Psalm 38:1-11 “Mourn Over Sin”

Translation & Sermon By Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 27 May 2018

When I went to Uganda on a short-term mission, I was warned that the mosquitos there carried malaria, so I needed a prophylaxis to keep from getting malaria. A missionary friend of mine had discovered, while in the jungles of Venezuela, that eating a bitter herb called Neem made a person undesirable to mosquitos. The mosquitos would be like “Yuck, I don’t want that blood!” So he told me to eat a little bit of this bitter herb every day to keep from getting malaria. I had read about and seen how miserable malaria makes people, so I was willing to do whatever I needed to keep from getting malaria. So I took that neem, even though it gave me terrible stomach aches, and I also used mosquito nets around my bed while I was in Uganda… and I didn’t get malaria.
I should mention, however, that a friend who also went to Uganda that summer, and who also took neem as a prophylactic, did get malaria, and it was awful, so maybe it was just the grace of God that kept me from that dreadful disease, but the point is that when you are afraid enough of something, you will do what it takes – even things that are no fun – to protect yourself from a worse evil, and for me, that mean taking a bitter herb that gave me an upset stomach my whole time in Uganda in hopes that I wouldn’t get malaria.
But there is a sickness much worse than malaria; it’s called “sin.” And the misery of God’s judgment against sin should be something we would be willing to do anything to avoid. I would like to suggest that in Psalm 39, David prescribes a “bitter pill” that is an effective prophylactic against sin, and that “bitter pill” is the spiritual discipline of lament/mourning.
The title of Ps. 38 says it is a “memorial/reminder/for the purpose of causing to remember.”

The oldest-known versions of this text add that it is especially to be used as liturgy on the Sabbath day.
The NIV interprets it as a “petition,” presumably to remind God not to forget to be gracious to David, but I don’t think God needs a reminder like that.
I think the reminder is for David to remember how he felt about sin when he composed this psalm in order to hold that thought and keep a proper attitude about sin before his mind[1] - or in Matthew Henry’s words, “to awaken our consciences to deal faithfully and plainly with us, and set our sins in order before us, for our humiliation.”
Notice that there is no testimony of God’s salvation in this Psalm. There is testimony that God hears David, so he prays for salvation, but he doesn’t do any more than mention the hope of God answering because, unlike the last few psalms, this is not an evangelistic psalm; this is a lament psalm, the purpose is to get us back in synch with God’s attitude of abhorring sin.

We all need this synching-up from time to time:

When we are around foul-mouthed people, we gradually lose perspective about how foul that speech is – until words that we never would have said before start flowing naturally from our brain into the line of speech headed for our mouths. It is at that time that you need to remember the dreadful occasion when your school-teacher or your Dad or your Aunt caught you using a bad word and gave you “what-for” – and maybe even washed your mouth out with soap! If you could hold that thought from that experience when you recognized that sin for how dreadful it was, it would be easier to weed bad words from the queue going to your mouth later on.
Similarly, it’s easy to grow accepting of sexual sin. As the uncovering of people’s bodies becomes more and more normative in entertainment and clothing styles, and lewd images pop up un-asked-for while browsing and are only a mouse-click away – or are already plastered on the wall of a friend’s bedroom, and most couples live together nowadays before getting married, and every movie portrays sexual immorality as normal – and God’s ways of faithfulness as totally uncool, it’s easy to rationalize that this is normal – to accept that it’s o.k. to let some of it into your mind unfiltered because at least I have higher standards than average. How we need to keep in mind that first time we were ever caught in a sexual sin and were terribly embarrassed and scared to death of what kind of punishment we’d get.
Or maybe it was the first time you got caught stealing something or telling a lie, and you felt like your world was about to end. Your palms were sweating and you were shaking and begging and pleading for mercy. If only we could remember that when, years later, and for the hundredth time, the thought of grabbing something that’s not yours or saying something untrue crosses our minds so casually it feels natural.

Sin is a way bigger deal than we’d like to think.

When we lose perspective of how bad sin is, we lose perspective on how holy God is. We get the idea that God isn’t all that different from us. And we lose perspective on how great God’s love is. We figure it’s no big deal to pray, “forgive us our debts.” God has to do so much of it anyway, what’s one more sin more or less?
And if you’re anything like me, you like to forget about the bad things you’ve done and just let them fade from memory. God has forgiven them, and I don’t want to think about them any more.
But I think that David wrote this Psalm as a way to remember how terrible sin is and how desperate for God’s mercy he really was, even when years separated him from the actual events of those sins - and time had dulled his sense of their awfulness.

It is through a lament-psalm like this that we too can re-enter into a healthy fear of God, a healthy horror of sin, and a healthy adoration of Jesus for being our savior!
The Hebrew word for wrath/anger (qetzpa) shows up several times in the Pentateuch, every time describing an authority’s response toward disobedient, disrespectful people, so this is not irrational rage; this is God justifiably being upset. God’s wrath is totally reasonable and to be feared!

When David realized with horror how right it was for God to be angry at him for sinning, perhaps he remembered one of those previous occasions of God’s anger, like Numbers 13:42-49 “Now it happened, when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared. [This is the “Uh Oh” moment when the awfulness of the sin of rebellion suddenly become clear.] Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.’ And they fell on their faces. So Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun.’ Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident.”
David also must have remembered that God said the same thing could happen in the future: Lev. 26:18 “If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins… 23 And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me… 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.” (NAW, cf. Deut. 29:14ff)
David’s fear of God’s “burning anger/indignation/wrath/hot displeasure/fury” fuels his desperation for God’s mercy: “let it not be with your anger that you make a ruling on me or with Your fury that You discipline me!”
“The wages of sin is death,” and if God brought the full punishment, there would be nothing left of us, so we beg him for mercy as the Psalmist did, and also as the prophet Jeremiah 10:24 “Correct me, O LORD, but with justice; Not with Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.”

Several times in the Psalms, we read of God shooting arrows at the wicked, but Psalm 38:2 is the only place where God’s arrows are pointed at God’s people. That’s a frightening though! What could this be talking about? Once again, the covenant curses give a key:

Deuteronomy 32:20-25 God promised that if Israel became “…a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faith…. move Me to anger by their foolish idols… I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, With the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword shall destroy outside; There shall be terror within…” (NKJV) In Deuteronomy 32, God’s “arrows” are in parallel with “disasters… hunger… plague… vermin… war…” and describe the kind of things David may be talking about when he says God’s arrows have been brought down/pierced/sunk deep/stuck fast in him.
In Psalm 38:2, the parallel to the arrows is the hand of God – both the arrows and the hand of God coming down (same verb for both) upon David. David sees the wrath of God against sin coming down against him, and he is panicking – as well he should – to a certain extent.
Isaiah 30:27-30 also described the hand of God coming down to smash people in judgment: “Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, Burning with His anger, And His burden is heavy; His lips are full of indignation, And His tongue like a devouring fire. His breath is like an overflowing stream, Which reaches up to the neck, To sift the nations with the sieve of futility… The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, And show the descent of His arm, With the indignation of His anger And the flame of a devouring fire, With scattering, tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the LORD Assyria will be beaten down, As He strikes with the rod.” (NAW) This would be a holy terror to see!
“If, then, we would render to God the praise which is due to him, let us learn by the example of David to connect our sins with his wrath.” ~J. Calvin

In v.3, not only is God’s anger against David undoing him physically, David’s own sin is destroying his shalom from the inside – his “peace/rest/health/soundness.” It’s not just God’s wrath we need to be afraid of, it’s our own sin we need to be afraid of too! This is terrible!
And look what David’s sin is doing to his mind in v.4: It’s like wearing a necklace made of bricks. The Hebrew phrase ‘avru roshiy pictures a heavy burden of guilt dropped over his head and onto his shoulders, weighing him down.

Have you ever experienced that? Do you know what I’m talking about? Never forget that feeling! You would have done anything to get out from under that load of sin. Sin was truly awful for you and you wanted nothing to do with it anymore even though it clung to you and you couldn’t get rid of its oppression. You saw the evil of it.
That’s the attitude we need to return to about sin and stop flirting with the world. Stop this insane infatuation with iniquity. Quit the madness of seeking comfort and joy from unfaithfulness!

In v.5, we begin to see social ramifications to sin as well. Sin not only brings down God’s wrath and takes away your health, destroys your peace, and burdens you down with guilt, it also makes reasonable people not want to be around you!

As people see the marks on you that you have been punished for your sin, they will generally back away and avoid you.

When I was a boy, I got spanked a lot. I remember one time, after getting a particularly good spanking with a tree twig all up and down my legs – I must have done something really bad, but I don’t remember now what it was – I was in school the next day, changing into my shorts for P.E. class, and one of the other guys in the locker room saw the welts on my legs and kinda drew back in horror and said, “What happened to you???” And when I said it was from a switching I had received from my mom, they kinda got a sick look on their face.
In the opening of the book of Isaiah, God explained that a consequence of sin is isolation: “Oh, nation of sinners, people heavy with iniquity, seed of evildoers, children of destroyers; they have forgotten Yahweh, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backwards. Over what will you be struck down again? Will you add to rebellion? Every head is sick, and every heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is nothing whole in it – cut and welt and dripping wound… Your country is wasted; your cities burned with fire… it is desolate... And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard…” Loneliness resulting from sin.
The khaburot “wounds/stripes/whippings” were from the punishment of being lashed with a whip – at least half of the six times this word appears in the Bible, that’s what it’s talking about, for instance, Proverbs 20:30 “Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart.” (NKJV)

הִבְאִישׁוּ The first couple of times the verb for “stink/grow foul/fester/putrify” show up in the Pentateuch, it describes social stigma:

When Jacob and his family were camped in Canaan, and Simeon and Levi went and killed the prince of the neighboring town for eloping with their sister Dinah, Jacob complained in Genesis 34:30 that his sons had “made him stink” in their neighbors’ opinion and that they would have to move away. Social opprobrium for sin.
And in Exodus 5:21, when Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh to free the Israelites from Egypt, the leaders of Israel complained that this would make the Israelites “stink” in the opinion of the Egyptians and result in the Egyptians killing them.
The noun form of this verb also shows up as part of God’s punishment upon Israel later on for their sin:Amos 4:10 "I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; Your young men I killed with a sword, Along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me," Says the LORD. (NKJV)

The second verb in v.5, translated “corrupt/fester/degenerated/loathsome,” is also one of the covenant curses in Leviticus 26:39 “and as for those of y'all who are left, they will degenerate [נמק] in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, moreover in the iniquities of their fathers with them they will degenerate.” (NAW)
This is all a result of the appearance of sinful “folly,” which is not mere ignorance or mistakes, but as Louis Goldberg summed it up in the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word ivval means “moral insolence.”
Furthermore, David recognized that it is not just sin in general that has caused this suffering, it is “my” sin.

So many people suffer under the consequences of their own pride and fear and laziness and faithlessness, all the while complaining about how mean everybody else has been to them and how they have been victimized and how awful it is to live in a world of sinners. But they don’t fess up to the fact that they brought most of it on themselves. Only when we are ready to confess our own sins, that’s when God will respond and forgive.

Verse 6 develops what verse 4 brought up about the heaviness of the guilt of sin, reflected in the physical posture of being “bent over” and “bowed down” ad meod – “as low as” you can go and mourning gloomily. (Psalm 35:14 described the same posture for mourning.)

v.7 continues the thought, perhaps describing a backache from being bent over so much, or perhaps describing an internal sickness (related to the kidneys) or even an emotional sense of loathsomeness – the Hebrew words are a little obscure.
Do you remember the last time you were physically doubled over with grief over a sin? Can you let that memory inform you next time that sin presents itself as attractive?
If you’ve never had that experience of being curled up in a ball with anguish over sin, you might ought to ask yourself why you haven’t. Is it because you have never realized how “dark” and “warped” your sin is? It’s not too late to repent.
“Let mourning be our portion, until our soul be divested of its illusions.” ~Augustine

In verse 8, we see more of what sin does to us emotionally.

It “numbs” you and makes you “feeble” (the New Testament talks about callouses forming on hearts in Ephesians 4:17-19 “…walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” ~NASB),
Sin “crushes” you emotionally, until you are overwhelmed and can’t recover,
and all that “anguish/agitation/disquiet/tumult” in your heart comes out audibly in “groans”

We saw those groans earlier on at the beginning of Psalm 22, when he said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
and there’s also Psalm 6, a shorter lament-psalm, where Davidsays, “Don't judge me in your anger, Yahweh, and don't discipline me in your fury! Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am sagging; heal me, Yahweh, for my bones are in a panic… I am tired out in my sighing; I cause my bed to swim all through the night. With my tears I cause erosion on my bed frame!” (Ps. 6:1-6, NAW)
Remembering a time when you felt that way is a powerful medicine to change your attitude when sin is looking attractive again, to help you stop wanting to go there again!

In v.9, David steps away from his dread of God’s wrath and punishment briefly, calling God His “Master” (or “Lord” with lowercase letters) and recognizing that God is near, listening to his groans and “sighs” and prayers. David has mentioned this “desire/longing” before in other psalms: it’s a desire to be saved.

Psalm 10:17-18 “It is the desires of the lowly ones that You, Yahweh heeded. You will cause their heart to stand firm; You will cause Your ear to be attentive, in order to adjudicate for an orphan or [for] the one who is beaten down...”
Psalm 21:1-4 “…in Your salvation how very much will he rejoice! His heart's desire You gave to him, and the expressed-desire of his lips You in no way withheld… It was life that he requested from You. You gave it to him…”
And God understands what it is that David “longs for/desires” – it is “not hidden” from God; it is “open/before” Him.
Elsewhere in the psalms, it is affirmed of God that, “You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me.” (Ps. 56:8-9, NKJV).
This lamenting and mourning and groaning in contrition over sin is something God notices, appreciates, and values! It is a powerful part of our relationship with Him, even though it is a bitter experience.

V.10 returns to physical symptoms of dismay over sin – heart palpitations, weakness, and loss of eyesight – or, more likely, loss of enthusiasm. (The English idiom “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” – minus the bushy tail – matches pretty closely in meaning to the Hebrew idiom about having the “light of the eyes.”) Have you noticed how physically and emotionally draining sin is? Is that what you want to live with for the rest of your life?
V.11 adds to the list of social problems of sin: friends avoiding you, loss of relationships - as a consequence of sin and God’s punishment for sin.

What exactly is the “lesion/plague/wound/sore” that David talks about in v.11?

The word occurs frequently in the Bible to describe leprosy, and that was definitely a disease which resulted in social ostracism. Lepers had to live away from healthy people, and not even family members were allowed to touch a leper.
Now, Biblical history doesn’t say that David ever got leprosy, so he may be referring to another sickness which he contracted at some point, or perhaps it is figurative language for a tragedy in his life, such as Absalom’s rebellion that resulted in family and former-friends keeping their distance because of David’s disgrace.
This word is also used in the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah to foreshadow Jesus accepting the guilt of our moral plague of sin and suffering God’s punishment for our sin on the cross in our place:
2 Samuel 7:13-14 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.”
Isaiah 53:8-10 “…For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin...”
Remembering the “wormwood and the gall” of sin doesn’t atone for past sin, Jesus already did that on the cross. Lamenting sin is merely a way to resist the temptation for future sin.

Now, as with anything, there are ditches on both sides of the road.

The ditch that this psalm focuses on is the ditch of complacency and compromise with sin.
It hasn’t really been a focus of this sermon to talk about the ditch on the other side of the road of morbid introspection that paralyses some particularly devout believers from getting on with life and bearing fruit in God’s kingdom. There is a point where you have to stop lamenting and obsessing over how bad you are in order to do the other things Jesus also teaches us to do: like rejoicing and making disciples and showing lovingkindness.

But if you find yourself drifting toward that ditch where a certain sin starts looking awfully alluring, it may be time to recall to mind the terrible consequences of that sin and take some time to lament. Make mourning a prophylactic against future sin!
Now, you may be saying to yourself, this has all been Old Testament. Could this be one of those things that passed away in the coming of the New Testament? Judge for yourself:

Jesus said in Matthew 5:3-4 “Blessed are the ones who are lowly in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are the ones who mourn, because it is they who will be comforted.” (NAW)
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-- that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:11-13, NKJV)
The Apostle James added, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:7-10, NKJV)

Psalm 38[A]

Septuagint (Psalm 37)	Brenton’s translation of LXX	Douay-Rheims Vulgate	King James Authorized Version	Nathan A Wilson’s Version	Masoretic Text
1 Ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυιδ· εἰς ἀνάμνησιν [περὶ σαββάτου]. 2 Κύριε, μὴ τῷ θυμῷ σου ἐλέγξῃς με μηδὲ τῇ ὀργῇ σου παιδεύσῃς με.	1 A Psalm of David for remembrance [concerning the Sabbath-day]. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thine anger.	1 A psalm for David, for a remembrance [of the sabbath]. Rebuke me not, O Lord, in thy indignation; nor chastise me in thy wrath.	1 A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance[B]. O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.	1A psalm by David for a reminder. Yahweh, let it not be with Your anger that You make a ruling on me or with Your fury that You discipline me!	א מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד לְהַזְכִּיר .ב יְהוָה אַל בְּקֶצְפְּךָ תוֹכִיחֵנִי וּבַחֲמָתְךָ תְיַסְּרֵנִי.
3 ὅτι τὰ βέλη σου ἐνεπάγησάν μοι, καὶ ἐπεστήρισας ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ τὴν χεῖρά σου·	2 For thy weapons are fixed in me, and ~~thou~~ hast pressed thy hand heavily upon me.	2 For thy arrows are fastened in me: and thy hand hath been strong upon me.	2 For thine arrows stick fast[C] in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.	2 For Your arrows have been brought down into me and Your hand has come down upon me.	ג כִּי חִצֶּיךָ נִחֲתוּ בִי וַתִּנְחַת[D] עָלַי יָדֶךָ.
4 οὐκ ἔστιν ἴασις ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς ὀργῆς σου, οὐκ ἔστιν εἰρήνη τοῖς ὀστέοις μου ἀπὸ προσώπου τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου.	3 For there is no health in my flesh because of X thine anger; there is no peace to my bones because of my sins.	3 There is no health in my flesh, because of X thy wrath: there is no peace for my bones, because of my sins.	3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of X thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.	3 There is no soundness in my flesh as a result of the presentation of Your indignation. There is no peace in my bones as a result of the presentation of my sin,	ד אֵין מְתֹם בִּבְשָׂרִי מִפְּנֵי זַעְמֶךָ אֵין שָׁלוֹם בַּעֲצָמַי מִפְּנֵי חַטָּאתִי.[E]
5 ὅτι αἱ ἀνομίαι μου ὑπερῆραν τὴν κεφαλήν μου, ὡσεὶ φορτίον βαρὺ ἐβαρύνθησαν ἐπ᾿ ἐμέ.	4 For my transgressions have gone over mine head: they have pressed heavily upon me like a weighty burden.	4 For my iniquities are gone over my head: [and[F]] as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me.	4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.	4 because my iniquities have slipped over my head like a heavy burden; they have become too heavy for me.	ה כִּי עֲוֹנֹתַי עָבְרוּ רֹאשִׁי כְּמַשָּׂא כָבֵד יִכְבְּדוּ מִמֶּנִּי.
6 προσώζεσαν [καὶ] ἐσάπησαν οἱ μώλωπές μου ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς ἀφροσύνης μου·	5 My bruises have become noisome [and] corrupt, because of my foolishness.	5 My sores are putrified [and] corrupted, because of my foolishness.	5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.	5 My whippings have caused a stink; they have degenerated as a result of the presentation of my foolishness.	ו הִבְאִישׁוּ נָמַקּוּ חַבּוּרֹתָי מִפְּנֵי אִוַּלְתִּי.
7 ἐταλαιπώρησα [καὶ] κατεκάμφθην ἕως τέλους, ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν σκυθρωπάζων ἐπορευόμην.	6 I have been wretched [and] bowed down continually: I went with a mourning countenance all the day.	6 I am become miserable, [and] am bowed down even to the end: I walked sorrowfully all the day long.	6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly[G]; I go mourning all the day long.	6 I have been bent over - I have bowed down as far as can be. I have gone around gloomily all day [long],	ז נַעֲוֵיתִי שַׁחֹתִי עַד מְאֹד כָּל הַיּוֹם קֹדֵר הִלָּכְתִּי.
8 ὅτι αἱ ψύαι μου ἐπλήσθησαν ἐμπαιγμῶν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἴασις ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου·	7 For my ~~soul~~ is filled with mockings; and there is no health in my flesh.	7 For my loins are filled with illusions; and there is no health in my flesh.	7 For my loins[H] are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.	7 because my lower-back is full of a burning-sensation, and there is no soundness in my flesh.	ח כִּי כְסָלַי מָלְאוּ נִקְלֶה[I] וְאֵין מְתֹם בִּבְשָׂרִי.
9 ἐκακώθην καὶ ἐταπεινώθην ἕως σφόδρα, ὠρυόμην ἀπὸ στεναγμοῦ τῆς καρδίας μου .	8 I have been afflicted and brought down exceedingly: I have roared for the groaning of my heart.	8 I am afflicted and humbled exceedingly: I roared with the groaning of my heart.	8 I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness[J] of my heart.	8 I have been stunned and crushed as much as can be; I have been groaning as a result of the tumult of my heart.	ט נְפוּגוֹתִי[K] וְנִדְכֵּיתִי עַד מְאֹד שָׁאַגְתִּי מִנַּהֲמַת[L] לִבִּי.
10 κύριε[M], ἐναντίον σου πᾶσα ἡ ἐπιθυμία μου, καὶ ὁ στεναγμός μου ἀπὸ σοῦ οὐκ ἐκρύβη.	9 X Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hidden from thee.	9 X Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hidden from thee.	9 X Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.	9 My Master, all my desire is conspicuous to You, and my sighing has not been hidden from You.	י אֲ‍דֹנָי נֶגְדְּךָ כָל תַּאֲוָתִי וְאַנְחָתִי מִמְּךָ לֹא נִסְתָּרָה.
11 ἡ καρδία μου ἐταράχθη, ἐγκατέλιπέν με ἡ ἰσχύς μου, καὶ τὸ φῶς τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν μου [καὶ αὐτὸ][N] οὐκ ἔ~~στιν~~ μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ.	10 My heart is troubled, my strength has failed me; and the light of mine eyes X X is not with me.	10 My heart is troubled, my strength hath left me, and the light of my eyes X itself is not with me.	10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone ~~from~~ me.	10 My heart palpitated; my strength abandoned me, and in addition to these, the brightness of my eyes was no [longer] with me.	יא לִבִּי סְחַרְחַר[O] עֲזָבַנִי כֹחִי וְאוֹר עֵינַי גַּם הֵם אֵין אִתִּי.
12 οἱ φίλοι μου καὶ οἱ πλησίον μου ἐξ ἐναντίας μου ~~ἤγγισαν~~ [καὶ] ἔστησαν, καὶ οἱ ἔγγιστά μου ἀπὸ μακρόθεν ἔστησαν·	11 My ~~friends~~ and my neighbours ~~drew near~~ before X X me, [and] stood still; and my nearest of kin stood afar off.	11 My ~~friends~~ and my neighbours ~~have drawn near~~, [and] stood ~~against~~ me. And they that were near me stood afar off:	11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from X my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.	11 Those who love me and my friends stand away from the conspicuousness of my lesion; even those who are near-relations to me stand far away.	יב אֹהֲבַי וְרֵעַי מִנֶּגֶד נִגְעִי יַעֲמֹדוּ וּקְרוֹבַי מֵרָחֹק עָמָדוּ.

[1] And there are other lament psalms which do the same kind of thing, such as Psalm 6, 70, and 102.