John Calvin Commentary Psalms 38:4

"For mine iniquities are gone over my head: As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me." — Psalms 38:4 (ASV)

For my iniquities have passed over my head. Here he complains that he is overwhelmed by his sins as by a heavy burden, so that he utterly faints under their weight. Yet he again confirms the doctrine we have already stated: that he deservedly suffered the wrath of God, which had been inflicted on him in such a severe and dreadful manner.

The word עון, avon, which we have translated iniquities, no doubt often signifies punishment, but this is only in a secondary and metaphorical sense. I am also willing to admit that David assigns to the effect what is proper to the cause when he describes by the term iniquities the punishment he had procured by his own sin. And yet, his object at the same time is plainly and distinctly to confess that all the afflictions he suffered were to be imputed to his sins.

He does not quarrel with God for the extreme severity of his punishment, as Cain did, who said,

“My punishment is greater than I can bear,” (Genesis 4:13).

It is true, indeed, that Moses uses the same word עון, avon, in that passage, so there is some similarity between the language of David and Cain. But David’s meaning is very different.

When such temptations as these were insinuating themselves into his mind: "Could God afflict you more severely than he does? Certainly, since he is doing nothing to relieve you, it is a sure sign that he wishes you destroyed and brought to nothing. He not only despises your sighs and groanings, but the more he sees you cast down and forsaken, he pursues you the more fiercely and with greater rigour."

To prevent the entrance of such evil thoughts and suspicions, he defended himself as with a shield by this consideration: that he was afflicted by the just judgment of God.

He has here attributed to his own sins, as the cause, the weight of the wrath of God which he felt. And, as we shall find in the following verse, he again acknowledges that what he is now suffering was procured by his own foolishness.

Although, then, in bewailing his own miseries, he may seem in some measure to quarrel with God, yet he still cherishes the humble conviction (for God does not afflict beyond measure) that there is no rest for him but in imploring Divine compassion and forgiveness. Whereas the ungodly, although convicted by their own consciences of guilt, murmur against God, like the wild beasts, which, in their rage, gnaw the chains with which they are bound.