Psalms 38 - Introduction

A.M. 2962. B.C. 1042.

Dr. Delaney, in the seventh chapter of the third book of his Life of David, has given it as his opinion that this Psalm, and the next three, were occasioned by a grievous distemper wherewith David was afflicted, and which he considered as the chastisement of God upon him for his sins. That this calamity fell upon him about the time that a dangerous and rebellious conspiracy was formed against him, he thinks, appears from the same Psalms. And, forasmuch as we hear of no more than one conspiracy of that kind formed against him, it follows, he says, that his sickness fell upon him about the time of that conspiracy. And that his distemper was that which is now known among us under the name of the small pox, he judges to be very probable. Theodoret, however, and many other commentators, think that David was not sick, but that in this Psalm he called to remembrance all the sad disasters which befell him; as the murder of his son Amnon, the rebellion of his son Absalom, and all the other calamities mentioned in his history. Be this as it may; whether this Psalm be understood in a literal or allegorical sense, David bewails his sins so pathetically in it, that it is reckoned among the penitential Psalms. He complains of God's displeasure and of his sins, Psalms 38:1. Of his affliction, Psalms 38:6. Of the unkindness of his friends and the injuries of his enemies, Psalms 38:11. Prays to God for help, Psalms 38:21; Psalms 38:22.

Title. To bring to remembrance Either to God, that by this humble and mournful prayer he might prevail with God to remember and pity him; or to himself, that by reviewing this Psalm afterward, he might call to mind his former danger and misery, and God's wonderful mercy in delivering him; and that others also might remember what God had done for him.