The leprosy of sin abhorred by the righteous

David acknowledges his sin and declares his iniquity. Whatever his transgression, it had brought great spiritual and physical chastening upon him. Like Christ, his lovers, friends and kinsmen stood aloof from his condition, though Christ was Himself a sin-bearer, and not a sinner. But even in such an awful experience, hope in God did not desert him. And where there is hope, there is faith, for faith is the substance of things hoped for. Does not Paul teach that “tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope”?

In our deepest distress and trials, we are brought by grace to encourage our souls to hope in God. He is the God of hope, not in the sense of, perhaps, or a maybe, but a lively hope that will receive an answer.

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: Bangor, Torwood

Psalm 38

¹In thy great indignation,
O LORD, rebuke me not;
Nor on me lay thy chast’ning hand,
In thy displeasure hot.

²For in me fast thine arrows stick,
Thine hand doth press me sore:
³And in my flesh there is no health,
Nor soundness any more.

This grief I have, because thy wrath
Is forth against me gone;
And in my bones there is no rest,
For sin that I have done.

⁴Because gone up above mine head
My great transgressions be;
And, as a weighty burden, they
Too heavy are for me.

⁵My wounds do stink, and are corrupt;
My folly makes it so.
⁶I troubled am, and much bow’d down;
All day I mourning go.

⁷For a disease that loathsome is
So fills my loins with pain,
That in my weak and weary flesh
No soundness doth remain.

⁸So feeble and infirm am I,
And broken am so sore,
That, through disquiet of my heart,
I have been made to roar.

⁹O Lord, all that I do desire
Is still before thine eye;
And of my heart the secret groans
Not hidden are from thee.

¹⁰My heart doth pant incessantly,
My strength doth quite decay;
As for mine eyes, their wonted light
Is from me gone away.

¹¹My lovers and my friends do stand
At distance from my sore;
And those do stand aloof that were
Kinsmen and kind before.

¹²Yea, they that seek my life lay snares:
Who seek to do me wrong
Speak things mischievous, and deceits
Imagine all day long.

¹³But, as one deaf, that heareth not,
I suffer’d all to pass;
I as a dumb man did become,
Whose mouth not open’d was:

¹⁴As one that hears not, in whose mouth
Are no reproofs at all.
¹⁵For, LORD, I hope in thee; my God,
Thou’lt hear me when I call.

¹⁶For I said, Hear me, lest they should
Rejoice o’er me with pride;
And o’er me magnify themselves,
When as my foot doth slide.

¹⁷For I am near to halt, my grief
Is still before mine eye:
¹⁸For I’ll declare my sin, and grieve
For mine iniquity.

¹⁹But yet mine en’mies lively are,
And strong are they beside;
And they that hate me wrongfully
Are greatly multiplied.

²⁰And they for good that render ill,
As en’mies me withstood;
Yea, ev’n for this, because that I
Do follow what is good.

²¹Forsake me not, O LORD; my God,
Far from me never be.
²²O Lord, thou my salvation art,
Haste to give help to me.