My wounds are loathsome and corrupt,
Because of my foolishness.
I am pained and bowed down greatly,
I go mourning all the day long.
For my loins are filled with burning,
And there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am faint and sore bruised,
I have groaned by reason of the disquietness of my heart.'
He is so overwhelmed by his sense of sin that he sees himself as wounded, with wounds that are putrefying and becoming loathsome. And he knows that all this because of his own folly. He does not try to hide from the truth. He has been very foolish, and now he is being made conscious of his own utter unworthiness. Thus he feels within himself a terrible pain at the thought of how sinful he is, and the result is that he is utterly bowed down by it to the earth. All day long he mourns over his sin, unable to obtain a sense of being forgiven, and his very loins are filled with a sense of burning as though gripped with fever (which, in fact, he may well have been). He feels that his flesh is unsound, and he feels continually faint and sore bruised. To him at that moment it is as though he cannot escape from his sin, and as though there can be no forgiveness for it (although happily, deep within him, he knows that there is such forgiveness, simply because of the compassion and mercy of God. That is why he is praying). Thus he groans within himself because his heart is so disquieted. He is a man filled with a sense of his own unworthiness. Such is what happens to a man or woman when they come to a full awareness of the truth about themselves.
Some who have known such a sense of their sinfulness will recognise the picture only too well. Others may not have experienced such a deep sense of sin. But all must recognise that the pictures are describing the truth about our sins, whoever we are, whether we are conscious of it or not.
Thus we see that sin:
· Results in our inner beings being unsound and unhealthy (Psalms 38:3).
· Results in our being loathsome and corrupt because of our foolishness (Psalms 38:5).
· Results in the destruction of our inner peace and confidence because of what we are (Psalms 38:6-8).
And this is true of us all even when we do not ourselves sense its awful effects. Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). They do not want to be reminded of their sinfulness. But those who do the truth come to the light, even when it reveals to them what they are, because by coming to the light they can have their sins dealt with, while at the same time manifesting their true condition of heart.
So as we come to His light (1 John 1:5-6) our sinfulness must be recognised by us all, some to a greater extent than others, although happily in our case being then followed by thankfulness that the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son, cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). For the Psalmist that experience of such forgiveness still lies ahead.