Psalm 38

These next few Psalms all deal with David and sin, particularly this one, and they teach us something of how to react to our own sinfulness.

David starts by praying for relief from God's anger. David was going through a period of severe illness. We do not know when this happened, or what the illness was. However, David clearly saw the illness as a result of his sin. Now we need to be careful of how we teach in sin and illness. Ultimately all sickness is a result of sin, if Adam and Eve had not sinned then illness would not have come into the world. However, it is equally wrong to say that all sin is a direct result of that person's sin. It is both wrong and harmful to teach such nonsense. John 9:1-12 is the best counter to this, but the general teaching of the Bible does not show sickness as being a direct result of sin. At the same time there are times when sickness is a direct result of sin. We can see this if we look around. If you drink too much, take drugs, sleep around etc then you are much more likely to become ill. In 1 Cor 11:30 shows that sometimes sickness is a direct result of sin.

Here David clearly felt that his condition was a result of sin, or at least he was acutely aware of his own guilt. When things go wrong in our life, whether it be with health or some other aspect of our life, it is normal to question whether or not God has something against us. It also causes us to examine ourselves. In the midst of this friends kept away from David, and others actively sought to take advantage of David's weakness. When we go through tough times we should greatly value friends who stick with us. We should also not expect them to be able to treat us perfectly. One of the reason "friends" may start to avoid us is that they do not know how to cope with our situation. So their avoiding of us is not an act of malice, but one of weakness. So we must forgive them. Those who stick with us are taking a risk, showing an act of love and faith. We should not be surprised if sometimes they fail to treat us in the way we need/want to be treated, for they are having to deal with a difficult situation (us!). If you demand perfection, then those friends that try to stick with us will eventually give up. If instead we are patient, then we will find that through it all God's grace abounds. Even in the toughest times we still need to show grace.

David does three key things here:

1. He tells God exactly how he is feeling.
2. He confesses his sins to God.
3. He calls on God to help him

We should do likewise.