Bible Commentaries
Psalms 38

Verses 1-22

This is the third of what are known as the penitential psalms. The circumstances of the singer were most distressing. He was suffering from some terrible physical malady, deserted by his friends, and persecuted by his enemies. The deepest bitterness of his soul was caused by his overwhelming sense of his moral pollution. He recognized that all his sufferings were the rebukes and chastisements of Jehovah for his sin. This sense of sin crushed him and in his distress he cried out to Jehovah.

The use of the divine names and titles in this psalm is interesting. The first cry for help is to Jehovah. When he would utter his complaint concerning the desertion of friends and persecution of foes, the singer addresses himself to the Lord as the supreme Being. In his final appeal he both begins and closes with Jehovah, Lord, and God. All the foundations seem to have given way beneath his feet, and with deep contrition and desperate endeavor he strives to take hold of God in all the facts of His being. In this he was right, for so desperate a case demands the help, the government, the might of God. Blessed be His name forever; all are at our Disposal.