What do we pray when we no longer have the strength to hold ourselves together? Psalm 38 is a prayer from utter ruin. Pain has entered the body. Shame has become a burden. Friends stand at a distance. Enemies speak against the one who prays, but there is no strength left to answer every accusation. And in the middle of it all comes this tender confession: “My Lord, all my longing is before You, and my sighing is not hidden from You.” Psalm 38 gives bodily suffering a voice without requiring us to explain it. It makes room for confession without assuming that every illness is punishment. It acknowledges the additional wound of isolation when people step away from someone who is hurting. Praying with Jesus, we hear the Messiah who knows bodily pain, withdrawing friends, and false accusation. His presence reminds us that suffering is not a place where we must assume God cannot come. This prayer does not end with everything repaired. It ends with a request small enough to carry when strength is gone: “Do not abandon me, YAHWEH. Hurry to my help, my Lord, my Rescue.”