Augustine of Hippo

"I am troubled, I am bowed down even unto the end" [Psalm 38:6]. Wherefore was he "bowed down"? Because he had been "lifted up." If thou art "humble, thou shalt be exalted;" if thou exaltest thyself, thou shalt be "bowed down;" for God will be at no loss to find a weight wherewith to bow thee down. ...Let him groan on these things; that he may receive the other; let him "call the Sabbath to remembrance," that he may deserve to arrive at it. For that which the Jews used to celebrate was but a sign. Of what thing was it the sign? …

Exposition on Psalm 38 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

I am afflicted and bowed down by miseries until the end; I go about in sorrow all day long. Until what end does he say he is bowed down? Is it the legitimate end of repentance? Or moreover, so that we may understand it mystically, until Christ, who is the end of the Law; who allowed himself to be scourged, allowed his body to be stoned to death? But those wounds emitted no smell of repentance, but rather the fragrance of all grace. …

Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

Well is it said of this our crookedness, as a type of the human race, through the Psalmist: I am bowed down and humiliated utterly. For having contemplated that man was created for gazing upon the heavenly light, but having been cast out on account of his sins, he carries the darkness of his own mind, does not seek heavenly things, attends to the lowest things, by no means desires celestial things, always turns earthly things over in his mind, and what he grieved concerning his race, he cried out in himself, saying: I am bowed down …

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 31 ↗