“I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.”
The psalmist describes how he is bowed down and brought very low, and all day long he walks about mourning. The physical posture of being bowed down suggests not merely psychological depression but the actual bending of the body under the weight of affliction. The description of constant mourning throughout the day emphasizes the totality of the suffering. This verse portrays the psalmist as sunk in profound grief and affliction.
Church Fathers on Psalms 38:6
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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