Psalms 39:1-6

1 I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bit while the wicked is against me.

2 I was dumb with silence; I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue,

4 LORD, make me to know my end and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know how long I am to be of this world.

5 Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and my age is as nothing before thee; verily every man that lives is altogether vanity. Selah.

6 Surely man walks in darkness; surely they are disquieted in vain; they heap up riches not knowing who shall gather them.

Psalms 39:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

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.