Psalms 38:1-8

Psalm 38 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. ² 

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! ³ 

38:2 For your arrows pierce ⁴  me,

and your hand presses me down. ⁵ 

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ⁶ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ⁷ 

38:4 For my sins overwhelm me; ⁸ 

like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear.

38:5 My wounds ⁹  are infected and starting to smell, ¹⁰ 

because of my foolish sins. ¹¹ 

38:6 I am dazed ¹²  and completely humiliated; ¹³ 

all day long I walk around mourning.

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ¹⁴ 

and my whole body is sick. ¹⁵ 

38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; ¹⁶ 

I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 90:7-10

90:7 Yes, ¹⁸  we are consumed by your anger;

we are terrified by your wrath.

90:8 You are aware of our sins; ¹⁹ 

you even know about our hidden sins. ²⁰ 

90:9 Yes, ²¹  throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; ²² 

the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. ²³ 

90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, ²⁴ 

or eighty, if one is especially strong. ²⁵ 

But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. ²⁶ 

Yes, ²⁷  they pass quickly ²⁸  and we fly away. ²⁹ 

Psalms 90:1

Book 4
(Psalms 90-106)

Psalm 90 ³⁰ 

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

90:1 O Lord, you have been our protector ³¹  through all generations!

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ³²  from the hope laid up ³³  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ³⁴ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ³⁵  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Hebrews 12:6

12:6 “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts.” ³⁶ 

Revelation 3:19

3:19 All those ³⁷  I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent!

[38:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

[38:1]  ² tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

[38:1]  ³ tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

[38:2]  ⁴ tn The verb Hebrew נָחַת (nakhat) apparently here means “penetrate, pierce” (note the use of the Qal in Prov 17:10). The psalmist pictures the Lord as a warrior who shoots arrows at him (see Ps 7:12-13).

[38:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your hand [?] upon me.” The meaning of the verb נָחַת (nakhat) is unclear in this context. It is preferable to emend the form to וַתָּנַח (vattanakh) from the verb נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”). In this case the text would read literally, “and your hand rests upon me” (see Isa 25:10, though the phrase is used in a positive sense there, unlike Ps 38:2).

[38:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.

[38:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[38:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “pass over my head.”

[38:5]  ⁹ sn The reference to wounds may be an extension of the metaphorical language of v. 2. The psalmist pictures himself as one whose flesh is ripped and torn by arrows.

[38:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).

[38:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”

[38:6]  ¹² tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”

[38:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”

[38:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).

[38:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[38:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

[38:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

[90:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “for.”

[90:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you set our sins in front of you.”

[90:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “what we have hidden to the light of your face.” God’s face is compared to a light or lamp that exposes the darkness around it.

[90:9]  ²¹ tn Or “for.”

[90:9]  ²² tn Heb “all our days pass by in your anger.”

[90:9]  ²³ tn Heb “we finish our years like a sigh.” In Ezek 2:10 the word הֶגֶה (hegeh) elsewhere refers to a grumbling or moaning sound. Here a brief sigh or moan is probably in view. If so, the simile pictures one’s lifetime as transient. Another option is that the simile alludes to the weakness that characteristically overtakes a person at the end of one’s lifetime. In this case the phrase could be translated, “we end our lives with a painful moan.”

[90:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”

[90:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”

[90:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).

[90:10]  ²⁷ tn or “for.”

[90:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.

[90:10]  ²⁹ sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).

[90:1]  ³⁰ sn Psalm 90. In this communal lament the worship leader affirms that the eternal God and creator of the world has always been Israel’s protector. But God also causes men, who are as transient as grass, to die, and in his fierce anger he decimates his covenant community, whose brief lives are filled with suffering and end in weakness. The community asks for wisdom, the restoration of God’s favor, a fresh revelation of his power, and his blessing upon their labors.

[90:1]  ³¹ tn Or “place of safety.” See Ps 71:3.

[1:5]  ³² tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ³³ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ³⁴ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:1]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[12:6]  ³⁶ sn A quotation from Prov 3:11-12.

[3:19]  ³⁷ tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”