There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, Nor any health in my bones Because of my sin.
Parallel translations
- WEB There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
- KJV There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
- BSB There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.
- NASB There is no healthy part in my flesh because of Your indignation; There is no health in my bones because of my sin.
- NLT Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins.
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 finds no soundness in his body or health in his bones because of God's indignation over his sin. He links his suffering directly to his guilt.
Overview
David describes a whole-body distress rooted in 'your indignation' and 'my sin.' Without claiming that all suffering stems from particular sins, here David recognizes his own affliction as connected to his guilt. This frank confession models the repentance the gospel calls for, leading the sinner to seek healing of soul in the One who bore our sins and by whose wounds we are healed (1 Peter 2:24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 6:2Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
- Ps 51:8Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
- Ps 31:9–10Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
- Isa 1:5–6Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Lam 3:40–42Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
- Ps 102:5By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
- 2 Chr 26:19Then Uzziah was angry. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in Yahweh’s house, beside the altar of incense.
- Ps 102:3For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
- Job 33:19–22He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones;
- Job 2:7–8So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
- Ps 90:7–8For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 38:3 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.