Descriptions of body imagery and body parts are evident in expressions of Old Testament texts. Although there is no single term for ‘body’ in the Hebrew mind, the concept of ‘body’ functions in its different parts. As part of anthropomorphic descriptions of God and expressions attached to humankind, body parts have special significance, contributing to the theological dimension of texts. The poems in the Psalter are no exception. Several body parts are mentioned in Psalm 38, an individual lament song. In addition to God’s hand (v. 3) and an allusion to his voice (v. 16), several body parts describe the psalmist’s condition. These include ‘flesh’ (
This presentation touches on the general meaning of these body imagery in the Old Testament and their specific function and meaning in the text of Psalm 38. A textual analysis will portray their theological significance.
On a theme with the title ‘Body and Embodiment in the Psalms’, it is appropriate to incorporate the understanding of ‘body’ and ‘body imagery’ from an ancient Near Eastern and Old Testament perspective. Because the term ‘body’ is indicative of several objects and descriptions (the physical body, a social construct, land, the community, a group of people, a literary unit, an organisation, etc.), one has to be sensitive to identify or define what is described as the ‘body’. The peculiar characteristics of the Semitic languages and the intellectual conceptions of the ancient Near Eastern world(s) project a distance and alienation on understanding such concepts in our modern time and worlds of reality. ‘Body’ is one of them.
More than 1000 references and descriptions of ‘body’ and body imagery appear in the Book of Psalms, particularly in 143 Psalms.
Psalm 38 is the third of seven well-known penitential prayers
The text’s descriptions are reminiscent of stereotyped depictions, traditional formulas and language, which refer to specific events or a particular elusive illness (cf. Anderson
Although the psalm is not strongly embossed by the wisdom tradition, it nonetheless exhibits aspects of this tradition.
Major discussions on Psalm 38 revolve around literary questions of its unity, composition and structure,
Psalm 38 depicts the comprehensive, life-endangering suffering of a psalmist. Overwhelmed by the wrath of God, his (the psalmist) illness and guilt and the aloofness of close relatives and life-endangering enemies, this penitent describes his anguish before Yahweh. In this utmost distress, the supplicant calls on God’s intervention to help and restore his miserable situation.
Many scholars recognise a context of illness due to several descriptions of the psalmist’s malfunctioning or dysfunctional body or body parts. Aspects in and outside the body are mentioned. They include the following: ‘there is no soundness in my flesh’ (vv. 4a, 8b); ‘there is no peace in my bones’ (v. 4b); ‘my wounds stink and rot’ (v. 5); ‘I am bowed down and brought very low’ (v. 7); ‘my loins are filled with burning (pain)’ (v. 8a); ‘I am feeble and utterly crushed’ (v. 9a); ‘the anguish of my heart’ (v. 9b); ‘my heart pounds’ (v. 11a); ‘my strength abandons me’ (v. 9b); ‘the light of my eyes is no more with me’ (v. 9c). In verses 14–15, the ears and mouth of the psalmist are not functional, whether deliberately or because of illness. Then: ‘the stumbling of my feet’ (v. 17); ‘I am about to fall’ (v. 18a); ‘my pain is ever with me’ (v. 18b); ‘I am anxious’ (v. 19). These descriptions point to a context where physical and psychic dysfunctional conditions suggest the supplicant’s grievous and deadly disease.
With elements of prayer (invocation and petition, vv. 2, 10, 16, 22–23), lament (elevating the situation of distress, 3–9, 11–15, 17–21), expressions of confidence (vv. 10, 16, 22–23), an intended confession of sin (v. 19), and petitions for help (vv. 2, 22–23) scholars have suggested a variety of literary
Although some scholars are not convinced of the psalm’s liturgical use or functioning in penitential or illness healing rituals,
Text and translation.
1 A psalm of David. For remembrance. | 1 מִזְמ֖וֹר לְדָוִ֣ד לְהַזְכִּֽיר׃ |
1b LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. |
2 יְהוָ֗ה אַל־בְּקֶצְפְּךָ֥ תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי וּֽבַחֲמָתְךָ֥ תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי׃ |
4 for my guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. |
5 כִּ֣י עֲ֭וֹנֹתַי עָבְר֣וּ רֹאשִׁ֑י כְּמַשָּׂ֥א כָ֜בֵ֗ד יִכְבְּד֥וּ מִמֶּֽנִּי׃ |
6 I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. |
7 נַעֲוֵ֣יתִי שַׁחֹ֣תִי עַד־מְאֹ֑ד כָּל־הַ֜יּ֗וֹם קֹדֵ֥ר הִלָּֽכְתִּי׃ |
9 All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. |
01 אֲֽדֹנָי נֶגְדְּךָ֥ כָל־תַּאֲוָתִ֑י וְ֜אַנְחָתִ֗י מִמְּךָ֥ לֹא־נִסְתָּֽרָה׃ |
15 LORD, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God. |
61 כִּֽי־לְךָ֣ יְהוָ֣ה הוֹחָ֑לְתִּי אַתָּ֥ה תַ֜עֲנֶ֗ה אֲדֹנָ֥י אֱלֹהָֽי׃ |
21 LORD, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. |
22 אַל־תַּֽעַזְבֵ֥נִי יְהוָ֑ה אֱ֜לֹהַ֗י אַל־תִּרְחַ֥ק מִמֶּֽנִּי׃ |
Psalm 38 can be segmented in many ways. Exegetes therefore offer a variety of possibilities to describe the structure of the psalm.
Yahweh (v. 2)
Adonai (v. 10)
Yahweh, Adonai, my God (v. 16)
Yahweh, my God, Adonai (vv. 22–23)
These titles show a climactic development of growing intensity and trust between the petitioner and Yahweh. With these features in mind, the following framework
The heading (v. 1)
The first petition for help (v. 2)
A description of distress (vv. 3–9)
An address to God and expression of confidence (v. 10)
A description of distress (vv. 11–15)
An address to God (v. 16)
A description of distress (vv. 17–21)
A final plea for help (vv. 22–23)
The first petition (v. 2) and final pleas for help (vv. 22–23) build an
The first description of the supplicant’s distress and agony (vv. 3–9) touches on two themes, namely the psalmist’s guilt and illness. A bodily depiction sketches the physical and psychical destruction, inside and outside the supplicant’s body.
In verses 2–4, the petitioner suffers from illness in a dysfunctional body. With the ancient Near Eastern and Old Testament wisdom-like influence,
Verses 5–6 portray the guilt as overwhelming, while his stinking and festering wounds resulted from his foolishness. In the context of wisdom thinking, this folly is an offence against norms in the world order.
In verses 7–9, the petitioner’s bent body posture, pain and the lack of physical soundness complement descriptions of his inner feebleness, depression and anguished heart.
In a second address (vv. 10–15), the psalmist expresses hope in Adonai with the confident acknowledgement that God knows his longings and sighs (prayers) (v. 10). The psalmist continues to describe the life-threatening illness and the people who desert and ostracise him (vv. 11–15).
In verses 11–13, the supplicant laments his lack of strength and malfunctioning heart and eyes. In addition, a closer circle of beloveds, friends and neighbours avoid him, while malicious enemies seek his life. These evildoers gossip about destroying him while they continuously plan deceit.
Verses 14–15 outline the petitioner’s inactive ears and mouth. This deafness and numbness are a reaction to the enemies’ malicious and life-threatening behaviour.
The psalmist again expresses confidence in Yahweh, Adonai, ‘my God’ (v. 16) in the following address. The supplicant reiterates hope when he waits for Yahweh. He knows that God will answer his petitions. Hope and certainty prevail in the notion that Yahweh, as ‘hearing God’, will answer. A further description (vv. 17–21) summarises the dangers in which the psalmist is bound: exulting enemies, his stumbling, pain, sins, and vengeful enemies.
In hopeful anticipation of Yahweh’s intervention (v. 17), the petitioner requests Yahweh not to allow his enemies to rejoice in his falling – the malfunctioning of his own feet.
He laments his falling and continuing pain (v. 18). He intends to confess his sins, for he is anxious about them (v. 19). His enemies multiply and hate him without reason, while they repay evil for good to him who seeks only good (vv. 20–21).
At the climax of the psalm, the final pleas for help underscore the psalmist’s intense confidence in Yahweh that this deity will help restore the wholeness of his shattered life.
Situating Psalm 38 as a specific biographic event is very uncertain. The human experience of sin, sickness and social enmity, together with the experience of God’s wrath, could have happened at any time over centuries. The psalm could also have resulted from an individual or communal experience or both. Therefore, exact dating remains elusive.
Some scholars allocate a pre-exilic date to the psalm.
Similarities to the texts of Job
Several bodies and body parts are involved in the descriptive scenery of Psalm 38. They include the body of God, the body of the sick and injured supplicant and the bodies of the supplicant’s near relatives, friends, neighbours and malicious enemies. On a different level, the individual’s body stands in relation to and in opposition to the social bodies of the community and the world at large.
Psalm 38 alludes to a divine ‘body’ in references to two body parts, namely the ‘hand’ of God (v. 3) and also his implied voice and implied ear as a God who is speaking – in this case, ‘answering’ (v. 16). A third reference is found in the final petition, in which the supplicant is pleading with Yahweh: ‘do not be far from me’ (v. 22b) – thus a plea for the presence of the divine ‘body’.
Characterisations of God in the Old Testament follow descriptions of the human body and its body parts. Old Testament texts describe God only in the human form and its bodiliness, even though attributes of animals or nature
The term anthropo
In Psalm 38, the supplicant acknowledges that his sickness is the consequence of his sins and iniquity, which kindled Yahweh’s justified anger and wrath. It is therefore God’s punishment or chastisement which he requests to be terminated (vv. 2–4). This punishment is like ‘arrows’ fired at him; it is the illness caused by God’s wrath.
Because the ‘hand’ in the Old Testament symbolises strength and action, it can denote ‘power, violence and tyranny’ (cf. Anderson
In his third address to Yahweh, the psalmist hopefully expresses his confidence: ‘Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord, my God’ (v. 16).
Very often, Yahweh is
In a triad of final petitions (vv. 22–23), the supplicant intensely pleads with Yahweh: ‘My God, do not be far from me’ (v. 22b). At this climax, the petitioner seems to have a very intense, personal relationship with Yahweh. Because of the afflicting pain caused by the wrath of God and the agony of the petitioner’s sins, illness and enemies, only the presence of the divine ‘body’ will bring help and salvation. It will restore, rehabilitate and resocialise the supplicant. Wholeness can only be attained when the destructing hand (v. 3) of the distant divine body is replaced by the presence of the same helping body (v. 22b). Only Yahweh himself can do this.
Psalm 38 primarily focuses on the fate of the supplicant’s injured and sick body. Various references are made to this body or body parts and their state of malfunction or dysfunction. These comprise terms such as ‘flesh’ (
In his acknowledgement of Yahweh’s wrath, which caused his illness, the supplicant describes the condition of his body twice as ‘there is no soundness in my flesh’ (vv. 4a, 6), meaning a lack of wholeness or health. Here the term
Because of this comprehensive illness, the image of the next body part confirms the supplicant’s devastating distress. He is overwhelmed by his sins and laments in verse 5: ‘my guilt has overwhelmed me’ (lit: drowned my head).
Communication organs are present in the human face, of which the eyes, mouth and ears are the most important. As part of the head, the supplicant’s
The ‘light of my eyes’ is a
Outer physical and inner mental or emotional dysfunctionalities enhance the picture of the supplicant’s holistic misery. This includes the description of his festering and rotten
Even in his
Descriptions of the
The supplicant of Psalm 38 complains, ‘I groan in the anguish of my heart’ (v. 9) and ‘my heart throbs’ (v. 11).
In Psalm 38, even the
The supplicant finds himself in the sphere of death. Apart from his sins, which caused God’s wrath, and his illness, which caused a dysfunctional body, malicious enemies ‘set traps for him and seek his life’ (
Using a hunting metaphor, namely setting traps,
In Psalm 38, a distinction between two groups of enemies is evident. Both seem to distance themselves from the suffering supplicant. Firstly, there is the close circle of family, friends and neighbours (v. 12) and then a more radical group of malicious enemies (vv. 13, 17, 20–21). Both groups represent social ‘bodies’ in relation to the inflicted ‘body’ of the psalmist. Their distorted relationship with the psalmist influences the well-being and wholeness of the supplicant.
His illness is responsible for the fact that his loved ones, friends and neighbours avoid and withdraw from the sick and plagued supplicant (v. 12). They retreat and stand far off from him. The silence and absence of this closer group probably add to the agony of his experience. As familial, social, and religious communities, they disengage from the sufferer, probably because of shame or health reasons. As a result of this, the psalmist is ostracised, isolated and rejected. This de-socialisation contributes to disharmony and a lack of soundness in relations, and it adds to the need of the supplicant for re-socialisation.
A group of malicious enemies also plagues the supplicant (vv. 13, 17, 20–21). They are unidentified. Most probably, they belong to a sociopolitical community or ‘body’ who, out of envy, endanger the supplicant or want to eliminate him: they set traps, seek his life, seek his harm, speak destruction and plan deceit the whole day (v. 13). They gloat over his fall (v. 17); they are active (alive), multiply and hate the supplicant without reason (v. 20). They reward his good deeds with evil and accuse him – he who wants to do good (v. 21).
The supplicant seems to be powerless against this endangerment. With a distant God, his sins, a miserable illness and rejection by the communities of which he formed a part, the supplicant is overwhelmed to the point of death by these hostile forces. The grave distance between the supplicant and his social body can only be solved by intervention from outside, by Yahweh. The supplicant is not only ostracised, rejected and de-socialised but is regarded as a nonperson. The intensity of endangerment has escalated to the utmost form of suffering. Therefore, the threefold petition (vv. 22–23) at the climax of the psalm signifies hope and is a call on Yahweh not to abandon the supplicant, not to remain far off, but hasten to restore wholeness on various levels.
Psalm 38 is an outstanding example of how body and embodiment are illustrated in the Psalms. Bodies and body imagery play a dominant role in sketching and developing a theology of utmost human suffering.
The psalm is a prayer for the restoration of wholeness. Brokenness is caused by the psalmist’s sin, God’s wrath, illness, social rejection and threatening enemies. The atmosphere of the text radiates underlying agony, despair, physical and psychic anguish and life-threatening danger. Still, the underlying tone is one of hope, expectation and confidence in Yahweh, the Israelite God.
Apart from the ‘individual body’ of the supplicant, the psalm exposes other bodies, such as the ‘body of God’, and social bodies, such as ‘closer relatives and friends’ and ‘malicious enemies’. Interaction between these bodies shows a grave alienation among them, especially between the individual, injured and sick body of the supplicant and the others.
The restoration of the sick and injured body and reversal of the alienation between all the other bodies are situated in the hope that only Yahweh’s help and healing can effectuate wholeness. The supplicant prays for his intervention. This prayer reverberates healing moments towards such wholeness.
I dedicate this article to a long-term friend, colleague and mentor in the Old Testament and the Hebrew poetry, Phil Botha. Since I was an undergraduate student I was impressed by the humbleness, dedication, knowledge capacity and thoroughness of him as an academic and person. Herewith I want to pay tribute and express my gratitude to him for the academic example he has set to colleagues in academia.
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
D.J.H. is the sole author of this article.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
See Gillmayr-Bucher (
Cf. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143.
‘Dys-appearing’ in this sense means a ‘dys-appearing bodily state’, where the body is not in harmony with itself, its community, other people, or God … It is thus malfunctioning. See Leder (
See Jüngling for similarities with Psalms 35 and 37; cf. Eaton (
See verses 3, 12–15; cf. Kidner (
Hossfeld (
In verse 2 the causal relationship between guilt and illness plays a role. In the ANE and the Old Testament, illness was often seen as a punishment for sin or guilt.
Against Eaton (
Deissler (
Cf. Anderson (
Cf. Schmidt (
Cf. Kittel (
Hossfeld (
Gunkel and Mowinckel suggest a ‘psalm of sickness’, although this is not a literary or generic genre.
Cf. Deissler (
Hossfeld (
Seybold (
In
Apart from a text development in symmetrical order, where content and motives are arranged in a single chiasmic structure, the text centres around a core part, verses 14–16, an expression of hope in the Lord, Yahweh. cf. Terrien (
These features include inclusio, parallelism, chiasm, metaphors, onomatopoeia, simile, alliteration, etc.
Cf. the divisions of Gerstenberger (
These bodies include the body of God, the supplicant’s body, and the bodies of the supplicant’s relatives, friends, neighbours, and enemies as societal body.
See Proverbs 13:24; 19:18; 20:30.
See Psalms 69:6; 107:17.
Hossfeld (
Compare verse 7 with Jeremiah 4:28; 8:21; 14:2.
Jüngling (
Compare the ‘arrows’ in verse 2 with Job 6:4; 16:3; also, Deuteronomy32:23-24; Lamentations 3:12; Psalms 91:5-6.
Compare verses 14-15 with Isaiah 53:3, 7.
Nature images include descriptions that God is a sun (Ps 84:12) or a light (Ps 27:1).
Anthropos + morphe = human form.
Anthropos + pathos / pathein = human feeling / emotion.
Illness and healing are in Old Testament thought connected to Yahweh. Cf. Wolff (
See where ‘arrow’ and ‘hand’ are punishing instruments: Psalms 7:14; 11:2; 32:4; 39:11; 64:8; 109:27; 144:6; Job 6:4; 16:12-13; 19:21.
He is hearing the voice of the faithful (5:1, 4; 77:1), of the needy and those in bondage (69:33), laments of the afflicted (10:17), the cries of supplicants in distress (Ps 34:17; 38:16, 22-23; 55:17), and of those who fear him (Ps 145:19). He often hears the supplicant’s ‘weeping’ (6:9) or their ‘cry for mercy’ (6:10).
According to ancient world thinking, humankind has or possesses no body, it is a body – a body with everything in it, functioning in a (w)holistic way. Body is not divided into separate chambers of body, soul, and spirit. A dichotomy between body and soul, or the tri-partite division body-soul-spirit did not exist. cf. Anderson (
Similar images are found in Psalms 18:5, 17; 42:8; 69:3, 16; 124:4.
In ancient Near Eastern healing rites or ceremonies silence plays a role in the process to attain healing. This could be such an aspect of those rituals. cf. Gerstenberger (
See Isaiah 1:6; 53:5; Proverbs 20:30. These stripes or blows are often taken as an indication for scholars that the psalmist suffered from leprosy (Lv 13).
See Isaiah 21:3; Proverbs 12:8.
See 35:14; 42:10; 43:2; Job 30:28; Malachi 3:14.
For example, fear (Dt 1:28), courage (Ps 27:3), despair (Dt 28:65), sadness (Neh 2:2), trust (Ps 28:7), anger (Ps 39:3), and even desire (Ps 37:4) come from the heart. A few references to heart as physical organ (2 Ki 9:24) occur in OT texts, but little was known about the heart then. Modern societies view the heart today as the most important and overarching expression of feeling and emotion.
As noetic (intellectual function) and vegetative (bodily function) organ the heart was the origin of decisions (Ps 64:7), plans (Sir 37:17), thinking (Ps 27:8), memory or remembering (Is 33:18), wisdom (Ps 90:12) and good sense (Ps 49:4).
The expression לִבִּ֣י סְ֭חַרְחַר (‘my heart beats ‘furiously to and fro’’) is characterised by onomatopoeia to make audible the psalmist’s fear or anxiety.
Coetzee (
In the ancient world, when a nation or an individual is defeated by an enemy, it also meant that the defeated group’s god is inefficient, impotent, and weak. With this petition the psalmist wants to convince Yahweh to intervene in his miserable situation with redemptive help.
Anderson (
See Job 12:5; Psalms 37:31; 56:13; 66:9; 73:2; 116:8; 121:3.
See 2 Samuel 15:25; Isaiah 1:6.
In the Hebrew mind, humankind was seen as a psychosomatic unit, comprising body and spirit, with the understanding of ‘soul’ as a specific function of and interaction between body and the mysterious
See Job 12:10: ‘In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind’.
See Psalms 49:15: ‘But God will redeem
Psalms 9:17; 109:11.