A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
Parallel translations
- WEB A Psalm by David, for a memorial. Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
- KJV O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
- NKJV O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!
- NASB Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, And do not punish me in Your burning anger.
- NLT O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David pleads that God not rebuke or chasten him in wrath. He asks for correction tempered by mercy, not the fury of judgment.
Overview
This penitential psalm opens with a cry that God's discipline not come as wrathful punishment. David accepts that he deserves correction but begs that it be in love, not hot displeasure. Such a plea anticipates the gospel, where God's wrath against sin was poured out on Christ, so that His dealings with believers are now fatherly discipline, not condemnation (Hebrews 12:6; Romans 8:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 54:8In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.
- Heb 12:5–11And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.
- Ps 6:1For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments, according to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
- Ps 70:1For the choirmaster. Of David. To bring remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Hurry, O LORD, to help me!
- Jer 30:11For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”
- Jer 10:24Correct me, O LORD, but only with justice—not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.
- Isa 27:8By warfare and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind, as on the day the east wind blows.
- Hab 3:2O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy!
- Ps 88:7Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
- Ps 88:15–16From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Deut 9:19For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 38:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.