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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 38:15 - 38:15
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(Heb.: 38:16-23) Become utterly useless in himself, he renounces all self-help, for (כִּי) he hopes in Jahve, who alone can help him. He waits for His answer, for (כי) he says, etc. - he waits for an answer, for the hearing of this his petition which is directed towards the glory of God, that God would not suffer his foes to triumph over him, nor strengthen them in their mercilessness and injustice. Psa 38:18 appears also to stand under the government of the פֶּן;
(Note: The following are the constructions of פן when a clause of ore than one member follows it: (1) fut. and perf., the latter with the tone of the perf. consec., e.g., Exo 34:15., or without it, e.g., Psa 28:1 (which see); (2) fut. and fut. as in Psa 2:12, Jer 51:46. This construction is indispensable where it is intended to give special prominence to the subject notion or a secondary notion of the clause, e.g., Deu 20:6. In one instance פן is even followed (3) by the perf. and fut. consec., viz., 2Ki 2:10.)
but, since in this case one would look for a Waw relat. and a different order of the words, Psa 38:18 is to be regarded as a subject clause: “who, when my foot totters, i.e., when my affliction changes to entire downfall, would magnify themselves against me.” In Psa 38:18, כִּי connects what follows with בְּמֹוט רַגְלִי by way of confirmation: he is נָכֹון לְצֶלַע, ready for falling (Psa 35:15), he will, if God does not graciously interpose, assuredly fall headlong. The fourth כִּי in Psa 38:19 is attached confirmatorily to Psa 38:18: his intense pain or sorrow is ever present to him, for he is obliged to confess his guilt, and this feeling of guilt is just the very sting of his pain. And whilst he in the consciousness of well-deserved punishment is sick unto death, his foes are numerous and withal vigorous and full of life. Instead of חַיִּים, probably חִנָּם, as in Psa 35:19; Psa 69:5, is to be read (Houbigant, Hitzig, Köster, Hupfeld, Ewald, and Olshausen). But even the lxx read חיים; and the reading which is so old, although it does not very well suit עָצֵמוּ (instead of which one would look for וַֽעֲצוּמִים), is still not without meaning: he looks upon himself, according to Psa 38:9, more as one dead than living; his foes, however, are חַיִּים, living, i.e., vigorous. The verb frequently ash this pregnant meaning, and the adjective can also have it. Just as the accentuation of the form סַבּוּ varies elsewhere out of pause, וְרַבּוּ here has the tone on the ultima, although it is not perf. consec.
(Note: As perf. consec. the following have the accent on the ultima: - וְחַתּוּ, Isa 20:5, Oba 1:9, and וְרַבּוּ, Isa 66:16; perhaps also וְחַדּוּ, וְקַלּוּ, Hab 1:8, and וְרַבּוּ (perf. hypoth.), Job 32:15. But there is no special reason for the ultima-accentuation of רַכּוּ, Psa 55:22; רַבּוּ, Psa 69:5; דַּלּוּ, Isa 38:14; קַלּוּ, Jer 4:13; שַׁחוּ, Pro 14:19; Hab 3:6; חַתּוּ, Job 32:15; זַכּוּ, צַחוּ, Lam 4:7.)
Psa 38:21 is an apposition of the subject, which remains the same as in Psa 38:20. Instead of רְדופִי (Ges. §61, rem. 2) the Kerî is רָֽדְפִי, rādephî (without any Makkeph following), or רָֽדֳפִי, rādophî; cf. on this pronunciation, Psa 86:2; Psa 16:1, and with the Chethîb רדופי, the Chethîb צרופה, Psa 26:2, also מיורדי, Psa 30:4. By the “following of that which is good” David means more particularly that which is brought into exercise in relation to his present foes.
(Note: In the Greek and Latin texts, likewise in all the Aethiopic and several Arabic texts, and in the Syriac Psalterium Medilanense, the following addition is found after Psa 38:21 : Ce aperripsan me ton agapeton osi necron ebdelygmenon, Et projecerunt me dilectum tanquam mortuum abominatum (so the Psalt. Veronense). Theodoret refers it to Absalom's relation to David. The words ὡσεὶ νεκρὸν ἐβδελυγμένον are taken from Isa 14:19.)
He closes in Psa 38:22 with sighs for help. No lighting up of the darkness of wrath takes place. The fides supplex is not changed into fides triumphans. But the closing words, “O Lord, my salvation” (cf. Psa 51:16), show where the repentance of Cain and that of David differ. True repentance has faith within itself, it despairs of itself, but not of God.