Psalm 38 (37)
Prayer in time of trouble. When illness or misfortune comes, we begin to reflect; we then discover that the greatest misfortune is to be a sinner.
2 O Lord, rebuke me not in your rage, punish me not in your fury.
3 Your arrows have struck me; your hand has come down heavily upon me.
4 Your anger has spared no part of my body, my sin gives no peace to my bones.
5 For my transgressions overwhelm me; they weigh me down like an unbearable load.
6 My wounds stink and fester with in me, the outcome of my sinful folly.
7 Stooped and bowed down, I go about mourning all day.
8 My loins burn, my flesh is diseased,
9 my body, worn out and utterly crushed; I groan in pain and anguish of heart.
10 All my longing, O Lord, is known to you; my sighing is not hidden from you.
11 My heart pounds as my strength ebbs; even the light has deserted my eyes.
12 My friends avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far off.
13 Those who seek my life lay snares for me; those who wish to hurt me speak of my ruin and plot against me all day long.
14 But like a deaf-mute, I neither hear nor open my mouth.
15 I am like one whose ears hear not and whose mouth has no answer.
16 For I put my trust in you, O Lord; you will answer for me, Lord God.
17 I pray, “Don’t let them gloat over me, nor take advantage of my helplessness when my foot slips.”
18 For I am about to fall, my pain is ever with me.
19 I confess my trans gression, I repent of my sin.
20 Many are my foes; many are those who hate me for no reason,
21 those who pay me evil for good and harass me because I seek good.
22 Forsake me not, O Lord, stay not far from me, O my God.
23 Come quickly to help me, O Lord, my savior!