EXPOSITION OF PSALM 38 (1)
Verses 1-14

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is "A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance" (superscription). It is a reminder of a very troublesome time in the psalmist's life. We do not know the specific time in the psalmist's life when he penned this psalm. But we would in this exposition "bring to remembrance" that he here spoke as a type of Christ in His death on Calvary as the representative of His people. We here will consider 1. Christ's description of His sufferings (vv.1-14), and later 2. Christ's prayer for Jehovah's salvation (vv.15-22).

I. Christ's description of His sufferings (vv.1-14). He was suffering from sin's effects (vv.2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11), friend's neglect (v.11), enemies' persecution (v.12), and divine displeasure against His sins (vv.3-5). But in the midst of all His trouble He voiced no complaint (vv.13f – for reasons cited in His prayer of vv.15-22). Note well in this description of Christ's sufferings for sin that much more than a legal declaration of guilt was involved when the sins of God's elect were imputed to Christ. He was not only judicially charged with guilt, but also actually treated as the sinner and totally suffered the consequences of His sins.

38:1 "O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, / Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!" This prayer is answered for God's children because Christ in their place and stead bore all the rebuke of Jehovah's wrath, and all the chastening of His hot displeasure they deserve from Him because of their sins (Isaiah 53:4f; Psalm 88:16). Jehovah will indeed "rebuke" and "chasten" His children when they deserve it (Hebrews 12:5-11). But He will do so only in love and for their good, not in His "wrath" and "hot displeasure". These latter are reserved those who will not trust in Christ for salvation (John 3:36).

38:2 "For Your arrows pierce me deeply, ..." Jehovah's arrows are instruments of judgment against sin (Deuteronomy 32:23, 42). Christ suffered the arrows of divine justice His people deserve because their sins were imputed to Him (2 Corinthians 5:21a). Jehovah's arrows are now reserved only for unbelievers.

"... And Your hand presses me down." The hand of divine justice prostrated the strength of Christ in His crucifixion, so that the same hand might lift up the helpless for whom He died.

38:3 "There is no soundness in my flesh ..." This is the physical state of the natural man (Isaiah 1:5f): "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it." This is the state into which Christ entered as the Substitute of His people on Calvary, when "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17): His entire body was, as it were, wholly diseased.

"... Because of Your anger, ..." Christ was the perfect specimen of a healthy man until the sins of God's elect were imputed to Him. His loss of bodily soundness resulted from the anger of God against the sins He bore. There is no health where there is sin - and Christ was made to be sin!

"... Nor any health in my bones ..." The "flesh" (v.3a) and the "bones" (here) constitute the entire physical part of man (as in Luke 24:39). While Christ's divine nature was not touched with sin, every part of His human nature was sorely afflicted with it, even to the marrow of His bones.

"... Because of my sin." Christ had no sin resulting from His own deeds, words, or thoughts. He was sinless in and of Himself, for "He committed no sin" (1 Peter 2:22), "and in Him there is no sin" (1 John 3:5). But when God imputed the sin of His people to Christ, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ suffered for the sin of His people as though that sin was His very own – calling it "My sin"!

38:4 "For my iniquities have gone over my head; ..." Every one of God's elect acknowledge the number of his iniquities to be "more than the hairs of my head" (Psalm 40:12). Christ here spoke of the guilt of all the iniquities imputed to Him, the sum of all the sins of God's elect. They sank Him beneath the inundating wrath of God. He rightly lamented, "All Your waves and billows have gone over me" (Psalm 42:7; cp. 69:1f).

"... Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me." Every man's load of sin is so great that it would press him into eternal damnation. None but Christ could bear such a load - and even He could not have done so were it not that His Father said "I have given help to one who is mighty" (Psalm 89:19).

38:5 "My wounds are foul and festering ..." The natural man is covered from head to toe with "wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment" (Isaiah 1:6). This is the state into which Christ entered when "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5).

"... Because of my foolishness." This "foolishness" is not intellectual deficiency, but moral perversity. Christ in and of Himself was so morally perfect that His Father was perfectly pleased with Him (Matthew 3:17). But when the sins of God's elect were imputed to Him, including their moral perversity, He considered their foolishness to be "My foolishness".

38:6 "I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; ..." The Hebrew word translated "troubled" involves writhing with pain, convulsions, and spasms. This was Christ's condition when the hour of His death approached, when He said, "Now My soul is troubled" (John 12:27; cp. 13:21).

"... I go mourning all the day long." Christ was throughout His life "A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). However, He did perhaps occasionally experience brief joy, as at a wedding (John 2:1). But His sorrows and grief were without pause in the three hours of His troubles on Calvary.

38:7 "For my loins are full of inflammation, ..." The eternal flame that sins deserve in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8) burned in the body of Christ.

"... And there is no soundness in my flesh." Verse 3 is here repeated for emphasis.

38:8 "I am feeble and severely broken; ..." The infirmity of His flesh was joined with the disjointedness of His bones (Psalm 22:14), so that He was feeble in His entire physical being.

"... I groan because of the turmoil of my heart." His lips uttered what His heart experienced - as when He cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?" (Psalm 22:1).

38:9 "Lord, all my desire is before You; / And my sighing is not hidden from You." Christ suffered in darkness (Luke 23:44), hidden from man's view. But His Father understood His inmost holy desires and heard even the quietest sighs of His heart.

38:10 "My heart pants, my strength fails me; ..." Christ's anguish caused his heart to experience incessant palpitation, even though His strength was failing in every other part of His body.

"... As for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me." Christ in His death passed from the light of physical life into the "outer darkness" His people deserve (as in Matthew 8:12).

38:11 "My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, / And my relatives stand afar off." His own people refused to receive Him (John 1:11). His brothers treated Him as a stranger and alien (Psalm 69:8; John 7:5). His lovers and friends "stood at a distance, watching these things" (Luke 23:49).

38:12 "Those also who seek my life lay snares for me; / Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction, / And plan deception all the day long." Foremost among these would be religious leaders – for man-made religion has ever been an enemy against Christ. Religious people ever scheme against Christ, hoping to ensnare and destroy Him (as in Luke 20:19f).

38:13 "But I, like a deaf man, do not hear; / And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth." Christ turned a deaf ear to those who accused Him – which caused His judge Pilate to marvel (Matthew 17:12-14). And He did not revile those who reviled Him – therein serving as an Example to us (1 Peter 2:23). And in His death, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth" (Isaiah 53:7).

38:14 "Thus I am like a man who does not hear, / And in whose mouth is no response." What was said in the preceding verse is so uncommon that it is here repeated. His prayer in the subsequent verses (to be expounded in the subsequent message) reveals why He could act in such a manner: He trusted in Jehovah (v.15); He would give to His enemies no reason to rejoice over Him (v.16); He was ready to suffer what Jehovah had appointed for Him (v.17); He acknowledged the divine sentence to be just (v.18); He knew His enemies would misconstrue what He said (vv.19f); He knew Jehovah would deliver Him (vv.21f).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~