#DailyDevotion When Our Sin Overwhelms Us Bodily
Psalm 38 Lord, don’t correct me in Your anger and punish me in Your fury.
I’m not sure what episode in David’s life would have him writing and praying this psalm. It’s far too easy to point to the Bathsheba episode. Some of the physical depictions of David aren’t reported at any time. However, there are the seven days after David was accused of adultery and murder, having repented and received the LORD’s judgment, he fasted and prayed, trying to change the mind of the Almighty concerning the first-born of David from Bathsheba who the LORD was going to cause to die. Yet, this was to discipline David not to exact His anger on David.
Yet, when we are afflicted we may join David in this prayer. Christians often think their ailments, illness, or trial is because of some sin they have committed. Sometimes, we might be right. However, we turn to God as our Father. We don’t want the Father to punish us in His wrath. We understand we need to be corrected because if we continue in whatever evil we have been living in, we may be cut off altogether. So we ask Him as David does to not punish or correct us in His anger and fury but rather as a loving Father who punishes us so we may see the severity and seriousness of sins. We want His loving correction so our fleshly mind is put to death and our spirit may live to God.
2Your arrows have gone deep into me, and Your hand presses down on me. 3Because You’re angry, there’s not a healthy spot in my body; because I’ve sinned, there’s nothing sound in my limbs.
Whatever discipline from the LORD David is receiving it is manifested in a very physical way with David. Sin, guilt and shame can have some very physical manifestations in our bodies. Our digestive system gets messed up and we can’t eat, or it hurts to do so. Because the stress of our sin weighs upon us, our immune system breaks down and we get ill. Our bodies become weak just as David describes here. We indeed feel the heaviness of the LORD’s hand on us. David has begun to recognize his problem but he has not come to the solution to it yet.
4My sins overwhelm me, like a heavy load they burden me down. 5Because I was foolish, my wounds stink and fester. 6I’m twisted and very bowed down. All day I go about mourning.
What a horrible thing it is to be burdened with sin, guilt and shame. It reminds me of Ebenezer Scrooge, whose ghostly mentor is encumbered by chains. It horrifies me to think of the souls cast into the Lake of Fire, who only have weeping and grinding of teeth without any hope of it ceasing or lessening over time. If this is how it feels when the LORD is having us experience these things in order to call us to repentance and faith in Him, what can it feel like to know there is no help, no relief, not even Lazarus dipping his finger in water and touching our tongue?
Let us join David in this psalm, in this prayer. Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Let us turn to our LORD Jesus Christ and His cross where our sins, guilt and shame has been laid and trust what we are experiencing in time ends on the cross of Christ and not brought into the world to come.
Heavenly Father, when we sin, discipline us according to Your great love and mercy, so way repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness and righteousness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.