Remove thy scourges from me. The strength of thy hand hath made me faint in rebukes:
הָסֵ֣ר מֵעָלַ֣י נִגְעֶ֑ךָ מִתִּגְרַ֥ת יָ֝דְךָ֗ אֲנִ֣י כָלִֽיתִי׃
5 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 6 commentaries
Take away Your wounds from me. He refers to the torments caused by demons as divine punishments, acknowledging that God permitted this suffering due to sin. I am overwhelmed by the might of Your hand. We have often pointed out that the enforcing power is referred to as the hand of God. When God severely disciplines individuals, the one being punished 'vanishes' because of their frailty, unable to endure the strikes for an extended period.
The mighty hand may deliver a severe blow, yet it is also capable of bringing healing soon afterward. Strong in affliction, it is equally powerful in restoration. This is why the Lord declares, "I smite, and I heal" (Deuteronomy 32:39). It was by this divine hand that everything was taken from Job, only to be returned to him, and he was blessed with double what he had lost. Do not let the fact that he refers to himself as being hamstrung cause you distress. A person can be diminished yet rise again with renewed strength, for the Lord grants strength to all who stumble and restores those who are bowed down (Ps 144:14). For everyone who is renewed rises with virtue.
He continued by stating: "Turn away Thy blows from me" (Psalm 38:11). How do these verses correspond with one another? In the earlier psalm, he is prepared for wounds (see Psalm 37:18). Eusebius of Caesarea comments here that he requests the removal of the scourge, not because he has already received double punishment for his iniquities (cf. Isaiah 40:2), while feeling the shame and enduring the dishonor. The remorse within him causes anguish in his heart and mind, and he feels reproached by his afflictions. Yet, let us consider: did he not affirm that the essence of his soul is before God, and that the enemy can only assail it if permitted by the Lord, who safeguards His creations?
The angel stands beside the faithful, protecting him from harm (see Psalm 33:8), and the angel retreats solely at the Lord's directive, allowing the servant of God to contend in his own struggle. Since the essence of the soul is the Lord's, David anticipates forgiveness from his Creator and earnestly requests it, trusting in the compassion of his Maker. When he was subjected to dishonor, he did not resist but bore the onslaught of the sinner in silence, confident in his good conscience, which has the ability to restrain the unruly tendencies of the flesh, enabling virtue to prevail and sin to submit. As a creation of the Lord, David held the belief that forgiveness of sin could be granted to him more swiftly due to his capacity to endure the might of the Lord's hand.
Even when he claims, "I am weakened by Thy strong hand" (Psalm 38:11), this declaration reflects his noble character. A strong hand indeed strikes hard, yet it also possesses the capability to heal just as swiftly: what wounds with power also heals with power. The Lord Himself declares, "I smite, and I will heal" (Deuteronomy 32:39), ensuring that the healed no longer remembers the affliction. This hand of the Lord took everything from Saint Job and subsequently restored him, doubling all that he had lost. Do not let David's expression of weakness distress you. The one who endures trials rises renewed in strength: "The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are brought low" (Psalm 144:14). Those who are transformed are strengthened in virtue. Paul, weakened by the force of the Lord's hand, fell as a persecutor but arose as a proclaimer of the gospel (see Acts 9:3-9). This is what David conveys when he says, "I am weakened by Thy strong hand."
I earnestly implore You, O Lord, to bring an end to this discipline; for I am weary from numerous afflictions.
He says, Remove from me, O Lord, both the external temptations imposed by others and the internal afflictions I endure due to the reproach of my conscience. I am completely exhausted by Your might, which is known as the power of correction. Notice that in the earlier psalm, when surrendering to the punishment, David declared, I am ready to be wounded (Psalms 37:18); however, now that he has experienced ample correction, he seeks relief from this discipline, fearing that overwhelming sorrow might burden him and lead him into despair.
This heartfelt plea does not disrupt the silence referenced in the previous verse. We observe that David, who previously expressed his woes with a troubled heart, now approaches the situation with calmness and humility, recognizing his own shortcomings and thus seeking divine forgiveness. He implores God to lessen the discipline he has brought upon himself through his complaints, as if to say: I willingly accept every loving correction from Your hand, but I cannot endure Your anger; for this reason, I ask You to remove Your afflictions from me.
The afflictions of God signify the sufferings that He inflicts in His anger, not as a nurturing father or a healing physician, but as a judge—just as it is articulated in Psalm 6: "Lord, let not Thy wrath reprove me." These afflictions can include spiritual blindness, hardness of heart, ignorance, and condemnation to eternal damnation. He elaborates on why he longs for God to remove his afflictions, illustrating that he has witnessed both personally and in others how intolerable such sufferings can be. Regarding himself, he declares: "By the strength of Thy hand I have disappeared," revealing that he has learned from personal experience the weight and severity of God’s hand, and he nearly perished when confronted by His wrath. This was true for David when God, as punishment for his sin of adultery, allowed him to fall into the grievous sin of murder and resulted in such spiritual blindness that he was unable to comprehend his dire state—the death of his soul—since there is no harsher consequence than one sin being punished by another. This torment, a dire punishment that should be feared more than any physical execution, is articulated by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans (Romans 1:21, 26, 28) and by Blessed Augustine in his writings. He also alludes to other sinners who are similarly afflicted by God: "In the reproach of iniquity Thou hast punished man; and Thou hast consumed his soul like a spider." These words demonstrate that God frequently punishes sinners in His anger for both past and present transgressions, allowing their souls to wither away like a spider, which exhausts itself weaving webs to trap flies, only to fade into oblivion. Just as worldly individuals strive tirelessly for temporal gains, depleting their strength in the process, their souls also continuously dry up, losing the vitality of divine grace, to the point where they do not even consider their salvation, settling for a lesser desire for true well-being. Observing this desolate state of the soul, the same David, in Psalm 62:6, expresses a desire for spiritual abundance, stating, "May my soul be filled with fat and molasses." Ultimately, he reiterates the earlier sentiments, declaring, "Every man fretteth in vain," reminding us that people expend their efforts in vain pursuits of fleeting treasures, much like a spider, draining their very souls. What benefit is there to a person if they gain the whole world but forfeit their own soul? (Matthew 16:26).
Passages read together with this verse.
THEOSIS