Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 38:2

For thine arrows stick fast in me. First, we shall see in what respect he calls them arrows: and therein, first, that they are alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man shoots not an arrow at himself; and then that they are veloces, swift in coming, he cannot give them their time; and again, they are vix visibiles, though they be not altogether invisible in their cunning, yet there is required a quick eye, and an express diligence and watchfulness to avoid them; so they are arrows in the hand of another, not his own; and swift as they come, and invisible before they come. And secondly, they are many arrows, the victory lies not in escaping one or two. And thirdly, they stick in him: they find not David so good proof as to rebound back again, and imprint no sense: and they stick Fast: though the blow be felt and the wound discerned, yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; infixae sunt, and then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in his body and soul; in him, in his thoughts and actions; in him, in his sins and in his good works too; infixae mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty in him, in which they stick not; for (which may well be another consideration), that hand, which shot them, presses him: follows the blow, and presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet (which will be our conclusion), sagittae tuae, thy arrows, and manus tua, thy hand, these arrows that are shot, and this hand that presses him so sore, are the arrows, and the hand of God; and therefore, first, they must have their effect, they cannot be disappointed; but yet they bring their comfort with them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his hand, comes without that balsamum of mercy to heal as fast as he wounds. John Donne.