Psalm 39 Study Notes

39:7-8 Suffering for God’s people often includes being taunted by enemies (see note at 22:6-8), who are here described as fools, which implies they are godless (14:1).

39:9 The psalmist was speechless because there was no point in complaining about what God was doing in his life.

39:10-11 The most severe suffering from the psalmist’s perspective was God’s torment, which was being used as a corrective measure to bring him to his senses and to help him learn the lesson in vv. 4-6. One way that God uses suffering in the lives of his people is to discipline them as his children in a loving and corrective way (Heb 12:5-11).

39:12 Alien and temporary resident are terms for those who were not native inhabitants in the promised land. The Israelites were to consider themselves as foreigners and “resident aliens” in the Lord’s land (see 119:19; Lv 25:23; 1Ch 29:15). The use of the words here seems to indicate that the lesson of Ps 39:4-6 about the insignificance and fleeting nature of this earthly life had been learned.