Psalm 39

1I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.” 2I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. 3My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue: 4“Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. 5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah. 6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather. 7Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. 8Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish. 9I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. 10Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. 11When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah. 12“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. 13Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

David seems to have been in a great strait when he penned this psalm, and, upon some account or other, very uneasy; for it is with some difficulty that he conquers his passion, and composes his spirit himself to take that good counsel which he had given to others (37) to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, without fretting; for it is easier to give the good advice than to give the good example of quietness under affliction. What was the particular trouble which gave occasion for the conflict David was now in does not appear. Perhaps it was the death of some dear friend or relation that was the trial of his patience, and that suggested to him these meditations of morality; and at the same time, it should seem too, he himself was weak and ill, and under some prevailing distemper. His enemies likewise were seeking advantages against him, and watched for his halting, that they might have something to reproach him for. Thus aggrieved, I. He relates the struggle that was in his breast between grace and corruption, between passion and patience (Psa 39:1-3). II. He meditates upon the doctrine of man's frailty and mortality, and prays to God to instruct him in it (Psa 39:4-6). III. He applies to God for the pardon of his sons, the removal of his afflictions, and the lengthening out of his life till he was ready for death (Psa 39:7-13). This is a funeral psalm, and very proper for the occasion; in singing it we should get our hearts duly affected with the brevity, uncertainty, and calamitous state of human life; and those on whose comforts God has, by death, made breaches, will find this psalm of great use to them, in order to their obtaining what we ought much to aim at under such an affliction, which is to get it sanctified to us for our spiritual benefit and to get our hearts reconciled to the holy will of God in it

To the chief musician, even to Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

Cross-references: Ps 39:1 · Ps 39:4 · Ps 39:7

Introduction