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1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2 For your arrows have pierced me,
and your hand has come down on me.
3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
.4 My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and are loathsome
because of my sinful folly.
6 I am bowed down and brought very low;
all day long I go about mourning.
7 My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.
8 I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.
9 All my longings lie open before you, O Lord: my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.
11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbours stay far away.
12 Those who seek my life set their traps,
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those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
all day long they plot deception
13 I am like the deaf, who cannot hear,
like the mute, who cannot open his mouth;
14 I have become like a man who does not hear,
whose mouth can offer no reply.
15 I wait for you;, O Lord
you will answer, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, ‘Do not let them gloat
or exalt themselves over me when my foot slip.’
17 For I am about to fall,
and my pain is ever with me.
18 I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin.
19 Many are those who are my vigorous enemies. those who hate me without reason are numerous.
20 Those who repay my good with evil
slander me when I pursue what is good.
21 Lord, do not forsake me;
do not be far from me, O my God.
22 Come quickly to help me,
O Lord my Saviour.
(NIV)
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Psalm 38: This is a Psalm of David, the third of seven ‘repenting’ psalms. It has been used as one of the traditional confessional psalms in Christian services.
People have linked the psalm to the happening in Job, where God allowed Job to be tempted by Satan, but was not allowed to take his life.
Verse 4 My guilt has overwhelmed me, my burdens too heavy to bear.
I do wonder when I hear people saying similar judgments of themselves, have they talked to God?
Have they laid their burdens down, before God? in their nightly prayers or during a church service, where people are asked to confess to God anything they are sorry for.
In the bible, it tells us that God forgives all who are truly sorry. He is there to help us when we are ready to start a new.
‘Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord’. Acts3:19 (NIV)
This tells us if we are truly sorry for what we have done, Jesus is there to welcome us back into the fold.
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