Psalm 38:1-41:13
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 38[a]
Prayer of a Sinner in Great Peril
1 A psalm of David. For remembrance.[b]
2 O Lord, do not punish me in your anger
or chastise me in your wrath.
3 For your arrows[c] have pierced me deeply,
and your hand has come down upon me.
4 No portion of my body[d] has been unscathed
as a result of your anger;
my bones have become weak
as a result of my sins.
5 My iniquities tower far above my head;[e]
they are a burden too heavy to bear.
6 My wounds are fetid and fester
because of my folly.
7 I am bowed down and bent over,
as I spend each day in sorrow.
8 My loins are filled with searing pain;
no part of my body[f] is unafflicted.
9 I am numb and completely crushed,
and I groan in anguish of heart.[g]
10 O Lord, all my longing is known to you,
and my sighs are not hidden from you.
11 My heart throbs, and my strength is spent;
even the light has faded from my eyes.
12 My friends and companions stay away from my affliction,
and my neighbors keep their distance.
13 Those who seek my life set traps;
those who wish me harm threaten violence
and plot treachery all day long.[h]
14 [i]But I am like a man who cannot hear,
like one who cannot open his mouth.
15 I am like one who hears nothing
and has no answer to offer.
16 I place my hope in you, O Lord;
you, O Lord, my God, will answer for me.
17 For I prayed, “Never let them gloat over me
or exult should my foot slip.”
18 I am at the point of exhaustion,
and my grief is with me constantly.
19 I acknowledge my iniquity,
and I sincerely grieve for my sin.
20 [j]Numerous and strong are my enemies without cause;
many are those who hate me without good reason.[k]
21 Those who repay my good deeds with evil
oppose me because I follow a path of righteousness.
22 Do not abandon me, O Lord;
my God, do not remain far from me.
23 Come quickly to my aid,
O Lord, my Savior.
Psalm 39[l]
The Brevity and Vanity of Life
1 For the director.[m] For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
2 I said, “I will be careful of my behavior
so as not to sin with my tongue.
I will keep a muzzle on my mouth[n]
whenever the wicked are in my presence.”
3 I kept completely silent
and refrained from speech,
but my distress only increased.
4 My heart[o] smoldered within me,
and, as I pondered, my mind was inflamed,
and my tongue began to speak:
5 [p]“O Lord, let me know my end
and the number of days left to me;
show me how fleeting my life is.
6 You have allotted me a short span of days;
my life is as nothing in your sight;
human existence is a mere breath. Selah
7 Humans are nothing but a passing shadow;
the riches they amass are a mere breath,
and they do not know who will enjoy them.[q]
8 “So now, O Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
9 Deliver me from all my sins;
do not subject me to the taunts of fools.[r]
10 “I was silent and did not open my mouth,
for it is you who have done it.
11 Remove your scourge from me;
I am crushed by the blows of your hand.
12 You rebuke and punish people for their sins;
like a moth you consume all their desires;
human existence is a mere puff of wind. Selah
13 [s]“Hear my prayer, O Lord;
do not be deaf to my cry
or ignore my weeping.
For I am a wayfarer[t] before you,
a nomad like all my ancestors.
14 Turn your eyes away so that I may be glad
before I depart and am no more.”[u]
Psalm 40[v]
Thanksgiving and Prayer for Help
1 For the director.[w] A psalm of David.
2 [x]I waited patiently for the Lord;
then he stooped down and heard my cry.
3 He raised me up from the desolate pit,
out of the mire of the swamp;
he set my feet upon a rock,
giving me a firm footing.
4 He put a new song[y] in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will look on and be awestruck,
and they will place their trust in the Lord.
5 Blessed[z] is the man
who places his trust in the Lord,
who does not follow the arrogant
or those who go astray after falsehoods.
6 How innumerable, O Lord, my God,
are the wonders you have worked;
no one can compare with you
in the plans you have made for us.
I would proclaim them and recount them,
but there are far too many to enumerate.
7 [aa]Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but you have made my ears receptive.[ab]
Burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not demand.
8 [ac]Then I said, “Behold I come;
it is written of me in the scroll of the book.
9 To do your will, O God, is my delight;
your law is in my heart.”[ad]
10 I have proclaimed your righteousness in the great assembly;
I did not seal my lips,
as you well know, O Lord.
11 I have not concealed your righteousness within the depths of my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and salvation.
I have not concealed your kindness and your truth
in the great assembly.
12 O Lord, do not withhold your mercy from me;
may your kindness[ae] and your truth keep me safe forever.
13 I am surrounded by evils without number;
my sins have so engulfed me that I cannot see.
They outnumber the hairs on my head,
and my heart sinks within me.[af]
14 [ag]Be pleased, O Lord, to rescue me
O Lord, come quickly to my aid.
15 [ah]May all those who seek to take my life
endure shame and confusion.
May all those who desire my ruin
be turned back and humiliated.
16 May those who cry out to me, “Aha, aha!”[ai]
be overcome with shame and dismay.
17 But may all who seek you
rejoice in you and be jubilant.
May those who love your salvation
cry out forever, “The Lord be magnified.”
18 Even though I am poor and needy,[aj]
the Lord keeps me in his thoughts.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.
Psalm 41[ak]
Trust in God in Sickness and Misfortune
1 For the director.[al] A psalm of David.
2 [am]Blessed is he who has concern for the weak;
in time of trouble the Lord will deliver him.
3 The Lord will protect him and keep him alive;
he will make him happy on earth
and not abandon him to the will of his enemies.
4 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed
and bring him back to health.
5 Once I prayed, “O Lord, have mercy on me;
heal me, for I have sinned[an] against you.
6 In their malice my enemies say of me,
‘When will he die and his name be forgotten?’
7 When someone comes to visit me,
he utters words without sincerity;
his heart[ao] harbors slander,
and on departing he gives voice to it.
8 “All my enemies whisper against me
and conjure up the worst in my regard.
9 ‘He has a fatal disease,’ they say;
‘he will never rise up from his sickbed.’
10 “Even my friend whom I trusted,
the one who dined at my table,
has risen up[ap] against me.
11 But you, O Lord, be merciful to me;
make me well[aq] so that I may pay them back.”
12 By this I know that you are pleased with me—
that my enemy fails to triumph over me.
13 Because of my innocence you uphold me
and let me stand in your presence forever.
Footnotes
- Psalm 38:1 The psalmist of this third Penitential Psalm (seven in all: Pss 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143) is a man prostrated beneath the weight of his sickness and the vilification heaped on him by others, a man marked by the chastisement of God. He utters a suppliant and monotone plaint that seems as interminable as his suffering. Before God, he is pitiable, abandoned, and betrayed. This new Job (Job 6:4; 19:13-21) does not rebel. He thinks of himself as a sinner who deserves his lot and he suffers in silence, leveling neither recriminations nor imprecations against his adversaries. Indeed, hope stirs secretly in him.
The complete abandonment to God that is expressed here is also found in the third Lamentation (Lam 3:26-29) and in the Songs of the Servant of the Lord (see Isa 53:7). The Christian Liturgy sees in this man of sorrows an image of the Christ who was silent during his Passion.
In praying this psalm, we should look to ourselves, scrutinizing our lives and our consciences with a penetrating and impartial honesty, the better to discern the place of sin therein and the better to realize that we are and remain sinners (see Rom 7:14-20; 1 Jn 1:8f). This will in no way prevent us from begging God not to chastise us in his wrath but to save us as soon as possible from our afflictions and our foes. - Psalm 38:1 For remembrance: the meaning is “For the memorial sacrifice” or “portion” (see Lev 2:2, 9, 16; 5:12; Isa 66:3); it occurs elsewhere only in Ps 70; an alternative translation is: “A petition.”
- Psalm 38:3 Arrows: i.e., the trials God has sent him (see Deut 32:23; Job 6:4; 34:6; Lam 3:12; Ezek 5:16).
- Psalm 38:4 Body: literally, “flesh.” Bones: see note on Ps 34:20-21.
- Psalm 38:5 My iniquities tower far above my head: his guilt has resulted in both physical and psychological suffering.
- Psalm 38:8 Body: literally, “flesh.”
- Psalm 38:9 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
- Psalm 38:13 This passage recalls the fourth Song of the Servant (Isa 53:4, 7; see also Pss 31:11; 35:20; 37:32; 88:9; Job 12:4f; 19:13f).
- Psalm 38:14 Like a man deaf and dumb, the psalmist does not reply to those who slander him; he waits for the Lord to vindicate his cause.
- Psalm 38:20 Passage close to Pss 35:11; 109:3-5. Some Greek manuscripts and many versions add: “They have rejected me, the loved one, like some hideous corpse” (see Isa 14:19 Greek). This allusion to the crucified Christ is made even more explicit in the Coptic version by the words: “They have nailed my flesh.”
- Psalm 38:20 Hate me without good reason: although the psalmist acknowledges that he sinned against the Lord, he protests his innocence of wrongdoing against his enemies (see note on Ps 35:19).
- Psalm 39:1 The psalmist is not a sage who reflects on existence but a man grappling with God. In the face of the blows that strike him, he realizes the total frailty of existence and even of life itself. He would like to cast out from his heart all intentions to rebel, but it is impossible for him to hold back his complaint any longer. A real faith in the resurrection is still absent and, apart from an intervention of God providing a new breath of life, everything seems a mockery. One thinks of the lucid reflections of Ecclesiastes 1:2.
This psalm reminds us that while doing our utmost to acquire and develop the eternal divine life in us, we must regard our bodily life as the highest good, the most precious natural talent entrusted to us by God for our vigilant concern and fruitful action. The heavenly Father himself watches over this life, assigning it food and drink (see Mt 6:25-34) and life itself (see Acts 17:25-28). Jesus himself watches over material life, looking after the hunger of the crowd (see Mt 15:32), curing the sick (Mt 4:23), and raising the dead (Mt 9:25). We must thus greatly value our life and seek to prolong it for the glory of God and our spiritual progress (see Phil 1:23-26). Christians too have this same feeling in times of great distress: without the Lord what value is there in life? - Psalm 39:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation. Jeduthun: he is believed to be one of the three men appointed choral directors by David (see 1 Chr 25:1). See note on Ps 89:1.
- Psalm 39:2 Muzzle on my mouth: to repress saying anything derogatory in the presence of the wicked.
- Psalm 39:4 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
- Psalm 39:5 The psalmist begs God to help him know and accept the brevity and vanity of life, a brevity and vanity stressed in other psalms (see Pss 62:10; 73:19; 90:10-11) and in Isa 40:17.
- Psalm 39:7 This passage is reminiscent of Ecclesiastes.
- Psalm 39:9 Fools: see notes on Ps 14:2, 3.
- Psalm 39:13 The psalmist—a sinner and overcome with adversity—feels like a stranger in God’s presence and in his world. Still, he has no doubts about belonging to the covenant community. So he begs the Lord to remove his judgment from him so that the psalmist may know joy once again.
- Psalm 39:13 Wayfarer: that is, one who is only a temporary sojourner on earth (see Lev 25:23: “The land belongs to me and you are my aliens and tenants”; see also Ps 119:19; 1 Pet 2:11).
- Psalm 39:14 Am no more: in the time of the psalmist there apparently was no idea of any resurrection, even a mitigated one in the netherworld (see note on Ps 6:6).
- Psalm 40:1 This psalm, one of the most engaging of the entire Psalter, is divided into two parts. The first (vv. 2-13) is a thanksgiving reminiscent of Jeremiah (Jer 7:22; 17:7; 31:33). The second (vv. 14-18) is a lament that appears also as Ps 70.
Every Christian (and the whole Church) can naturally recite this beautiful psalm in his or her own right as one really (though not yet completely) saved. - Psalm 40:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation.
- Psalm 40:2 The psalmist expresses a great hope in the Lord. No one knows God’s goodness better than one who has experienced abandonment. Purified by trial, the psalmist welcomes God into the depths of his being, his life becomes a kind of inner offering, the only true sacrifice, and he joyfully bears witness to the Lord’s righteousness, love, and truth. In reading this psalm, we get the impression of entering into the confidence of Christ himself, of divining his inner attitude toward the course of his action and above all toward his Passion. A few Greek translations have accentuated this resemblance even more; thus, the Letter to the Hebrews cites this psalm to make us understand the profound decision of Christ (Heb 10:5-10).
The best praise of God and the best sacrifice are the gift of one’s heart and life. The Prophets often opposed ritual formalism and replaced it with the true religion that is internal (Isa 1:11; Jer 6:20; 31:33; Am 5:22; Hos 6:6). It is this experience to which the songs of the Suffering Servant bear witness (Isa 50:5; 53:10), which was also the experience of Christ. - Psalm 40:4 New song: see note on Ps 33:3. Many will look on: see note on Ps 9:2.
- Psalm 40:5 Blessed: see note on Ps 1:1.
- Psalm 40:7 These verses are applied to Christ by Heb 10:5-10.
- Psalm 40:7 Obedience is better than sacrifice (see Pss 50:7-15; 51:18f; 69:32f; 1 Sam 15:22; Isa 1:10-20; Jer 7:22; Hos 6:6; Am 5:22-25; Mic 6:6-8; Acts 7:42f). But you have made my ears receptive: a variant reading from the Greek versions has: “but a body you have prepared for me,” which was interpreted in a Messianic sense and applied to Christ (see Heb 10:5ff).
- Psalm 40:8 The psalmist presents himself to the Lord, submitting himself to whatever his Master may require (Heb 10:9). He presents himself as an offering to the Lord (see Rom 12:1f). It is written of me in the scroll: the scroll is the Torah or the Mosaic Law, transcribed on parchment scrolls. The alternative Greek reading is “with the scroll written for me,” which suggests a Messianic sense.
- Psalm 40:9 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
- Psalm 40:12 Kindness: see note on Ps 6:5.
- Psalm 40:13 Hyperbolic statements expressing the intense nature of the sinner’s sufferings (see Pss 6:8; 38:4f, 11; 69:5), which serve as a transition to the second part of the psalm.
- Psalm 40:14 Distress can remind a person of his attachment to sin. Is there any reason why people should vilify the person who acknowledges his faults? Realizing his attraction toward evil, the psalmist cries out to God, and the poor man rediscovers the joyous assurance that God thinks about him.
- Psalm 40:15 See notes on Pss 5:11; 35.
- Psalm 40:16 Aha, aha!: the mocking words of the psalmist’s adversaries.
- Psalm 40:18 Poor and needy: see note on Ps 34:7. My help and my deliverer: the salvation promised to the faithful (see Isa 25:9), first conceived as natural with reference to the Exodus or the return from the Exile, was later conceived as spiritual without restriction of space or time (see, e.g., Pss 18:1; 19:15).
- Psalm 41:1 The psalmist is well aware that mercy is rarely given by human beings. In his illness, he received no mercy from others; instead his enemies gleefully engaged in malicious gossip about him and his coming death and even his friend betrayed him. However, the psalmist does not retaliate in kind; he turns to God for mercy, asking for a rich life with all his powers restored so that he can stand once again in the presence of the Lord.
In praying this psalm, we can recall that the entire psalm is applicable to Christ personally, with the exception of verse 5, which he can assume only in place of and in the role of his sinful members. Since Christ assures us of God’s complete solicitude, we can recite this supplication on our account amid our earthly trials. - Psalm 41:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation.
- Psalm 41:2 The psalmist voices his confidence that the Lord will restore him to fullness of health and life because of the psalmist’s regard for the weak. Blessed . . . weak: other psalms use the same designation (“Blessed”) for those whom God favors (see Pss 32:1f; 34:9; 40:5; 65:5; see also note on Ps 1:1).
- Psalm 41:5 Sinned: the psalmist acknowledges his sin and asks for forgiveness and healing—in keeping with the idea that sickness was a divine punishment for sin (see Ps 107:17; Job 32:3). In the cure of the man born blind, Jesus was to indicate that such was not the case (see Jn 9:2f).
- Psalm 41:7 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
- Psalm 41:10 This passage repeats a theme frequently developed (see Pss 31:12; 38:12; 55:15f; 88:9; Job 19:13; Jer 20:10; 38:22). It is cited by Jesus with reference to Judas (Jn 13:18) according to the sense of the Septuagint. Risen up: literally, “raised his heel.”
- Psalm 41:11 Make me well: the fact that God heals the psalmist is in itself a judgment in his favor and against his adversaries, but paying them back is not part of God’s judgment.
