Psalm 38 (LXX 37) - Wounded by Sin and Silent Before Accusers

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Psalm 38 is a penitential Psalm in which sin is no longer theoretical. It is felt in the body, in the conscience, in social isolation, and in the pressure of enemies. David does not defend himself by denying guilt. He confesses his iniquity, waits for the Lord, and becomes strangely silent before those who accuse him. The Church can pray this Psalm as repentance, but she also hears in it the Passion of Christ, the sinless One who stood silent before accusers and carried the wounds of sinners.

Psalm Metadata

Field	Notes
NKJV / Masoretic numbering	Psalm 38
Septuagint / Coptic numbering	Psalm 37. The Septuagint combines Psalms 9 and 10 of the NKJV / Masoretic sequence, accounting for the chapter-number difference here.
Accepted author	David by superscription. Brenton/LXX begins, “A Psalm of David for remembrance concerning the Sabbath-day.”
Period in author’s life	No precise Davidic life episode is named. The setting is illness, guilt, abandonment by friends, and hostile pursuit.
Christ prophecy status	Typological Passion Psalm, rather than a New Testament quotation explicitly identifying a direct prediction. The silent sufferer and unjust hostility illuminate the Passion; David’s confession of personal sin must remain distinct from Christ’s sinless suffering.
Good Friday distinction	The enemies’ boasting belongs to the Psalm’s broader Passion typology. St. Mary Ottawa’s printed Third Hour selection, labeled Psalm 38:17, actually concerns readiness for affliction and continual sorrow: Psalm 38:17 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:18), not the preceding feet-and-enemies clause.
Coptic lectionary/service use	Identified witnesses attest Good Friday Third and Sixth Hours, Great Lent Matins, the Third Prayer of Unction, and prayers for the third day and other memorials. The Pascha and memorial texts include adaptations; their printed labels are preserved separately below.
Numbering issue	The embedded Brenton text numbers the superscription separately as 37:1. Thus Psalm 38:1 corresponds to Brenton LXX Psalm 37:2. Verse counterparts below follow actual words, not a chapter-only substitution.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 38 belongs to the penitential stream of the Psalter. Like Psalm 6 and Psalm 32 (LXX Psalms 6 and 31), it brings sin and distress into prayer rather than treating repentance as an abstract idea. David speaks as one whose sin has become a burden over his head and whose wounds have become corrupt because of his foolishness. This is his personal confession, not a diagnosis of another person’s illness.

The Psalm also stands close to the Passion Psalms. Friends stand afar off. Enemies seek his soul. False speech surrounds him. He becomes like a deaf and dumb man, refusing to answer his accusers. In David this is repentance under pressure. In Christ it becomes the silence of the innocent Lamb bearing the sins of the world. The likeness is real, but it does not make every statement about David’s guilt a statement about Jesus.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

No specific place is named. The spiritual terrain matters more: the body under affliction, the heart under guilt, the social circle under strain, and the soul waiting for God to draw near.

The Characters 👥

David. The accepted Psalmist, praying as a wounded penitent under divine chastening and human hostility.

The Lord. The One whose hand is heavy in correction, but whose nearness is the only hope of salvation.

Friends and kin. Those whose nearness does not become the help the sufferer needs; his nearest kin stand far off.

Enemies. Those who exploit weakness, speak vanity, and boast when the sufferer’s stability is shaken.

Christ. The sinless Sufferer who enters the place of sinners, remains silent before accusers, and brings salvation near.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 38:1-7 and superscription (Brenton LXX Ps 37:1-8), sin felt as burden and wound

37:1 A Psalm of David for remembrance concerning the Sabbath-day. 37:2 O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thine anger. 37:3 For thy weapons are fixed in me, and thou hast pressed thy hand heavily upon me. 37:4 For there is no health in my flesh because of thine anger; there is no peace to my bones because of my sins. 37:5 For my transgressions have gone over mine head: they have pressed heavily upon me like a weighty burden. 37:6 My bruises have become noisome and corrupt, because of my foolishness. 37:7 I have been wretched and bowed down continually: I went with a mourning countenance all the day. 37:8 For my soul is filled with mockings; and there is no health in my flesh.

David begins with the cry of one under correction. He does not deny his sin or ask God to call it harmless. He asks not to be rebuked in wrath or chastened in anger. Repentance asks for mercy inside discipline, not escape from truth.

The Psalm’s language is physical: flesh, bones, burden, wounds, bowing down. Sin is not only a legal problem. It disorders the whole person. Yet David is confessing his own sin; the Psalm is not a diagnosis of another person’s illness. Neither sickness nor anxiety gives us permission to pronounce someone guilty of a particular hidden sin.

Brenton’s wording in Psalm 38:7 (LXX Ps 37:8) joins a soul filled with mockings to flesh without health. Reproach reaches inward: the sufferer is not merely hearing insults around him but carrying their weight within. The prayer brings that inward humiliation before God too.

St. Athanasius, in his Letter to Marcellinus, recommends this Psalm, together with Psalm 6, to someone troubled by a sense of God’s displeasure. His counsel directs the troubled person toward prayer, not away from God. The Psalter supplies words for repentance when shame might otherwise leave us speechless.¹

The LXX heading adds “concerning the Sabbath-day.” St. Augustine reads this spiritually as the troubled soul remembering and longing for God’s rest. This is a Christian spiritual reading, not a demonstrated historical explanation of why the superscription was composed.² It allows us to hear longing beneath the lament: David brings his unrest to the One who can restore peace.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “Repentance asks for mercy inside discipline, not escape from truth.” “Sin disorders the whole person.”
• Emphasize: David names his own sin before he names his enemies.
• Avoid: Turning bodily suffering into a simplistic proof of personal sin in another person.

Psalm 38:8-12 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:9-13), desire before God and abandonment by others

37:9 I have been afflicted and brought down exceedingly: I have roared for the groaning of my heart. 37:10 But all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hidden from thee. 37:11 My heart is troubled, my strength has failed me; and the light of mine eyes is not with me. 37:12 My friends and my neighbours drew near before me, and stood still; and my nearest of kin stood afar off. 37:13 While they pressed hard upon me that sought my soul: and they that sought my hurt spoke vanities, and devised deceits all the day.

The Psalm turns from inner pain to isolation. God knows the groaning others cannot share. David’s friends and neighbours draw near but stand still; his nearest kin remain at a distance. Human nearness has not become effective comfort.

This is one of the Psalm’s most honest pastoral notes. Suffering often isolates. Sin isolates. Shame isolates. Illness isolates. The penitent can feel both exposed before God and abandoned by people. Yet being fully known by God is not only exposure: David entrusts his desire to Him because he still hopes to be heard.

Commenting on Psalm 38:9 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:10), Augustine explains that holy longing can continue as inward prayer even when spoken prayer is interrupted:

“There is another inward kind of prayer without ceasing, which is the desire of the heart.”³

He means desire sustained by love for God and longing for His rest—not the sanctification of every wish. In the same passage, he rejects praying for an enemy’s death and urges prayer for the enemy’s conversion. God receives our groaning, and prayer also teaches our desires to become merciful.

The enemies use the moment. They press hard and speak vanities. The wounded man becomes an easy target. Christ enters this place of abandonment and hostility without sharing David’s guilt. In the Passion, His disciples flee, Peter denies, and the rulers accuse. Their rejection does not turn Him from the Father or from His saving love.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “God knows the groaning others cannot share.” “The wounded man becomes an easy target.”
• Emphasize: God hears groaning even when community fails; our care for sufferers should answer their isolation.
• Avoid: Inventing motives for absent friends or treating every desire as holy simply because it is intense.

Psalm 38:13-15 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:14-16), the silence of hope

37:14 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and was as a dumb man not opening his mouth. 37:15 And I was as a man that hears not, and who has no reproofs in his mouth. 37:16 For I hoped in thee, O Lord: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

David’s silence is not emptiness. It is hope. He does not answer every accusation because he is waiting for the Lord to hear. The explanation comes in the prayer itself: he can refrain from replying to his enemies because he has not stopped speaking to God.

This silence becomes luminous in Christ. Before the chief priests and Pilate, the Lord Jesus leaves accusations unanswered (Matthew 27:12-14; Mark 15:3-5). Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, silent like a lamb before the shearer, helps the Church hear the Passion here (Isaiah 53:7). Christ’s silence is voluntary; it is not an admission that His accusers speak the truth.

For the Christian, silence is not always virtue. There is a holy silence that refuses revenge, refuses self-justifying noise, and lets God be judge. But nonretaliation does not mean refusing safety, seeking no help, or withholding truthful testimony against abuse. Leaving danger and reporting harm are compatible with trusting God. The Psalm frees us from the need to answer every taunt; it does not require us to protect wrongdoing.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “David’s silence is not emptiness. It is hope.” “There is a holy silence that refuses revenge.”
• Emphasize: The Psalm’s silence is grounded in prayer, not passivity.
• Avoid: Teaching vulnerable people to stay silent in the face of abuse or danger.

Psalm 38:16-22 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:17-23), confession and the plea for nearness

37:17 For I said, Lest mine enemies rejoice against me: for when my feet were moved, they spoke boastingly against me. 37:18 For I am ready for plagues, and my grief is continually before me. 37:19 For I will declare mine iniquity, and be distressed for my sin. 37:20 But mine enemies live, and are mightier than I: and they that hate me unjustly are multiplied. 37:21 They that reward evil for good slandered me; because I followed righteousness. 37:22 Forsake me not, O Lord my God: depart not from me. 37:23 Draw nigh to my help, O Lord of my salvation.

The ending holds two truths together. David confesses real sin: “I will declare mine iniquity.” At the same time, he suffers real injustice: enemies hate him unjustly and repay evil for good. Repentance does not require pretending that other people’s evil is acceptable.

When his feet are moved, his stability is threatened and his enemies boast over him. Psalm 38:16 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:17) describes the danger of stumbling or losing one’s footing, not movement toward the Cross. The next verse turns to affliction and continual grief. Neither admission of weakness gives his enemies the right to rejoice in his suffering.

Good Friday receives this Psalm as a Passion text, but David’s confession must remain distinct from Christ’s sinless suffering. He has no iniquity to declare as His own, yet He bears ours. He is hated unjustly. He is repaid evil for good. The likeness lies in suffering, rejection, and trust—not in personal guilt. The printed Third Hour selection discussed below concerns readiness for affliction and sorrow, rather than the adjacent clause about enemies boasting.

The final prayer is simple: do not depart; draw near. After speaking of sin, pain, and enemies, David asks for the presence of the saving God. Fr. Tadros Malaty, in his modern Coptic pastoral commentary, draws attention to this ending as evidence that the sufferer has not surrendered to despair: he still calls upon the Lord for help.⁴ Repentance has not closed the way to God. It has become the prayer by which the wounded man turns toward Him.

Lesson Guide

• Key phrases: “Repentance does not require pretending that other people’s evil is acceptable.” “Do not depart; draw near.”
• Emphasize: David’s confession and his plea against injustice both belong in the same prayer.
• Avoid: Making the Psalm only about guilt or only about persecution.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The service witnesses show how the Church brings this Psalm into the Passion, repentance, healing, and remembrance of the departed. Their printed labels do not always match Brenton’s verse divisions, and some selections adapt or combine Psalm wording. The connection must therefore follow the actual words.

• Good Friday, Third Hour. St. Mary Ottawa’s Holy Pascha book, Lent 1734 A.M. / 2018 A.D., p. 569, prints the label Psalm 38:17 & 22:16. The first clause concerns readiness to fall and continual sorrow, corresponding to Psalm 38:17 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:18). It is not the feet-and-enemies clause. Heard before the accounts of Christ’s condemnation and scourging, it gives the hour a language of affliction willingly endured by the innocent Saviour. The same printed witness includes Colossians 2:13-15 on p. 568: the Passion is proclaimed not as defeat, but as the saving victory of the Cross.

• Good Friday, Sixth Hour. Ottawa p. 591 prints Psalm 37:21,22 & 21:16,17,8,9. Its adapted text speaks of the beloved One rejected as dead, His flesh nailed, and a plea not to be abandoned; it then continues with the pierced hands and feet, garments, and mockery associated with Psalm 22 (LXX Ps 21). The petition corresponds in part to Psalm 38:21 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:22). This is an adapted Passion selection, not a quotation of the complete Brenton ending: the full sentence “Draw nigh to my help” is not present in that printed block. The accompanying printed Matthew reading, 27:27-45, narrates the crucifixion and mockery.

• Great Lent Matins. Three dated CopticChurch.net witnesses make the connections especially clear. Monday of the second week prints Psalm 38:11, the friends standing aloof: Psalm 38:11 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:12), followed by Mark 9:25-29, where Christ takes the afflicted boy by the hand and raises him. Monday of the sixth week prints Psalm 38:9, desire and sighing before God: Psalm 38:9 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:10), followed by Mark 12:1-12 and the rejection of the beloved son. Tuesday of the seventh week prints Psalm 38:18-19, confession and strong enemies: Psalm 38:18-19 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:19-20), followed by Luke 17:1-10, with its commands concerning offenses, repentance, and forgiveness.⁵

• Unction of the Sick, Third Prayer. The Nadian service book, p. 58, labels the selection Psalm (37) 38:1-2. Its actual words concern rebuke and piercing arrows: Psalm 38:1-2 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:2-3), not the superscription. The companion readings are 1 Corinthians 12:28–13:8 and Matthew 10:1-8. Gifts of healing are placed within love, and Christ sends His apostles to heal. The sick person comes for mercy and strengthening, not for others to infer a hidden offense from the illness.

• Third-day and other memorial prayers. Part 6 of the Nadian funeral book includes an adapted Psalm on p. 247, labeled Psalm (37) 38:21,22. It joins the rejected beloved One to the plea that God not forsake or remain far away. This preserves part of Psalm 38:21 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:22), rather than the whole closing passage. John 11:38-45 follows in this same subservice: Christ calls Lazarus from the tomb. The Church’s plea for nearness is thus heard beside the Lord’s authority over death.

No whole-Psalm Agpeya appointment was found in the references examined. This is a limited statement about those references, not a claim that the Psalm’s language is absent from Coptic prayer.

Iconography Connection 🖼️

Psalm 38 can be read beside icons of the Passion: Christ before Pilate, Christ silent before His accusers, and the Crucifixion. This is a devotional connection, not a claim about a particular icon’s inscription. The innocent Christ is not a guilty man confessing His own wrongdoing. He suffers for sinners and brings salvation near. His silence helps us relinquish revenge; His compassion calls us to draw near to those whom suffering has left alone.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

1. Confess sin without self-hatred. David names his iniquity, but he still runs toward God. Name what needs forgiveness without treating yourself as beyond mercy.
2. Do not confuse correction with rejection. The Lord’s hand can be heavy without His mercy being absent. Bring your own conscience before Him without making another person’s suffering evidence against them.
3. Let suffering become prayer before it becomes explanation. When words fail, place your desire before God. He knows the groaning others cannot share.
4. Learn holy silence. Not silence that protects evil, but silence that refuses revenge and waits for God. Seek safety and truthful help where they are needed.
5. Ask for nearness. Pray the Psalm’s ending in your own distress and for someone who feels abandoned: do not depart; draw near.

Teacher's Notes

• Timing: 70 to 80 minutes.
• Where to linger: Psalm 38:3-4, 9, 13-15, and 18-22 (Brenton LXX Ps 37:4-5, 10, 14-16, and 19-23).
• Where to compress: The illness imagery can be summarized without medical speculation.
• Key phrase to say slowly: “But all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hidden from thee.”
• Pastoral warning: Do not imply that every illness is caused by a specific personal sin. The Psalm is David’s confession, not a diagnostic tool for judging someone else. Likewise, nonretaliation must not be turned into a prohibition on seeking protection or reporting abuse.
• Christological distinction: Preserve David’s personal confession and Christ’s sinlessness. Do not transfer David’s guilt to Christ or explain the shaken feet as walking toward the Cross.
• Worship accuracy: The Third Hour’s printed Psalm 38:17 concerns affliction and sorrow. The Sixth Hour and memorial selections are adapted and do not contain the complete Brenton closing prayer.
• Source limit: The brief inherited Passion classification links enemies’ boasting with Good Friday too broadly. That biblical theme supports the wider typological reading, but it does not identify the actual words of Ottawa’s Third Hour selection.

Glossary

• LXX Psalm 37: Septuagint/Coptic chapter numbering for Psalm 38 in the NKJV / Masoretic sequence.
• Penitential Psalm: A Psalm of confession, grief over sin, and plea for mercy.
• Remembrance: A word in the superscription. In prayer, it invites us to bring our need before God; the heading alone does not establish a precise historical occasion.
• Typological Passion reading: Hearing in David’s suffering a pattern illuminated by Christ’s Passion, while preserving the difference between the penitent David and the sinless Saviour.
• Good Friday Hours: Coptic Pascha services structured by day and hour, with appointed readings and prayers.
• Unction of the Sick: Sacramental prayer service for healing, repentance, and strengthening.

Translation and Source Notes

Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX), public domain. Its wording, verse labels, and separately numbered superscription are retained. Explanatory Psalm references lead with the NKJV / Masoretic numbering and give verified Brenton counterparts. Printed service labels are identified as such; adapted liturgical wording is not substituted into the biblical text.

The worship discussion distinguishes the historical Ottawa printed witness, dated CopticChurch.net readings, and the Nadian special-service books. Supporting indexes are finding aids, not independent corroboration of the sources they reproduce. The working Pascha references have not been freshly verified against Coptic Reader and are not presented as a complete statement of universal current practice. In particular, the working Third Hour group omits the Colossians reading printed in Ottawa, and its Sixth Hour John reference differs from Ottawa’s John 19:13-27. The memorial book prints Romans 5:6-15, whereas the supporting index gives 5:6-17; the printed endpoint governs claims about that book.

The Third Sunday of Paona is not used here as a verified word-based connection: the dated Vespers witness labels Psalm 38:15 but repeats Psalm 6 in its body. The label alone cannot settle the missing wording.

St. Athanasius supplies a received Coptic patristic witness to praying the Psalter. Augustine supplies a wider Christian exegetical witness to spiritual rest and continuing holy desire. Fr. Tadros Malaty supplies modern Coptic pastoral interpretation. The guide’s applications remain distinct from their particular comments.

Athanasius is paraphrased because the English translator of the available text is unidentified. Malaty’s modern copyrighted commentary is also paraphrased; ancient quotations embedded in it are not treated as independently authenticated patristic texts. Augustine’s quotation comes from the public-domain NPNF edition: the applicable translation is by J. E. Tweed, condensed and annotated by A. Cleveland Coxe, with Philip Schaff as series editor. Augustine’s biblical wording and numbering do not determine Brenton’s verse labels. His use here is limited to the identified passages, not an endorsement of every argument or editorial annotation in the volume.

Sources

Scripture: Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 37; Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19.

Received Coptic patristic witness: St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus, especially the discussion of the Psalter as a school of prayer and the recommendation of Psalms 6 and 38 (LXX Psalms 6 and 37) under a sense of divine displeasure.¹

Wider Christian exegetical witness: St. Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, English heading Psalm XXXVIII, Latin Psalm XXXVII, §§1 and 13. NPNF, First Series, vol. 8.^2, 3

Coptic worship witnesses: St. Mary Ottawa, Holy Pascha, Lent 1734 A.M. / 2018 A.D., Third Hour, pp. 568-575, and Sixth Hour, pp. 591-598; Nadian, Unction of the Sick, Third Prayer, pp. 50-61; Nadian, funeral service book, Part 6, Prayers for the Third and Other Memorials, pp. 233-253, especially pp. 243-249; dated CopticChurch.net Great Lent Matins readings.⁵

Modern Coptic pastoral witness: Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, Commentary on the Psalms, chapter 38, especially its concluding treatment of hope and the plea for help.⁴

Footnotes

1. St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus, discussion of the Psalter’s prayer-forming character and recommendation of Psalms 6 and 37 in the letter’s LXX numbering. Available English text; translator unidentified, paraphrase only. ↩ ↩²

2. St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm XXXVIII (Latin XXXVII), §1, in NPNF, First Series, vol. 8. J. E. Tweed, translator for this passage; A. Cleveland Coxe, condensation and annotation; Philip Schaff, series editor. Cited for a spiritual reading of Sabbath rest, not the historical origin of the superscription. ↩ ↩²

3. St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm XXXVIII (Latin XXXVII), §13, in NPNF, First Series, vol. 8. The surrounding argument concerns continuing desire for God’s rest and expressly rejects wishing an enemy’s death in prayer. ↩ ↩²

4. Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, Commentary on the Psalms, chapter 38, concluding exposition, PDF pp. 591-592; available through the St. Mina Hamilton Psalms commentary collection. Modern Coptic pastoral commentary, paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

5. CopticChurch.net, Matins for Monday of the second week of Great Lent, February 27, 2023; Monday of the sixth week, March 27, 2023; and Tuesday of the seventh week, April 4, 2023. These dated witnesses support the stated Psalm wording and immediate Gospel companions. ↩ ↩²