Psalms 38 · The Lantern

Unto the end. For Jeduthun himself. A Canticle of David.

God, the Creator of human bodies, knew that the frailty of the human body would be such as could contract various sicknesses and would be liable to wounds and other infirmities; and therefore, providing beforehand for the sufferings to come, he also brought forth medicines out of the earth and handed down the discipline of medicine, so that if sickness should befall the body, h…

"O Lord, rebuke me not in Your indignation; neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure" [Psalm 38:1]. For it will be that some shall be chastened in God's "hot displeasure," and rebuked in His "indignation." And haply not all who are "rebuked" will be "chastened;" yet are there some that are to be saved in the chastening.

Above, the Psalmist implored divine help against persecutors, at "Judge"; he also showed their wickedness, at "The unjust one said"; he taught us to despise the prosperity of the wicked in the preceding Psalm, "Do not be envious"; but in this Psalm he confesses that he is afflicted on account of his sins. Concerning this he does two things. First, he sets forth his affliction.

I said, “I will keep to my ways, so that I will not offend with my tongue.” I posted a guard at my mouth, when a sinner took up a position against me.

But he who says this ought to bring forward some reason why he does not wish to be reproved in wrath, or to be corrected in anger. And let us see what that reason is, so that if we offend, we, learning this reason and doing according to what we are taught, may not fall into the vengeance of the one reproving in wrath, or of the one correcting in anger.

"For Your arrows stick fast in me, and Your hand presses me sore" [Psalm 38:2]. "There is no soundness in my flesh, from the face of Your anger" [Psalm 38:3]. He has now begun telling these evils, which he is suffering here: and yet even this already was from the wrath of the Lord, because it was of the vengeance of the Lord. "Of what vengeance?" That which He took upon Adam.

"For your arrows." Mercy has no place except where there is misery. And therefore concerning this he does two things. First, he commemorates his manifold misery. Second, he asks for divine help, at "Do not forsake me." He shows the misery, first, which he suffers from above, namely from God inflicting it.

I was silenced and humbled, and I was quiet before good things, and my sorrow was renewed.

"There is no peace in my bones in the face of my sins." He too who has sinned, and after the sin remembers that he has sinned, ought to say these things, just as David himself said in the fiftieth psalm: "And my sin is ever before me." There are certain people who, when they have sinned, are utterly secure, and do not think about their sin, nor does it come to their senses what…

Whosoever feareth sleepeth not, and if he sleepeth, he seeth in his dream the cause of his fear; he eateth not, and he drinketh not, and if the force of natural craving compel him, fear is mingled with his meat and drink.

"There is no soundness." Here he sets forth the effects of the striking. "My flesh is disordered," subjected to corruption and infection. Rom. 7: "I know that there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, anything good." In another way, it can be understood of the commemoration of contrition; and thus he assigns the reason why he does not wish to be punished by God.

My heart grew hot within me, and, during my meditation, a fire would flare up.

Let him also add these things who repents for his sins, and let him say: "For my iniquities have risen above my head; like a heavy burden they have been made heavy upon me." For those who neither grieve nor are burdened for their sins, but are secure and float about in delights, cannot say these things, nor do they feel that their iniquities indeed grow and go beyond the height…

"For mine iniquities have lifted up my head; and are like a heavy burden too heavy for me to bear" (ver. 4). Here too he has placed the cause first, and the effect afterwards. What consequence followed, and from what cause, he has told us. "Mine iniquities have lift up mine head." For no one is proud but the unrighteous man, whose head is lifted up.

Three things aggravate sins: namely, the multitude of sins, their gravity, and their repetition, because if one sins frequently, it is grave. He says therefore regarding the first, "For my iniquities have passed over my head." This is a mode of speech. By "iniquities" is signified the multitude of sins, because just as water overwhelms a man, so sins submerge a man.

I spoke with my tongue, “O Lord, make me know my end, and what the number of my days will be, so that I may know what is lacking to me.”

These are they who can also say what follows: "for my scars have festered and rotted." "Do not," says the Savior, "cast your pearls before swine," there calling swine those who take delight in the stenches of their sins, who seek out every stench as a most sweet odor.

For nothing is more filthy, nothing more impure, than sin. Wherefore the Prophet declaring its nature cried out, "My wounds stink, and are corrupt." And if thou wilt fully learn how ill-savored sin is, consider it after it hath been done; when thou art delivered from the desire, when the fire no longer troubleth thee, then shalt thou see what sin is.

Regarding the third he says, on account of relapse: "My sores have rotted and become corrupt." A scar is left from a wound; and so also when someone has sinned and his sin has been forgiven, but there is still a proneness to sinning, it is like a scar from a wound. But sometimes God heals it through satisfaction and the exercise of good works. Jer.

Behold, you have made my days measurable, and, before you, my substance is as nothing. Yet truly, all things are vanity: every living man.

"I have been afflicted with miseries and bowed down even to the end." But you may sometimes see the man who has sinned mourning and saddened with the sorrow that is according to the world; for the sorrow that is according to God works repentance unto stable salvation. But this man says that I have been afflicted with miseries and bowed down even to the end.

"I am troubled, I am bowed down even unto the end" [Psalm 38:6]. Wherefore was he "bowed down"? Because he had been "lifted up." If thou art "humble, thou shalt be exalted;" if thou exaltest thyself, thou shalt be "bowed down;" for God will be at no loss to find a weight wherewith to bow thee down.

"Wretched." Above the Psalmist said, "There is no peace in my bones," and he showed what his sins are, that they are many, grave, and repeated; here he treats of the removal of peace. And concerning this he does two things. First, he sets forth the restlessness against peace.

So then, truly man passes by like an image; even so, he is disquieted in vain. He stores up, and he knows not for whom he will gather these things.

"All the day I went about saddened, for my loins are filled with illusions." In the loins or in the reins the receptacle of human seed is said to be; whereby that kind of sin is indicated which is carried out through lust.

So, he means, my handling of desire not fittingly but wastefully proved the cause of these troubles.… From that desire [as he says in the next verse] I garnered the fruit, which was my stooping to earth, he is saying, and constant bewailing on account of my heart's bitter pangs.

"For my loins are filled with illusions." Here is set forth the cause of the sorrow. According to the Gloss, it is explained that by "loins" is understood the soul. And he says "loins" because there is where delight resides. "And there is no soundness in my flesh," to show that he is infirm both within and without.

And now, what is it that awaits me? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is with you.

"I have been afflicted and humbled exceedingly." On the festivals of the Lord we are commanded to eat the bread of affliction, and on those very festivals it is said that a man is to humble his soul; and when the festival of propitiation is proclaimed, it is said: "Humble your souls." Since, therefore, he who repents for his offenses afflicts and humbles himself, just as that p…

"Afflicted." Here he sets forth the magnitude of the sorrow. And first he sets forth such magnitude. Second, he sets forth a sign of it, at "I roared." He posited two things regarding sorrow. The first, that he is saddened. The second, that he is bowed down. By the first he designates sorrow; by the second, dejection; and he must repeat these two here.

Rescue me from all my iniquities. You have handed me over as a reproach to the foolish.

And who observed and noticed the cause of his groaning? "All my desire is before You" [Psalm 38:9]. For it is not before men who cannot see the heart, but it is before You that all my desire is open!

When the soul does what it can, grace lifts it up easily and God works in it, so that there be a worthy admission of divine matters, corresponding to the Thrones. "O Lord, all my desire is before You; from You my groaning is not hid." Later, when the soul is lifted up, it must not be idle, but should look around.

"O Lord, before you is all my desire." Here is set forth the remedy of consolation. And first he shows that in God alone is the remedy of his consolation. Second, he shows that this is necessary for him, because he has nothing in himself from which to take comfort, at "My heart." Hos.

I was silenced, and I did not open my mouth, because it was you who acted.

"My heart is troubled." Wherefore is it troubled? "And my courage hath failed me." Generally something comes upon us on a sudden; the "heart is troubled;" the earth quakes; thunder is sent from Heaven; a formidable attack is made upon us, or a horrible sound heard.

"My heart is troubled." Here he shows the necessity that his consolation be from God, because there is nothing in him from which he can take comfort. There are three things in a person: namely, the intellect, the will, and the executive power. The intellect directs, the will commands, the power executes; and these three fail in me.

Remove your scourges from me.

He who confesses to God for his sins, and grieves in spirit while he repents, knowing what punishment threatens the sinner after the departure from this life, speaks these words, setting forth how much he who turns himself to repentance and amendment must suffer, how his friends and neighbors abandon him and are made distant, because he himself has turned to the confession (exo…

"My lovers;" why should I henceforth speak of my enemies? "My lovers and my neighbours drew nigh, and stood over against me." Understand this that he saith, "Stood over against me." For if they stood over against me, they fell against themselves.

"My friends and my neighbors." Above, the Psalmist diligently set forth the misery which he suffers from above and from within; here, however, the misery which he suffers from his equals. Concerning this he does two things. First, he shows what he suffers from men. Second, for what reason, at "But my enemies." Concerning the first he does three things.

I fall short at corrections from the strength of your hand. For you have chastised man for iniquity. And you have made his soul shrink away like a spider. Nevertheless, it is in vain that any man be disquieted.

"They, therefore, who sought evils for me spoke vanities, and meditated deceit all the day long". See the one who lies in ambush for the righteous. For I already call righteous the one who becomes "his own accuser in the first place", as the word of Scripture indicates.

"They also that sought after my soul were preparing violence against me" [Psalm 38:12]. It is now plain who "sought after His soul;" viz. those who had not His soul, in that they were not in His Body. They who were "seeking after His soul," were far removed from His soul; but they were "seeking it" to destroy it. For His soul may be "sought after" in a right way also.

"And they used violence, who sought my life." And he was not only afflicted by friends in this way, but also by enemies. Now there is a twofold kind of enemies. Some are mortal enemies and kill. Others are not mortal, because they do not seek to kill; and he speaks here of both. Of the first he says, "They used violence, who sought my life," that is, who sought to kill me.

O Lord, heed my prayer and my supplication. Pay attention to my tears. Do not be silent. For I am a newcomer with you, and a sojourner, just as all my fathers were.

"But I, like one deaf, did not hear, and like one dumb who does not open his mouth. And I became like a man who does not hear". When I was cursed, when I was charged, when men brought forth all reproaches against me, I was like one deaf, and I did not hear, and like one dumb I did not open my mouth, I returned no curses for the curses.

He says then, "But I as a deaf man heard not" [Psalm 38:13]. He who replied not to what He heard, did, as it were, not hear them. "But I as a deaf man heard not. And I was as a dumb man that opens not his mouth." And he repeats the same things again.

"But I, as one deaf." Here he shows the patience he exhibited. And first he sets forth the patience; second, the effect of patience, at "And I became like a man." When men are afflicted, unless they bear it patiently, they are first disturbed in soul, then disordered in words. But the remedy against being disturbed in soul is to be like a deaf person not hearing wicked words.

Forgive me, so that I may be refreshed, before I will go forth and be no more.

"And I became as a man that hears not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs" [Psalm 38:14]. As if He had nothing to say unto them, as if He had nothing wherewith to reproach them. Had He not already reproached them for many things? Had He not said many things, and also said, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees," [Matthew 23:13] and many things besides?

History teaches this more clearly. Even when Absalom mounted a case against his father and drew to his side those who had lost cases in judgment, blessed David was long-suffering.

"And I became like a man not hearing." Here is set forth the effect of patience; but this is against the opinion of the wicked, who attribute this to cowardice, not to virtue. And he says, "I became," namely in their opinion, "like a man not hearing," and not a virtuous man. Hence it is said of Christ, "You will not speak to me?" Jn. 19.

Psalms38