In Psalms, chapter thirty-eight, verse three, the psalmist emphasizes two consequences of sinning after knowing the Lord and receiving His mercy of Divine anger and judgment. Teaching that God always forgives and forgets sin without ever chastening the repentant believer is not Biblical teaching. A repentant sinner, experiencing God’s forgiveness, may experience the temporal consequences of their forgiven sin, sometimes for years. David despised God and killed Uriah to take Uriah’s wife for himself. God pronounced judgment on David and his family for the rest of his life for approximately twenty-five years.
Bodily pain and mental anguish are other consequences people experience after knowing the Lord and receiving His mercy. Sin brings a heavy burden and suffering to the transgressor. God may allow severe sickness or even death, which could result in our iniquity, as in verses three to ten, Acts five, one through eleven, and First Corinthians eleven, verses twenty-nine to thirty, respectively.
The theme under “The Burden of Suffering” depicts a situation in which a godly person does an ungodly thing and feels “no soundness in my flesh.” The “no soundness in my flesh” is a spiritual one where the presence of God is no longer present because of sin. God and sin do not mix. However, the Christianity of that person is not hot; it becomes lukewarm. The light that was once inside has become dark.
Anything the person does now may make them miserable and agitated, and little things may bother them. Saul was King for a while. In First Samuel nine, verse seventeen, “And when Samuel saw Saul, the LORD said unto him, Behold, the man whom I spake to thee of! This same shall reign over my people.” Due to his sin of disobedience by not following God’s instruction, he became miserable to the point an evil spirit was bothering him. When Saul saw David, a man after God’s own heart, it made him more miserable to the extent of desiring to hurt the servant of God.
No soundness is no more experience of the presence of God until repentance takes place in the person’s life and living for Christ.