Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 38:5
My wounds stink [and] are corrupt because of my foolishness.
5. My wounds ] Or stripes (= bruises, Isa 1:6, A.V.): for he has been as it were scourged by God.
my foolishness ] Sin is essentially foolishness. Cp. Psa 107:17. The word occurs only once again in the Psalter (Psa 69:5), and elsewhere only in Proverbs, where it is common (e.g. Pro 5:23; Pro 19:3).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My wounds stink – The word rendered wounds here means properly the swelling or wales produced by stripes. See the notes at Isa 1:6; notes at Isa 53:5. The meaning here is, that he was under chastisement for his sin; that the stripes or blows on account of it had not only left a mark and produced a swelling, but that the skin itself had been broken, and that the flesh had become corrupt, and the sore offensive. Many expositors regard this as a mere figurative representation of the sorrow produced by the consciousness of sin; and of the loathsome nature of sin, but it seems to me that the whole connection rather requires us to understand it of bodily suffering, or of disease.
And are corrupt – The word used here – maqaq – means properly to melt; to pine away; and then, to flow, to run, as sores and ulcers do. The meaning here is, My sores run; to wit, with corrupt matter.
Because of my foolishness – Because of my sin, regarded as folly. Compare the notes at Psa 14:1. The Scripture idea is that sin is the highest folly. Hence, the psalmist, at the same time that he confesses his sin, acknowledges also its foolishness. The idea of sin and that of folly become so blended together – or they are so entirely synonymous – that the one term may be used for the other.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 38:5
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Suffering for sin
I. Davids unhappy situation.
1. The pain and anguish he felt on account of sin (Job 20:12-14; Psa 88:15).
2. Shame and self-abhorrence (Pro 13:5; Job 42:6).
3. Danger. Though the principle of spiritual life be not totally extinguished in a true believer, yet by the prevalence of particular corruptions it may be brought into a very languishing state, and sometimes it seems as if it were giving up the ghost (Rev 3:2).
II. The cause to which his unhappy situation is attributed. My foolishness.
1. In sinning against God, he committed folly in Israel (1Sa 13:8; 2Sa 24:10). Sin must needs be folly, not only because it is contrary to the most sacred obligations, but because it is opposite to our best interests. Whatever injury we may thereby do to others, the greatest injury will be to ourselves. It is following after lying vanities, and forsaking our own mercies.
2. It was folly in David to persist in sin, after it was once committed.
3. His folly appeared in not confessing his sin, as the only means of obtaining effectual relief (Pro 28:13; 1Jn 1:9; Jer 3:18; Psa 32:5).
4. The principal part of Davids folly, and that for which he took blame to himself was, that he had so long neglected the remedy, after sin had been committed, and that he had not applied to that mercy which blots out all our transgressions. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt] Taking this in connection with the rest of the Psalm, I do not see that we can understand the word in any figurative or metaphorical way. I believe they refer to some disease with which he was at this time afflicted; but whether the leprosy, the small pox, or some other disorder that had attacked the whole system, and showed its virulence on different parts of the outer surface, cannot be absolutely determined.
Because of my foolishness.] This may either signify sin as the cause of his present affliction, or it may import an affliction which was the consequence of that foolish levity which prefers the momentary gratification of an irregular passion to health of body and peace of mind.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The bruises and sores caused by my disease are not only painful, but loathsome to myself and to others.
Foolishnss, i.e. sin, which really is, and is commonly called, folly, as Psa 69:5; Pro 13:16; 14:17; 15:2, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5-8. The loathsomeness,corruption, and wasting torture of severe physical disease set forthhis mental anguish [Ps 38:6].It is possible some bodily disease was connected. The
loins are the seat ofstrength. His exhaustion left him only the power to groan [Ps38:9].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My wounds stink, [and] are corrupt,…. Meaning his sins, which had wounded him, and for which there is no healing but in a wounded Saviour, and by his stripes we are healed, Isa 53:5; where the same word is used as here; Christ’s black and blue stripes and wounds, as the word signifies, are the healing of ours, both of sins, and of the effects of them; which, to a sensible sinner, are as nauseous and loathsome as an old wound that is festered and corrupt;
because of my foolishness: as all sin arises from foolishness, which is bound in the hearts of men, and from whence it arises, Mr 7:22; perhaps the psalmist may have respect to his folly with Bathsheba, which had been the occasion of all the distress that is spoken of both before and afterwards.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 My wounds (50) have become putrid In this verse, he pleads the long continuance of his disease as an argument for obtaining some alleviation. When the Lord declares, concerning his Church,
“
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,” (Isa 40:2)
his meaning is, that when he has sufficiently chastised his people, he is quickly pacified towards them; nay, more, that if he continue to manifest his displeasure for too long a time, he becomes through his mercy, as it were, weary of it, so that he hastens to give deliverance, as he says in another place,
“
For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”— (Isa 48:9)
The object, therefore, which David has in view, in complaining of the long continuance of his misery is, that when he had endured the punishment which he had merited, he might at length obtain deliverance. It was certainly no slight trial to this servant of God to be thus kept in continual languishing, and, as it were, to putrify and be dissolved into corruption in his miseries. In this his constancy is the more to be admired, for it neither broke down from the long period of delay, nor failed under the immense load of suffering. By using the term foolishness instead of sin, he does not seek in this way to extenuate his faults, as hypocrites do when they are unable to escape the charge of guilt; for in order to excuse themselves in part, they allege the false pretense of ignorance, pleading, and wishing it to be believed, that they erred through imprudence and inadvertence. But, according to a common mode of expression in the Hebrew language, by the use of the term foolishness, he acknowledges that he had been out of his right mind, when he obeyed the lusts of the flesh in opposition to God. The Spirit, by employing this term in so many places to designate crimes the most atrocious, does not certainly mean to extenuate the criminality of men, as if they were guilty merely of some slight offenses, but rather charges them with maniacal fury, because, blinded by unhallowed desires, they wilfully fly in the face of their Maker. Accordingly, sin is always conjoined with folly or, madness. It is in this sense that David speaks of his own foolishness; as if he had said, that he was void of reason and transported with madness, like the infatuated rage of wild beasts, when he neglected God and followed his own lusts.
(50) “The proper meaning of חכר is not a wound, but a bruise or wale made by a severe blow. My wales through my severe chastisement are become putrid and running sores.” — Fry
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Wounds.Better, stripes, as in LXX.
Stink and are corrupt.Both words denote suppuration; the first in reference to the offensive smell, the second of the discharge of matter; the whole passage recalls Isa. 1:6, seq.
Foolishness.Men are generally even more loth to confess their folly than their sins.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Wounds The description is that of a suppurated running sore, of offensive odour, and should here be understood literally.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt,
Because of my foolishness.
I am pained and bowed down greatly,
I go mourning all the day long.
For my loins are filled with burning,
And there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am faint and sore bruised,
I have groaned by reason of the disquietness of my heart.’
He is so overwhelmed by his sense of sin that he sees himself as wounded, with wounds that are putrefying and becoming loathsome. And he knows that all this because of his own folly. He does not try to hide from the truth. He has been very foolish, and now he is being made conscious of his own utter unworthiness. Thus he feels within himself a terrible pain at the thought of how sinful he is, and the result is that he is utterly bowed down by it to the earth. All day long he mourns over his sin, unable to obtain a sense of being forgiven, and his very loins are filled with a sense of burning as though gripped with fever (which, in fact, he may well have been). He feels that his flesh is unsound, and he feels continually faint and sore bruised. To him at that moment it is as though he cannot escape from his sin, and as though there can be no forgiveness for it (although happily, deep within him, he knows that there is such forgiveness, simply because of the compassion and mercy of God. That is why he is praying). Thus he groans within himself because his heart is so disquieted. He is a man filled with a sense of his own unworthiness. Such is what happens to a man or woman when they come to a full awareness of the truth about themselves.
Some who have known such a sense of their sinfulness will recognise the picture only too well. Others may not have experienced such a deep sense of sin. But all must recognise that the pictures are describing the truth about our sins, whoever we are, whether we are conscious of it or not.
Thus we see that sin:
Results in our inner beings being unsound and unhealthy (Psa 38:3).
Results in our being loathsome and corrupt because of our foolishness (Psa 38:5).
Results in the destruction of our inner peace and confidence because of what we are (Psa 38:6-8).
And this is true of us all even when we do not ourselves sense its awful effects. Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil (Joh 3:19). They do not want to be reminded of their sinfulness. But those who do the truth come to the light, even when it reveals to them what they are, because by coming to the light they can have their sins dealt with, while at the same time manifesting their true condition of heart.
So as we come to His light (1Jn 1:5-6) our sinfulness must be recognised by us all, some to a greater extent than others, although happily in our case being then followed by thankfulness that the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin (1Jn 1:7). For the Psalmist that experience of such forgiveness still lies ahead.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 38:5. Because of my foolishness i.e. “As a just punishment of my folly; whereby, to satisfy my unreasonable desires, I have inconsiderately offended thee.” See 2Sa 11:2-4. David in the next verse represents the greatness of his affliction by the posture in which mourners walked at funerals; I am bowed down greatly, &c. Compare Psa 35:14.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 38:5 My wounds stink [and] are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Ver. 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt ] What his grief or disease was we read not; some say the leprosy; some take all this allegorically. The word rendered wounds, signifieth stripes, scars, wales, Livores vibices tumices, mattery sores, running ulcers, the effects of the envenomed arrows of the Almighty. Could we but foresee what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent. That we do not is extreme foolishness, as David here acknowledgeth.
Because of my foolishness
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
My wounds: The soul being invisible, its distempers are also so; therefore the sacred writers describe them by the distempers of the body. – See the parallel texts on these verses.On reading these and similar passages, say Bp. Lowth, some, who were but little acquainted with the genius of Hebrew poetry, have pretended to enquire into the nature of the disease with which the poet was afflicted; not less absurdly, in my opinion, than if they had perplexed themselves to discover in what river he was plunged, when he complains that “the deep waters had gone over his soul.” Psa 38:7, Psa 32:3, Isa 1:5, Isa 1:6, Jer 8:22
Reciprocal: Job 2:8 – took him Job 7:5 – flesh Job 30:18 – By the great Psa 14:3 – filthy Psa 109:24 – my flesh Nah 3:6 – I will cast
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
38:5 My wounds stink [and] are corrupt because of {f} my foolishness.
(f) That rather gave place to my own lusts, than to the will of God.