For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
Psalm 38 is one of the seven Penitential Psalms. The verse gives the language of a troubled heart in a time of struggle and burden, overwhelmed and chastened by God over sin and affliction while seeking mercy and forgiveness. The arrows sticking fast are the piercing pains of conviction, and the hand pressing sore is the weight of guilt, and such conviction makes the penitent loathe himself because of sin.
The fixed arrows and the heavily pressing hand express the inward distress and painful effects that follow yielding to sin. The same image portrays affliction as arrows from God that lodge deeply and as God's hand pressing heavily, and such trials may come without being caused by folly. Such affliction must be endured, and patient endurance removes its poison though not its pain. Severe trials and affliction felt as piercing arrows and a pressing hand bring the sufferer nearer to the Lord and deepen trust in God.
The verse also belongs to a prophetic picture of Christ's inner suffering during His life-and-death struggles with the enemy, showing that Christ experienced suffering and temptation and can therefore help those who are tempted. In its context flesh is described as unsound because of God's anger, but this does not prove that flesh by itself means a mortal state, since the same Hebrew word is used of mortal and immortal beings.
Psalm 38 is one of the seven Penitential Psalms. The verse gives the language of a troubled heart in a time of struggle and burden, overwhelmed and chastened by God over sin and affliction while seeking mercy and forgiveness. The arrows sticking fast are the piercing pains of conviction, and the hand pressing sore is the weight of guilt, and such conviction makes the penitent loathe himself because of sin.
The fixed arrows and the heavily pressing hand express the inward distress and painful effects that follow yielding to sin. The same image portrays affliction as arrows from God that lodge deeply and as God's hand pressing heavily, and such trials may come without being caused by folly. Such affliction must be endured, and patient endurance removes its poison though not its pain. Severe trials and affliction felt as piercing arrows and a pressing hand bring the sufferer nearer to the Lord and deepen trust in God.
The verse also belongs to a prophetic picture of Christ's inner suffering during His life-and-death struggles with the enemy, showing that Christ experienced suffering and temptation and can therefore help those who are tempted. In its context flesh is described as unsound because of God's anger, but this does not prove that flesh by itself means a mortal state, since the same Hebrew word is used of mortal and immortal beings.