The psalmist describes his condition before he had confessed his sins and received forgiveness. He sees his illness and misery as the result of the LORD’s punishing him.

The Hebrew of verse 3a is “When I was silent,” which is taken by nearly all commentators to mean “When I did not confess my sins” (Good News Translation). The psalmist describes his weakened condition as “my bones wasted away” (the same verb is used in 102.26 of clothes that wear out); for the same idea see 31.10. The expression declared not my sin, referring to confession of sin, is expressed variously in different languages; for example, “to accuse oneself of sins,” “to count up one’s sins,” “to whiten one’s stomach,” “to cause one’s wrongs to say good-bye,” and “to say openly ‘I have sinned.’ ”

The word translated groaning is used of a lion “roaring” (see Job 4.10; Isa 5.29); here it may be weeping or else anguished prayer.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .