Psalm 39:12

12 Hear my prayer, Lord, and listen to my cry; come to my aid when I weep. Like all my ancestors I am only your guest for a little while.

Psalm 39:12 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 39:12

Hear my prayer, O Lord
Which was, that he would remove the affliction from him that lay so hard and heavy upon him;

and give ear unto my cry;
which shows the distress he was in, and the vehemency with which he put up his petition to the Lord;

hold not thy peace at my tears;
which were shed in great plenty, through the violence of the affliction, and in his fervent prayers to God; see ( Hebrews 5:7 ) ;

for I [am] a stranger with thee;
not to God, to Christ, to the Spirit, to the saints, to himself, and the plague of his own heart, or to the devices of Satan; but in the world, and to the men of it; being unknown to them, and behaving as a stranger among them; all which was known to God, and may be the meaning of the phrase "with thee"; or reference may be had to the land of Canaan, in which David dwelt, and which was the Lord's, and in which the Israelites dwelt as strangers and sojourners with him, ( Leviticus 25:23 ) ; as it follows here;

[and] a sojourner, as all my fathers [were];
meaning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity; see ( Genesis 23:4 ) ( 35:27 ) ( Psalms 105:23 ) ; as are all the people of God in this world: this is not their native place; they belong to another and better country; their citizenship is in heaven; their Father's house is there, and there is their inheritance, which they have a right unto, and a meetness for: they have no settlement here; nor is their rest and satisfaction in the things of this world: they reckon themselves, while here, as not at home, but in a foreign land; and this the psalmist mentions, to engage the Lord to regard his prayers, since he has so often expressed a concern for the strangers and sojourners in the land of Israel.

Psalm 39:12 In-Context

10 Don't punish me any more! I am about to die from your blows.

11 You punish our sins by your rebukes, and like a moth you destroy what we love. Indeed we are no more than a puff of wind!

12 Hear my prayer, Lord, and listen to my cry; come to my aid when I weep. Like all my ancestors I am only your guest for a little while.

13 Leave me alone so that I may have some happiness before I go away and am no more.