Psalms39
World English Bible · Public Domain
1 I 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.”
2 I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.
3 My 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.
5 Behold, 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.
7 Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
10 Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 When 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.
13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”
Study
Psalms 39Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Psalms 39. The full AI study guide (summary, themes, context) has its own page.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: David meditates on man's frailty. (1–6). He applies for pardon and deliverance. (7–13).
vv1-6
If an evil thought should arise in the mind, suppress it. Watchfulness in the habit, is the bridle upon the head; watchfulness in acts, is the hand upon the bridle. When not able to separate from wicked men, we should remember they will watch our words, and turn them, if they can, to our disadvantage. Sometimes it may be necessary to keep silence, even from good words; but in general we are wrong when backward to engage in edifying discourse. Impatience is a sin that has its cause within ourselves, and that is, musing; and its ill effects upon ourselves, and that is no less than burning. In our greatest health and prosperity, every man is altogether vanity, he cannot live long; he may die soon. This is an undoubted truth, but we are very unwilling to believe it. Therefore let us pray that God would enlighten our minds by his Holy Spirit, and fill our hearts with his grace, that we may be ready for death every day and hour.
vv7-13
There is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature; but it is to be found in the Lord, and in communion with him; to him we should be driven by our disappointments. If the world be nothing but vanity, may God deliver us from having or seeking our portion in it. When creature-confidences fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust in. We may see a good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us; and a good man, for that reason, says nothing against it. He desires the pardoning of his sin, and the preventing of his shame. We must both watch and pray against sin. When under the correcting hand of the Lord, we must look to God himself for relief, not to any other. Our ways and our doings bring us into trouble, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. What a poor thing is beauty! and what fools are those that are proud of it, when it will certainly, and may quickly, be consumed! The body of man is as a garment to the soul. In this garment sin has lodged a moth, which wears away, first the beauty, then the strength, and finally the substance of its parts. Whoever has watched the progress of a lingering distemper, or the work of time alone, in the human frame, will feel at once the force of this comparison, and that, surely every man is vanity. Afflictions are sent to stir up prayer. If they have that effect, we may hope that God will hear our prayer. The believer expects weariness and ill treatment on his way to heaven; but he shall not stay here long: walking with God by faith, he goes forward on his journey, not diverted from his course, nor cast down by the difficulties he meets. How blessed it is to sit loose from things here below, that while going home to our Father's house, we may use the world as not abusing it! May we always look for that city, whose Builder and Maker is God.
Key Words
נָצַח: properly, to glitter from afar, i.e. to be eminent (as a superintendent, especially of the Temple services and its music); to be permanent
יְדוּתוּן: Jeduthun, an Israelite
מִזְמוֹר: properly, instrumental music; by implication, a poem set to notes
דָּוִד: David, the youngest son of Jesse
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
שָׁמַר: properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.
דֶּרֶךְ: a road (as trodden); figuratively, a course of life or mode of action, often adverb
חָטָא: properly, to miss; hence (figuratively and generally) to sin; by inference, to forfeit, lack, expiate, repent, (causatively) lead astray, condemn
לָשׁוֹן: the tongue (of man or animals), used literally (as the instrument of licking, eating, or speech), and figuratively (speech, an ingot, a fork of flame, a cove of water)
פֶּה: the mouth (as the means of blowing), whether literal or figurative (particularly speech); specifically edge, portion or side; adverbially (with preposition) according to
Cross References
Psalms 39The severe challenge of controlling and bridling the tongue, which is prone to slide into error.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Explicit structural framing of the believer as a stranger and temporary sojourner with the Lord.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin, JFB
The confession of the faithful that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin, JFB
The prayer to be taught the brevity of life in order to gain a wise heart.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
The vanity of storing up material wealth without knowing who will ultimately gather it.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Silent, humble submission to divine affliction because it is the Lord who has done it.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
David's refusal to speak against divine providence under the insolent provocations of the wicked.
Supported by Matthew Poole, John Calvin
A suppressed message and internal emotion bursting forth like a burning, pent-up fire.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The determined, measured, and highly finite boundary of human life appointed by God.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Human life and duration compared to, and standing as nothing before, God's eternity.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Verbal echo on the theme that men of all degrees are altogether vanity.
Supported by John Calvin
The patriarchal confession of life as a short, difficult pilgrimage and sojourn.
Supported by JFB
Laying one's hand over the mouth in silent recognition of God's sovereign authority.
Supported by John Calvin
The metaphor of God's silent judgment consuming man's beauty and strength like a moth.
Supported by Matthew Henry