4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.
4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
4 I'm swamped by my bad behavior, collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
4 My guilt overwhelms me- it is a burden too heavy to bear.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 38:4
Commentary on Psalm 38:1-11
(Read Psalm 38:1-11)
Nothing will disquiet the heart of a good man so much as the sense of God's anger. The way to keep the heart quiet, is to keep ourselves in the love of God. But a sense of guilt is too heavy to bear; and would sink men into despair and ruin, unless removed by the pardoning mercy of God. If there were not sin in our souls, there would be no pain in our bones, no illness in our bodies. The guilt of sin is a burden to the whole creation, which groans under it. It will be a burden to the sinners themselves, when they are heavy-laden under it, or a burden of ruin, when it sinks them to hell. When we perceive our true condition, the Good Physician will be valued, sought, and obeyed. Yet many let their wounds rankle, because they delay to go to their merciful Friend. When, at any time, we are distempered in our bodies, we ought to remember how God has been dishonoured in and by our bodies. The groanings which cannot be uttered, are not hid from Him that searches the heart, and knows the mind of the Spirit. David, in his troubles, was a type of Christ in his agonies, of Christ on his cross, suffering and deserted.