John Gill Commentary Psalms 38

O Lord, rebuke me not in your wrath: neither chasten me in your
hot displeasure
This and the following clause are the same as in (Psalms 6:1) , only instead of wrath there it is anger; (See Gill on Psalms 6:1).

For your arrows stick fast in me
Meaning either words with which as a father the Lord rebuked him; and which were sharp and cutting, entered into him and abode with him, and gave him much pain and uneasiness; and by which he concluded that his rebukes were in wrath and hot displeasure; such as those in (2 Samuel 12:11); so the words of men are compared to arrows, (Psalms 57:4) (64:3).

Or outward afflictions, attended with inward trouble of soul; for as judgments are the arrows of God, such as famine, pestilence (Ezekiel 5:16) (Psalms 91:5Psalms 91:6) (Deuteronomy 32:21Deuteronomy 32:42); so the chastening dispensations of Providence, under which the people of God themselves are, are so called, because they oftentimes come swiftly, suddenly, and at unawares, and are very pungent and distressing; and sometimes stick fast and continue long, by reason of which they are inwardly wounded, and conceive of God as sorely displeased with them; see (Job 6:4).

and your hand presseth me sore ;
the afflicting hand of God, which lay heavy upon him; and is a mighty hand when laid on such worms as mortal sinful men are, who cannot bear up under it, unless they have divine supports; see (Job 19:21).

This is by some supposed to be some bodily disease inflicted on him; some have thought of the leprosy, which was a stroke from the hand of God; but this is not likely, since he must have been deposed and shut up; the Jews indeed say ^F5 that he was a leper six months, and that the divine Presence was taken from him; a late learned man ^F6 thinks it was the smallpox, from the unsoundness of his flesh, the soreness of the disease, the stench of it, temporary blindness, and his friends standing aloof from him; though perhaps no other than affliction of mired for sin, comparable to the disease described, is meant.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: In R. Obadiah in loc.
• F6: De Laney's Life of King David, vol. 2. p. 146.

[There is] no soundness in my flesh, because of your anger ,
&c.] Such was the nature of the affliction the psalmist laboured under, and which he took to be an effect of the anger of God towards him, that the whole frame of nature was affected with it, and from the crown of the head to, the soles of the feet there was no health or soundness, as in (Isaiah 1:6) ; where the same word is used as here; some think the word

neither [is there any] rest in my bones, because of my sin ;
or "peace"^F8 there; sin breaks the believer's rest, and disturbs his peace; nor can he, in a view of it, find any rest in himself, nor in any creature, nor in any service or duty, only in Jesus Christ, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice.

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: (Mwlv Nya) "non (est) pax", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
• F7: (Mtm Nya) "non superest amplius ulla forma seu figura hominis", Amama; so Joseph Kimchi. here used has the signification of man; and that the sense is, that through, the violence of the distemper he had not so much, as the form of a man, as his antitype in (Isaiah 52:14) ; and as this led him to a view of his sins, as the cause of his affliction, he was so far from thinking himself sound and whole, or perfect in a spiritual sense, that he saw he was all over diseased with sin, and that in his flesh dwelt no good thing;

For mine iniquities are gone over mine head
Like an inundation of waters, as the waves and billows of the sea; for the waters to come up to the neck or chin shows great danger; but when they go over the head the case is desperate, and a person is sinking and drowning; compare with this (Psalms 69:1Psalms 69:2) ; the simile may denote both the number and weight of sins, and also signifies the overwhelming distress the psalmist was in, under a view of them;

as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me ;
the guilt of sin upon the conscience, without a view of pardon, lies heavy indeed, and makes a man a burden to himself, as it did Job, (Job 7:20Job 7:21) ; yea, sin is not only grieving and afflicting to pardoned ones, and who know they are pardoned, but it is a burden to them under which they groan; nor is it possible for any so to bear it as to satisfy and make atonement for it; none but Christ could ever do this, and he has done it; nor is there any relief for burdened souls, but by looking to a sin bearing and sin atoning Saviour, and by casting the burden upon him, who invites them to him for rest.

My wounds stink, [and] are corrupt
Meaning his sins, which had wounded him, and for which there is no healing but in a wounded Saviour, and by his stripes we are healed, (Isaiah 53:5) ; where the same word is used as here; Christ's black and blue stripes and wounds, as the word signifies, are the healing of ours, both of sins, and of the effects of them; which, to a sensible sinner, are as nauseous and loathsome as an old wound that is festered and corrupt;

because of my foolishness :
as all sin arises from foolishness, which is bound in the hearts of men, and from whence it arises, (Mark 7:22) ; perhaps the psalmist may have respect to his folly with Bathsheba, which had been the occasion of all the distress that is spoken of both before and afterwards.