Psalm 38 is an individual lament and one of the seven penitential psalms. The psalmist is suffering greatly, partly as a consequence of his own sin and partly because of undeserved persecution (vv 3, 17-20). He admits his sin and asks for God's mercy, that he not have to suffer all that he might deserve.
He pictures his suffering in graphic terms. "For your arrows have sunk into me," he says in verse 2. Commentator Willem Van Gemeren points out that in Canaanite mythology, Resheph the god of archers is also the god of plagues and diseases. It's possible that the psalmist is borrowing Canaanite imagery here.
He is experiencing great physical suffering and also mental anguish, realizing that his sin has caught up with him (vv 3-6).
In his agony he cannot communicate well, but God can hear his groaning and sighing (vv 8-9). He calls upon the God who heard Israel's groaning in Egypt (Ex 2:25) to hear him as well.
He feels isolated and hears little of what is going on around him. He has no interest in defending himself, unlike Job, for example. He waits for God to answer, submitting to his will, and hopes for divine vindication (vv 15-16). In the end he leaves things in the hands of Yahweh, his covenantal God and Father and the Great King (vv 21-22).
Christians recognize in the suffering of the psalmist a foreshadowing of Jesus' suffering on the cross, particularly in verse 11: "My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand afar off." This reminds us Luke 23:49: "And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things." Of course not everything in Psalm 38 points ahead to Jesus, in particular the psalmist's acknowledged sin.
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