Psalm 38

⁸In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer.

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

¹For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments, according to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.

¹For the choirmaster. Of David. To bring remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Hurry, O Lord, to help me!

¹¹For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

²⁴Correct me, O Lord, but only with justice—not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁴For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

⁶Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.

¹⁵Indeed, the Lord’s hand was against them, to eliminate them from the camp, until they had all perished.

¹²He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

¹⁰Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

¹¹You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah

²Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am frail; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are in agony.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.

⁹Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.

¹⁰For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.

⁵Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

⁶From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

⁴⁰Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the Lord.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

³For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.

¹²For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.

⁶and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.

²⁸Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

¹⁴My transgressions are bound into a yoke, knit together by His hand; they are draped over my neck, and the Lord has broken my strength. He has delivered me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.

²⁴He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”

¹⁸If any of the meat from his peace offering is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted. It will not be credited to the one who presented it; it shall be an abomination, and the one who eats of it shall bear his iniquity.

⁵Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

⁶From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

⁵You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

³When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

⁷For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body.

²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

¹⁴I paced about as for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning for his mother.

⁹I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?”

¹⁰For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.

⁵Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.

¹⁴The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

³For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.

¹⁸After all this, the Lord afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels.

¹⁹This continued day after day until two full years had passed. Finally, his intestines came out because of his disease, and he died in severe pain. And his people did not make a fire in his honor as they had done for his fathers.

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

⁸“A vile disease has been poured into him; he will never get up from where he lies!”

¹⁸With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.

²⁴I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

³When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

¹¹We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?

²I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.

¹⁷You have heard, O Lord, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

⁶I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

²For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

²⁷And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

⁴⁸“How do You know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

²³Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

⁷My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.

⁹My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O Lord; I spread out my hands to You.

³I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

¹²³My eyes fail, looking for Your salvation, and for Your righteous promise.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

⁸¹My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.

⁸²My eyes fail, looking for Your promise; I ask, “When will You comfort me?”

¹¹Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends—they flee when they see me on the street.

⁴⁹But all those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.

¹³He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.

¹⁴My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.

³²“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

¹⁸You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.

⁵⁴Then they seized Jesus, led Him away, and took Him into the house of the high priest. And Peter followed at a distance.

²⁰For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.

¹Furthermore, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David.

²I will attack him while he is weak and weary; I will throw him into a panic, and all the people with him will flee; I will strike down only the king

⁵The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah

³For strangers rise up against me, and ruthless men seek my life—men with no regard for God. Selah

⁹Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, and from the lures of evildoers.

²Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity,

³who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

⁹I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.

²I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

²³When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

¹⁰But the king replied, “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses me because the Lord told him, ‘Curse David,’ who can ask, ‘Why did you do this?’”

¹¹Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son, my own flesh and blood, seeks my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone and let him curse me, for the Lord has told him so.

¹³Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.

⁶They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger.

³And the chief priests began to accuse Him of many things.

⁴Then Pilate questioned Him again, “Have You no answer? Look how many charges they are bringing against You!”

⁵Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

⁷And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.

⁶I call on You, O God, for You will answer me. Incline Your ear to me; hear my words.

³On the day I called, You answered me; You emboldened me and strengthened my soul.

¹A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to You, the One enthroned in heaven.

²As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are on the Lord our God until He shows us mercy.

¹⁸If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O Lord, supports me.

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

²⁴Vindicate me by Your righteousness, O Lord my God, and do not let them gloat over me.

²⁵Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, just what we wanted!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up!”

³Consider me and respond, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,

⁴lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall.

¹⁵But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.

⁶I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

⁶I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.

⁶“On that day,” declares the Lord, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the outcast, even those whom I have afflicted.

⁷And I will make the lame into a remnant, the outcast into a strong nation. Then the Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.

²In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

³I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah

³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

⁴Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

⁵Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

¹³He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

²⁷Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.

³For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

⁷and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced all the more.

⁸Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Although I did regret it—for I see that my letter caused you sorrow, but only for a short time—

³³if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

¹⁸If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.

¹⁹If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

¹⁹Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.

²²You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

⁴Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be merciful to me, O God, for men are hounding me; all day they press their attack.

²My enemies pursue me all day long, for many proudly assail me.

¹⁹Consider my enemies, for they are many, and they hate me with vicious hatred.

¹²They repay me evil for good, to the bereavement of my soul.

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

¹²Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did Cain slay him? Because his own deeds were evil, while those of his brother were righteous.

³²But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”

¹⁴If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

¹⁵Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler.

²¹Now David had just said, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.

¹⁹But You, O Lord, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

²⁴For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help.

¹¹Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

²¹They gape at me and say, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen!”

²²O Lord, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?

¹³Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; hurry, O Lord, to help me.

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

²Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

¹A Psalm of David. I call upon You, O Lord; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to You.

¹²Be not far from me, O God. Hurry, O my God, to help me.

¹For the choirmaster. Of David. To bring remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Hurry, O Lord, to help me!