Psalm 38--Do Not Forsake Me, O LORD

Psalm 38
English Standard Version

Do Not Forsake Me, O LORD
A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
​
38 O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
    nor discipline me in your wrath!
2 For your arrows have sunk into me,
    and your hand has come down on me.

3 There is no soundness in my flesh
    because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
    because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;
    like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

5 My wounds stink and fester
    because of my foolishness,
6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
    all the day I go about mourning.
7 For my sides are filled with burning,
    and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and crushed;
    I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

9 O Lord, all my longing is before you;
    my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
    and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,
    and my nearest kin stand far off.

12 Those who seek my life lay their snares;
    those who seek my hurt speak of ruin
    and meditate treachery all day long.

13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,
    like a mute man who does not open his mouth.
14 I have become like a man who does not hear,
    and in whose mouth are no rebukes.

15 But for you, O LORD, do I wait;
    it is you, O LORD my God, who will answer.
16 For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me,
    who boast against me when my foot slips!”

17 For I am ready to fall,
    and my pain is ever before me.
18 I confess my iniquity;
    I am sorry for my sin.
19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty,
    and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 Those who render me evil for good
    accuse me because I follow after good.

21 Do not forsake me, O LORD!
    O my God, be not far from me!
22 Make haste to help me,
    O LORD, my salvation!

---

David speaks to the LORD as if He is David's father here....probably asking the LORD to not treat David the same way that David has treated his own children.  David asks for the LORD to not rebuke him out of His anger. or discipline him in His wrath.  We know that God's correction always comes from His love for the New Testament tells us, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6)

David says that his body, soul and mind are unsettled and affected by his sin that he is going and making sacrifice for (see the heading of the psalm that says this was in relation to a memorial offering that David was making).  David sees his sin in the same way that the LORD does--like a stinking, festering sore that needs to be dealt with before it infects and corrupts the whole man.  David says the weight is so heavy on him that he cannot bear it, but it was a weight that we were never meant to bear, as God never desired us to have to deal with the guilt and shame of sin.  Remember in the Garden, "They were naked and not ashamed" because there was no sin there.  God is good though and would provide a salvation whereby we could cast all these burdens that are too heavy for us to bear onto Christ who would bear them all in His own body on the cross.

Not only does David's sin affect his body, mind, and soul, but it also affects all of David's relationships so that no one desires to come near to him.  Even his closes friends and relatives now stand far off because they no longer want to be near David either because they are afraid to be associated with him or because of how his sin has changed him for the worse--maybe in ways that David didn't even see.  It has thrown David into a depression that David says that he knows the LORD has seen--there is no longer any "light" in his eyes (he no longer enjoys his life and if you look into his eyes to see his emotions, there will be no happiness or joy there).

David once again talks about the evil people that desire to lay snares for him and rejoice when he falls into them.  Typically, David has  a lot to say on this but now  David says that he has become like the deaf man who no longer has ears to hear and the mute man who no longer has the ability to rebuke others.  Instead he simply says that he will wait on the LORD and His answer.  David's only request is that the LORD keep these evil men from rejoicing and boasting over David when his foot slips (like it has here).  If the LORD shows that He still delights in the one whom He loves and that David is still "a man after God's own heart," despite this sin that David is confessing, then those who would want to celebrate will have no joy, for these enemies seem to desire to see the LORD break His covenant with David--that will never happen.

David wishes he could just stop and grieve his sin and have time to mourn, but there are evil men all around him who desire to do him harm, so he must continue to be vigilant.  He knows the LORD knows how he feels, and he also knows that that LORD knows what's really going on and that his enemies wish to repay evil for good.  They hate him because he is a "do-gooder" and he makes them look bad.  It's like the kids who were all hoping they could slack off in school and make the teacher bump everyone's grades up to give them a better grade than they earned, but then there's that one kid in class that does everything right and gets good grades and "ruins" it for everyone else that has conspired together to do what is wrong.  They do not take responsibility for what they have done, nor do they try to correct their own bad behavior--instead they get mad at the one who did what was right and try to figure out ways to get him to come along with them or to get rid of him.  If these evil men imagined that God was somehow going to "grade on a curve" so that He would have to let everyone into heaven, David seems to have "busted the curve" for them.

David ends by asking the LORD to not abandon him and to make haste to come and save him once again.  This psalm ends with "O LORD, my salvation."  We truly do need this salvation, not just from our enemies that David is talking about in the end of this psalm, but from our sin and brokenness that he talks about in the beginning and middle of this psalm.  Jesus is the savior that answers all of these needs.