For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.
David composed this psalm as a memorial, knowing how quickly God's chastisements slip from our minds even though they ought to instruct us all our lives. The title points to his purpose: to keep the lessons of affliction alive in himself and in others.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 38:1-22
For thine arrows stick fast in me. By this he means both bodily and spiritual griefs, but we may suppose, especially the latter, for these are most piercing and stick the fastest. God's law applied by the Spirit to the conviction of the soul of sin, wounds deeply and rankles long; it is an arrow not lightly to be brushed out by careless mirthfulness, or...
When afflicted, we must call our sins to mind and set them in order before God for humiliation. This psalm teaches the sick what to think and say in their distress, but above all: pray that God's rebuke may not come in wrath, for that makes the affliction wormwood and gall.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 38:1-11