‘O YHWH do not rebuke me in your anger,
Nor chasten me in your hot displeasure,
Have mercy on me (show your graciousness towards me), O YHWH for I am withered away,
O YHWH heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is sore troubled,
And you, O YHWH, how long?'
What his illness was we do not know, but it had certainly deeply affected him, not necessarily because it was serious, but because it felt serious. He felt as though he could die. And this had brought home to him his sinfulness and he was deeply distressed and troubled in mind.
He knew that he deserved God's rebuke. That he merited His hot displeasure. But he nowhere states why, and it may well be that it was just a result of the general sense of sinfulness he felt because of his belief that his illness was a punishment (in contrast with Psalms 38). But now he felt that he had been chastened enough and sought relief (compare Job 5:17).
Conscience makes cowards of us all, and certainly it had deeply affected him. His body felt withered, and his bones felt troubled, so that he longed for healing, but far more than this was the fact that his inner self was troubled by the thought of his sinfulness. He wanted to know how long it would be before YHWH brought him relief from his conscience, and gave him the sense of forgiveness.
‘Heal me, for my bones are troubled.' The bones are poetically representative of the whole physical body. They are the seat of health (Proverbs 16:24), and of pain. (Compare the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 and see Psalms 31:10; Psalms 32:3; Psalms 38:3; Psalms 42:10; Psalms 102:3; Psalms 102:5). He was physically troubled and spiritually troubled. So he looked to the only final Source of healing, the One Who could heal both.