Psalms 38:6

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. ²For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me. ³There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin. ⁴For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear. ⁵My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly. ⁶I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.⁷For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body. ⁸I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. ⁹O Lord, my every desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You. ¹⁰My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

troubled: Heb. wearied

bowed: Psalms 35:14, Psalms 42:5, *marg. Psalms 57:6, Psalms 145:14

mourning: Psalms 6:6, Psalms 31:10, Psalms 42:9, Psalms 43:2, Psalms 88:9, Job 30:28, Isaiah 38:14

Reciprocal: Psalms 38:17 - sorrow Psalms 55:2 - I mourn Psalms 116:3 - I found Proverbs 12:25 - Heaviness Luke 13:11 - bowed

Cross-References

Genesis 21:21
And while he was dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Genesis 24:3
and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,

Matthew 1:3
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I am troubled,.... Discomposed and perplexed in mind; his thoughts were disturbed and irregular, and in the utmost confusion and distress: this trouble was not only on account of the affliction that was upon him, but chiefly because of his sin; and which was increased by the view he had of the displeasure of God, concluding he was come forth against him in wrath and fury;

I am bowed down greatly; not in his body, at least not in that only, as if he was bowed together by his disorder, that he could not lift himself up; for he is said to walk in the next clause: or rather he bowed down his head as a bulrush voluntarily, and through sorrow and shame could not lift it up before the Lord; though it may chiefly design the pressure of his mind, that his soul was cast down within him, and with all his spiritual reasonings he could not erect himself; it is the Lord that raiseth up those that are bowed down in this sense; see Psalms 42:5;

I go mourning all the day long; or "I go black", or "in black" i; meaning either that his skin was black, through the disease upon him, and the trouble that was in him, Job 30:30; or that he was clothed in black garments, as a token of mourning; as white garments were of joy and cheerfulness, Ecclesiastes 9:7; and he was blacker still in his own apprehension, by reason of inward corruptions and outward transgressions, which appeared in a very black hue, attended with aggravating circumstances; see Song of Solomon 1:5.

i קודר "atratus", Montanus, Tigurine version, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am troubled - Margin, “wearied.” The Hebrew word means to bend, to curve; then, to be distorted, to writhe with pain, convulsions, and spasms. In Isaiah 21:3, the same word is rendered, “I was bowed down at the hearing of it;” that is, Sorrow so took hold of him, that at the intelligence he writhed with pain as a woman in travail. So here it means that he was bent, or bowed down, or that he writhed in pain as the result of his iniquities.

I am bowed down greatly - Compare Psalms 35:14. The word means properly to bow down; then, to be brought low; to be depressed with pain, grief, sorrow: Psalms 10:10; Isaiah 2:11.

I go mourning all the day long - Constantly; without any intermission. On the word rendered “go mourning” - קדר qâdar - see the notes at Psalms 35:14. The idea here is, that, on account of sin, he was crushed and bowed down as a mourner is with his sorrows, and that he appeared constantly as be walked about with these badges of grief and heavy sorrow. The disease which he had, and which was so offensive to himself Psalms 38:5, and to others Psalms 38:11, was like the filthy and foul garments which mourners put on as expressive of their sorrow. See Job 1:20, note; Job 2:8, note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 38:6. I am troubled — In mind. I am bowed down - in body. I am altogether afflicted, and full of distress.