There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
Psalm 38 belongs among the penitential psalms that give voice to repentance for sin. It is one of the psalms that supply language for deep human need in discouragement, trial, grief, and the dangers of sin, directing the sufferer to God as able and willing to save.
The lack of soundness in the flesh and of rest in the bones is joined directly to divine anger on the one hand and to personal sin and guilt on the other. The affliction is bodily pain and restlessness, yet it is also painful inward distress under the weight of personal sin. Spoken by David, this cry over unsound flesh, unresting bones, and broken bones exposes the anguish that follows wrongdoing and contradicts any temptation to treat sin as lasting pleasure. That linkage of physical suffering with acknowledged guilt shows conscience at work in the Old Testament.
Under conviction the penitent feels divine rebuke and the weight of guilt, pierced as by arrows until he loathes himself because of his sin, with no soundness or rest left to him. Sin in this way brings deep distress that becomes unbearable, and true contrition brings agony as the sinner tears himself away from sin and recognizes how fully it has become part of his life. Such repentance acknowledges personal wrong without comparing with others, without excuse and without self-justification, telling it to God in brokenness of heart. The same words prophetically disclose the depth of Christ's inner suffering in temptation and conflict with the enemy, an anguish of spirit that the outward actions recorded in the Gospels do not fully display.
Psalm 38 belongs among the penitential psalms that give voice to repentance for sin. It is one of the psalms that supply language for deep human need in discouragement, trial, grief, and the dangers of sin, directing the sufferer to God as able and willing to save.
The lack of soundness in the flesh and of rest in the bones is joined directly to divine anger on the one hand and to personal sin and guilt on the other. The affliction is bodily pain and restlessness, yet it is also painful inward distress under the weight of personal sin. Spoken by David, this cry over unsound flesh, unresting bones, and broken bones exposes the anguish that follows wrongdoing and contradicts any temptation to treat sin as lasting pleasure. That linkage of physical suffering with acknowledged guilt shows conscience at work in the Old Testament.
Under conviction the penitent feels divine rebuke and the weight of guilt, pierced as by arrows until he loathes himself because of his sin, with no soundness or rest left to him. Sin in this way brings deep distress that becomes unbearable, and true contrition brings agony as the sinner tears himself away from sin and recognizes how fully it has become part of his life. Such repentance acknowledges personal wrong without comparing with others, without excuse and without self-justification, telling it to God in brokenness of heart. The same words prophetically disclose the depth of Christ's inner suffering in temptation and conflict with the enemy, an anguish of spirit that the outward actions recorded in the Gospels do not fully display.