For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me,.... Meaning the afflicting hand of God, which is not joyous, but grievous, and heavy to be borne; especially without his gracious presence, and the discoveries of his love: this continued night and day, without any intermission; and may design some violent distemper; perhaps a fever; since it follows,my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
That is, the radical moisture in him was almost dried up, as brooks in the summer season; his body was parched, as it were, with the burning heat of the disease; or with an apprehension of the wrath of God under it, or both: and so he continued until be was brought to a true sense of sin, and an acknowledgment of it, when he had the discoveries of pardoning love, as is expressed in Ps 32:5.
The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions read, "I am turned into distress, through a thorn being fixed"; and so Apollinarius paraphrases the words,"I am become miserable, because thorns are fixed in my skin;''reading Uwq for Uyq; and which Suidas interprets "sin", that being like the thorn, unfruitful and pricking; see 2Co 12:7.
Selah; on this word, See Gill on "Ps 3:2".