In Psalms, chapter thirty-eight, verses one through twenty-two, the psalm is an anguished prayer for God to withdraw chastisement for sin. David is preoccupied with God’s displeasure, as in verses one to two. His body is racked by disease and failing strength from verses three through ten, and he knows that his suffering is the result of his foolish sin from verses three to five and eighteen. David accepts his punishment, confesses his sin, and looks to God for help and salvation from verses eighteen, twenty-one through twenty-two, respectively. All who have sinned and suffer guilt, remorse, and a sense of God’s judgment can identify with this prayer.
Rebuke is the getting of harsh reactions to committing a wrong that offends another. David felt this after his wrongdoing against God after admitting the sin he committed with Bathsheba. “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD,” as in Second Samuel twelve, verse thirteen. The physical explanation from verses two to five of the theme chapter is a more emotional result of the sin within this experience. The arrows in verse two recall the activity that led to the sin, and the hand is the organizing and touching of the woman that made him sin.
David continued his feelings in verse six, “I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.” The change of course of his life in the public, with God, and himself is taking a toll on him. The following verse from six through ten, is affecting David physically. The anxiety of dealing with the wrong is difficult especially a few days after are the hardest. In verse eleven, the reaction of the public reminds him of the wrongdoing, and is well-known for being a king. However, through all of this, David’s concern was his reaction and relationship with God.