A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XXXVIII.
_David moveth God to take compassion of his pitiful case._ A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance. O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. _There is_ no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither _is there any_ rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink _and_ are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome _disease_: and _there is_ no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. LORD, all my desire _is_ before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek after my life lay snares _for me_: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
But I, as a deaf _man_, heard not; and _I was_ as a dumb man _that_ openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth _are_ no reproofs. For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O LORD my God. For I said, _Hear me_; lest _otherwise_ they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify _themselves_ against me. For I _am_ ready to halt, and my sorrow _is_ continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin. But mine enemies _are_ lively, _and_ they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow _the thing that_ good _is_. Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O LORD my salvation.
This is a fervent prayer to God, in which David complains with wonderful groanings, that he is stricken and bruised with the sense of his sin; that he is distressed and straitened in spirit under the deepest sorrow; and that he can see nothing and feel nothing but wrath from heaven, and the terrible lightnings, arrows, and threatenings of God; and in a word, death, and hell itself; and that this great distress exhausts not only all the moisture, all the strength, all the blood, and all the marrow of his frame, but fills him with an unspeakable alarm and perturbation, and makes him pant and sweat with agony; so that the intenseness of his feelings, destroys the natural colour and appearance of his face, and affects his whole body. For to feel in reality the burthen of the conscience under a sense of sin, is a distress and terror exceeding all other distresses and terrors. And these deep temptations of the godly are greatly increased by those wicked ones without, who cease not to call them heretics, seditious persons, and murderers. For these hypocrites, while they boast in the teeth of the godly that they are the true saints, and the true church, and the real people of God, (and God in the meantime, which is often the case, not bringing in help and consolation) the godly are deeply grieved and afflicted, as if God was their enemy because of their sins.
But this Psalm teaches us constantly to hope for, and expect the help and consolation of God, and still to fight against all such hypocrites by prayer. And the prophet, in the midst of the agonizing conflict of this temptation, sustains and lifts up himself by taking courage from the divine promise. And here he maintains his cause, (which is not the cause of men but of God,) as a strong fortress against Satan and his cause, and here again flows in the consolation of faith, &c. And so also we ought to pray always, and in no temptation yield to sorrow of mind, even though we are sinners, and though Satan shakes us with the horrible terrors of sin: for grace is stronger than sin!
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.