Psalms 38:1-9
O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me. There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly. I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning. For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body. I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. O Lord, my every desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You.
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Read all of Psalms 38
12 songs meet this passage
“Tryin' to hide the pain”
Home · Daughtry
resonates with Psalms 38:1-9
The singer's hidden ache mirrors the psalmist's honest admission of inward groaning before finding relief.
“Since I could hold my head up high”
It's Been Awhile · Staind
resonates with Psalms 38:4
The psalmist describes guilt as a weight too heavy to bear, the same posture of a man who can't lift his head.
Little Lion Man (Live from Shepherd's Bush Empire, 2010) · Mumford & Sons
resonates with Psalms 38:4-6
The psalmist's crushing weight of guilt without yet naming a remedy matches the song's unresolved heaviness.
“It's much too late, to save myself from falling”
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me · George Michael & Elton John
resonates with Psalms 38:4-6
A cry of being overwhelmed by one's own failures, bent low and unable to right oneself alone.
“Have brought me down upon my knees”
Clocks · Coldplay
resonates with Psalms 38:4-6
A psalm of being bowed down under a weight too heavy to carry, much like the song's posture of being brought to the knees.
“These wounds, they will not heal”
Crawling · LINKIN PARK
resonates with Psalms 38:5-6
The psalmist describes wounds that fester and won't heal, giving voice to the same raw, unresolved pain this lyric names.
Sugar, We're Goin Down · Fall Out Boy
strains against Psalms 38:5-8
Where the psalmist's anguish is poured out toward God as a cry for help, this song's anguish has nowhere to go but back into the self-destructive spiral it describes.
“Killing me slow, out the window”
Cruel Summer · Taylor Swift
resonates with Psalms 38:8-9
The exhausted, aching waiting mirrors the psalmist's groaning longing, though here it's directed at a person rather than God.
Anxiety · Doechii
resonates with Psalms 38:8-10
The psalmist describes anxiety as a physical crushing weight on the body, much like this lyric's bodily imagery.
“I let it build up till it all explodes”
Not My Time · Hotbox
resonates with Psalms 38:8-10
David's own cry of inward turmoil and heart pounding mirrors this bottled-up pressure, though David directs his anguish to God while this song does not.
“I just gotta be honest”
Truth Is · Fantasia
resonates with Psalms 38:9
Her raw confession of longing echoes the psalmist's pattern of laying desire and sighing openly before being known, even without resolution.
“And I cannot compete with you, Jolene”
Jolene · Dolly Parton
resonates with Psalms 38:9-10
The psalmist voices similar anguish and inward collapse, laying bare fear and longing before being heard rather than hiding it.