Psalm 38:1

Psalm 38:1

Do not rebuke me

There’s no hiding from it, this is not an uplifting Psalm! It does not even end, as many of David’s Psalms do, on a note of praise and positivity. The dirge continues to the end and the beleaguered King is in a fatalistic state of mind. Most commentators believe that David is cowering before the Lord as a direct consequence of sin and he believes that sickness and approaching death are the result of his disobedience and wickedness. His friends appear to have forsaken him, his enemies are plotting and scheming his demise and the Lord God, who is always a refuge, seems to be far away. It would be easy to skip Psalm 38, and Psalm 39 for that matter, and move on to the happier comforts of Psalm 40 – but we cannot. We cannot because Psalm 38 describes a state of mind that I suspect most of us are familiar with. We have sinned, gravely, we have allowed ourselves to enter a depressive place of self-torment where we bitterly regret our actions. Our mind and body suffer along with our spirit and the Lord God seems a million miles away.  Death seems to leer over us, it’s gaping jaws eager to drag us down and all we can cry, like David, is “Lord, do not forsake me.” If you can identify with these feelings then read on for it is a comfort to know we are not alone in this. 

 

V1        There is an element of self-pity in this Psalm, as we shall see, and it is also fair to surmise that David had brought much of his suffering upon himself. Never-the-less we have to give him credit, at the very outset all he is concerned about is his relationship with the Lord God. He may be rebuking himself for his foolishness and he may be angry with himself and he may need to discipline himself as a consequence. However, his primary concern is to do with the Lord’s anger, the Lord’s rebuke and the Lord’s discipline. This is a good place for us all to start actually, before we try to rationalise our actions and decide how we are going to discipline ourselves, we need to line up with the Lord’s position on our sin. All other consequences are bad enough, but nothing is to be feared as much as God’s anger and God’s wrath. And let’s be clear here, God hates sin, God is angry with those who reject Him and who deliberately break His laws. If you want an idea of how angry sin makes Him, cast a thought back to the time of Noah where we read that He regretted that he had made human beings and His heart was deeply troubled. Consequently, He destroyed mankind from the earth by the Flood. David is setting an example for us here, before we have any other considerations it is to the Lord God that we must account for our actions and if we have sinned then we should be fearful of His anger! 

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