Psalm 38 (1928 BCP)

Psalm 38 (1928 BCP) is Domine, ne in furore in the Psalter of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. It is appointed at Morning Prayer on the Eighth Day of the monthly Psalter. This penitential lament brings bodily distress, estrangement, hostile speech, confession of sin, and trust in God into one prayer. Its last words, “O Lord God of my salvation,” prevent its sorrow from becoming despair.

The 1928 Prayer Book text

The Prayer Book retains the Coverdale rendering and its verse divisions for reading or chanting:

PUT me not to rebuke, O LORD, in thine anger; * neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure:
2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, * and thy hand presseth me sore.
3 There is no health in my flesh, because of thy displeasure; * neither is there any rest in my bones, by reason of my sin.
4 For my wickednesses are gone over my head, * and are like a sore burden, too heavy for me to bear.
5 My wounds stink, and are corrupt, * through my foolishness.
6 I am brought into so great trouble and misery, * that I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are filled with a sore disease, * and there is no whole part in my body.
8 I am feeble and sore smitten; * I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart.

9 Lord, thou knowest all my desire; * and my groaning is not hid from thee.
10 My heart panteth, my strength hath failed me, * and the light of mine eyes is gone from me.
11 My lovers and my neighbours did stand looking upon my trouble, * and my kinsmen stood afar off.
12 They also that sought after my life laid snares for me; * and they that went about to do me evil talked of wickedness, and imagined deceit all the day long.
13 As for me, I was like a deaf man, and heard not; * and as one that is dumb, who doth not open his mouth.
14 I became even as a man that heareth not, * and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in thee, O LORD, have I put my trust; * thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God.

16 I have required that they, even mine enemies, should not triumph over me; * for when my foot slipt, they rejoiced greatly against me.
17 And I truly am set in the plague, * and my heaviness is ever in my sight.
18 For I will confess my wickedness, * and be sorry for my sin.
19 But mine enemies live, and are mighty; * and they that hate me wrongfully are many in number.
20 They also that reward evil for good are against me; * because I follow the thing that good is.
21 Forsake me not, O LORD my God; * be not thou far from me.
22 Haste thee to help me, * O Lord God of my salvation.

Penitence without a simple explanation of suffering

The psalmist does not speak abstractly of guilt. Sin is a burden and illness is a lived crisis; friends keep away, enemies exploit weakness, and prayer names all this before God. Yet the Psalm does not authorize an observer to infer that every sickness is the direct measure of a particular sin. It is the sufferer's own confession, not a warrant to accuse another. Its scriptural companion is John 9:1–3, where Jesus refuses to make a man's blindness a simple deduction from personal or parental sin.

Alexander MacLaren carefully identifies the several elements in the first movement:

Three elements are conspicuous: God's judgments, the singer's consciousness of sin, and his mental and probably physical sufferings.

That distinction matters. Verses 1–8 refuse both self-excusing denial and a mechanical account of providence. The speaker brings conscience, pain, and fear of divine displeasure into God's presence. Such prayer is penitential because it says, “my sin,” but it is also faith because it is addressed to the Lord rather than closed in upon the self.

The quivering frame first felt the power of God's anger, and then the awakened conscience turned inwards and discerned the occasion of the anger.

MacLaren's observation is an interpretation of the psalm's movement, not a rule by which Christians diagnose another person's affliction. The Prayer Book gives the congregation the psalm's honest language precisely so that suffering may become prayer, confession, and petition rather than isolation.

Silence before enemies, speech to God

The middle of the psalm moves from roaring to a chosen silence before those who “imagined deceit.” This is not the suppression of a plea for justice: verse 15 expects God to answer. It is the discipline of refusing to let malice dictate one's speech. Isaiah 53:7 and 1 Peter 2:21–23 make the suffering and non-retaliation of Christ the decisive Christian horizon for this posture.

He will speak to God, but to man he is silent, in utter submission of will.

Augustine likewise reads the psalm's sinful voice within the communion of Christ and his people, while preserving Christ's sinlessness. His commentary follows the Septuagint/Vulgate numbering, where this is Psalm 37; the linked English translation is headed Psalm 38 but cites the biblical verses in that numbering.

Because both the Head and the Body of Christ are speaking. Why do they speak as if one person only? Because “they two,” as He has said, “shall be one flesh.”

This is a patristic Christian reading, not a replacement for the Psalm's direct penitential voice. It helps explain how the Church can pray a confession of sin while praying in union with the sinless Christ: he is not himself made a sinner, but joins himself to his wounded people and intercedes for them.

Confession, amendment, and hope

Verses 17–18 bring the psalm's moral center into view: “I will confess my wickedness, and be sorry for my sin.” Confession is not an attempt to purchase God's attention; it is the truthful turning of the wounded person toward the God already addressed as “my salvation.” The pattern corresponds to the Prayer Book's call in Morning Prayer to acknowledge sins “with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart,” trusting God's forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

“For I declare mine iniquity. I will have a care for my sin.” … To have a care of your wound. If you were to say, “I will have a care of my wound,” what would be meant by it, but I will do my endeavour to have it healed.

Augustine's image guards against treating repentance as mere remorse. To be sorry for sin is to seek healing and amendment. That is why the psalm can confess sin and still say that its enemies reward good with evil: before God the worshipper repents; before malicious accusation the worshipper entrusts judgment to God. MacLaren calls these not contradictions but complementary perspectives:

There may be the truest sense of sinfulness, along with a clear-hearted affirmation of innocence in regard to men, and a conviction that it is good and goodwill to them, not evil in the sufferer, which makes him the butt of hatred.

The Eighth-Day Morning Prayer appointment makes this movement communal and habitual. A congregation begins the day without pretending either innocence before God or hopelessness before suffering. It learns to confess, to refrain from revenge, to ask for present help, and to name God as salvation. The final petition is therefore not an appendix to lament, but its destination.

See Also

• The Psalter (1928 BCP)
• Daily Office (1928 BCP)
• Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 37 (1928 BCP)
• Psalm 39 (1928 BCP)

External Links

• 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalms 1–37
• Alexander MacLaren on Psalm 38
• Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 38