Psalms 38:2

Fast - Abstaining from food.

Thine arrows stick fast in me - This no doubt, refers to the acute pains which he endured; each appearing to his feeling as if an arrow were shot into his body.

For thine arrows slick fast in me - See the notes at Job 6:4. The word rendered "stick fast" - נחת nâchath - means properly to go or come down; to descend; and the literal idea here would be, "thine arrows come down upon me." It is not so much the idea of their "sticking fast" when in the wound or flesh; it is that they come down upon one, and pierce him. The meaning is, that he was afflicted "as if" God had wounded him with arrows - arrows which pierced deep in his flesh. Compare the notes at Psalm 45:5. The allusion is to the disease with which he was afflicted.

And thy hand presseth me sore - The same word is used here which in the former part of the verse is rendered "stick fast." The idea is, that the hand of God had "descended" or "come down" upon him, prostrating his strength, and laying him on a bed of pain.

38:2 Arrows - Thy judgments outward and inward.