O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
The Title. - A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance - i:e., to bring to God's remembrance the seemingly forgotten suppliant. That it supposes sorrowful supplication, appears from its being the title also of Psalms 70:1-5, which is characterized by the same tone. Akin to this phrase is the term "memorial" or remembrance offering [za'kaaraah] (Leviticus 2:2; Leviticus 2:9; Leviticus 2:16; cf. Psalms 141:2; Revelation 8:4; Acts 10:4; Isaiah 43:26; Isaiah 62:6, margin), designed to bring God to remember His people (His Word graciously stooping to our human conceptions). The memorial offering was that part of the meat offering which was burned with frankincense upon the altar, and of which the sweet smell ascended to heaven (Genesis 8:21).
Psalms 38:1-22.-He deprecates Yahweh's hot displeasure (Psalms 38:1); his three-fold plea, his suffering in flesh (Psalms 38:2-8); his outward assaults by enemies, and desertion by friends (Psalms 38:9-12); his patience, sorrow for sin, and hope in Yahweh, as his resource against those who render evil for good (Psalms 38:13-20); concluding prayer (Psalms 38:21-22).
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath - against "mine iniquity" (Psalms 38:18). The fact that there is no suffering without "sin," and that affliction is the expression of God's "wrath" against our sin, gives the special sting to the believer's pain. His sins now rise before him with a blackness such as he never saw in them in past times of ease. His enemies seem as so many executioners of God's judicial displeasure. The suffering which the believer could have patiently borne otherwise, when viewed in this light, prostrates him alike in body and soul.