Psalm 38 — Coping with chastisement

When David wrote this psalm, he was undergoing three difficulties. He was experiencing divine chastisement for his sins, he was suffering from a severe illness and he was enduring harassment from his enemies. The illness could have been part of the chastisement, and God could also have allowed the intensity of the ongoing opposition to David to increase.

Regarding his sin, whatever it was, David knew that it had offended God. His God was coming against him like a warrior firing arrows deep into his soul. He was discovering that sin is much more than the particular action; that it flows from a reservoir of sin within him that could show itself in numerous other ways. Indeed it was like a burden submerging him down and down.

His illness had not only produced physical pain. It had also resulted in isolation from those who were closest to him, his friends and relatives (v. 11). They were afraid to come near him because a plague is contagious. While there would have been natural causes for the plague, it is also likely that God was using the resultant isolation to deal with the plague of sin in David’s heart and to remove opportunities for diverting David away from focussing on it.

The opponents of David realised that his separation from others was an ideal time to increase their attacks on him. Indeed they assumed that his ruin was near, so they were laying their traps to snare him. David was too weak even to respond to them, and he felt unable to rebuke them, perhaps because of his sense of his personal failures and sins (vv. 12-14).

Where could David go? Only to the Lord who was arranging the distress. He tells God what he longs for, he mentions his sense of weakness, his experience of isolation from others, and the behaviour of his opponents. Yet what dominated his outlook was the reality of being brought face to face with his sin and his experience of God’s indignation against him.

Nevertheless, he realised that he could approach his God for help. He prayed for protection from his foes. He admitted his inability to preserve himself, and stated his grief over his sins. His desire was to engage in good activities, unlike his opponents. In his distress, he asked the Lord to come to his aid, not to leave him in danger, and to work in grace and in providence for his deliverance and restoration (vv. 15-22).

This psalm is somewhat unusual because in it David does not say if the Lord heard his prayer, which means that he wrote it before he had received an answer. Yet he had been guided by God to compose it in such a way. There could be a lesson here for us to write out our thoughts and cares and present them often to God while we wait for his answer.