Psalms 39

The Brevity of Human Life

1

For the [music] director. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

1 I said, "I will guard my ways {that I may not sin} with my tongue. I will keep a muzzle over my mouth as long as [the] wicked [are] before me."

2 I was mute [with] silence. I was silent [even] from [saying] good [things], and my pain was stirred up.

3 My heart grew hot inside me; in my sighing a fire burned. [Then] I spoke with my tongue,

4 "Let me know, O Yahweh, my end, and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how transient I [am]."

5 Look, you have made my days [mere] handbreadths, and my lifespan as nothing next to you. Surely every person standing firm [is] complete vanity. Selah

6 Surely a man walks about as a [mere] {shadow}; surely in vain they bustle about. He heaps up [possessions] but does not know who [will] gather them [in].

7 And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is for you.

8 From all my transgressions deliver me; do not make me [the] taunt of [the] fool.

9 I am mute. I do not open my mouth, for you, yourself, have done [it].

10 Remove from me your affliction. By the opposition of your hand I perish.

11 [When] with rebukes you chastise a man for sin, you {consume} like a moth his delightful [things]. Surely everyone [is] a [mere] vapor. Selah

12 Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and listen [to] my cry for help; do not be deaf to my tears. For I [am] an alien with you, a sojourner like all my ancestors.

13 Look [away] from me that I may be cheerful, before I depart and I am no more.

Psalms 39 Commentary

Chapter 39

David meditates on man's frailty. (1-6) He applies for pardon and deliverance. (7-13)

Verses 1-6 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.

Verses 7-13 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. One of David's musicians (1 Chr 16:41)
• [b]. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
• [c]. Literally "from sinning"
• [d]. Literally "image"
• [e]. Hebrew "and/then you"
• [f]. Literally "cause to melt"
• [g]. The word translated "vanity" in vv. 6, 7
• [h]. Or "stranger"
• [i]. Or "fathers"

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician, [even] to Jeduthun, a Psalm of David. Some take Jeduthun to be the name of a musical instrument, as Jarchi, on which, and others the first word of a song, to the tune of which, this psalm was sung, as Aben Ezra; though it seems best, with Kimchi and others, to understand it as the name of the chief musician, to whom this psalm was sent to be made use of in public service; since Jeduthun was, with his sons, appointed by David to prophesy with harps and psalteries, and to give praise and thanks unto the Lord, 1 Chronicles 16:41; he is the same with Ethan {s}. The occasion of it is thought, by some, to be the rebellion of his son Absalom; so Theodoret thinks it was written when he fled from Absalom, and was cursed by Shimei; or rather it may be some sore affliction, which lay upon David for the chastisement of him; see Psalm 39:9; and the argument of the psalm seems to be much the same with that of the preceding one, as Kimchi observes.

{s} Vid. Hiller. Onomastic. Sacr. p. 513, 805.