O LORD, rebuke me not in your wrath: neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
All Commentaries on Psalms 38:1 Go To Psalms 38
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Wrath. God is incapable of passion: but man deserves to be treated with the utmost rigour; and this David deprecates, begging that God would act rather like a physician in his regard. (Theodoret) (Calmet)
The same petition occurs in psalm vi.; and this ought to caution people not to make imprecations, since God's judgments are so terrible. (Berthier)
St. Augustine and St. Gregory explain this text of the fire of hell, and of purgatory, 1 Corinthians iii. 15. (Haydock)
Though some be saved by the latter, "yet is that fire more grievous than whatever man can suffer in this life. "(St. Augustine)
"I esteem that transitory fire more intolerable than all present tribulation. "(St. Gregory) (Worthington)
We may therefore pray, "Here burn", with the same St. Augustine who assures us, (Gen. con. Man. ii. 20.) that "he who cultivates not the field of his soul, will, after this life, experience either the fire of purgatory or eternal punishment. "(Haydock)
