John Gill Commentary Psalms 38:17

"For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me." — Psalms 38:17 (ASV)

For I [am] ready to halt
Meaning either that there was a proneness in him to sin; see (Jeremiah 20:10) ; or that he was subject to affliction and adversity, as the same word is rendered in (Psalms 35:15) ; and the words are either a reason and argument used with the Lord, to hear and keep his foot from slipping, that so his enemies might not rejoice over him, and magnify themselves against him; as they would do should he fall into sin or into any calamity, both which he was liable to: or they are a reason why he was so calm and quiet under the ill usage he met with from friends and enemies, because he was "ready for halting", or "prepared" ^F15 for it; he considered that he was born for trouble and adversity; that God had appointed him to it, and it was appointed for him, and therefore he was quiet under it; see (Job 5:6Job 5:7) (23:14) ; he was prepared to meet it; he expected it, it being the common lot of God's people; and therefore when it came upon him it was no strange thing to him. The Septuagint version, and those that follow that, render the words, "I am ready for scourges"; and Jerom applies them to Christ, who was ready to undergo scourges, sufferings, and death itself, for his people;

and my sorrow [is] continually before me ;
that is, for his sin, which was ever before him, stared him in the face, lay heavy on his conscience, and appeared very terrible and loathsome to him; his sorrow for it was without intermission, and was a godly sorrow, a sorrow for sin, as committed against a God of love, grace, and mercy: or he may mean, that his affliction, which was grievous to him, was continually upon him night and day: our Lord himself, David's antitype, was a man of sorrows all his days.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F15: (Nwkn) V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.