Psalms 38:16

Study note

Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD directly, speaking during a time of acute physical and emotional distress. He voices this plea immediately after waiting for God's answer and before acknowledging his own readiness to fall.

The words — The Hebrew preposition פֶּן (pen) translates literally as "lest" or "so that not," functioning as a preventive conjunction. It introduces the psalmist's explicit fear that his adversaries will celebrate his downfall.

The thread — The slipping foot motif appears in Deuteronomy 32:35 as a declaration of impending judgment on the wicked. It reappears in Psalm 94:18, where the psalmist notes his own slipping foot but records God's sustaining presence.

Why it lands — The text commands the reader to voice a specific fear of enemy mockery directly to God rather than internalizing it. It requires the reader to anchor his anxiety in divine attention before the anticipated crisis occurs.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.