Psalms 38:5

_MY WOUNDS STINK AND ARE CORRUPT BECAUSE OF MY FOOLISHNESS._ My wounds ... are corrupt (_ NAAMAQUW_ (H4743)) - literally, melt away. BECAUSE OF MY FOOLISHNESS - perverse sin. The sinner is a fool, and errs not merely against God, but against his own soul (Psalms 14:1; Psalms 69:5; Proverbs 8:36)....

5_My wounds _(50) _have become putrid _In this verse, he pleads the long continuance of his disease as an argument for obtaining some alleviation. When the Lord declares, concerning his Church, “that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,” (Isaiah 40:2) his meaning is, that when he has sufficiently chastised his people, he is quickly pacified towards them; nay, more, that if he continue to manifest his displeasure for too long a time, he becomes through his mercy, as it were, weary of it, so that he hastens to give deliverance, as he says in another place, “For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have r

1-11 Nothing will disquiet the heart of a good man so much as the sense of God's anger. The way to keep the heart quiet, is to keep ourselves in the love of God. But a sense of guilt is too heavy to bear; and would sink men into despair and ruin, unless removed by the pardoning mercy of God. If there were not sin in our souls, there would be no pain in our bones, no illness in our bodies. The guilt of sin is a burden to the whole creation, which groans under it. It will be a burden to the sinners themselves, when they are heavy-laden under it, or a burden of ruin, when it sinks them to hell. When we perceive our true condition, the Good Physician will be valued, sought, and obeyed. Yet many let their wounds rankle, because they delay to go to their merciful Friend. When, at any time, we are distempered in our bodies, we ought to remember how God has been dishonoured in and by our bodies...

Verse Psalms 38:5. _MY WOUNDS STINK_ AND _ARE CORRUPT_] Taking this in connection with the rest of the Psalm, I do not see that we can understand the word in any _figurative_ or _metaphorical_ way. I believe they refer to _some disease_ with which he was at this time afflicted; but whether the _leprosy_, the _small pox_, or some other disorder that had attacked the whole system, and showed its virulence on different parts of the outer surface, cannot be absolutely determined. _BECAUSE OF MY FOOLISHNESS._] This may either signify _sin_ as the cause of his present affliction, or it may import an affliction which was the consequence of that _foolish levity_ which prefers the momentary gratification of an irregular passion to health of body and peace of mind....

MY WOUNDS STINK - The word rendered “wounds” here means properly the swelling or wales produced by stripes. See the notes at Isaiah 1:6; notes at Isaiah 53:5. The meaning here is, that he was under chastisement for his sin; that the stripes or blows on account of it had not only left a mark and produced a swelling, but that the skin itself had been broken, and that the flesh had become corrupt, and the sore offensive. Many expositors regard this as a mere figurative representation of the sorrow produced by the consciousness of sin; and of the loathsome nature of sin, but it seems to me that the whole connection rather requires us to understand it of bodily suffering, or of disease. AND ARE CORRUPT - The word used here - מ

EXPOSITION THIS is the third of the penitential psalms, and is appropriately recited by the Church on Ash Wednesday. Of all the penitential psalms it is the one which shows the deepest marks of utter prostration of heart and spirit under a combination of the severest trials, both mental and bodily. The mind of the writer is racked by a sense of God's displeasure (Psalms 38:1, Psalms 38:2, etc.), by grief at the desertion of friends (Psalms 38:11), by fear of the machinations and threats of enemies (Psalms 38:12, Psalms 38:19,...

MY WOUNDS STINK, [AND] ARE CORRUPT,.... Meaning his sins, which had wounded him, and for which there is no healing but in a wounded Saviour, and by his stripes we are healed, Isaiah 53:5; where the same word is used as here; Christ's black and blue stripes and wounds, as the word signifies, are the healing of ours, both of sins, and of the effects of them; which, to a sensible sinner, are as nauseous and loathsome as an old wound that is festered and corrupt; BECAUSE OF MY FOOLISHNESS: as all sin arises from foolishness, which is bound in the hearts of men, and from whence it arises, Mark 7:22; perhaps the psalmist may have respect to his folly with Bathsheba, which had been the occasion of all the distress that is spoken of both before and afterwards....

A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. Remember, although this is a very sorrowful Psalm, it was written by a man of God. It will show you what a terrible thing sin must be, for even a child of God feels the smart of it very grievously. This is not the language of an unforgiven sinner; it is the cry of a saint who, for a while, has sinned, and is feeling the bitterness of his transgression. Psalms 38:1. _O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath:_ «If thou dost rebuke me, O Lord, do it gently! Be not very angry with me, for I cannot bear it, I shall die under it. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath.» Psalms 38:1. _Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure._ «Chasten me, it will do me good; it is needful; it is profitable; but not in thy displeasure, certainly not

Psalms 38 The Suffering Saint and Confession of Sin _ 1. Suffering and Humiliation (Psalms 38:1)_ 2. Looking to the Lord (Psalms 38:9) 3. Confession and prayer (Psalms 38:16) This Psalm is read by the Jews on the day of atonement. It pictures great suffering in body and soul; it reminds us in different ways of the book of Job. (See and compare Psalms 38:2 with Job 6:4; Psalms

XXXVIII. A PENITENTIAL PSALM. After a short prayer for pity (verbally identical with Psalms 6:2), the poet describes his bodily and mental pains, the desertion of his friends, and the unscrupulous attack of his foes. But he waits in silence for Yahweh's answer and is ready to confess his sin, turning eagerly and hopefully to his God. PSALMS 38:2. ARROWS: the pains God sends. Psalms 38:8_ b_. Read, I have cried out louder than the roaring of a lion. Psalms 38:18. It is impossible to say whether the poet is referring to some definite sin or only to the general sinfulness of human nature....