Psalm 38: Restraints, External And Internal

It is easy to write off Psalm 38 as simply being about depression, similar to Psalm 13. We read a similar litany of enemies, isolation, and constant grief. But where I would read Psalm 13 as a purely internal struggle, the psychological pain of Psalm 38 may be rooted in something more external, objective, and interpersonal.

I would propose that it is describing a form of angst.

Suppose we would believe what the poet writes in 38:13, “those who wish me harm speak malice; they constantly utter (yeh’gu) deceit.” Suppose these are not figments of his imagination or voices in his head. What if there actually existed people who constantly propagate propaganda?

The Hebrew “kol ha-yom” for “constantly” literally means “all day.” This is the second time in this Psalm that he uses the same phrase, the first time being in 38:7, “I walk about in gloom all day long.” This feeling is constant and unrelenting.

The poet continues with two seemingly repetitive verses in 38:14, “But I am like a deaf man, unhearing, like a mute who cannot open his mouth (piv)” and 38:15, “I am like one who does not hear, who has no retort on his lips (be’piv).”

He feels overwhelmed and silenced by the lies.

This may be an allusion to a verse at the beginning of Joshua (1:8), which employs the same root verb of h-g-h “utter”, a separate reference to the physical mouth (peh), and the action of doing something all day long (kol ha-yom). “Let not this Torah cease from your lips (mi’picha), but recite (ve’hagita) it day (yomam) and night.”

How do you communicate with someone who elevates dishonesty to the level of Scripture, repeating lies like a religious precept? Do you listen? Do you point out the falsehoods? Do you block out the insidious and insipid pablum? What can you even respond?

You become conflicted, like the author of Proverbs 26:4, “Do not answer a fool in accord with his foolishness, else you will become like him.” and Proverbs 26:5 “Answer a fool in accord with his foolishness, else he will think himself wise.”

The constant mental equivocation is exhausting.

The word “angst” is originally derived from the word for “restraint”. The act of constantly restraining yourself from responding, from engaging, leaves you “bent and bowed” (38:7) and “benumbed and crushed” (38:9). It causes your heart to increase its palpitations (38:11), and it physically exhausts you (38:18).

And should you finally break down and choose to respond or reply, you are mocked for pursuing good (38:21).

These aren’t the rantings of a psychotic person, who imagines pretend enemies around every corner; this is a plea for others to rediscover sanity.