A Psalm by David, for a memorial. Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
Parallel translations
- KJV O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
- BSB A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
- 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 overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says Yahweh your Redeemer.
- Heb 12:5–11and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
- Ps 6:1For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger, neither discipline me in your wrath.
- Ps 70:1For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder. Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, Yahweh.
- Jer 30:11For I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.”
- Jer 10:24Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
- Isa 27:8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
- Hab 3:2Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.
- Ps 88:7Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
- Ps 88:15–16I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
- Deut 9:19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.
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.