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Psalm 38

A Penitent Sufferer’s Plea for Healing

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
¹ O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger,
   or 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;
   they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.

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

⁹ O Lord, all my longing is known to you;
   my sighing is not hidden from you.
¹⁰ My heart throbs, my strength fails me;
   as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
¹¹ My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,
   and my neighbours stand far off.

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

¹³ But I am like the deaf, I do not hear;
   like the mute, who cannot speak.
¹⁴ Truly, I am like one who does not hear,
   and in whose mouth is no retort.

¹⁵ But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;
   it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
¹⁶ For I pray, ‘Only do not let them rejoice over me,
   those who boast against me when my foot slips.’

¹⁷ For I am ready to fall,
   and my pain is ever with me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity;
   I am sorry for my sin.
¹⁹ Those who are my foes without cause^* are mighty,
   and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
²⁰ Those who render me evil for good
   are my adversaries because I follow after good.

²¹ Do not forsake me, O Lord;
   O my God, do not be far from me;
²² make haste to help me,
   O Lord, my salvation.

16 ‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
¹⁷ “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
   we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; ¹⁹the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’^*

Jesus Thanks His Father

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank^* you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.^{* 27}All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.