I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
The psalm gives language for the heart's emotion as troubled distress, profound abasement, and unbroken grief, pictured as being bowed down greatly and mourning through the entire day. That bowed and grieving condition portrays a person weighed down by guilt and affliction, whose anguish is bound up with sin and its painful consequences. The same mourning voices painful spiritual longing and distress, belonging to a downcast soul yearning for God while tears repeatedly raise the question of where God is.
The psalm demonstrates that conscience was active under the old dispensation even though the Old Testament does not employ the word conscience. Read in the context of verses 4-6, the condition helps identify foolishness with wickedness, showing that biblical foolishness is moral and not merely unwise conduct. As a whole, Psalm 38 is a prophetic word-picture revealing Christ's inner feelings as He endured suffering and struggles with the enemy, showing how He experienced temptation so that He can help those who are tempted.
The psalm gives language for the heart's emotion as troubled distress, profound abasement, and unbroken grief, pictured as being bowed down greatly and mourning through the entire day. That bowed and grieving condition portrays a person weighed down by guilt and affliction, whose anguish is bound up with sin and its painful consequences. The same mourning voices painful spiritual longing and distress, belonging to a downcast soul yearning for God while tears repeatedly raise the question of where God is.
The psalm demonstrates that conscience was active under the old dispensation even though the Old Testament does not employ the word conscience. Read in the context of verses 4-6, the condition helps identify foolishness with wickedness, showing that biblical foolishness is moral and not merely unwise conduct. As a whole, Psalm 38 is a prophetic word-picture revealing Christ's inner feelings as He endured suffering and struggles with the enemy, showing how He experienced temptation so that He can help those who are tempted.