When illness or misfortune comes, we begin to reflect; we then discover that the greatest misfortune is to be a sinner.
① 1* 2O Lord, rebuke me not in your rage, punish me not in your fury.
3Your arrows have struck me; your hand has come down heavily upon me.
4Your anger has spared no part of my body, my sin gives no peace to my bones.
5For my transgressions overwhelm me; they weigh me down like an unbearable load.
6My wounds stink and fester with in me, the outcome of my sinful folly.
7Stooped and bowed down, I go about mourning all day.
8My loins burn, my flesh is diseased, 9my body, worn out and utterly crushed; I groan in pain and anguish of heart.
10All my longing, O Lord, is known to you; my sighing is not hidden from you.
11My heart pounds as my strength ebbs; even the light has deserted my eyes.
12My friends avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far off.
13Those who seek my life lay snares for me; those who wish to hurt me speak of my ruin and plot against me all day long.
14But like a deaf-mute, I neither hear nor open my mouth.
15I am like one whose ears hear not and whose mouth has no answer.
16For I put my trust in you, O Lord; you will answer for me, Lord God.
17I pray, “Don’t let them gloat over me, nor take advantage of my helplessness when my foot slips.”
18For I am about to fall, my pain is ever with me. 19I confess my transgression, I repent of my sin.
20Many are my foes; many are those who hate me for no reason, 21those who pay me evil for good and harass me because I seek good.
22Forsake me not, O Lord, stay not far from me, O my God.
23Come quickly to help me, O Lord, my savior!
- The third of the so-called seven Penitence Psalms: Ps 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143. The greater the sin, the greater must be our trust in God. I confess my transgression, I repent of my sin (v._19). The Old Testament does not clearly distinguish sin from misfortune: if someone is sick and has trials, it is surely because there is a debt with God. In theory, of course, it is not true: beware of guilt when things go wrong for us! In fact, the sick person is always a sinner; his weakness will help him to know the truth.
