegated), which הבאישׁוּ, send forth an offensive smell, and נמקּוּ, suppurate. Sin, which causes this, is called אוּלת, because, as it is at last manifest, it is always the destruction of itself. With emphasis does מפּני אוּלתּי form the second half of the verse. To take נעויתי out of Psa 38:7 and put it to this, as Meier and Thenius propose, is to destroy this its proper position. On the three מפּני, vid., Ewald, §217, l. Thus sick in soul and body, he is obliged to bow and bend himself in the extreme. נעוה is used of a convulsive drawing together of the body, Isa 21:3; שׁחח, of a bowed mien, Psa 35:14; הלּך, of a heavy, lagging gait. With כּי in Psa 38:8 the grounding of the petition begins for the third time. His כּסלים, i.e., internal muscles of the loins, which are usually the fattest parts, are full of נקלה, that which is burnt, i.e., parched. It is therefore as though the burning, starting from the central point of the bodily power, would spread itself over the whole body: the wrath of God works commotion in this latter as well as in the soul. Whilst all the energies of life thus yield, there comes over him a partial, almost total lifelessness. פּוּג is the proper word for the coldness and rigidity of a corpse; the Niphal means to be brought into this condition, just as נדכּא means to be crushed, or to be brought into a condition of crushing, i.e., of violent dissolution. The מן of מנּהמת is intended to imply that the loud wail is only the utterance of the pain that is raging in his heart, the outward expression of his ceaseless, deep inward groaning.