“My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.”
The psalmist describes how his heart pounds and his strength fails him, and the light of his eyes has gone from him. The acceleration of the heart suggests the anxiety and fear that accompanies profound affliction. The failure of strength and the dimming of the light of the eyes suggest comprehensive physical and psychological deterioration. This verse portrays the psalmist on the verge of complete collapse.
Church Fathers on Psalms 38:10
A psalm to David himself, on the remembrance of the Sabbath. 1. What does this recollection of the Sabbath mean? What is this Sabbath? For it is with groaning that he “calls it to recollection.” You have both heard already when the Psalm was read, and you will now hear it when we shall go over it, how great is his groaning, his mourning, his tears, his misery. But happy he who is wretched after this manner! Whence the Lord also in the Gospel Matthew 5:4 called some who mourn…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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