Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 38

One of the psalms St Athanasius said to pray when you sense a warning from God and it shakes you, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 22Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

You sense a warning from God, and it's shaking you.

If you sense a warning from the Lord hanging over you, and it has shaken you, you can say Psalms 6 and 38.

Letter to Marcellinus

For this, the quiz gives Psalm 6, and this psalm beside it.

22 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 38

Its own heading A Psalm of David, for remembrance.

  1. 1O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
  2. 2For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
  3. 3There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.
  4. 4For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
  5. 5My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.
  6. 6I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.
  7. 7For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body.
  8. 8I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
  9. 9O Lord, my every desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You.
  10. 10My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
  11. 11My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
  12. 12Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.
  13. 13But like a deaf man, I do not hear; and like a mute man, I do not open my mouth.
  14. 14I am like a man who cannot hear, whose mouth offers no reply.
  15. 15I wait for You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God.
  16. 16For I said, “Let them not gloat over me— those who taunt me when my foot slips.”
  17. 17For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
  18. 18Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.
  19. 19Many are my enemies without cause, and many hate me without reason.
  20. 20Those who repay my good with evil attack me for pursuing the good.
  21. 21Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God.
  22. 22Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

Psalm 38 is 37 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.