Do Not Forsake Me, O Lord

Psalm 38

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.

1
O Lord, m rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath!
2 For your n arrows have sunk into me,
and your hand o has come down on me.

3 There is p no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my q bones
because of my sin.
4 For my r iniquities have gone over my head;
like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

5 My wounds stink and fester
because of my foolishness,
6 I am s utterly bowed down and t prostrate;
all the day I u go about mourning.
7 For my sides are filled with burning,
and there is p no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and crushed;
I v groan because of the tumult of my heart.

9 O Lord, all my longing is before you;
my w sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
and x the light of my eyes - it also has gone from me.
11 My y friends and companions z stand aloof from my a plague,
and my nearest kin b stand far off.

12 Those who seek my life c lay their snares;
those who seek my hurt d speak of ruin
and meditate e treachery all day long.

13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,
like f a mute man who does not open his mouth.
14 I have become like a man who does not hear,
and in whose mouth are no g rebukes.

15 But for h you, O Lord, do I wait;
it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
16 For I said, "Only i let them not rejoice over me,
who j boast against me when my k foot slips!"

17 For I am l ready to fall,
and my pain is ever before me.
18 I m confess my iniquity;
I am n sorry for my sin.
19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty,
and many are those who hate me o wrongfully.
20 Those who p render me evil for good
q accuse me because I r follow after good.

21 Do not forsake me, O Lord!
O my God, be not s far from me!
22 t Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my u salvation!

  1. Cross References
    Psalms 70:1
    Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!
    1 Chronicles 16:4
    Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.
  2. Cross References
    Psalms 6:1
    O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
  3. Cross References
    Job 6:4
    For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
  4. Cross References
    Psalms 32:4
    For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
  5. Cross References
    Isaiah 1:6
    From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 31:10
    For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
  7. Cross References
    Psalms 40:12
    For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.
    Ezra 9:6
    Saying: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
  8. Cross References
    Psalms 35:14
    I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.
    Psalms 42:5 - 6
    Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
    Psalms 42:11
    Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
    Psalms 43:5
    Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
  9. Cross References
    Isaiah 21:3
    Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
  10. Cross References
    Job 30:28
    I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
  11. Cross References
    Psalms 38:3
    There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
  12. Cross References
    Psalms 22:1
    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
  13. Cross References
    Psalms 6:6
    I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
  14. Cross References
    Psalms 6:7
    My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.
  15. Cross References
    Psalms 88:18
    You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
    Job 19:13 - 20
    He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
  16. Cross References
    Luke 10:31 - 32
    Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
  17. Cross References
    Psalms 39:10
    Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
    Isaiah 53:4
    Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
    Isaiah 53:8
    By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
  18. Cross References
    Matthew 27:55
    There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.
    Mark 15:40
    There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.
    Luke 23:49
    And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
  19. Cross References
    Matthew 22:15
    Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.
    Mark 12:13
    And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.
    Luke 20:20
    So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.
    2 Samuel 17:1 - 3
    Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight.
  20. Cross References
    2 Samuel 16:7 - 8
    And Shimei said as he cursed, "Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man!
  21. Cross References
    Psalms 35:20
    For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit.
  22. Cross References
    Psalms 39:2
    I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse.
    Psalms 39:9
    I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.
    Isaiah 53:7
    He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
    1 Peter 2:23
    When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
  23. Cross References
    Job 23:4
    I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
  24. Cross References
    Psalms 39:7
    And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
    2 Samuel 16:12
    It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.
  25. Cross References
    Psalms 13:4
    Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
  26. Cross References
    Job 19:5
    If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and make my disgrace an argument against me.
  27. Cross References
    Psalms 94:18
    When I thought, "My foot slips," your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
  28. Cross References
    Psalms 35:15
    But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing.
    Jeremiah 20:10
    For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.
  29. Cross References
    Psalms 32:5
    I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
  30. Cross References
    2 Corinthians 7:9 - 10
    As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
  31. Cross References
    Psalms 35:19
    Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.
  32. Cross References
    Psalms 35:12
    They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft.
  33. Cross References
    Psalms 109:4
    In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.
  34. Cross References
    3 John 1:11
    Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.
  35. Cross References
    Psalms 10:1
    Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
  36. Cross References
    Psalms 40:13
    Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!
  37. Cross References
    Psalms 27:1
    The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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