Psalms 38

To you O Lord I lift up my soul. There was a time when David's soul was bowed down (Psalm 38:6): I am bowed down greatly. But now the case is altered, he will lift up his soul to God in a way of triumph; from where was this?

He had a Book of Remembrance written for them that thought upon his name. You enter into your closet, and pray to your Father in secret; he hears every sigh and groan (Psalm 38:9). My groaning is not hid from you.

He that touches you touches the apple of my eye (Zechariah 2:8). 4. If God be our Father, he will take notice of the least good he sees in us; if there be but a sigh for sin, God hears it (Psalm 38:9). My groaning is not hid from you; if there be but a penitential tear comes out…

It requires no patience to wear a crown of gold, but while we live here in a valley of tears, there needs patient submission to God's will (Hebrews 10:36): You have need of patience. 1. The Lord sometimes lays heavy afflictions upon us (Psalm 38:2): Your hand presses me sore. Th…

And this guilt, like the waves of the sea or the swellings of the Jordan, does begin upon these terrible storms from God to rise and swell and overflow in our consciences. As in David (Psalm 38): when God's wrath was sore upon him (verses 1-2), then also he complains, 'My iniqui…

As it will ease you (as vomiting is accustomed to do), so also it will move God to pity and to give you cordials and comforts to restore you again. Thus David in Psalm 38:18, being in great distress (verses 2-5): 'I will declare my iniquity and be sorry for my sin' — and he make…

Now this first kind of temptations, by outward Judgments, is most grievous; when the Lord lays his own hand upon his servants so heavily, as they shall think themselves to be quite forsaken. In this temptation was David as we may read at large: Psalm the 6: and Psalm 38: and Job…

When Christ was upon the Cross, the Jews most shamefully mocked him: yet even then did Christ pray for them. And the same was David's behavior, as we may read notably, Psalm 38, verse 12, 13, 14, When his enemies spoke evil of him, what did he? Did he rail on them again?

(1.) The soul is now under the [illegible] sense of soul concerns, and highly engaged to seek for help; he cannot make a light thing of perishing, as many do, and as perhaps himself once long did; no, it is now to him, as indeed it is in itself: a fearful thing to fall into the…

As for them in 1 John 2:19, of whom it is said, They went out from us, but they were not of us, &c. why may not this going out be understood of a local departure, or of a departing from the company, and communion of the saints, and such duties and acts of love as that church-rel…

Exodus [illegible] 4:15. The Lord says to Moses, Why cry you? Yet there is no mention made that Moses spoke any word at all: the Lord no doubt, accepted the inward mourning and desire of his heart for a cry, Psalms 38:10. and 11:4. The third question is, what is the form or rule…

And Paul speaking of his Apostleship says (Romans 15:15), as one that puts you in remembrance, through the grace given to me; see also 2 Timothy 2:14; Titus 3:1; 2 Peter 1:12, 13, 14; 2 Peter 3:1. So there are two Psalms that bear that title; A Psalm of David to bring to remembr…

Why did David cry out of broken bones — Psalm 51? I hear what you say of the pleasure of sin, and I have read what David said of the terrible effects of sin in his Psalm of remembrance — Psalm 38:2-8: 'Your arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presses me sore; there is no soun…

If his glory may rise out of our shame, how willing should we be to take such shame to us? Holy David was not ashamed to acknowledge (Psalm 38:5), My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. He is the wisest man that thus makes a fool of himself before God.

It brought the fallen angels out of Heaven, to the pit: you may take an instance or two of its weight on a sinner, when he becomes sensible of sin. (Psalm 38:4) My iniquities, says David, are gone over my head, as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me: it's true, sins are not…

In these few words then, we have, 1. something spoken of iniquity which three parties have some acts about, to wit, 1. the Elect, us all; 2. Him, to wit the Mediator; 3. the Lord, to wit Jehovah; then we have the express act of the Lord, to wit, his laying on Him the Mediator, t…

So we see some have peace, but not pardon; as the secure sinners (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Secondly, some have pardon, but not peace; as David (Psalm 38:3), who had broken bones; and complains (verse 8), I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my…

Why does David complain that he was as a bottle in the smoke, and pray so often that God would quicken him, if under a dead disposition we were not to pray? 4. If often the saints beginning to pray do speak words of unbelief and from a principle of nature, and if words flowing f…

Therefore must we get alone and enumerate all the sins we know of, and desire God to show us what we do not know, and with holy David, breathe out that devout petition (Psalm 19:12): Cleanse you me from secret faults. 3. God sees in secret, therefore you do not lose your labor,…

It is a burden to the wicked Angels, for it weighed them from the highest heaven, and made them fall like thunderbolts into the lowest hell. To man: for as David says, it is like a grievous burden, too heavy for him to bear (Psalm 38:4). To God: for the hypocritical and ceremoni…

As in Zechariah he witnesses, that as often as his children are oppressed by any, they even touch the apple of his eye (Zechariah 2:8). He sees the tears and hears the groans of the afflicted which call upon him (Psalm 12:5, Psalm 38:9, Psalm 102:20). And however this always com…

First, after the Lord has greatly humbled the hearts of his people, and broken them for sin, then does he usually give in most assurance of a man's effectual calling, and of the happiness of his future condition. When you can say as David did (Psalm 38:3), there is no rest in my…

2. It is so noisome a disease; it turns the good humors into putrefaction, which putting forth itself in the issues of running sores, does give a most noisome smell. Such a disease for loathsomeness we read of (Psalm 38:5, 7, 11): My wounds stink and are corrupt, my loins are fi…

2. It implies sickness and weakening of the person, as in Amnon's love to his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1, 2, 3, 4). It comes from apprehended wrath, and the curse of the Law (Psalms 90:8; Psalms 32:3, 4; Psalms 6:1; Psalms 38:1, 2, 3, 4, &c.; Daniel 9:11; Romans 7:24; Isaiah 33…

As, that all shall be taught of God; the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord; the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun as the light of seven days (Jeremiah 31:31, 32, 33; Isaiah 54:11, 12, 13; Isaiah 11:6, 9; Ezekiel 36:26…

Any who believes that the wind blows where it lists, and that the influences of the Spirit are various as touching their degrees may see the truth of this. 2. The children of God appear dead, cold, and unbelievingly to complain in the beginning of praying, and of a Psalm, as is…

And here though buried and dead bones scattered at the grave mouth, as when one hews timber, speak and pray to God (Psalm 141), and the Church so overwhelmed, so that they cannot speak (Psalm 77:4), yet they speak prayers. 2. There is holy complaining laid in the bosom of an app…

Jonah 2:2: Out of the belly of Hell I cried, says Jonah; and waves of wrath, all the waves, all the waves of your wrath are gone over me, says David (Psalms 45:8): Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my p…

The disposition and the gracious acting by divine influences are near other, as the powder and flamings, the dry timber and the warm hearth-stone, to receive flamings. There is a near disposition in the embryo, in the framed mass of the birth, to receive by the Creator's influen…

So is it with the Church of Rome; and I wish others did not in some measure follow them therein. And as to those of the second sort, whereinto men are cast by surprizals and temptations, producing great spiritual distress and anguish of soul, under a sense of God's displeasure,…

However, we have a righteous God, to whom (if we do in a meek silence suffer ourselves to be run down unjustly) we may commit our cause, and having his promise that he will bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day (Psalm 37:6), we had better l…

When his own brother was so rough upon him without reason (1 Samuel 17:28), why came you down here, etc.? How mild was his answer? What have I now done? Is there not a cause? (verse 29). When his enemies reproached him, he was not at all disturbed at it (Psalm 38:13): I, as a de…

Is our Lord Jesus appearing for us in heaven, pleading our cause there, pleading it with his own blood, and shall not we be ready to appear for him on earth, and plead his cause though it were with the hazard of our blood? As it is then a time to keep silence, when we ourselves…

Again, hereby you come to be injurious to yourselves, you deprive yourselves from any help of God to clear your names: If you had hearts to commit yourselves to God, he would provide for you; but when you seek to clear yourselves this way, you put yourselves from any care that G…

If you be in Gods way, you are to commit yourselves to God, he has charge of you; when Gods Servants are meek and quiet, and do not hear reproaches against themselves, yet God hears them, it is no great matter then though they hear them not themselves. It is an excellent place w…

6. The sixth particular, in having God to be their portion, is the Rest that the foul has in God: The term of all motion is rest, every thing that moves, moves that it may have rest: Now here in this world the creature is altogether in motion, and especially man, because he is n…

This is that which I intend; by the omission of this duty, grace withers, lust flourishes, and the frame of the heart grows worse and worse: and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues it has had with many. Where sin through the neglect of mortification gets a considera…

As a means: by removing the contrary. The desperate effects of unmortified lust: it weakens the soul (Psalm 38:3, 8) in sundry ways, and darkens it. All graces improved by the mortification of sin.

Your lust has a dangerous symptom. So was the case with David (Psalm 38:5): My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness. When a lust has lain long in the heart, corrupting, festering, canckering, it brings the soul to a woeful condition.

A profane, secure sinner thinks it nothing to break the holy law of God, to please his flesh, or the world, counts sin a light matter, makes a mock of it as Solomon says, but a stirring conscience is of another mind. Mine iniquities are gone over my head, etc. (Psalm 38:4). Sin…

He is wise that has learned to speak little with others, and much with himself, and with God. How much might be gained for our souls, if we would make a right use of this silence, so David dumb to men, found his tongue to God, Psalm 38:13, 15. A spiritual-minded man is quickly w…

May God bless you, dear friends, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Portion of Scripture read before sermon—Psalm 38.

That prayer God did write down and Answer; God was better to her than her prayer; she prayed for a Son, and God gave her a Prophet. When the heart is so full of grief, that it can only groan in Prayer; yet a Groan is sometimes the best part of a Prayer, and God writes it down, P…

David complains, (Psalm 69:8) "I am become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother's children." And (Psalm 38:11) "My lovers and friends stand aloof from my sore": they stood afar off then when wicked men had wounded him. Now this may come to pass,

There is as much difference between his wrath and displeasure falling upon us, and our falling upon it, as there is between our having a few drops of a shower falling upon us, and our falling into a river, or into the sea, and being overwhelmed with the great waters thereof; and…

When a man repents truly, his sorrow for sin is much greater, than was the pleasure he had in committing of it. David found it so, this we see in his penitential Psalms, where we hear him saying, Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin: for mine iniquities are go…

The very thoughts of God trouble him, and he is calling in question every thing in the Covenant (Psalm 77:3, 7, 8, 9). And he cries out as (Psalm 38:10), "Mine heart pants, my strength fails; as for the light of mine eyes, it is also gone from me." And he is afraid that he shall…

(Psalm 40) Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, that I cannot look up: a similitude taken from the prey that flies from the pursuer, though he would have fled from the terrors of the Almighty, wrested and rescued himself from under the attachment, yet they overtake him, and…

A meek spirit, like wet tinder, will not easily take fire. Psalm 38:12-13: They that seek my hurt spoke mischievous things, but I as a deaf man heard not. Meekness is the bridle of anger; the passions are fiery and headstrong, and meekness gives check to them.

Good Hezekiah looked upon his praying as chattering, yet that prayer was heard (verse 5). A sigh and groan from a humble heart goes up as the smoke of incense (Psalm 38:9). My groaning is not hid from you.