PSALM 39 COMME�TARYEDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

I�TRODUCTIO�

SPURGEO�, "Title. To the Chief Musician, even to Jeduthun. Jeduthun's name, which signifies praising or celebrating, was a most appropriate one for a leader in sacred psalmody. He was one of those ordained by the King's order "for song in the house of the Lord with cymbals, psalteries, and harps" 1 Chronicles 15:6, and his children after him appear to have remained in the same hallowed service, even so late as the days of �ehemiah. To have a name and a place in Zion is no small honour, and to hold this place by a long entail of grace is an unspeakable blessing. O that our household may never lack a man to stand before the Lord God of Israel to do him service. David left this somewhat sorrowful ode in Jeduthun's hands because he thought him most fit to set it to music, or because he would distribute the sacred honour of song among all the musicians who in their turn presided in the choir. A Psalm of David. Such as his chequered life would be sure to produce; fit effusions for a man so tempted, so strong in his passions, and yet so firm in faith.Division. The psalmist, bowed down with sickness and sorrow, is burdened with unbelieving thoughts, which he resolves to stifle, lest any evil should come from their expression, Psalms 39:1-2. But silence creates an insupportable grief, which at last demands utterance, and obtains it in the prayer of Psalms 39:3-6, which is almost a complaint and a sigh for death, or at best a very desponding picture of human life. From Psalms 39:7-13 the tone is more submissive, and the recognition of the divine hand more distinct; the cloud has evidently passed, and the mourner's heart is relieved.

ELLICOTT, "“Undoubtedly,” says Ewald, “the finest elegy in the Psalter;” and the same scholar pronounces it original, so that the many points of similarity with the book of Job (see �otes, passim) must be taken to indicate the acquaintance of its author with this Psalm. Perhaps it is from this elegy that he takes up the problem offered by the contradictions of life which he carries so much farther. A short refrain (Psalms 39:5; Psalms 39:11) enriches the varied versification.

Title.—The inserted “even” assumes that Jeduthun was the choir-master or leader to whom the musical direction of the Psalm was assigned. But it is possible that the choir itself may have continued to be known by the name of the old master long after he had passed away. Jeduthun (variously written, as in the Hebrew here Jedithin) is identified with Ethan (1 Chronicles 15:17) the Merarite, who with Heman the Korahite and Asaph the Gershonite were appointed musical directors (1 Chronicles 15:19) of the Temple service. (Comp. titles of Psalms 62, 77)

COKE, "David's care of his thoughts. The consideration of the brevity and vanity of

life. The reverence of God's judgments, and prayer, are the bridles of his impatience.

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.

Title. לידתון למנצח lamnatseach liiduthun.— See what has been observed on the title to the former psalm. This, being of the same kind, is generally supposed to have been written on the same occasion. Here, as well as in that, David endeavours to prevent the scandal which good men take, while they are under afflictions, at the prosperity of the wicked; though he shews that upon same occasions it is very difficult not to be disturbed at it. Jeduthun, mentioned in the title, was one of the chief musicians, as appears from 1 Chronicles 16:42; 1 Chronicles 25:1. 2 Chronicles 5:12. We may just remark, that some have supposed that the psalm was occasioned by the death of Absalom, after Joab had represented to the king the inconsistency of his grief. The first and second verses seem to allude to his resolution to stifle his grief in the presence of Joab: in Psalms 39:4 he prays for due preparation for his own death, and strongly alludes to the untimely end of Absalom. This is enforced Psalms 39:6 wherein he blames himself for making such ample provision for his heir, who was cut off in so sudden a manner. The reproach of the foolish, Psalms 39:8 might allude to the malicious interpretation which Joab or his other enemies might cast upon his affliction. The precariousness of human beauty, Psalms 39:11 might refer to Absalom's remarkable beauty, in which he is said to have excelled all Israel. And the strength mentioned Psalms 39:13 may allude to his loss of his two sons, Amnon and Absalom; children being frequently in Scripture styled the strength of their parents.

PETT, "‘For the Chief Musician, for Jeduthun. A Psalm to/for David.’

This Psalm is offered to the person responsible for the sacred music, or the choirmaster, and is of the Davidic collection. ‘To (or ‘for’) David’ may indicate that it was dedicated to David, written for the Davidic house, or even written by David himself.

Jeduthun’s name appears also in the headings of Psalms 62, 77. He is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 16:41 ff; 1 Chronicles 25:1 ff; 2 Chronicles 5:12; 2 Chronicles 35:15, along with Heman and Asaph, as one of the directors of the music in the Temple, and his descendants continued to officiate after the Exile (�ehemiah 11:17). His other name Ethan was probably his name before he was appointed (1 Chronicles 6:44 ff; 1 Chronicles 15:17; 1 Chronicles 15:19).

The Psalm appears to have been written while the Psalmist is going through a ‘near death’ illness, and divides into four sections:

1) The Psalmist is determined not to say anything in the presence of the unrighteous that might give him occasion to criticise God. Once he is alone, however, he cannot keep silent (Psalms 39:1-3).2) His concern is with his awareness of his own frailty and of the fact that life

appears on the whole to be vain and that a man does not know what will happen to the possessions that he has built up once he is dead. Thus as he lies on his sickbed it raises the question of the very meaning of life (Psalms 39:4-6).3) His solution lies in hoping in YHWH and walking rightly before Him, being delivered from all his transgressions. Meanwhile therefore he prays that YHWH will restore him to health, while recognising that he himself through his illness experience is being corrected for his own sins (Psalms 39:7-11).4) Recognising the brevity of a man’s life on this earth in comparison with God’s he prays that he may be restored and given a little more time before his life is finally over so that he can make good use of it.

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

1 I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin;I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”

BAR�ES, "I said - This refers to a resolution which he had formed. He does not say, however, at

what time of his life the resolution was adopted, or how long a period had elapsed from the time when he formed the resolution to the time when he thus made a record of it. He had formed the resolution on some occasion when he was greatly troubled with anxious thoughts; when, as the subsequent verses show, his mind was deeply perplexed about the divine administration, or the dealings of God with mankind. It would seem that this train of thought was suggested by his own particular trials Psa_39:9-10, from which he was led to reflect on the mysteries of the divine administration in general, and on the fact that man had been subjected by his Creator to so much trouble and sorrow - and that, under the divine decree, human life was so short and so vain.

I will take heed to my ways - To wit, in respect to this matter. I will be cautious, circumspect, prudent. I will not offend or pain the heart of others. The particular thing here referred to was, the resolution not to give utterance to the thoughts which were passing in his mind in regard to the divine administration. He felt that he was in danger,

if he stated what he thought on the subject, of saying things which would do injury, or which he would have occasion to regret, and he therefore resolved to keep silent.

That I sin not with my tongue - That I do not utter sentiments which will be wrong, and which I shall have occasion to repent; sentiments which would do injury to those who are already disposed to find ground of complaint against God, and who would thus be furnished with arguments to confirm them in their views. Good men often have such thoughts passing through their minds; thoughts reflecting on the government of God as unequal and severe; thoughts which, if they were suggested, would tend to confirm the wicked and the skeptical in their views; thoughts which they hope, in respect to themselves, to be able to calm down by meditation and prayer, but which would do only unmitigated harm if they were communicated to other men, especially to wicked people.

I will keep my mouth with a bridle - The word used here means rather a “muzzle,” or something placed “over” the mouth. The bridle is to restrain or check or guide the horse; the muzzle was something to bind or fasten the mouth so as to prevent biting or eating. Deu_25:4 : “thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.” See the notes at 1Co_9:9. The meaning here is, that he would restrain himself from uttering what was passing in his mind.

While the wicked is before me - In their presence. He resolved to do this, as suggested above, lest if he should utter what was passing in his own mind - if he should state the difficulties in regard to the divine administration which he saw and felt - if he should give expression to the skeptical or hard thoughts which occurred to him at such times, it would serve only to confirm them in their wickedness, and strengthen them in their alienation from God. A similar state of feeling, and on this very subject, is referred to by the psalmist Psa_73:15, where he says that if he should utter what was really passing in his mind, it would greatly pain and offend those who were the true children of God; would fill their minds with doubts and difficulties which might never occur to themselves: “If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I shall offend against the generation of thy children.” As illustrations of this state of feeling in the minds of good men, and as evidence of the fact that, as in the case of the psalmist, their existence in the mind, even in the severest and the most torturing form, is not proof that the man in whose bosom they arise is not a truly pious man, I make the following extracts as expressing the feelings of two of the most sincere and devoted Christian men that ever lived - both eminently useful, both in an eminent degree ornaments to the Church, Cecil and Payson: “I have read all the most acute, and learned, and serious infidel writers, and have been really surprised at their poverty. The process of my mind has been such on the subject of revelation, that I have often thought Satan has done more for me than the best of them, for I have had, and could have produced, arguments that appeared to me far more weighty than any I ever found in them against revelation.” - Cecil. Dr. Payson says in a letter to a friend: “There is one trial which you cannot know experimentally: it is that of being obliged to preach to others when one doubts of everything, and can scarcely believe that there is a God. All the atheistical, deistical, and heretical objections which I meet with in books are childish babblings compared with those which Satan suggests, and which he urges upon the mind with a force which seems irresistible. Yet I am often obliged to write sermons, and to preach when these objections beat upon me like a whirlwind, and almost distract me.”

CLARKE,"I said, I will take heed to my ways - I must be cautious because of my enemies; I must be patient because of my afflictions; I must be watchful over my tongue,

lest I offend my God, or give my adversaries any cause to speak evil of me.

GILL, "I said,.... That is, in his heart; he purposed and determined within himself to do as follows; and he might express it with his mouth, and so his purpose became a promise;

I will take heed to my ways; as every good man should; that is, to all his actions, conduct, and conversation: it becomes him to take heed what ways he walks in; that they are the ways of God, which he directs to; that they are the ways of Christ, which he has left an example to follow in; and that they are according to the word of God; that he walks in Christ, the way of salvation, and by faith on him; that he chooses and walks in the way of truth, and not error; and in all, the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless; and in the path of holiness, in which, though fools, they shall not err: and it is also necessary that he should take heed that he does nothing, either by embracing error, or going into immorality, by which the ways of God, and Christ, and truth, are evil spoken of, blasphemed and reproached; and that he does not depart out of these ways, nor stumble, slip, and fall in them;

that I sin not with my tongue; which is a world of iniquity, and has a multitude of vices belonging to it; not only in profane men, but in professors of religion; whom it becomes to take heed that they sin not with it, by lying one to another, by angry and passionate expressions, by corrupt communication, filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting, which are not convenient; by whispering, talebearing, backbiting, and by evil speaking one of another: particularly there are vices of the tongue, which the saints are liable to under afflictive providences, and seem chiefly designed here; such as envious expressions at the prosperity of others; words of impatience under their own afflictions, and murmurings at the hand of God upon them; such as these the psalmist determined, within himself, to guard against; in order to which he proposed to take the following method;

I will keep my mouth with a bridle: that is, bridle his tongue, that being an unruly member, and to be kept in with bit and bridle, like an unruly horse; see Jam_1:26;

while the wicked is before me; or "against me" (t); meaning either while Ahithophel and Absalom were conspiring and rebelling against him, and Shimei was cursing him, under which he behaved with great silence, calmness, and patience; see 2Sa_15:25; or while he had the flourishing condition of wicked men in his view, and was meditating on it; or rather, when anyone of them came to visit him in his affliction, he was determined to be wholly silent, that they might have no opportunity of rejoicing over him, nor of reproaching him, and the good ways of God: and indeed it is proper for the people of God to be always upon their guard, when they are in the presence of wicked men; and be careful what they utter with their lips, who watch their words to improve them against them, and the religion they profess.

HE�RY, "David here recollects, and leaves upon record, the workings of his heart under his afflictions; and it is good for us to do so, that what was thought amiss may be amended, and what was well thought of may be improved the next time.

I. He remembered the covenants he had made with God to walk circumspectly, and to be very cautious both of what he did and what he said. When at any time we are tempted to sin, and are in danger of falling into it, we must call to mind the solemn vows we have

made against sin, against the particular sin we are upon the brink of. God can, and will, remind us of them (Jer_2:20, Thou saidst, I will not transgress), and therefore we ought to remind ourselves of them. So David did here.

1. He remembers that he had resolved, in general, to be very cautious and circumspect in his walking (Psa_39:1): I said, I will take heed to my ways; and it was well said, and what he would never unsay and therefore must never gainsay. Note, (1.) It is the great concern of every one of us to take heed to our ways, that is, to walk circumspectly, while others walk at all adventures. (2.) We ought stedfastly to resolve that we will take heed to our ways, and frequently to renew that resolution. Fast bind, fast find. (3.) Having resolved to take heed to our ways, we must, upon all occasions, remind ourselves of that resolution, for it is a covenant never to be forgotten, but which we must be always mindful of.

2. He remembers that he had in particular covenanted against tongue-sins - that he would not sin with his tongue, that he would not speak amiss, either to offend God or offend the generation of the righteous, Psa_73:15. it is not so easy as we could wish not to sin in thought; but, if an evil thought should arise in his mind, he would lay his hand upon his mouth, and suppress it, that it should go no further: and this is so great an attainment that, if any offend not in word, the same is a perfect man; and so needful a one that of him who seems to be religious, but bridles not his tongue, it is declared His religion is vain. David had resolved, (1.) That he would at all times watch against tongue-sins: “I will keep a bridle, or muzzle, upon my mouth.” He would keep a bridle upon it, as upon the head; watchfulness in the act and exercise is the hand upon the bridle. he would keep a muzzle upon it, as upon an unruly dog that is fierce and does mischief; by particular stedfast resolution corruption is restrained from breaking out at the lips, and so is muzzled. (2.) That he would double his guard against them when there was most danger of scandal -when the wicked is before me. When he was in company with the wicked he would take heed of saying any thing that might harden them or give occasion to them to blaspheme. If good men fall into bad company, they must take heed what they say. Or, when the wicked is before me, in my thoughts. When he was contemplating the pride and power, the prosperity and flourishing estate, of evil-doers, he was tempted to speak amiss; and therefore then he would take special care what he said. Note, The stronger the temptation to a sin is the stronger the resolution must be against it.

JAMISO�,"Psa_39:1-13. To Jeduthun (1Ch_16:41, 1Ch_16:42), one of the chief singers. His name mentioned, perhaps, as a special honor. Under depressing views of his frailty and the prosperity of the wicked, the Psalmist, tempted to murmur, checks the expression of his feelings, till, led to regard his case aright, he prays for a proper view of his condition and for the divine compassion.

I said— or, “resolved.”

will take heed— watch.

ways— conduct, of which the use of the tongue is a part (Jam_1:26).

bridle— literally, “muzzle for my mouth” (compare Deu_25:4).

while ... before me— in beholding their prosperity (Psa_37:10, Psa_37:36).

K&D 1-3, "(Heb.: 39:2-4) The poet relates how he has resolved to bear his own affliction silently in the face of the prosperity of the ungodly, but that his smart was sooverpowering that he was compelled involuntarily to break his silence by loud

complaint. The resolve follows the introductory מר�י� in cohortatives. He meant to take

heed to his ways, i.e., his manner of thought and action, in all their extent, lest he should sin with his tongue, viz., by any murmuring complaint concerning his own misfortune, when he saw the prosperity of the ungodly. He was resolved to keep (i.e., causeinvariably to press) a bridling (cf. on the form, Gen_30:37), or a bridle (capistrum), upon his mouth, so long as he should see the ungodly continuing and sinning in the fulness of his strength, instead of his speedy ruin which one ought to expect. Then he

was struck dumb ה�ומ , in silence, i.e., as in Psa_62:2, cf. Lam_3:26, in resigned

submission, he was silent מ�וב, turned away from (vid., Psa_28:1; 1Sa_7:8, and

frequently) prosperity, i.e., from that in which he saw the evil-doer rejoicing; he sought to silence for ever the perplexing contradiction between this prosperity and the righteousness of God. But this self-imposed silence gave intensity to the repressed pain,

and this was thereby נע�ר, stirred up, excited, aroused; the inward heat became, in

consequence of restrained complaint, all the more intense (Jer_20:9): “and while I was musing a fire was kindled,” i.e., the thoughts and emotions rubbing against one another produced a blazing fire, viz., of irrepressible vexation, and the end of it was: “I spake with my tongue,” unable any longer to keep in my pain. What now follows is not what was said by the poet when in this condition. On the contrary, he turns away from his purpose, which has been proved to be impracticable, to God Himself with the prayer that He would teach him calm submission.

CALVI�, "1.I said, I will take heed to my ways. David explains and illustrates the greatness of his grief by this circumstance, that, contrary to his inclination and resolution, he broke forth into the severest complaints. The meaning substantially is, that although he had subdued his heart to patience, and resolved to keep silence, yet the violence of his grief was such that it forced him to break his resolution, and extorted from him, if we might so speak, expressions which indicate that he had given way to an undue degree of sorrow. The expression, I said, it is well known, does not always mean what is expressed in words, but is often used to denote the purpose of the heart, and, therefore, the words in heart are sometimes added. David, therefore, means not that he boasted of his fortitude and constancy, and made a display of them before men, but that before God he was, by continued meditation, well fortified and prepared to endure patiently the temptations by which he was now assailed. We ought to mark particularly the carefulness by which he was distinguished. It was not without cause that he was so much intent on exercising watchfulness over himself. He did so because he was conscious of his own weakness, and also well knew the manifold devices of Satan. He, therefore, looked on the right hand and on the left, and kept watch on all sides, lest temptation stealing upon him unawares from any quarter might reach even to his heart. Access to it, then, had been impossible, since it was shut up on every side, if the extreme severity of his grief had not overpowered him, and broken his resolution. When he says, I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, (61) that I sin not with my tongue, it is not to be understood as if he could with difficulty restrain and conceal his grief, (for it is mere pretense for a man to show by the countenance and speech the appearance of meekness when the heart still swells with pride;) but as there is nothing more

slippery or loose than the tongue, David declares that he had endeavored so carefully to bridle his affections, that not so much as one word should escape from his lips which might betray the least impatience. And that man must indeed be endued with singular fortitude who unfeignedly and deliberately restrains his tongue, which is so liable to fall into error. As to what follows, while the wicked standeth before me, it is generally understood, as if David had concealed his grief, lest he should give occasion of blasphemy to the wicked, who, as soon as they see the children of God fail under the weight of their afflictions, insolently break forth into derision against them, which amounts to a contempt of God himself. But it appears to me that by the term standeth, David meant to express something more, — that even while he saw the wicked bearing rule, exercising authority, and exalted to honor, he resolved not to speak a single word, but to bear patiently the poverty and indignity which otherwise grieve and torment not a little even good men. Accordingly, he says not merely that when he was in the presence of the wicked he restrained himself, lest he should be subjected to their scorn, but that even while the worst of men prospered, (62) and, proud of their high rank, despised others, he was fully determined in his own mind not to be troubled at it. By this he very plainly shows that he was so beset with wicked men, ever ready for mischief, that he could not freely heave a sigh which was not made the subject of ridicule and scorn. Since, then, it was so hard a task for David to restrain his tongue, lest he should sin by giving way to complaints, let us learn from his example, whenever troubles molest us, to strive earnestly to moderate our affections, that no impious expression of dissatisfaction against God may slip from us.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 1. I said. I steadily resolved and registered a determination. In his great perplexity his greatest fear was lest he should sin; and, therefore, he cast about for the most likely method for avoiding it, and he determined to be silent. It is right excellent when a man can strengthen himself in a good course by the remembrance of a well and wisely formed resolve. "What I have written I have written, "or what I have spoken I will perform, may prove a good strengthener to a man in a fixed course of right. I will take heed to my ways. To avoid sin one had need be very circumspect, and keep one's actions as with a guard or garrison. Unguarded ways are generally unholy ones. Heedless is another word for graceless. In times of sickness or other trouble we must watch against the sins peculiar to such trials, especially against murmuring and repining. That I sin not with my tongue. Tongue sins are great sins; like sparks of fire ill words spread, and do great damage. If believers utter hard words of God in times of depression, the ungodly will take them up and use them as a justification for their sinful courses. If a man's own children rail at him, no wonder if his enemies' mouths are full of abuse. Our tongue always wants watching, for it is restive as an ill broken horse; but especially must we hold it in when the sharp cuts of the Lord's rod excite it to rebel. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, or more accurately, with a muzzle. The original does not so much mean a bridle to check the tongue as a muzzle to stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise as our translation would make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his speech, it would have been altogether commendable; but when he went so far as to condemn himself to entire silence, "even from good, "there must have been at least a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one fault, he fell

into another. To use the tongue against God is a sin of commission, but not to use it at all involves an evident sin of omission. Commendable virtues may be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices; to avoid Scylla we run into Charybdis. While the wicked is before me. This qualifies the silence, and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so sure to misuse even our holiest speech, that it is as well not to cast any of our pearls before such swine; but what if the psalmist meant, "I was silent while I had the prosperity of the wicked in my thoughts, "then we see the discontent and questioning of his mind, and the muzzled mouth indicates much that is not to be commended. Yet, if we blame we must also praise, for the highest wisdom suggests that when good men are bewildered with sceptical thoughts, they should not hasten to repeat them, but should fight out their inward battle upon its own battlefield. The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil's work with a vengeance if they were to publish abroad all their questionings and suspicions. If I have the fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbours. If any on board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in quarantine, and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a clean bill of health.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSTitle. —"To Jeduthun." A Levite of the family of Merari, and one of the great masters of the temple music. The department superintended by Jeduthun and his colleagues in the temple service was that of the "instruments of the song of God, "by which are intended the nebel or psaltery, the kinnor or harp, and the metsiltaim or cymbals. In 2 Chronicles 35:15, Jeduthun is called "the king's seer, " which would seem to indicate that he was the medium of divine guidance to David. The name occurs in the title of Psalms 39:1-13; Psalms 62:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20; where some have thought that it indicates some special kind of composition, and others some instrument of music, but without reason. William Lindsay Alexander, in Kitto's Cyclopaedia.Whole Psalm. The most beautiful of all the elegies in the psalter. H. Ewald.Ver. 1. I said. It was to himself that he said it; and it is impossible for any other to prove a good or a wise man, without much of this kind of speech to himself. It is one of the most excellent and distinguishing faculties of a reasonable creature; much beyond vocal speech, for in that, some birds may imitate us; but neither bird nor beast has anything of this kind of language, of reflecting or discoursing with itself. It is a wonderful brutality in the greatest part of men, who are so little conversant in this kind of speech, being framed and disposed for it, and which is not only of itself excellent, but of continual use and advantage; but it is a common evil among men to go abroad, and out of themselves, which is a madness, and a true distraction. It is true, a man hath need of a well set mind, when he speaks to himself; for otherwise, he may be worse company to himself than if he were with others. But he ought to endeavour to have a better with him, to call in God to his heart to dwell with him. If thus we did, we should find how sweet this were to speak to ourselves, by now and then intermixing our speech with discourses unto God. For want of this, the most part not only lose their time in vanity, in their converse abroad with others, but do carry in heaps of that vanity to the stock which is in their own hearts, and do converse with them in secret, which is the greatest and deepest folly in the world. Robert Leighton.

Ver. 1. �o lesson so hard to be learned of us here, as the wise and discreet government of the tongue. David promised a singular care of this, I said, I will take heed, etc. Socrates reports of one Pambo, an honest, well meaning man, who came to his friend, desiring him to teach him one of David's Psalms, he read to him this verse. He answered: this one verse is enough, if I learn it well. �ineteen years after, he said, in all that time, he had hardly learned that one verse. Samuel Page.Ver. 1. That I sin not with my tongue. Man's mouth, though it be but a little hole, will hold a world full of sin. For there is not any sin forbidden in the law or gospel which is not spoken by the tongue, as well as thought in the heart, or done in the life. Is it not then almost as difficult to rule the tongue as to rule the world? Edward Reyner.Ver. 1. I will keep a muzzle on my mouth, whilst a wicked man is before me. �ew Translation, by Charles Carter,Ver. 1. While the wicked is before me. It is a vexation to be tied to hear so much impertinent babbling in the world, but profitable to discern and abhor it. A wonder that men can cast out so much wind, and the more they have to utter, the more they are prodigal of their own breath and of the patience of others, and careless of their own reckoning. If they believe to give account of every idle word, they would be more sparing of foolish speaking. I like either to be silent, or to speak that that may edify. At tables or meetings, I cannot stop the mouth of others, yet may I close mine own ears, and by a heavenly soul speech with God divert my mind from fruitless talking. Though I be among them I shall as little partake their prattling as they do my meditation. William Struther.

COFFMA�, "THE BREVITY A�D VA�ITY OF LIFE

The superscription entitles this psalm, 'The Vanity of Life,' but the brevity of life is also a feature. It is labeled 'A Psalm of David,' 'for the Chief Musician, for Jeduthun.'

"Jeduthun, in this and in Psalms 62 and Psalms 72, was one of David's three Music leaders, the other two being Asaph and Heman (1 Chronicles 16:37-42). He was also the King's Seer (2 Chronicles 35:15)."[1]William Jones has an outline of this psalm, as follows: (1) Silence in Trouble (Psalms 39:1-3); (2) Speech in Trouble (Psalms 39:4:6); and (3) Supplication in Trouble (Psalms 39:7-13).[2]

There are a number of interpretations of these verses. (1) One view is that, "The psalmist's breaking his vow of silence was sinful and that Psalms 39:4-11 are his plea for forgiveness."[3] Another view is that his breaking silence was altogether justified as in the case of Jeremiah (Jer.20:9).[4]

Far too little is known about the actual circumstances that resulted in this psalm's composition to provide very much certainty regarding exactly what is meant in every line.

"Ewald called this 'The most beautiful of all the elegies in the Psalter.'"[5]

Spurgeon's summary of the psalm has this:

"The psalmist is bowed down with sickness and sorrow, and is burdened by unbelieving thoughts and doubts, about which he resolves to be silent. His unsupportable grief demands expression, resulting in the prayer of Psalms 39:3-6, wherein is a very despondent picture of human life."[6]Regarding the authorship: the assignment of the psalm to David in the superscription is the only information available on this question; and Delitzsch has declared that there is no authority whatever for critical assignment of it to, "any particular poet, other than David."[7]

In this study, we shall examine the verses one by one.

Psalms 39:1

"I said, I will take heed to my ways,

That I sin not with my tongue:

I will keep my mouth with a bridle,

While the wicked is before me."

In common language, of course, this is merely a pledge on the part of the psalmist to keep his mouth shut. It is a fine resolution for most people, especially with regard to all complaints, criticisms, gossip, and many other elements that sometimes are featured in popular conversation.

Also, in the particular situation here, an unusually good reason for this self-imposed intention of silence is given in the final clause.

"Keep my mouth with a bridle" (Psalms 39:1). Several have pointed out that the true meaning here is 'muzzle,' not 'bridle.'

"While the wicked is before me" (Psalms 39:1). Rawlinson admitted that this rendition is the literal meaning but preferred the Prayer-book Version. "While the ungodly is in my sight."[8]

We are not very impressed with the imaginary "reasons" some writers have assigned for this silence in the presence of the ungodly.

Some have "guessed" that David was so impatient with God's treatment of him and so concerned with doubts and unbelief that he was afraid he might say something that would cause his enemies to declare that he had lost his faith. Maybe so; but I find nothing in the psalm that backs up such an idea.

Of course, if that was indeed the situation, silence was certainly appropriate, "Because God's people are not at liberty to express doubts or complaints, if doing so would give the wicked a chance to blaspheme, or if it should unsettle the faith of any believer."[9]

However, as Spurgeon noted, "Silence in the presence of the ungodly is especially wise, `Because bad men are sure to misuse even our holiest speech; and it is well not to cast our pearls before such swine.'"[10]

Whatever the reason for David's silence, the presence of the ungodly certainly was an element leading to his decision. We do not understand this as any 'Vow to God' on David's part. There is nothing here that suggests that.

ELLICOTT, "1) My tongue.—To enter into the feeling of the poet we must remember the unrestrained way in which Orientals give way to grief. It was natural and becoming for him to “roar” (Psalms 38:8, &c.) out his indignation or his grief, to mutter (Psalms 1:2, &c) aloud his prayers, to speak out on every impulse. �ow he determines to endure in silence and mutely bear the worst, rather than speak what may in the eyes of the impious be construed into a murmur against Divine Providence, into impatience under the Divine decree. (Comp. Psalms 38:13-14.)

With a bridle.—See margin, and comp. Deuteronomy 25:4, where the cognate verb occurs. The root-meaning is “stop.” For the metaphor comp. James 1:26, and Plato, Laws, 3:701, “the argument, like a horse, ought to be pulled up from time to time, and not be allowed to run away, but held with bit and bridle.” (Comp. also Virgil, Æneid, vi. 79.)

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:1. I said — I fully resolved, &c. “The Psalm,” says Dr. Horne, “begins abruptly with the result of a meditation on the narrow, slippery, and dangerous paths of life; more especially on the extreme difficulty of restraining the tongue, amidst the continual temptations and provocations”

which surround or assault us, to speak unadvisedly with our lips. I will take heed to my ways — That is, to order all my actions aright, and particularly to govern my tongue, that if any evil thought or passions arise within me, I may suppress and mortify them, and not suffer them to break forth into sinful reflections on God and his providence. I will keep my mouth as with a bridle — With all possible care and diligence. While the wicked is before me — In my presence; or in my thoughts, as the phrase is understood, Psalms 51:3, that is, while I consider the flourishing estate of wicked men.

PETT, "Verses 1-31). The Psalmist is determined not to say anything in the presence of unrighteous people that might give them occasion to criticise God. Once he is alone, however, he cannot keep silent (Psalms 39:1-3).

Psalms 39:1

‘I said, I will take heed to my ways,That I sin not with my tongue,I will keep my mouth with a bridle,While the wicked person is before me.’The Psalmist declares that he will ‘keep his ways’. That is, he will watch over them and control them. And his aim and purpose is in order that he might not sin with his tongue by bringing his doubts about life before the unrighteous while they are in his presence, or alternatively by bringing his doubts about the unrighteous who are in his thoughts, before men. The latter problem was a constant one in the Psalms. Why did the unrighteous flourish?

So he determines to keep a bridle on his tongue, lest he say anything that brings dishonour on God. Wise is the man or woman who keeps a watch over what comes from their mouths.

SBC, "I. How important it is that we should seek to order our speech aright, seeing that our words are the outcoming of our inmost heart, the revelation of the deepest, most hidden things which are there.

II. How important it is that we should order our speech aright, seeing that words reach so far, exercise so vast an influence. They have sometimes been called "winged," and so they are, travelling far and fast by paths of their own.

III. We might well pray this prayer, having regard to the difficulty of the duty which we here propose to ourselves: a difficulty so great that St. James could say, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."

IV. Consider the strict judgment and account to which God will call us for our use of this excellent talent of speech. "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned;" and from other sayings of Christ our Lord it is to be feared that many a light word, as it seems now, will prove heavy enough at the day of judgment: many a word lightly spoken now will have to be heavily accounted for then.

R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 114.

References: Psa_39:1.—R. Duckworth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 200; C. Wordsworth, Sermons at Harrow School, p. 198; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 74; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 60.

Psalms 39:1-2

The unspoken judgment of mankind.

Scripture speaks in two different ways about judging others. On the one hand, it says, "Judge nothing before the time, till the day of the Lord come;" on the other hand, it says, "He that is spiritual judgeth all things:" and we are told to regard the Holy Spirit, of which we partake, as a Spirit of discernment. Goodness as such has a wisdom in it; it knows that which attracts and draws it to itself, and that which does not; it knows the

character with which it is in sympathy and agreement, and that with which it is not.

I. What then is meant by our being told that we are to "judge nothing before the time, till the day of the Lord come," etc.? These texts mean (1) that we are not to judge hastily, not to judge others for small and doubtful things; they unquestionably limit and put checks on us in judging others. (2) But perhaps the great law with respect to judging which is laid down in these texts is that judgment in this world, when it is upon the critical point of men’s goodness or badness, is suspended with respect to its delivery; that it is not allowed full expression and manifestation. Openness is the very characteristic of the last judgment. But—and this is the great distinction between the two—the tongue of intermediate judgment is tied. We are not at liberty to say openly what we think about others, even though it may be true.

II. In the temper of the Psalmist we observe a greater strength than belongs to the other temper of impetuous and premature expression—strength not only of self-control, but of actual feeling and passion. To attempt the exposure of the bad in this world would be to fight with all the conditions of our state in this world for another reason. It would be found that the charge could not keep pace with the explanation, but that the explanation would, by the laws of society, overcome it, because by these very laws what society as such requires and is contented with is different from that which satisfies the individual. A thing is true, most true, until you say it; but if you say it, if it goes out of your lips, if it is once spoken, oh, how false it becomes. The floodgates of explanation open. It is crushed, and cannot stand a moment against the full resources of a conventional defence.

III. This judgment, which is hidden at the bottom of human hearts—this is the real judgment, though at present only mute and expectant. Fear this hidden adversary; and if it be not too late, deal with him quickly while thou art in the way with him.

J. B. Mozley, University Sermons, p. 223.

BI 1-13, "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not in my tongue; I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle.

Thought and prayer under trial

I. Thought under trial.

1. Its utterance repressed. “I said, I will take heed to my ways.”

(1) This effort as repression was pious. Why did he essay to “muzzle” his tongue? “That I sin not.” He felt in all probability that the circumstances which brought on his sufferings had awakened within him such sceptical ideas concerning the rectitude or benevolence of the Divine procedure, the utterance of which, in the ears of the wicked, while they were “before him,” would be highly sinful.

(2) This effort at repression was painful. Imprisoned thoughts, like pent-up floods, increase in turbulent force; the more they are suppressed, the more they heave, swell, and battle.

(3) This effort at repression was temporary. His thoughts became at last irrepressible. “I spake with my tongue.” To whom? Not to ungodly men—this he resolved not to do because it was sinful—but to the great Jehovah.

2. Its attention arrested. The character of life. Its terminableness. Its frailty. Its brevity. Its vanity. Its emptiness. Its disquietudes. Its worthless labours. (Homilist.)

The unspoken judgment of mankind

Scripture speaks in two different ways about judging others. On the one hand, it says, “Judge nothing before the time, till the day of the Lord come;” on the other hand, it says, “He that is spiritual judgeth all things;” and we are told to regard the Holy Spirit, of which we partake, as a spirit of discernment. Nor, if this discernment exists in Christians, can we confine it to distinguishing only flagrant sinners from well-conducted men? No; it extends much farther than that; it goes much deeper. Christians who are endowed with the spirit of holiness, and who have with that gift the spirit also of wisdom and knowledge, can see where the heart is right in others, and where it is not. This is part of that very unconscious power which lies in goodness as such; for goodness finds not goodness in others. On the other hand, disguise it how they will, the contrary character is detected, and repels. So that goodness, as such, has a true wisdom in it. But, perhaps, the great law with respect to judging which is laid down in our texts refers to the delivery of the judgment, it is not to be allowed full expression and manifestation. The judgment will be an outspoken one, ours may not be so. Scripture holds before us the terror of a dreadful exposure when “the secrets of all hearts shall be made known” (Luk_8:1-56; Luk_12:3). But the tongue of intermediate judgment is tied. There is an embargo laid upon the delivery of it. This, then, is the meaning of “the bridle while the ungodly is in my sight.” A judgment of some kind is implied, but it is to be a mute judgment. In this temper of the psalmist, then, we observe first, a greater strength than belongs to the other temper of impetuous and premature expression—strength not only of self-control, but of actual feeling and passion. Such a state of mind must needs be stronger, since it does not require the proof which immediate, impetuous expression affords. It is because they feel they want this support of outward expression that therefore men make this outward demonstration. The force of our language reacts upon ourselves, and our minds are encouraged by it, so that their own inward conviction does not give way. They want their verdict sustained. Hence this mute form of judgment must needs be strong. The circumstances of the world are such, that this greater strength of feeling, this silent form of judgment, is positively needed to meet them. For consider what the perpetual expression of judgment, what the constant reply to the challenge of the other side would entail. This challenge is always going on. It is impossible to live in the world without constantly hearing admiration and praise lavished on that which we know in our hearts to be hollow and inferior in character.. The world generally accepts success as a test; indeed, popular judgment is almost obliged to be exceedingly rough. It must take men as they stand, and accept the mechanical praise which flows from a law of public opinion. And, indeed, the exposure of the bad in this world is all but impossible. But if no judgment, however true in the sanctuary of the heart, can declare itself, by the very conditions of society, this is a clear revelation of the will of God that such a manifestation must not be attempted, and that to attempt it would be to forestall His divine purpose. And then we have nothing to fall back upon but the rule of the psalmist—the rule of a mute and silent judgment. “I will keep my mouth, as it were,” etc. But such men do not escape judgment altogether. The good judge them, and make up their minds about them, though it be unuttered. Is there not an unspoken sentence upon him, a silent verdict in the consciences of the righteous and holy which goes deeper than “explanations”? And is not this mute verdict an anticipation of that judgment which will not be silent but outspoken—the disclosure and manifestation of the human heart which will take place at the last day? Nay, and is there not even a judgment in Iris own heart which he does not pass altogether comfortably? Is there not a voice within him which would speak if he would let it, and did not suppress it; and which, if it did speak, would

scatter to the winds all his refuges of lies. Let us fear that. (J. B. Mozley, D. D.)

Evil speaking, and the proper means to prevent it

I. The reasonableness of this resolution, and particularly with respect to us, as Christians, not to offend with the tongue.

1. Evil speaking brings a great scandal upon our holy religion, as it is so directly opposite to the genius and spirit of it, to the many express precepts which occur in it, and that goodness and candour of temper which so remarkably discovered itself in our blessed Saviour.

2. The injustice of this crime with respect to others.

(1) It is a very evident truth, that according to the worth of anything, wherein we invade another man’s right, the wrong we do him is proportionably heightened. It is no less certain that of all the external advantages and comforts of human life, there are none of greater importance to a man than a good name.

(2) Besides defrauding a man of reputation and honour, this crime is for the most part highly injurious and prejudicial to him with respect to his other interests, and very often proves an injury to the public. For, as Plutarch well observes, the reputation of honour and worth affords one a thousand opportunities of doing good in the world, by opening to him an easy passage to the hearts and affections of men; whereas, says he, if a man lie under any calumnies or suspicions, he cannot exert his virtues, be he never so well qualified, to the benefit of others, without committing a kind of violence upon them.

(3) That which heightens the injustice of this crime the more, is, that it is so difficult to make the injured party any reparation. A scandal, when it is once gone abroad, is not easily recalled; but as a poisonous vapour sometimes infects a whole city or region, so a calumny, once set forward, and meeting with so general an inclination to provoke it, is not only apt to spread itself wide, but the further it spreads, the more it usually increases its malignity.

3. The impudence of those who are guilty of this crime.

(1) There are few persons who give their tongues a general liberty of scandal and defamation that do not irritate others to take the same freedom with them.

(2) The folly and imprudence of this vice of evil speaking appears further from hence, that it seldom if ever answers one great end we propose to ourselves by it. We are apt to imagine that by lessening or throwing dirt upon other people, we set ourselves off to greater advantage, and appear in a better light; but we ought to consider the world has, at that very moment, an eye upon our conduct, and the same right to make a judgment of it, as we have to sit upon the actions of other people. And that it will judge of us, not from our declaiming against their vices or defects, and the elevation we would thereby give ourselves above them; but from our personal qualifications or behaviour.

(3) Persons who give themselves the liberty to reflect upon the criminal actions and behaviour of other people, or to charge them perhaps with crimes they never thought of, are frequently observed to speak their own inclinations, and to give some visible and plain hints what they themselves would have been disposed to

do under the same circumstances of temptation.

II. The proper method of making this resolution good.

1. To take heed to our ways implies in general that we keep a strict and watchful eye upon all our actions, that we frequently examine and call them over, and impartially state accounts between God and our own consciences.

2. But I shall consider this expression in its more restrained sense, as it imports the great duty of self-reflection or examination. A duty which, if we discharge with that care and frequency we ought, we shall have less time and less inclination to concern ourselves about the failings or disorders of other people.

(1) We shall have less time for this criminal amusement; because, by calling our own ways frequently to remembrance, we shall discover how many opportunities of religious improvement we have trifled away already, or perhaps abused to very wicked and irreligious purposes; and that it concerns us therefore, by a more strict and constant application to the duties of religion for the future, to use our utmost endeavours towards redeeming the time.

(2) By frequently examining into the state of our own souls, we shall also have less inclination to censure the conduct of others. By considering how apt we ourselves are to be tempted, and how easily we have been overcome by temptation, we shall be disposed to make a more favourable judgment of the failings of other people; we shall think it unreasonable to expect that they should be perfect, while we are conscious to ourselves of so many personal defects; we shall be ashamed to condemn men of like passions for taking those liberties which we think excusable in ourselves.

III. Improvement.

1. If evil speaking be in general so heinous a sin, and on so many accounts injurious to the party spoken against, the guilt of it must still be increased, when such particular persons are defamed who bear any extraordinary character, or whose reputation is of greater influence; such as princes and civil magistrates that are put in authority under them, whose honour it is the common interest of society itself to support and maintain, because in proportion to any contempt or indignity offered to their persons, their authority itself will grow cheap and precarious.

2. From what has been said, we may observe the general decay of Christian piety.

3. If evil speaking be so heinous a crime, let us take care not only to avoid it ourselves, but to discountenance it in others. I must own there is some courage and resolution required to stem a torrent which runs so strong, and wherewith such multitudes are carried away; but the more general any sinful practice is, it is an argument of the greater bravery and generosity of mind to oppose it. But if we have not power enough over ourselves to do that, let us take care, at least, that we be not thought by any seeming complacency in it, to encourage so unchristian a conversation. (R. Fiddes.)

2 So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good.But my anguish increased;

BAR�ES, "I was dumb with silence - Compare Psa_38:13. The addition of the words “with silence,” means that he was entirely or absolutely mute; he said nothing at all. The idea is, that he did not allow himself to give utterance to the thoughts which were passing in his mind in regard to the divine dealings. He kept his thoughts to himself, and endeavored to suppress them in his own bosom.

I held my peace, even from good - I said nothing. I did not even say what I might have said in vindication of the ways of God. I did not even endeavor to defend the divine character, or to explain the reasons of the divine dealings, or to suggest any considerations which would tend to calm down the feelings of complaint and dissatisfaction which might be rising in the minds of other men as well as my own.

And my sorrow was stirred - The anguish of my mind; my trouble. The word “stirred” here, rendered in the margin “troubled,” means that the very fact of attempting to suppress his feelings - the purpose to say nothing in the case - was the means of increased anguish. His trouble on the subject found no vent for itself in words, and at length it became so insupportable that he sought relief by giving utterance to his thoughts, and by coming to God to obtain relief. The state of mind referred to here is that which often occurs when a man broods over his own troubled thoughts, and dwells upon things which are in themselves improper and rebellious. We are under no necessity of endeavoring to vindicate the psalmist in what he here did; nor should we take his conduct in this respect as our example. He evidently himself, on reflection, regarded this as wrong; and recorded it not as a pattern for others, but as a faithful transcript of what was passing at the time through his own mind. Yet, wrong as it was, it was what often occurs even in the minds of good men. Even they, as in the cases referred to above, often have thoughts about God and his dealings which they do not dare to express, and which it would do harm to express. They, therefore, hide them in their own bosom, and often experience just what the psalmist did - increased trouble and perplexity from the very purpose to suppress them. They should go at once to God. They may say to him what it would not be proper to say to men. They may pour out all their feelings before him in prayer, with the hope that in such acts of praying, and in the answers which they will receive to their prayers, they may find relief.

CLARKE,"I held any peace, even from good - “I ceased from the words of the law,” says the Chaldee. I spoke nothing, either good or bad. I did not even defend myself.

My sorrow was stirred -My afflictions increased, and I had an exacerbation of pain. It is a hard thing to be denied the benefit of complaint in sufferings, as it has a tendency to relieve the mind, and indeed, in some sort, to call off the attention from the

place of actual suffering: and yet undue and extravagant complaining enervates the mind, so that it becomes a double prey to its sufferings. On both sides there are extremes: David seems to have steered clear of them on the right hand and on the left.

GILL, "I was dumb with silence,.... Quite silent, as if he had been a dumb man, and could not speak; so he was before men, especially wicked men, and under the afflicting hand of God; see Psa_39:9; thus he put his resolution into practice;

I held my peace, even from good; that is, he said neither good nor bad: this expresses the greatness of his silence: he did not choose to open his lips, and say anything that was good, lest evil should come out along with it; though this may be considered as carrying the matter too far, even to a criminal silence; saying nothing of the affliction he laboured under as coming from the hand of God, and of his own desert of it; nor praying to God for the removal of it, nor giving him thanks for his divine goodness in supporting him under it, and making it useful to him; though it seems rather to have respect to his silence concerning the goodness of his cause before men; he said not one word in the vindication of himself; but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously. The Targum and Jarchi interpret it of his silence and cessation "from the words of the law": he said nothing concerning the good word of God; which sense, could it be admitted, the words in Jer_20:9; might be compared with these and the following;

and my sorrow was stirred; this was the issue and effect of his silence; his sorrow being pent up, and not let out and eased by words, swelled and increased the more; or the sorrow of his heart was stirred up at the insults and reproaches of his enemies, as Paul's spirit was stirred up by the superstition and idolatry of the city of Athens, Act_17:16.

HE�RY, " Pursuant to these covenants he made a shift with much ado to bridle his tongue (Psa_39:2): I was dumb with silence; I held my peace even from good. His silence was commendable; and the greater the provocation was the more praiseworthy was his silence. Watchfulness and resolution, in the strength of God's grace, will do more towards the bridling of the tongue than we can imagine, though it be an unruly evil. But what shall we say of his keeping silence even from good? Was it his wisdom that he refrained from good discourse when the wicked were before him, because he would not cast pearls before swine? I rather think it was his weakness; because he might not say any thing, he would say nothing, but ran into an extreme, which was a reproach to the law, for that prescribes a mean between extremes. The same law which forbids all corrupt communication requires that which is good and to the use of edifying, Eph_4:29.

JAMISO�,"even from good— (Gen_31:24), everything.

CALVI�, "2.I was dumb in silence. He now declares that this resolution of which he has spoken had not been a mere passing and momentary thought, but that he had shown by his conduct that it was indeed a resolution deeply fixed in his heart. He says, then, that he held his peace for a time, just as if he had been deaf, which was a

singular manifestation of his patience. When he thus determined to be silent, it was not such a resolution as persons of a changeable disposition, who scarcely ever know their own mind, and who can with difficulty be brought to carry their desires into effect, often make: he had long and steadfastly inured himself to the exercise of patience; and this he had done, not only by keeping silence but by making himself utterly dumb, as if he had been deprived of the power of speech. The expression from good is expounded by some in the sense that he not only refrained from uttering sinful and unadvised words, but also that he abstained from speaking on any subject whatever. Others think that he held his peace from good, either because, being overwhelmed with miseries and afflictions, he found no relief to whatever side he turned, or else, because, by reason of the greatness of his sorrow, he was unable to sing the praises of God. But in my opinion the natural sense is, that although he was able adequately to defend himself, and it could not be shown that he wanted just and proper grounds of complaint, yet he refrained from speaking of his own mere will. (63) He might have encountered the ungodly with a good defense of his own innocence, but he rather preferred to forego the prosecution of his righteous cause than indulge in any intemperate sorrow. He adds in the last clause of the verse, that although he thus restrained himself for a time, yet at length the violence of his grief broke through all the barriers which he had set to his tongue. If David, who was so valiant a champion, failed in the midst of his course, how much greater reason have we to be afraid lest we fall in like manner? He says that his sorrow was stirred, because, as we shall soon see, the ardor of his affections was inflamed so as to become tumultuous. Some render the phrase in this sense, that his sorrow was corrupted, as if his meaning were, that it became worse; just as we know that a wound becomes worse when it happens to putrify or fester: but this sense is forced.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 2. I was dumb with silence. He was as strictly speechless as if he had been tongueless—not a word escaped him. He was as silent as the dumb. I held my peace, even from good. �either bad nor good escaped his lips. Perhaps he feared that if he began to talk at all, he would be sure to speak amiss, and, therefore, he totally abstained. It was an easy, safe, and effectual way of avoiding sin, if it did not involve a neglect of the duty which he owed to God to speak well of his name. Our divine Lord was silent before the wicked, but not altogether so, for before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession, and asserted his kingdom. A sound course of action may be pushed to the extreme, and become a fault. And my sorrow was stirred. Inward grief was made to work and ferment by want of vent. The pent up floods are swollen and agitated. Utterance is the natural outlet for the heart's anguish, and silence is, therefore, both an aggravation of the evil and a barrier against its cure. In such a case the resolve to hold one's peace needs powerful backing, and even this is most likely to give way when grief rushes upon the soul. Before a flood gathering in force and foaming for outlet the strongest banks are likely to be swept away. �ature may do her best to silence the expression of discontent, but unless grace comes to her rescue, she will be sure to succumb.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2. I was dumb with silence, etc. That is, for a while I did what I resolved; I was so long wholly silent, that I seemed in a manner to be dumb, and not able to speak. I held my peace, even from good; that is, I forbore to speak what I might well and

lawfully enough have spoken, as from alleging anything that I might have said in mine own defence, from making my complaint to God, and desiring justice at his hands, and such like; to wit, lest by degrees I should have been brought to utter anything that was evil, and whilst I intended only to speak that which was good, some unseemly word might suddenly slip from me; or lest mine enemies should misconstrue anything I spake. Arthur Jackson.Ver. 2. I was dumb with silence. We shall enquire what kind of dumbness or silence this of the psalmist was, which he is commended for, and which would so well beseem us when we smart under the rod of God, and then the doctrine will be, in a great measure, evident by its own light. We shall proceed to our inquiry, 1. �egatively, to prevent mistakes. 2. Positively, and show you what it doth import. First, negatively. 1. This dumbness doth not import any such thing, as if the prophet had been brought to that pass that he had nothing to say to God by way of prayer and supplication. He was not so dumb, but that he could pray and cry too. Ps 39:8,10-11. 2. �or was he so dumb, as that he could not frame to the confession and bewailing of his sins. 3. �or was it a dumbness of stupidity and senselessness. It doth not imply any such thing, as if by degrees he grew to that pass, he cared not for, or made no matter of his affliction, but set, as the proverb is, an hard heart against his hard hap. �o, he did make his moan to God, and as he smarted, so he did lament under the sense of his afflicting hand.4. �either was he so dumb as not to answer God's voice in the rod that was upon him. 5. Much less was he dumb, and kept silence in any such sort as they did of whom Amos speaks Amos 6:10, that in their misery they took up a resolution to mention the name of God no more, in whom they had gloried formerly. Secondly, affirmatively.1. He was dumb so as neither to complain of, nor quarrel with God's providence, nor to entertain any hard thoughts against him. Complain to God he did; but against him he durst not. 2. He neither did nor durst quarrel, or fall out with the ways of holiness for all his sufferings, a thing we are naturally prone unto. 3. He was dumb, so as not to defend himself, or justify his own ways before God, as if they were righteous, and he had not deserved what he suffered. 4. He was dumb, so as to hearken to the voice of the rod. "I will (saith he in another place) hear what God the Lord will speak." Psalms 85:8. �ow a man cannot listen to another while he will have all the talk and discourse to himself. 5. Lastly, the prophet was dumb, that is, he did acquiesce, and rest satisfied with God's dispensation; and that not only as good, but as best. Condensed from a Funeral Sermon by Thomas Burroughes, B.D., entitled, "A Sovereign Remedy for all kinds of Grief, "1657.Ver. 2. I held my peace. A Christian being asked what fruit he had by Christ: Is not this fruit, said he, not to be moved at your reproaches? In cases of this nature, we must refer all to God; si tu tacueris, Deus loquitur; if thou hold thy peace, God speaks for thee; and if God speaks for us, it is better than we can speak for yourselves. David saith, Obmutui, quia tu fecisti. I held my peace, for it was thy doing. Christopher Sutton, B.D., —1629, in Disce Vicere.Ver. 2-9. An invalid who had been ordered a couple of pills, took them very absurdly, for, in place of swallowing them at once, he rolled them about in his mouth, ground them to pieces, and so tasted their full bitterness. Gotthold was present, and thus mused. The insults and calumnies of a slanderer and adversary

are bitter pills, and all do not understand the art of swallowing without chewing them. To the Christian, however, they are wholesome in many ways. They remind him of his guilt, they try his meekness and patience, they show him what he needs to guard against, and at last they redound to his honour and glory in the sight of him for whose sake they were endured. In respect of the pills of slander, however, as well as the others, it is advisable not to roll them about continually in our minds, or judge of them according to the flesh, and the world's opinion. This will only increase their bitterness, spread the savour of it to the tongue, and fill the heart with proportional enmity. The true way is to swallow, keep silence, and forget. We must inwardly devour our grief, and say, I will be dumb, and not open my mouth, because thou didst it. The best antidotes to the bitterness of slander, are the sweet promises and consolations of Scripture, of which not the least is this, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven." Matthew 5:11-12. Alas, my God! how hard it is to swallow the pills of obloquy, to bless them that curse me, to do good to them that hate me, and to pray for them that despitefully use me! But, Lord, as thou wilt have it so, give it as thou wilt have it, for it is a matter in which, without thy grace, I can do nothing! Christian Scriver.

COFFMA�, ""I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good;

And my sorrow was stirred."

David did indeed refrain from speaking, even many of the good things, which he might have said; and this is a hint that there might have been things "not so good," which he thought, but did not speak; however we shall not attempt to supply the details on that, which are not in the text.

"And my sorrow was stirred" (Psalms 39:2). "The attempt to suppress his feelings by not speaking of them provided no help at all but only increased his anguish."[11]

ELLICOTT, "(2) Even from good.—This interpretation, while following the LXX., Vulg., and most ancient versions, is suspicious, since the particle, rendered from, is not generally used in this sense after a verb expressing silence. Indeed there is only one instance which at all supports this rendering (1 Kings 22:3, margin). �or does the context require or even admit it. If the bright side of things had been so evident that he could speak of it the Psalmist would not have feared reproach for doing so, nor was there cause for his silence “as to the law,” the rabbinical mode of explaining the passage. The obvious translation makes the clause parallel with that which follows: “I held my peace without profit. My sorrow was increased,” i.e., instead of lessening my grief by silence, I only increased it.

Stirred.—The LXX. and Vulg. “renewed,” which is nearer the meaning than either the Authorised Version or margin.

BE�SO�, "Verse 2Psalms 39:2. I was dumb with silence — Or, I was dumb in silence; two words expressing the same thing with greater force. I held my peace even from good — I spake not a word, either good or bad, but remained, like a dumb man, in perfect silence. I refrained even from giving God the glory, with respect to my illness, by acknowledging his greatness and justice, and the nothingness and sinfulness of man. Perhaps the reason why he would not speak at all before his enemies was, because he was unwilling to give them an occasion of triumph, as he thought he should do if he acknowledged his weakness and sin. But he could not bear this restraint long; it became more and more grievous. My sorrow, he says, was stirred — My silence did not assuage my grief, but increased it, as it naturally and commonly does. “There is a time to keep silence,” says Dr. Horne, “because there are men who will not hear; there are tempers, savage and sensual, as those of swine, before whom evangelical pearls, or the treasures of heavenly wisdom, are not to be cast. This consideration stirreth up fresh grief and trouble in a pious and charitable heart.”

PETT, "Psalms 39:2-3

‘I was dumb with silence,I held my peace, even from good,And my sorrow was stirred.My heart was hot within me,While I was musing the fire burned,Then spoke I with my tongue.’Thus he was ‘dumb with silence’, saying nothing, even about what was good, lest he slip up with his tongue. But such was the force of the thoughts that were flowing into his mind, that his sorrow was stirred, and his heart was hot within him. His meditations were so powerful that they were too much for him to hold in. And thus while he was musing a fire burned in his heart, and in the end he could no longer keep silence.

COKE, "Verse 2Psalms 39:2. I was dumb with silence— I was dumb in silence: I held my peace from what is good; but my pain was irritated: i.e. "I refrained from speaking what is good, from giving God the glory with relation to my illness, by acknowledging the greatness and justice of God, and the nothingness and sinfulness of man." This seems to shew, that the reason why he would not speak at all before his enemies was, because he did not care to give them an occasion of triumph; as he must by acknowledging his own weakness and sin. But he could not bear this restraint; it grew worse and worse; and therefore he burst out, &c. Mudge. I have before observed, and it is especially remarkable in the poetical parts of Scripture, that the whole energy and beauty of the passages are frequently spoiled by the addition of connective and other particles which are not in the Hebrew. There is a remarkable instance in the next verse; which in the original is very expressive, My heart grew hot within me—While I was musing, the fire flamed out:—I spake with my tongue.

3 my heart grew hot within me.While I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:

BAR�ES, "My heart was hot within me -My mind became more and more excited; my feelings more and more intense. The attempt to suppress my emotions only more and more enkindled them.

While I was musing the fire burned - literally, “in my meditation the fire burned.” That is, while I was dwelling on the subject; while I was agitating it in my mind; while I thought about it - the flame was enkindled, and my thoughts found utterance. He was unable longer to suppress his feelings, and he gave vent to them in words. Compare Jer_20:9; Job_32:18-19.

Then spake I with my tongue - That is, in the words which are recorded in this psalm. He gave vent to his pent-up feelings in the language which follows. Even though there was a feeling of murmuring and complaining, he sought relief in stating his real difficulties before God, and in seeking from him direction and support.

CLARKE,"My heart was hot within me - A natural feeling of repressed grief.

While I was musing -What was at first a simple sensation of heat produced a flame; the fire broke out that had long been smothered. It is a metaphor taken from vegetables, which, being heaped together, begin to heat and ferment, if not scattered and exposed to the air; and will soon produce a flame, and consume themselves and every thing within their reach.

GILL, "My heart was hot within me,.... Either with zeal for God; or rather with envy at the prosperity of wicked men, and with impatience at his own afflictions;

while I was musing the fire burned; not the fire of the divine word, while he was meditating upon it, which caused his heart to burn within him; nor the fire of divine love, the coals whereof give a most vehement flame, when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, and the thoughts of it are directed by the Spirit of God to dwell in meditation on it; but the fire of passion, anger, and resentment, while meditating on his own adversity, and the prosperity of others;

then spake I with my tongue; and so broke the resolution he had made, Psa_39:1; he spoke not for God, though to him; not by way of thankfulness for his grace and goodness to him, in supporting him under his exercises; but in a way of complaint, because of his afflictions; it was in prayer he spoke to God with his tongue, and it was unadvisedly with his lips, as follows.

HE�RY, " The less he spoke the more he thought and the more warmly. Binding the distempered part did but draw the humour to it: My sorrow was stirred, my heart was hot within me, Psa_39:3. He could bridle his tongue, but he could not keep his passion under; though he suppressed the smoke, that was as a fire in his bones, and, while he was musing upon his afflictions and upon the prosperity of the wicked, the fire burned. Note, Those that are of a fretful discontented spirit ought not to pore much, for, while they suffer their thoughts to dwell upon the causes of the calamity, the fire of their discontent is fed with fuel and burns the more furiously. Impatience is a sin that has its ill cause within ourselves, and that is musing, and its ill effects upon ourselves, and that is no less than burning. If therefore we would prevent the mischief of ungoverned passions, we must redress the grievance of ungoverned thoughts.

JAMISO�,"His emotions, as a smothered flame, burst forth.

CALVI�, "3.My heart became hot within me He now illustrates the greatness of his grief by the introduction of a simile, telling us that his sorrow, being internally suppressed, became so much the more inflamed, until the ardent passion of his soul continued to increase in strength. From this we may learn the very profitable lesson, that the more strenuously any one sets himself to obey God, and employs all his endeavors to attain the exercise of patience, the more vigorously is he assailed by temptation: for Satan, whilst he is not so troublesome to the indifferent and careless, and seldom looks near them, displays all his forces in hostile array against that individual. If, therefore, at any time we feel ardent emotions struggling and raising a commotion in our breasts, we should call to remembrance this conflict of David, that our courage may not fail us, or at least that our infirmity may not drive us headlong to despair. The dry and hot exhalations which the sun causes to arise in summer, if nothing occurred in the atmosphere to obstruct their progress, would ascend into the air without commotion; but when intervening clouds prevent their free ascent, a conflict arises, from which the thunders are produced. It is similar with respect to the godly who desire to lift up their hearts to God. If they would resign themselves to the vain imaginations which arise in their minds, they might enjoy a sort of unrestrained liberty to indulge in every fancy; but because they endeavor to resist their influence, and seek to devote themselves to God, obstructions which arise from the opposition of the flesh begin to trouble them. Whenever, therefore, the flesh shall put forth its efforts, and shall kindle up a fire in our hearts, let us know that we are exercised with the same kind of temptation which occasioned so much pain and trouble to David. In the end of the verse he acknowledges that the severity of the affliction with which he was visited had at length overcome him, and that he allowed foolish and unadvised words to pass from his lips. In his own person he sets before us a mirror of human infirmity, that, being

warned by the danger to which we are exposed, we may learn betimes to seek protection under the shadow of God’s wings. When he says that he spake with his tongue, it is not a superfluous mode of expression, but a true and fuller confession of his sin, in that he had not only given way to sinful murmuring, but had even uttered loud complaints.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 3. My heart was hot within me. The friction of inward thoughts produced an intense mental heat. The door of his heart was shut, and with the fire of sorrow burning within, the chamber of his soul soon grew unbearable with heat. Silence is an awful thing for a sufferer, it is the surest method to produce madness. Mourner, tell your sorrow; do it first and most fully to God, but even to pour it out before some wise and godly friend is far from being wasted breath. While I was musing the fire burned. As he thought upon the ease of the wicked and his own daily affliction, he could not unravel the mystery of providence, and therefore he became greatly agitated. While his heart was musing it was fusing, for the subject was confusing. It became harder every moment to be quiet; his volcanic soul was tossed with an inward ocean of fire, and heaved to and fro with a mental earthquake; and eruption was imminent, the burning lava must pour forth in a fiery stream. Then spake I with my tongue. The original is grandly laconic. I spake. The muzzled tongue burst all its bonds. The gag was hurled away. Misery, like murder, will out. You can silence praise, but anguish is clamorous. Resolve or no resolve, heed or no heed, sin or no sin, the impetuous torrent forced for itself a channel and swept away every restraint.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.Ver. 3. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned. They say of the lodestone (that wonder in nature), when either by carelessness in keeping it, or by some accident it loses its virtue, yet by laying it some good space of time in the filings of steel, it will again recover its virtues: when the spirit of a Christian by not looking well to it, loses of its heavenly heat and liveliness, the way of recovery is by laying it asleep in this so warming and quickening meditation. Oh, how burning and flaming may we often observe the spirit of the holy psalmist David, in his acting of meditation! Musing made him hot, yea, burning hot at the heart. Thus often in the beginning of a Psalm we find his heart low and discouraged, but as this musing was acted and heightened, his spirit grew hotter, and at last flies all on a flame, flies up to a very high pitch of heavenly heat. Oh, how do all the conscientious practisers of meditation, ever and anon experience these happy, heavenly heats, and heart enlargements! Ah, if all the saints' so glorious heart quickenings were gathered together, what a rich chain of pearls, pearls of rare experiences, would they make up of the heart warming efficacies of meditation! �athanael Ranew.Ver. 3. I was musing. What a blessed (shall I say duty or) privilege is prayer! �ow meditation is a help to prayer. Gersom calls it the nurse of prayer. Meditation is like oil to the lamp; the lamp of prayer will soon go out unless meditation cherish and support it. Meditation and prayer are like two turtles, if you separate one the other dies; a cunning angler observes the time and season when the fish bite best, and then he throws in the angle, when the heart is warmed by meditation, now is the best

season to throw in the angle of prayer, and fish for mercy. After Isaac had been in the field meditating he was fit for prayer when he came home. When the gun is full of powder it is fittest to discharge. So when the mind is full of good thoughts, a Christian is fittest by prayer for discharge; now he sends up whole volleys of sighs and groans to heaven. Meditation hath a double benefit in it, it pours in and pours out; first it pours good thoughts into the mind, and then it pours out those thoughts again into prayer; meditation first furnishes with matter to pray and then it furnishes with a heart to pray. I was musing, saith David, and the very next words are a prayer, "Lord, make me to know mine end." I muse on the works of thy hands, I stretch forth my hands to thee. The musing of his head made way for the stretching forth of his hands in prayer. When Christ was upon the Mount, then he prayed: so when the soul is upon the mount of meditation, now it is in tune for prayer. Prayer is the child of meditation: meditation leads the van, and prayer brings up the rear. Thomas Watson.Ver. 3. Musing. Meditation is prayer in bullion, prayer in the ore, soon melted and run into holy desires. The laden cloud soon drops into rain, the piece charged soon goes off when fire is put to it. A meditating soul is in proxima potentia to prayer. This was an ejaculatory prayer shot from his soul when in the company of the wicked. William Gurnall.Ver. 3. The fire burned. My thoughts kindled my passions. Matthew Pool.Ver. 3. The fire burned. Meditate so long till thou findest thy heart grow warm in this duty. If, when a man is cold you ask how long he should stand by the fire? sure, till he be thoroughly warm, and made fit for his work. So, Christian, thy heart is cold; never a day, no, not the hottest day in summer, but it freezes there; now stand at the fire of meditation till thou findest thy affections warmed, and thou art made fit for spiritual service. David mused till his heart waxed hot within him. I will conclude this with that excellent saying of Bernard: "Lord, I will never come away from thee without thee." Let this be a Christian's resolution, not to leave off his meditations of God till he find something of God in him; some moving of the bowels after God; some flamings of love, Song of Solomon 5:4. Thomas Watson.Ver. 3. His company was bad, but his thoughts were good; even while the wicked was before him his heart was hot within him, while he was musing the fire burned. His thoughts inflame his affections with holy zeal, and this holy fore, as by an ante-peristasis, burnt so much the hotter for the frost of cursed contrariety that was about it. When the careful magistrates or officers of a company break into a suspected house in the nighttime, the great question is, What company have you here? So when God breaks in upon our dark hearts, the enquiry is, What thoughts have you here? Why do thoughts arise in your minds? Are ye not become judges of evil thoughts? Lu 24:38, James 2:4. Faithful Teat.Ver. 3. The spake I with my tongue, Lord, etc. It is, indeed, a happy circumstance when that silence which has long been preserved is first broken before the Lord. John Morison.

COFFMA�, "Verse 3"My heart was hot within me;

While I was musing the fire burned;

Then spake I with my tongue."

"The fire burned" (Psalms 39:3). In our view, this is the same situation that once confronted Jeremiah, who wrote: "If I say I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary with forbearing, and cannot contain" (Jeremiah 20:9). There was no rebuke upon Jeremiah for this failure to keep silence; and we feel sure that none was due David for his failure to keep it here.

Silence is not the final answer to man's problems, however distressing they may be.

"The internal pressure upon David became too great; and finally he spoke."[12]

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:3. My heart was hot within me — Though I said nothing, I could not but have many affecting thoughts: and “the fire of divine charity, thus prevented from diffusing itself for the illumination and warmth of those around it, presently ascended, in a flame of devotion, toward heaven.” While I was musing —While this fire “continued to be fed, and preserved in brightness and vigour, by meditation on the goodness of God, and the ingratitude of man; the transient miseries of time, and the durable glories of eternity;” the fire burned — My thoughts kindled into passions, which could no longer be confined. Then spake I with my tongue — The ardour of my soul broke forth into such expressions as these that follow. “It is remarkable,” says Dr. Dodd, “in the poetical parts of Scripture, that the whole energy and beauty of the passages are frequently spoiled by the addition of connective particles, which are not in the Hebrew. There is a remarkable instance in this verse, which, in the original, is very expressive, My heart grew hot within me — while I was musing, the fire flamed out: I spake with my tongue.

4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.

BAR�ES, "Lord, make me to know mine end - This expresses evidently the substance of those anxious and troubled thoughts Psa_39:1-2 to which he had been unwilling to give utterance. His thoughts turned on the shortness of life; on the mystery of the divine arrangement by which it had been made so short; and on the fact that so many troubles and sorrows had been crowded into a life so frail and so soon to terminate. With some impatience, and with a consciousness that he had been indulging feelings on this subject which were not proper, and which would do injury if they were expressed “before men,” he now pours out these feelings before God, and asks what is to be the end of this; how long this is to continue; when his own sorrows will cease. It was an impatient desire to know when the end would be, with a spirit of insubmission to the arrangements of Providence by which his life had been made so brief, and by which so much suffering had been appointed.

And the measure of my days, what it is - How long I am to live; how long I am to bear these accumulated sorrows.

That I may know how frail I am -Margin: “What time I have here.” Prof. Alexander renders this: “when I shall cease.” So DeWette. The Hebrew word used here -

châdêl חדל - means “ceasing to be;” hence, “frail;” then, destitute, left, forsaken. An exact

translation would be, “that I may know at what (time) or (point) I am ceasing, or about to cease.” It is equivalent to a prayer that he might know when these sufferings - when a life so full of sorrow - would come to an end. The language is an expression of impatience; the utterance of a feeling which the psalmist knew was not right in itself, and which would do injury if expressed before men, but which the intensity of his feelings would not permit him to restrain, and to which he, therefore, gives utterance before God. Similar expressions of impatience in view of the sufferings of a life so short as this, and with so little to alleviate its sorrows, may be seen much amplified in Job 3:1-26; Job_6:4-12; Job_7:7; Job_14:1-13. Before we blame the sacred writers for the indulgence of these feelings, let us carefully examine our own hearts, and recall what has passed through our own minds in view of the mysteries of the divine administration; and let us remember that one great object of the Bible is to record the actual feelings of men -not to vindicate them, but to show what human nature is even in the best circumstances, and what the human heart is when as yet but partially sanctified.

CLARKE,"Lord, make me to know mine end - I am weary of life; I wish to know the measure of my days, that I may see how long I have to suffer, and how frail I am. I wish to know what is wanting to make up the number of the days I have to live.

GILL, "Lord, make me to know mine end,.... Not Christ, the end of the law for righteousness, as Jerom interprets it; nor how long he should live, how many days, months, and years more; for though they are known of God, they are not to be known by men; but either the end of his afflictions, or his, latter end, his mortal state, that he might be more thoughtful of that, and so less concerned about worldly things, his own external happiness, or that of others; or rather his death; see Job_6:11; and his sense is, that he might know death experimentally; or that he might die: this he said in a sinful passionate way, as impatient of his afflictions and exercises; and in the same way the following expressions are to be understood;

and the measure of my days, what it is; being desirous to come to the end of it;

otherwise he knew it was but as an hand's breadth, as he says in Psa_39:5;

that I may know how frail I am; or "what time I have here"; or "when I shall cease to be" (u); or, as the Targum is, "when I shall cease from the world"; so common it is for the saints themselves, in an angry or impatient fit, to desire death; see Job_7:15; and a very rare and difficult thing it is to wish for it from right principles, and with right views, as the Apostle Paul did, Phi_1:23.

HE�RY, " When he did speak, at last, it was to the purpose: At the last I spoke with my tongue. Some make what he said to be the breach of his good purpose, and conclude that, in what he said, he sinned with his tongue; and so they make what follows to be a passionate wish that he might die, like Elijah (1Ki_19:4) and Job, Job_6:8, Job_6:9. But I rather take it to be, not the breach of his good purpose, but the reformation of his mistake in carrying it too far; he had kept silence from good, but now he would so keep silence no longer. He had nothing to say to the wicked that were before him, for to them he knew not how to place his words, but, after long musing, the first word he said was a prayer, and a devout meditation upon a subject which it will be good for us all to think much of.

1. He prays to God to make him sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of life and the near approach of death (Psa_39:4): Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days. He does not mean, “Lord, let me know how long I shall live and when I shall die.” We could not, in faith, pray such a prayer; for God has nowhere promised to let us know, but has, in wisdom, locked up that knowledge among the secret things which belong not to us, nor would it be good for us to know it. But, Lord, make me to know my end, means, “Lord, give me wisdom and grace to consider it (Deu_32:29) and to improve what I know concerning it.” The living know that they shall die(Ecc_9:5), but few care for thinking of death; we have therefore need to pray that God by his grace would conquer that aversion which is in our corrupt hearts to the thoughts of death. “Lord, make me to consider,” (1.) “What death is. It is my end, the end of my life, and all the employments and enjoyments of life. It is the end of all men,” Ecc_7:2. It is a final period to our state of probation and preparation, and an awful entrance upon a state of recompence and retribution. To the wicked man it is the end of all joys; to a godly man it is the end of all griefs. “Lord, give me to know my end, to be better acquainted with death, to make it more familiar to me (Job_17:14), and to be more affected with the greatness of the change. Lord, give me to consider what a serious thing it is to die.” (2.) “How near it is. Lord, give me to consider the measure of my days, that they are measured in the counsel of God” (the end is a fixed end, so the word signifies; my days are determined, Job_14:5) “and that the measure is but short: My days will soon be numbered and finished.” When we look upon death as a thing at a distance we are tempted to adjourn the necessary preparations for it; but, when we consider how short life is, we shall see ourselves concerned to do what our hand finds to do, not only with all our might, but with all possible expedition. (3.) That it is continually working in us: “Lord, give me to consider how frail I am, how scanty the stock of life is, and how faint the spirits which are as the oil to keep that lamp burning.” We find by daily experience that the earthly house of this tabernacle is mouldering and going to decay: “Lord, make us to consider this, that we may secure mansions in the house not made with hands.”

JAMISO�,"Some take these words as those of fretting, but they are not essentially such. The tinge of discontent arises from the character of his suppressed emotions. But,

addressing God, they are softened and subdued.

make me to know mine end— experimentally appreciate.

how frail I am— literally, “when I shall cease.”

CALVI�, "4.O Jehovah! cause me to know my end. It appears from this, that David was transported by an improper and sinful excess of passion, seeing he finds fault with God. This will appear still more clearly from the following verses. It is true, indeed, that in what follows he introduces pious and becoming prayers, but here he complains, that, being a mortal man, whose life is frail and transitory, he is not treated more mildly by God. Of this, and similar complaints, the discourses of Job are almost full. It is, therefore, not without anger and resentment that David speaks in this manner: “O God, since thou art acting with so much severity towards me, at least make me to know how long thou hast appointed me to live. But is it so, that my life is but a moment, why then dost thou act with so great rigour? and why dost thou accumulate upon my head such a load of miseries, as if I had yet many ages to live? What does it profit me to have been born, if I must pass the period of my existence, which is so brief, in misery, and oppressed with a continued succession of calamities?”

Accordingly, this verse should be read in connection with the following one. Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth. A hand-breadth is the measure of four fingers, and is here taken for a very small measure; as if it had been said, the life of man flies swiftly away, and the end of it, as it were, touches the beginning. Hence the Psalmist concludes that all men are only vanity before God. As to the meaning of the words, he does not ask that the brevity of human life should be shown to him, as if he knew it not. There is in this language a kind of irony, as if he had said, Let us count the number of the years which still remain to me on earth, and will they be a sufficient recompense for the miseries which I endure? Some render the word חדל, chedel, mundane; and others temporal, that is to say, that which endures only for a time. But the latter rendering is not appropriate in this place: for David does not as yet expressly declare the shortness of his life, but continues to speak on that subject ambiguously. If the word mundane is adopted, the sense will be, Show me whether thou wilt prolong my life to the end of the world. But in my judgment, the translation which I have followed is much more appropriate; and, besides, there may have been a transposition of the letters ד, daleth, and ל, lamed, making the word chedel for cheled. It may, however, very properly be taken for an age or period of life. (66) When he says that his age is, as it were, nothing before God, in order to excite God so much the more to pity and compassion, he appeals to him as a witness of his frailty, intimating, that it is not a thing unknown to him how transitory and passing the life of man is. The expression, wholly or altogether vanity, (67) implies that among the whole human race there is nothing but vanity. He declares this of men, even whilst they are standing; (68) that is to say, when, being in the prime and vigor of life, they wish to be held in estimation, and seem to themselves to be men possessed of considerable influence and power. It was the pangs of sorrow which forced David to give utterance to these complaints; but it is

to be observed, that it is chiefly when men are sore oppressed by adversity that they are made to feel their nothingness in the sight of God. Prosperity so intoxicates them, that, forgetful of their condition, and sunk in insensibility, they dream of an immortal state on earth. It is very profitable for us to know our own frailty, but we must beware lest, on account of it, we fall into such a state of sorrow as may lead us to murmur and repine. David speaks truly and wisely in declaring, that man, even when he seems to have risen to the highest state of greatness, is only like the bubble which rises upon the water, blown up by the wind; but he is in fault when he takes occasion from this to complain of God. Let us, therefore, so feel the misery of our present condition, as that, however cast down and afflicted, we may, as humble suppliants, lift up our eyes to God, and implore his mercy. This we find David does a little after, having corrected himself; for he does not continue to indulge in rash and inconsiderate lamentations, but lifting up his soul in the exercise of faith, he attains heavenly consolation.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 4. Lord. It is well that the vent of his soul was toward God and not towards man. Oh! if my swelling heart must speak, Lord let it speak with thee; even if there be too much of natural heat in what I say, thou wilt be more patient with me than man, and upon thy purity it can cast no stain; whereas if I speak to my fellows, they may harshly rebuke me or else learn evil from my petulance. Make me to know mine end. Did he mean the same as Elias in his agony, "Let me die, I am no better than my father"? Perhaps so. At any rate, he rashly and petulantly desired to know the end of his wretched life, that he might begin to reckon the days till death should put a finish to his woe. Impatience would pry between the folded leaves. As if there were no other comfort to be had, unbelief would fain hide itself in the grave and sleep itself into oblivion. David was neither the first nor the last who have spoken unadvisedly in prayer. Yet, there is a better meaning: the psalmist would know more of the shortness of life, that he might better bear its transient ills, and herein we may safely kneel with him, uttering the same petition. That there is no end to its misery is the hell of hell; that there is an end to life's sorrow is the hope of all who have a hope beyond the grave. God is the best teacher of the divine philosophy which looks for an expected end. They who see death through the Lord's glass, see a fair sight, which makes them forget the evil of life in foreseeing the end of life. And the measure of my days. David would fain be assured that his days would be soon over and his trials with them; he would be taught anew that life is measured out to us by wisdom, and is not a matter of chance. As the trader measures his cloth by inches, and ells, and yards, so with scrupulous accuracy is life measured out to man. That I may know how frail I am, or when I shall cease to be. Alas! poor human nature, dear as life is, man quarrels with God at such a rate that he would sooner cease to be than bear the Lord's appointment. Such pettishness in a saint! Let us wait till we are in a like position, and we shall do no better. The ship on the stocks wonders that the barque springs a leak, but when it has tried the high seas, it marvels that its timbers hold together in such storms. David's case is not recorded for our imitation, but for our learning.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.

Ver. 4. Lord, make me to know mine end, etc. But did not David know this? Yes, he knew it, and yet he desires to know it. It is very fit we should ask of God that he would make us to know the things that we do know; I mean, that what we know emptily and barely, we may know spiritually and fruitfully, and if there be any measure of this knowledge, that it may increase and grow more...We know we must die, and that it is no long course to the utmost period of life; yet our hearts are little instructed by this knowledge. Robert Leighton.Ver. 4. Lord, make me to know mine end. David would know his end, not so much his death—the end consuming, as Christ the Lord of life—the end and perfection of all our desires; or know it, not for vain science, but in his experience feel the reward of his patience. Though thy chastisement be sharp, it will be but short, and therein sweet; thou shalt lie still and be quiet, thou shalt sleep and be at rest, Job 3:13; Job 3:17-19. How few and evil soever thy days be in the world, by patience and rolling thyself upon God they will prove unto thee both long enough and good. Edmund Layfielde.Ver. 4. Lord, make me to know mine end, etc. Seeing that both sorrow and joy are both able to kill you, and your life hangeth upon so small a thread, that the least gnat in the air can choke you, as it choked a pope of Rome; a little hair in your milk strangle you, as it did a councillor in Rome; a stone of a raisin stop your breath, as it did the breath of Anacreon: put not the evil day far from you, which the ordinance of God hath put so near; "Remember you Creator in time, before the days come wherein you shall say, We have no pleasure in them; "walk not always with your faces to the east, sometimes have an eye to the west, where the sun goeth down; sit not ever in the prow of the ship, sometimes go to the stern; "stand in your watchtowers, "as the creature doth Romans 8:19, and wait for the hour of your deliverance; provide your armies before that dreadful king cometh to fight against you with his greater forces; order your houses before you die, that is, dispose of your bodies and souls, and all the implements of them both; let not your eyes be gadding after pleasure, nor your ear itching after rumours, nor your minds wandering in the fields, when death is in your houses; your bodies are not brass, nor your strength the strength of stones, your life none inheritance, your breath no more than as the vapour and smoke of the chimney within your nostrils, or as a stranger within your gates, coming and going again, not to return any more till the day of final redemption. John King.Ver. 4. Lord, make me to know mine end, etc. It is worthy your notice, that passage you read of in Scripture, 1 Samuel 10:2. Samuel, when he had anointed Saul king, and the people had chosen him, what signal doth he give him, to confirm him anointed? It was to go to Rachel's sepulchre. �ow the reason is this, that he might not be glutted with the preferments and honours he was entering upon. The emperors of Constantinople, in their inaugurations, on their coronation days, had a mason come and show them several marble stones, and ask them to choose which of these should be made ready for their grave stones. And so we read of Joseph of Arimathea, that he had his tomb in his garden, to check the pleasures of the place. Christopher Love.Ver. 4. How frail I am. Between Walsall and Iretsy, in Cheshire, is a house built in 1636, of thick oak framework, filled in with brick. Over the window of the tap room is still legible, cut in the oak, the following Latin inscription: —Fleres si scires

unum tua tempora mensem; rides cum non scis si sit forsitan una dies. The sense of which is: "You would weep if you knew that your life was limited to one month, yet you laugh while you know not but it may be restricted to a day." How sad the thought, that with this silent monitor, this truthful sermon before their very eyes, numbers have revelled in soul destructive inebriation! And yet this is but a likeness of what we see constantly about us. Quoted in a Monthly Periodical.

K&D 4-6, "(Heb.: 39:5-7)He prays God to set the transitoriness of earthly life clearly before his eyes (cf. Psa_90:12); for if life is only a few spans long, then even his suffering and the prosperity of the ungodly will last only a short time. Oh that God would then grant him to know his end (Job_6:11), i.e., the end of his life, which is at the same

time the end of his affliction, and the measure of his days, how it is with this (מה,

interrog. extenuantis, as in Psa_8:5), in order that he may become fully conscious of his

own frailty! Hupfeld corrects the text to ני� ,after the analogy of Psa_89:48 ,מה־חלד

because חדל cannot signify “frail.” But חדל signifies that which leaves off and ceases, and

consequently in this connection, finite and transitory or frail. מה, quam, in connection

with an adjective, as in Psa_8:2; Psa_31:20; Psa_36:8; Psa_66:3; Psa_133:1. By הן (the

customary form of introducing the propositio minor, Lev_10:18; Lev_25:20) the preceding petition is supported. God has, indeed, made the days, i.e., the lifetime, of a

man טפחות, handbreadths, i.e., He has allotted to it only the short extension of a few

handbreadths (cf. ימים, a few days, e.g., Isa_65:20), of which nine make a yard (cf.

πήχυιος-χρόνος in Mimnermus, and 1Sa_20:3); the duration of human life (on חלד vid.,

Psa_17:14) is as a vanishing nothing before God the eternal One. The particle -2ך is

originally affirmative, and starting from that sense becomes restrictive; just as רק is originally restrictive and then affirmative. Sometimes also, as is commonly the case with

the affirmative signification passes over into the adversative (cf. verum, verum enim ,�כן

vero). In our passage, agreeably to the restrictive sense, it is to be explained thus:

nothing but mere nothingness (cf. Psa_45:14; Jam_1:2) is every man נ5ב, standing

firmly, i.e., though he stand never so firmly, though he be never so stedfast (Zec_11:16). Here the music rises to tones of bitter lament, and the song continues in Psa_39:7 with

the same theme. צלם, belonging to the same root as צל, signifies a shadow-outline, an

image; the -7 is, as in Psa_35:2, Beth essentiae: he walks about consisting only of an

unsubstantial shadow. Only הבל, breath-like, or after the manner of breath (Psa_144:4),

from empty, vain motives and with vain results, do they make a disturbance (pausal fut. energicum, as in Psa_36:8); and he who restlessly and noisily exerts himself knows not who will suddenly snatch together, i.e., take altogether greedily to himself, the many

things that he heaps up (צבר, as in Job_27:16); cf. Isa_33:4, and on - ām = α;τά, Lev_

15:10 (in connection with which אלה-הדברים, cf. Isa_42:16, is in the mind of the speaker).

COFFMA�, "Verse 4"Jehovah, make me to know mine end,

And the measure of my days, what it is;

Let me know how frail I am."

Barnes and many other scholars have labeled this request of David, "As an expression of impatience ... which the psalmist knew was not right";[13] but it is possible that something else is intended here. Addis points out that, according to Duhm, "In this Psalm, the psalmist has the idea of personal and conscious immortality before him. He longs to know whether his life, or at least his full conscious life, is to cease with death; and he here asks God to teach him this mystery."[14]

Only a very slight emendation to the text led to Duhm's translation of this clause in Psalms 39:4, "Let me know whether I shall cease to be." This more properly fits the great prophet David than does the other supposition. Hengstenberg, as quoted by Rawlinson, also insisted that the only possible translation of this clause is, "That I may know when I shall cease to be."[15]

As Yates pointed out, "This prayer is essentially a prayer for knowledge,"[16] and, of course, there can be no criticism of any such prayer.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:4. Lord, make me to know mine end — The end of my life, as is evident from the following words; and the measure of my days, what it is — How short it is; or, how near is the period of the days of my life; that I may know how frail I am — Hebrew, מה חדל אני, meh-chadeel ani, quam desinens sire, quam cito desinam esse, quam parum durem, what a transient, momentary being I am, how soon I shall cease to be, how little a while I shall continue, namely, on earth. He does not mean, Lord, let me know exactly how long I shall live, and when I shall die. He could not in faith ask this, God having nowhere promised his people such knowledge, but having in wisdom locked it up among the secret things which belong not to us, and which it would not be good for us to know; but his meaning is, Give me wisdom and grace to consider my end, and how short the measure of my days will be, and to improve what I know concerning it. The living know they shall die, but few so reflect on this as to make a right use of this knowledge. Bishop Patrick thus paraphrases his words: “Lord, I do not murmur nor repine at my sufferings; but that I may be able to bear them still patiently, make me sensible, I humbly beseech thee, how short this frail life is, and how soon it will have an end; that, duly considering this, I may be the less concerned about the miseries I endure, which will end together with it.” Thus, “wearied with the contradiction of sinners, and sickening at the prospect of so much wretchedness in the valley of weeping, the soul” of the pious Christian “looks forward to her departure from hence, praying for such a sense of the shortness of human life as may enable her to bear the sorrows of this

world, and excite her to prepare for the joys of a better.”

SIMEO�, "THE SHORT�ESS OF HUMA� LIFE

Psalms 39:4-5. Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee! verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

THERE is nothing more painful to a pious mind than to see how generally religion is neglected and despised. A godly man delights to speak of the things which are nearest to his heart: but he is often constrained to be silent, lest he should only induce the persons whose welfare he would promote, to blaspheme God, and to increase thereby their own guilt and condemnation. Gladly would he benefit all around him: but in many cases he perceives, that the very attempt to do so would be to “cast pearls before swine.” In tenderness to them therefore, as well as from a regard to his own feelings, he imposes a restraint upon himself in their presence, and “refrains even from good words,” though it is a pain and a grief to him to do so. Such was David’s situation when he penned this psalm. He was grieved to think that rational and immortal beings, standing on the very verge of eternity, should act so irrational a part: and not finding vent for his feelings amongst men, he poured them out before God in the words which we have just read; and intreated, that, however careless others were about the concerns of eternity, he might be more deeply and abidingly impressed with them.

Wishing that your minds may be suitably affected with this all-important subject, I will set before you,

I. David’s estimate of man’s present state—

He acknowledges that he himself could form but a very inadequate notion respecting it—

[Speculatively indeed he knew well enough, that man’s days are but few at all events, and quite uncertain as to their continuance: but the deep, and practical, and influential sense of it he had not in any degree equal to its importance; nor could he impress it on his own soul, without the powerful assistance of God’s Holy Spirit. Hence he poured forth this earnest petition to his God, “Lord, make me to know my end! make me to know how frail I am!”

It is thus with us also. Speculatively, the most ignorant amongst us has as perfect a knowledge of the subject as the most learned: but, practically, no one knows it, unless he have been taught of God: and even those who have “heard and learned it of the Father,” need to be taught it more deeply from day to day.

That children do not reflect upon it, we do not wonder, because of the vanity of their

minds, and their almost entire want of serious consideration. But when persons are grown to maturity, we might well expect them to feel so obvious a truth. They see that multitudes are cut off at their age; and they know that with the termination of the present life all opportunities of preparing for eternity must cease: yet they not only do not lay these considerations to heart, but they will not hear of them, or endure to have them presented to their view. �or are those who are more advanced in life at all more thoughtful on this subject. Engaged in worldly business, and occupied in providing for their families, they put the thoughts of eternity as far from them as they did amidst the more pleasurable pursuits of youth. And even when they attain to old age, they are as far from realizing the expectations of death and judgment as ever. They know, in a speculative way, that they are nearer to the grave than they were in early life, and that they may at no distant period expect a change. But still these views are no more influential on their minds than they were at any former period of their lives. A condemned criminal, who has but a few days to live, feels that every hour brings him nearer to the time appointed for his execution: but not so the man who is bowed down with years: the very habit of living puts at an indefinite distance the hour of death; and days and months pass on without ever bringing at all nearer to his apprehensions the time of his dissolution. Even the sick labour under the same mental blindness. They attend to the fluctuations of their disorder; and one single symptom of convalescence does more to remove the expectation of death from them, than many proofs of augmented debility do to bring it home to their feelings with suitable apprehensions: they are still buoyed up with hopes from the skill of their medical attendant, when all around them see that they are sinking fast into the grave. Whatever be a man’s age or state, it is God, and God alone, that can “make him thoroughly to know and feel how frail he is.”]

�evertheless the view here given us is truly just—

[The life of man is so short, as to be really “nothing before God.” The comparison of it to “an hand-breadth” is peculiarly deserving of our attention; because by that image every man has, placed as it were before his eyes, “the measure of his days:” he cannot look upon his hand without calling to mind how frail he is, and how soon his present state of existence must come to an end. Let him divide his life into the periods of youth, manhood, and old age; and let him in his own apprehension divide his measure also; and it will bring to his imagination, in a very forcible way, the truth which he is so backward to contemplate. A great variety of other images are used in Scripture to convey this truth: life is compared to a shuttle which flies quickly through the loom [�ote: Job 7:6-7.]: to a ship, which soon passes away, and leaves no trace behind it: to an eagle, which, with the rapidity of lightning, hasteth to its prey [�ote: Job 9:25-26.]: but the image in our text is more striking than them all; because, whilst it is peculiarly simple, it is also practical, embodied, portable. �ot that any image is sufficient to paint the shortness and uncertainty of life in its true colours; for “before God, with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day [�ote: 2 Peter 3:8.],” it is absolutely “as nothing.”

As far as words can describe the state of man, truly the Psalmist has done it in our text. “Man is vanity;” not only vain, but vanity itself. “Every man” is so: not only

the poor and ignorant, but the rich and learned: as it is said, “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity [�ote: Psalms 62:8.].” And this they are “in their best state;” even in the vigour of youth, and in the midst of all the pleasures and honours that their hearts can wish. And they are so “altogether,” both in mind and body; for their body is “crushed before the moth;” and in respect of mind, they are, as far as spiritual things are concerned, “like the wild ass’s colt.” This description may appear exaggerated: but it is true: yes, “verily,” things are so, whether we will believe it or not: and if any deny it, our answer is, “Let God be true; but every man a liar.”]

Such being the real state of man, I will endeavour to shew you,

II. The vast importance of being duly impressed with it—

It was the want of this knowledge that made the adversaries of David so proud and contemptuous: and it was from a conviction of these truths that David was led so deeply to bewail their infatuation. A due consideration of the shortness and uncertainty of life would be of infinite service,

1. To diminish our anxieties about the things of time—

[We should think but little of our pleasures, or riches, or honours, if we considered how short a time they would continue, and that they may all vanish, together with life itself, the very next hour. Examples in abundance there are, in every age and place, to shew the extreme vanity of all that the world calls good and great. It is not in the Bible only that we see those who promised themselves years wherein to enjoy their newly-acquired wealth, cut short, and called in an instant to their great account: we see it continually before our eyes: the messenger of death is sent to many, who think of their end as little as any of us can do; and the sentence, “Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee,” is executed without any previous notice or expectation. If it be thought that still, if not in their own persons, yet in their heirs, they enjoy the things for which they have laboured; I answer, that they are often deprived of those very heirs, on whose aggrandizement they had set their hearts; and are constrained to leave their wealth to others who are comparatively strangers to them. Moreover, supposing their destined heir to succeed to their wealth, they little know what effect it may have upon him, and whether he may not dissipate it all in a tenth part of the time that it took them to amass it. Solomon mentions this as a very great drawback upon human happiness: “I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun; because I should leave it to the man that shall be after me; and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewn myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity [�ote: Ecclesiastes 2:18-19.].” It is probable that Solomon saw how weak his son Rehoboam was: and certainly, of all the instances that ever occurred of the vanity of human grandeur, this is the greatest: for Solomon’s head was scarcely laid in the grave, before ten of the tribes out of the twelve revolted from his son, and, instead of being his subjects, became

his rivals and enemies [�ote: 1 Kings 12:16; 1 Kings 12:19.]: and in the space of fire years afterwards, all the treasures, with which Solomon had enriched both his own house and the temple of the Lord, were taken away by an invading enemy; and brazen shields were made by his son to replace the golden shields with which the temple had been adorned [�ote: 1 Kings 14:25-27.]. How strongly does this illustrate those words of David which immediately follow my text! “Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.” Assuredly, all our feelings, whether of hope or fear, whether of joy or sorrow, whether for ourselves or others, would be moderated, if only the thought of the transitoriness and uncertainty of human affairs were once duly impressed upon our minds: “those who have wives, would be as though they had none; those who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; those who buy, as though they bought not: and those who use this world, as not abusing it:” the one thought, I say, how “transient every thing in this world is,” would produce in us, if not an indifference to the concerns of time, yet at least a moderation in our regard for them [�ote: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.].]

2. To augment our diligence in preparing for eternity—

[Who that considered the uncertainty of life, would defer the concerns of his soul, which are of more importance than ten thousand worlds! It were rather to be expected that such an one would give neither sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, till he should have secured, beyond a possibility of doubt, the favour of his God. One would think that every hour spent in any other pursuit should be grudged by him; and that, whatever efforts were made to divert his attention to any other subject, he should say with �ehemiah, “I am doing a great work, and cannot come down [�ote: �ehemiah 6:3.].” With what care, under such impressions, would a person read the word of God! With what humility would he attend divine ordinances! With what strong crying and tears would he present his supplications at the throne of grace! How, in all that he did, would he resemble those who contended in the Olympic games, running, wrestling, fighting as for their very life! The man with the avenger of blood close at his heels would not exert himself more to reach the city of refuge, than such a one would in “fleeing from the wrath to come.” It is only those who promise themselves days and months to come, that can sleep at their post, and dream of more convenient seasons, which may never arrive [�ote: James 4:13-14.] — — —

In this view then I cannot too earnestly entreat you to offer, each of you for yourselves, the prayer of David, “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am!” — — — And I beseech you to get his estimate of human life so graven on your hearts, that you may walk under the influence of it to the latest hour of your lives. In a word, My heart’s desire and prayer to God for every one of you is, that you may be so “wise as to redeem your time,” and be so taught to number your days as to apply your hearts unto wisdom [�ote: Psalms 90:12.].”]

PETT, "Verses 4-62). His concern was with his awareness of his own frailty and of the fact that life appears on the whole to be vain and that a man does not know what will happen to the possessions that he has built up once he is dead. Thus as he lies on his sickbed it raises the question of the very meaning and purpose of life (Psalms 39:4-6).

Psalms 39:4-5

‘YHWH, make me to know my end,And the measure of my days, what it is,Let me know how frail I am.Behold, you have made my days as handbreadths,And my lifetime is as nothing before you,He calls on YHWH to bring home to him how short his life is, what the measure of his days is, and how frail he is. Indeed he recognises that each of his days are but a handsbreadth, a tiny length of time in the great ocean of time, and that his whole life from start to finish is as nothing before God.

5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.[b]

BAR�ES, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth - literally, “Lo, handbreadths hast thou given my days.” The word rendered “handbreadth” means properly the spread hand; the palm; the hand when the four fingers are expanded. The word is then used to denote anything very short or brief. It is one of the smallest natural measures, as distinguished from the “foot” - that is, the length of the foot; and from the cubit - that is, the length of the arm to the elbow. It is the “shortness” of life, therefore, that is the subject of painful and complaining reflection here. Who has not been in a state of mind to sympathize with the feelings of the psalmist? Who is there that does not often wonder, when he thinks of what he could and would accomplish on earth if his life extended to one thousand years, and when he thinks of the great interests at stake in reference to another world which God has made dependent on so short a life? Who can

at all times so calm down his feelings as to give utterance to no expressions of impatience that life is so soon to terminate? Who is there that reflects on the great interests at stake that has not asked the question why God has not given man more time to prepare for eternity?

And mine age - Or, my life. The word used here - cheled חלד - means properly

“duration of life,” lifetime; and then, life itself; Job_11:17.

Is as nothing - That is, it is so short that it seems to be nothing at all.

Before thee - As over against thee; that is, in comparison with thee. Compare Isa_40:17, “All nations “before him” are as nothing;” that is, over against him, or in comparison with him. When the two are placed together, the one seems to be as nothing in the presence of the other. So the life of man, when placed by the side of the life of God, seems to be absolutely nothing.

Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity -Margin, “settled.” The idea is, that every man is “constituted” vanity. Literally, “All vanity every man is constituted.” There seems to be nothing but vanity; and this is the result of a divine constitution or arrangement. The idea expressed in our common version, “at his best state,” however true in itself, is not in the original. The thoughts in the original are:

(a) that all people are vanity; that is, life is so short, and man accomplishes so little, that it seems to be perfect vanity; and

(b) that this is the result of the divine constitution under which man was made.

It was the fact that man has been “so made” which gave so much trouble to the mind of the psalmist.

CLARKE,"My days as a handbreadth -My life is but a span; σπιθαµη-του-βιου.

And mine age is as nothing - keein, as if at were not before thee. All time is כאין

swallowed up in thy eternity.

Verily every man at his best state - col-adam-nitstab, “every man that כל-אדם-נצב

exists, is vanity.” All his projects, plans, schemes, etc., soon come to nothing. His body also moulders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men.

GILL, "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth,.... These words, with the following clause, are the psalmist's answer to his own inquiries; or rather a correction of his inquiry and impatience, showing how needless it was to ask such questions, and be impatient to die, when it was so clear and certain a case that life was so short; not a yard or ell (forty five inches), but an handbreadth, the breadth of four fingers; or at most a span of time was allowed to man, whose days are few, like the shadow that declineth, and the grass that withers; by which figurative expressions the brevity of human life is described, Psa_102:11; and this is the measure made, cut out, and appointed by the Lord himself, who has determined the years, months, and days of man's life, Job_14:5;

and mine age is as nothing before thee; in the sight of God, or in comparison of his eternity; not so much as an handbreadth, or to be accounted as an inch, but nothing at,

all; yea, less than nothing, and vanity; see Isa_40:17; that is, the age or life of man in this world, as the word (w) used signifies; for otherwise the age or life of man, in the world to come, is of an everlasting duration; but the years of this present life are threescore and ten; ordinarily speaking; an hundred and thirty are by Jacob reckoned but few; and even a thousand years with the Lord are but as one day, Psa_90:4;

verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. As vanity may signify sin, emptiness, folly, falsehood, fickleness, and inconstancy; for man is a very sinful creature, empty of all that is good; foolish as to the knowledge of divine things; he is deceiving and deceived, his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; and he is unstable in all his ways: he is "all vanity" (x), as the words may be rendered; all that he has, or is, or is in him, is vanity; his body, in the health, beauty, and strength of it, is subject to change; and so are his mind, his memory, his judgment and affections, his purposes and promises; and so are his goods and estate, his riches and honours; yea, all the vanity that is in the creatures, that is, in the vegetable and sensitive creatures, yea, that is in the whole, world, is in him; who is a microcosm, a little world himself: and this is true of every man, even in his "best settled" (y) estate; when he stood the most firm, as the word used signifies; it is true of men of high and low degree, of the wise, knowing, and learned, as well as of the illiterate and ignorant, Psa_62:9; even of those that are in the most prosperous circumstances, in the greatest ease and affluence, Luk_12:16; David himself had an experience of it, 2Sa_7:1; yea, this is true of Adam in his best estate, in his estate of innocence; for he was even then subject to change, as the event has shown; and being in honour, he abode not long; and, though upright, became sinful, and came short of the glory of God: indeed, the spiritual estate of believers in Christ is so well settled as that it cannot be altered; nor is it subject to any vanity.

Selah. See Gill on Psa_3:2.

HE�RY 5-6, " He meditates upon the brevity and vanity of life, pleading them with God for relief under the burdens of life, as Job often, and pleading them with himself for his quickening to the business of life.

(1.) Man's life on earth is short and of no continuance, and that is a reason why we should sit loose to it and prepare for the end of it (Psa_39:5): Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth, the breadth of four fingers, a certain dimension, a small one, and the measure whereof we have always about us, always before our eyes. We need no rod, no pole, no measuring line, wherewith to take the dimension of our days, nor any skill in arithmetic wherewith to compute the number of them. No; we have the standard of them at our fingers' end, and there is no multiplication of it; it is but one hand-breadth in all. Our time is short, and God has made it so; for the number of our months is with him. It is short, and he knows it to be so: It is as nothing before thee. he remembers how short our time is, Psa_79:1-13 :47. It is nothing in comparison with thee; so some. All time is nothing to God's eternity, much less our share of time.

(2.) Man's life on earth is vain and of no value, and therefore it is folly to be fond of it and wisdom to make sure of a better life. Adam is Abel -man is vanity, in his present state. He is not what he seems to be, has not what he promised himself. He and all his comforts lie at a continual uncertainty; and if there were not another life after this, all things considered, he were made in vain. He is vanity; he is mortal, he is mutable. Observe, [1.] How emphatically this truth is expressed here. First, Every man is vanity,without exception; high and low, rich and poor, all meet in this. Secondly, He is so at his best estate, when he is young, and strong, and healthful, in wealth and honour, and the

height of prosperity; when he is most easy, and merry, and secure, and thinks his mountain stands strong. Thirdly, He is altogether vanity, as vain as you can imagine. All man is all vanity (so it may be read); every thing about him is uncertain; nothing is substantial and durable but what relates to the new man. Fourthly, Verily he is so. This is a truth of undoubted certainty, but which we are very unwilling to believe and need to have solemnly attested to us, as indeed it is by frequent instances. Fifthly, Selah is annexed, as a note commanding observation. “Stop here, and pause awhile, that you may take time to consider and apply this truth, that every man is vanity.” We ourselves are so. [2.] For the proof of the vanity of man, as mortal, he here mentions three things, and shows the vanity of each of them, Psa_39:6. First, The vanity of our joys and honours: Surely every man walks (even when he walks in state, when he walks in pleasure) in a shadow, in an image, in a vain show. When he makes a figure his fashion passes away, and his great pomp is but great fancy, Act_25:23. It is but a show, and therefore a vain show, like the rainbow, the gaudy colours of which must needs vanish and disappear quickly when the substratum is but a cloud, a vapour; such is life (Jam_4:14), and therefore such are all the gaieties of it. Secondly, The vanity of our griefs and fears. Surely they are disquieted in vain. Our disquietudes are often groundless (we vex ourselves without any just cause, and the occasions of our trouble are often the creatures of our own fancy and imagination), and they are always fruitless; we disquiet ourselves in vain, for we cannot, with all our disquietment, alter the nature of things nor the counsel of God; things will be as they are when we have disquieted ourselves ever so much about them. Thirdly, The vanity of our cares and toils. Man takes a great deal of pains to heap up riches, and they are but like heaps of manure in the furrows of the field, good for nothing unless they be spread. but, when he has filled his treasures with his trash, he knows not who shall gather them, nor to whom they shall descend when he is gone; for he shall not take them away with him. He asks not, For whom do I labour? and that is his folly, Ecc_4:8. but, if he did ask, he could not tell whether he should be a wise man or a fool, a friend or a foe, Ecc_2:19. This is vanity.

JAMISO�,"His prayer is answered in his obtaining an impressive view of the vanity of the life of all men, and their transient state. Their pomp is a mere image, and their wealth is gathered they know not for whom.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth. Upon consideration, the psalmist finds little room to bewail the length of life, but rather to bemoan its shortness. What changeful creatures we are! One moment we cry to be rid of existence, and the next instant beg to have it prolonged! A handbreadth is one of the shortest natural measures, being the breadth of four fingers; such is the brevity of life, by divine appointment; God hath made it so, fixing the period in wisdom. The behold calls us to attention; to some the thoughts of life's hastiness will bring the most acute pain, to others the most solemn earnestness. How well should those live who are to live so little! Is my earthly pilgrimage so brief? then let me watch every step of it, that in the little of time there may be much of grace. And mine age is as nothing before thee. So short as not to amount to an entity. Think of eternity, and an angel is as a newborn babe, the world a fresh blown bubble, the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity. Before the Eternal, all the age of

frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and a man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.Ver. 5. My days. Man's life is styled days because it is not conferred upon us by wholesale, by months and years, but by retail of days, hours, minutes, moments, as to check our curiosity in making enquiry how long we have to live Psalms 39:4 : so acquainting us with the brevity thereof, we may learn to depend upon God's bounty for the loan of our life, employ it for his glory, and every day prepare for the Bridegroom, Christ. Edmund Layfielde.Ver. 5. My days an handbreadth. That is one of the shortest measures. We need not long lines to measure our lives by: each one carries a measure about with him, his own hand; that is the longest and fullest measure. It is not so much as a span: that might possibly have been the measure of old age in the infancy of the world, but now it is contracted to a handbreadth, and that is the longest. But how many fall short of that! Many attain not to a finger breadth: multitudes pass from the womb to the grave; and how many end their course within the compass of childhood! Robert Leighton.Ver. 5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth. The line wherewith our lives are measured, is made both of coarse and fine thread. 1. It is measured by itself, and considerable in its own frailty; so the just length of it is an handbreadth. 2. Secondly, with eternity, so it is found to be as nothing. Mine age is as nothing before thee. ...An handbreadth, and is that all? So he says, that exactly measures them all, and whatsoever else was created with its own hand. A handbreadth is one of the shortest kind of measures. There is an ell, a cubit, and a palm or handbreadth, whereof there be two kinds, the greater and the less. The greater handbreadth is the whole space betwixt the top of the thumb and the little finger, when the hand is extended, called a span, in account near twelve inches. The lesser handbreadth, in a more proper and strict signification, is the just breadth of the four fingers of the hand closed together, here chiefly intended, this interpretation best agreeing with the original, and complying most with the prophet's mind, by the unanimous consent of the choice interpreters. Edmund Layfielde.Ver. 5. Mine age is as nothing before thee. 1. David might truly have said, Mine age is short in respect of Methuselah's; the days of Methuselah are said to be nine hundred and sixty and nine years; the days of David, by computation of the time when he began and how long he reigned, were not much above three score and ten, so that he lived not so many tens as Methuselah did hundreds. 2. David might have said, Mine age is very short in comparison of the age of the world. St. Paul saith of

the fashion of this Macrocosm, it passeth away 1 Corinthians 7:31; but the age of the microcosm, man, passeth away far swifter. 3. David might have said, Mine age in this world is exceeding little in comparison of the duration of the other world.4. Finally, David might have said, Mine age is scarcely anything before the angels, whose duration began with this world and shall continue in the world to come, and so is coaetaneous with both the worlds. But all these are far short of this comparison which he here maketh of his age with God which is eternal, both a parte ante, and a parte post, from everlasting to everlasting. �athanael Hardy.Ver. 5. As nothing. If a man be so diminutive a creature, compared with the fabric of that great world, and the world itself so little that it cannot contain the Lord, so little and light that he feels not the weight thereof upon the tip of his finger, man will well merit the name nothing, when he is placed before the Lord. The keel of man's life is laden with more vanity than verify and substance, if the searcher of the reins and heart come aboard to view it. Ten thousand of our days will not make God one year, and a thousand of our years in his sight are but "as a day wherein it is past, and as a watch in the night." As drops of rain are unto the sea, and as a gravel stone is in comparison of the sand, so are a thousand years to the days everlasting. Edmund Layfielde.Ver. 5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. The Holy Spirit is pleased elsewhere to speak more sparingly, as it were, in favour of man; he discovers the nakedness, but yet comes backward to cast a garment of lenity over it, that somewhat shadows the shame of it. "Man is like to vanity Psalms 144:4; their days consume in vanity Psalms 78:33; Man is vanity" Psalms 39:11; but here with open mouth an unveiled terms full of emphasis, he proclaims every man to be abstracted vanity; and as if that were short he adds, he is all vanity; mere vanity, all manner of vanity, altogether vanity: nothing else, nothing less; yea, somewhat more than vanity, "lighter than vanity" Psalms 62:9; and "vanity of vanities." Ecclesiastes 1:2. And that no place of doubt may be left, he ushers the doctrine unto our hearts with a strong asseveration; assuredly, in truth, without all controversy, man is altogether vanity. Edmund Layfielde.Ver. 5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Bythner expounds it thus. Every man at his best state is altogether vanity; hoc est omni ex parte, ita ut vanitas et miseriea quae per alias creaturas frustratim spargitur in uno homine aggregata videatur; sic homo evadit compendium omnium vanitatum quae in creaturis extant: that is, he is the sink and centre of all the vanities in the world; he is as it were the universe of vanity. Quoted in William Reynold's Funeral Sermon for the Honourable Francis Pierrepont, 1657.Ver. 5. "Every Adam standing is all Abel." See Hebrew Text.Ver. 5. Selah. A little word, yet of no small difficulty to explain. Left out of the Bible by the vulgar translators, as though it were impertinent, where, let them consider, whether they come not within the verge of that malediction in Revelation 22:19. The ancient interpreters did not much meddle with it, and our editions leave it without interpretation. But seeing "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" Romans 15:4, and till "heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" Matthew 5:18, we have sufficient warrant after the example of the learned, and encouragement to make enquiry after

the mind of the Holy Spirit, in that which he hath both commanded to be written, and hath commanded unto us. Wherein, like the crystal glass, I will rather present you with the true visage of antiquity, than use any newly framed feature or painting of my own.Selah is mentioned seventy-four times in the Scripture, whereof seventy-one in the book of Psalms, and thrice in the prophet Habakkuk, which is written psalm wise; and it is ever placed in the end of a Psalm or verse, four places only excepted, where, like the sun in the midst of the planets, it is seated to conjoin the precedent words with the subsequent, and communicate splendour unto both. There was a threefold use of it in ancient times, whereof the first concerned the music; the second, the matter handled unto which it was affixed; and the third, the men or congregation assembled in the temple of the Lord, which two last may still have place among us Christians, who are ingrafted into the stock Christ, from whence the Jews were cut off, but from the first we cannot properly suck such nourishment as once they did.First of the music. The king's choir (1 Chronicles 25:1-6, Psalms 62:1-12, Epigrafh>; 1 Chronicles 16:41) learned five things by it:First. To make a little pause, stop, or stay, when they came to Selah, and to meditate awhile upon the matter foregoing.Second. They knew by that cessation and interval that King David as he was prophesying unto the people, and praising God upon the loud sounding cymbals, was at that instant inspired and taught some new lesson. Wherefore, as men being in serious discourse, when they hear a sudden noise hold their peace to listen, saying, hark! see, lo! so David's heart being smitten by the voice of God's Spirit, the music ceased, stopped, and he checked himself as it were thus: "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."Third. It signifieth the change and variation of the music in some strains, or of the metre, or sense, or disjunction of the rhyme, or ceasing of some one sort of music, which howsoever St. Hierome makes some scruple of. The Septuagint, as often as they meet with Selah in the Hebrew text, in their Greek version translated it, the change of the song.Fourth. It directed them to sing the same verse over again whereunto Selah was annexed. Lastly, it was their instruction to elevate and lift up their voices, praising God with louder voices and loud sounding cymbals. Selah called upon them for louder strains of music and shrillness of voice. But seeing the Jewish harmony and sweet melody is overwhelmed in the ruins of their glorious temple, we remain unskilled in their notes, which doth obscure our annotations upon it. Let this suffice for the "music."II. Selah concerns the text of Scripture itself, or the matter handled, in five branches.First. Some think it to be only an ornament of speech, to grace the language with a sweet emphasis; or a nonsignificant word to complete the harmony, lest the verse should halt for want of a foot, but this conjecture is inform, and many feet wide from the truth.Second. It is not only an adorning of speech, but signifies an end of that verse, matter, or Psalm, where it is found, and it is ever in the end of Psalm and verse, these four places only exempted from this rule: Ps 55:19 57:3 Habakkuk 3:3; Habakkuk 3:9. For as we write "finis" at the end of a book, song, or poem, so the

Jews underwrite Selah, "Salome, "or "Amen, "at the end or finishing of any canticle or work. And the modern Jew at thus day, following the opinion of Aben Ezra, take Selah to be the same with "Amen, "using it at the end of their epithets and prayers twice or thrice indifferently; thus: "Amen, Selah, Amen, Selah, "which receives some credit from this that the particular Psalms end with Selah Psalms 3:8, and the books of Psalms with "Amen." For whereas the Psalter is divided into five books, four of them end with "Amen" —so be it. As you shall find: Psalms 41:13, the end of the first book; Psalms 72:19, the end of the second book; Psalms 89:52, the end of the third; and Psalms 106:48, the conclusion of the fourth.Third. Selah is an hyperbole or illustration of the truth by way of excess in advancing and enlarging it, to make the truth and sense more clear and evident, as if we should say, `that is wonderful!' or, `that is excellent!'and sometimes by way of aggravation that is, `monstrous, '`intolerable, '`horrible!' `The Lord came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.' Habakkuk 3:3. Selah. 1. God came with great dignity, excellency, and ample majesty. `Many there be that say of my soul there is no help for him in God. Selah.' Psalms 3:2. Selah, as if he had said, Oh, monstrous, and horrible blasphemy, to excommunicate a child out of the favour of his heavenly Father; and limit his mercy whose hand is omnipotent to relieve all that rely upon him.Fourth. It serves to declare the eternity of the truth revealed in that Psalm or verse, though perhaps it only began then to be manifested in the church, or more fully at that time than in former ages. Howsoever, the people unto whom it was published, or the persons unto whom it was sent, were otherwise persuaded at the first publication of it. That it was a truth from everlasting and shall continue for ever: instance Psalms 3:8, `Salvation belongs unto the Lord, thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.' As if he had said, `This is a thing beyond all controversy true, that God hath ever delivered, and will for ever bless his people.' This doctrine is sempiternal and durable, that the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever. Psalms 136:1-26.Fifth. It did instruct them to meditate seriously upon those themes where Selah was engraven, as containing matter worthy of singular observation, meditation, and remembrance, as either concerning Christ, "Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah." Psalms 24:10. The mysteries of grace. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." Psalms 46:7. Man's duty Ps 4:4 32:5, or frailty Ps 9:20 32:4. That as the diamond is of greater value than other precious stones, and the sun is more glorious than the planets, so those sentences are more resplendent, than other parcels of Scripture. Which though at the first bare view, it doth not always so appear, there being other texts of Holy Writ more excellent (if it were meet to make any comparison) where Selah is not found, yet if we dive into the occasion, scope, and nature of the sentence, we shall more willingly accept, when we consider, that it is an usual custom of the Holy Spirit, for our singular instruction and benefit, to propound things of a low and inferior nature to our deepest meditation. Instance Psalms 9:16. "The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands, "which is shut up with "Higgaion Selah, "meditation Selah, as if he had said, here is a matter worthy of observation and eternal meditation; the righteous should never forget this, that the wicked perish in their own counsels, and are taken in their own

net. An observation worthy to be engraven in every religious person's bosom, that God will one time or other be known among the wicked by his most severe judgments executed upon them, though they would never learn by his patience and mercies to acknowledge him for their Lord. Thus far of the matter. �ow it remains for a conclusion to unfold the several instructions which Selah afforded unto the congregation, which are these six.First. It served as a note of attention and intention of the mind to what was sung or said, Psalms 3:2-8, that wheresoever they cast an eye upon Selah, they might conceive they heard the Lord's voice from heaven speaking. "Hear this, all ye people, give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. Both high and low, rich and poor together." Psalms 49:1-2. That as their voices were lift up in singing, so much more their hearts and affections might be elevated, that their voice and hearts being both in tune, the joint harmony might be sweet in the ears of the Lord.Secondly. It was a note of affirmation, whereby they declared their consent and assent unto the truth delivered, as we say when we approve of another's speech; right, just, you say truly, it is most certain. So their Selah was as much as true, certain, excellent. Instance Psalms 3:4, "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill." Selah, i.e., It is most certain that the Lord knows the secrets of our hearts, and is the judge of the quick and dead, and will pass most righteous sentence upon us, giving to every man according to his deeds in the flesh, whether good or evil. Psalms 52:3. "Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah" —that is to say, undeniable, we all confess it, our own experience and sorrows have made us know this, that those who have not the fear of God before their eye love to speak and do all the mischief they are able against God's people, to hurt them rather than help them, to wound their innocent reputation rather than preserve it.Thirdly. It was a devout ejaculation of the heart and soul unto God, wishing and desiring the accomplishment of what was spoken or promised. Instance, Habakkuk 3:13. "Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people. Selah." As if he had said, Lord, I beseech thee, evermore, go out so to deliver thine anointed. Psalms 55:17-19. "Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me; for there were many with me. God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah, "i.e., O Lord, I entreat thee, ever bow down an ear unto my humble suit, and rise up against them that rise up against me.Fourthly. It denoted their admiration at some strange unusual effect, whether the work of God, or wickedness of man. Psalms 57:3. "He shall send me from and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah, "i.e., Oh, wonderful and admirable goodness of God, that is pleased to send sometimes his angel from heaven, always his mercy and truth to deliver his poor perplexed servants from them that are too strong and mighty for them, Psalms 54:3. "Strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them Selah, "i.e., Oh, horrible impiety and cruelty to hurt after the life of the saints, and cast the God of life and his remembrance behind their backs.Fifthly. Of humiliation and consternation of their mind, by the consideration of God's incomprehensible majesty, and their own great frailty and misery. Instance, Psalms 65:7. "He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not

the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah, "i.e., here is a matter of humiliation before the King of all the world, Psalms 68:7-8. "O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness. Selah, "i.e., my very heart trembled to consider; I am moved out of my place, to reflect upon that majesty before whom "the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel." Psalms 39:11. "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah." As if he should say, this may humble the proudest heart in the world, and cast him down to the ground.Sixthly. It was a note of Doxology and praising of God in a special manner, not much unlike, or the very same with this, "For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever." As for example, "All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee, they shall sing to thy name. Selah, "Psalms 66:4. "Yea, Lord, in thee will we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah, "Psalms 44:8. "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; so be it, even so be it." Psalms 72:18-19. Edmund Layfielde.

COFFMA�, "Verse 5"Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths;

And my lifetime is as nothing before thee:

Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. (Selah)"

It appears to us that David mentions the pitiful brevity and vanity of life here as implied reasons leading up to some far greater reality than the pitiful summary of mortal life as all men know it.

The Bard of Avon commented upon this very futility and nothingness of mortal life in these words:

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing. - William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth, Act. V, Scene 5, Lines 11-20."SIZE>

One can hardly resist the speculation that Shakespeare had evidently read this psalm and made his comment on it in the lines just quoted.

We cannot believe, however, that David arrived at the same conclusion as did Shakespeare. There was indeed an answer to David's perplexity, as we shall see. "The very purpose of David's prayer, beginning with this verse, was based in his hope of being led back to a quiet confidence in God, which would dispel the vain thoughts."[17] This vein of thought was applied to all the nations of the world by Isaiah, "All the nations are as nothing before God; they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity" (Isaiah 40:17). This being true of nations, indeed of all nations, how much more is it true of an individual? �ot merely David, but all mankind continually stand in crying need of answers to such questions as surface here.

ELLICOTT, "(5) Handbreadth.—Better, some spans long. The plural without the article having this indefinite sense.

Mine age.—Literally, duration. (See Psalms 17:14.) The LXX. and Vulg. have “substance.”

Before thee.—Since in God’s sight “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” “If nature is below any perception of time, God, at the other extremity of being, is above it. God includes time without being affected by it, and time includes nature, which is unaware of it. He too completely transcends it, his works are too profoundly subject to it, to be otherwise than indifferent to its lapse. But we stand at an intermediate point, and bear affinity with both extremes” (J. Martineau, Hours of Thought).

Verily every man . . .—Better, nothing but breath is every man at his best. (Literally, though standing firm.) Comp.

“Reason thus with life—

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art.

SHAKESPEARE: Measure for Measure.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:5. Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth — The

breadth of four fingers, a certain dimension, a small one, and the measure whereof we have always about us, always before our eyes. We need no rod, no measuring-line, wherewith to take the dimension of our days, nor any skill in arithmetic wherewith to compute the number of them; no, we have the standard of them always before us. “The age of man, or of the world, is but a span in dimension, a moment in duration; nay, it is less than both, it is as nothing,” before God — in God’s judgment, and, therefore, in truth and reality, or if compared with God’s everlasting duration, with “the unmeasurable extent and the unnumbered days of eternity.” Verily every man — Prince or peasant, high or low, rich or poor; at his best estate — Even when young, and strong, and healthful; when in wealth and honour, and the height of prosperity: Hebrew, נצב, nitzab, settled, or established: though he be never so firmly settled, as he supposes, in his power and greatness; though his mountain appear to him to stand strong, and, considering his health and strength, and possession of all the means whereby life may be supported, prolonged, and secured, though he may seem very likely to continue long, yet it is certain he is mere emptiness and vanity: yea, altogether vanity — The Hebrew is very emphatical, כל הבל כל אדם, cal hebel cal Adam, every man is every vanity: or, all men, or, the whole of man, is all vanity. He is as vain as you can imagine. Every thing about him is vanity; is uncertain; nothing is substantial, or durable, but what relates to the new man and to eternity. Verily he is so. This is a truth of undoubted certainty, but which we are very unwilling to believe, and need to have solemnly attested to us, as indeed it is by frequent instances. Selah is annexed as a note commanding observation. Stop here, and pause a while, that you may take time to consider and apply this truth, that every man is vanity. We ourselves are so.

6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.

BAR�ES, "Surely every man walketh in a vain show -Margin, “an image.” The

word rendered “vain show” - tselem צלם - means properly a shade, a shadow; and then,

an image or likeness, as shadowing forth any real object. Then it comes to denote an idol,

2Ki_11:18; Amo_5:26. Here the idea seems to be that of an image, as contradistinguished from a reality; the shadow of a thing, as distinguished from the substance. Man seems to be like an image, a shadow, a phantom - and not a real object, walking about. He is a form, an appearance, that soon vanishes away like a shadow.

Surely they are disquieted in vain - That is, they are actively engaged; they bustle about; they are full of anxiety; they form plans which they execute with much toil, care, and trouble; yet for no purpose worthy of so much diligence and anxious thought. They are busy, bustling “shadows” - existing for no real or substantial purposes, and accomplishing nothing. “What shadows we are, and what shadows do we pursue,” said the great orator and statesman, Edmund Burke; and what a striking and beautiful comment on the passage before us was that saying, coming from such a man, and from one occupying such a position.

He heapeth up riches - The word used here means to heap up, to store up, as grain, Gen_41:35; or treasures, Job_27:16; or a mound, Hab_1:10. Here it undoubtedly refers to the efforts of men in accumulating wealth, or storing up property. This was the thing which struck the psalmist as the leading employment of these moving shadows - a fact that would strike any one as he looks upon this busy world.

And knoweth not who shall gather them -Who shall gather them to himself; to whom they will go when he dies. Compare Job_27:16-19; Ecc_2:18, Ecc_2:21; Ecc_5:13-14; Luk_12:20. The idea is, that it is not only vanity in itself, considered as the great business of life, to attempt to accumulate property - seeing that this is not what the great object of life should be, and that a life thus spent really amounts to nothing - but vanity in this respect also, that a man can have no absolute control over his property when he is dead, and he knows not, and cannot know, into whose hands his accumulated gains may fall. The facts on this subject; the actual distribution of property after a man is dead; the use often made of it, against which no man can guard - should, together with other and higher motives, be a powerful consideration with every one, not to make the amassing of wealth the great business of life.

CLARKE,"Walketh in a vain show - betselem, in a shadow. He is but the בצלם

semblance of being: he appears for a while, and then vanisheth away. Some of the fathers read, “Although every man walketh in the image of God, yet they are disquieted in vain.”

He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them - He raketh together. This is a metaphor taken from agriculture: the husbandman rakes the corn, etc., together in the field, and yet, so uncertain is life, that he knows not who shall gather them into the granary!

GILL, "Surely every man walketh in a vain show,.... Or "in an image" (z); not "in the image of the Lord", as the Targum; in the image in which God created man, for that is lost; nor in that which is stamped on men in regeneration; for every man does not walk in that; rather in the image of fallen man, in which every man is born and walks: or "in a shadow" (a); or like one; to which the days of man's life are often compared, 1Ch_29:15; and who, for the most part, busies himself in shadowy and imaginary things; agreeably to all which the poet says (b),

"I see that we who live are nothing else but images, and a vain shadow.''

Some (c) interpret it of "the shadow of death"; and others (d) of "darkness" itself; and it fitly expresses the state of unregeneracy and darkness in which every man walks without the grace of God; and which will end in utter darkness, if that does not prevent it; and which is called "a walking in the vanity of the mind", Eph_4:17. Here it seems rather to intend the outward show, pomp, and grandeur of every great man; of emperors, kings, princes, nobles, and the great men of the world; which is all a vain show, a glittering appearance for a while, a glory that passeth away, and will not descend after them when laid in the grave, and oftentimes lasts not so long;

surely they are disquieted in vain; about vain things, as riches and honours, which are fickle and unstable; and sometimes in vain are all the carking cares and disquietude of the mind, and toil and labour of the body, which are here referred to, to obtain these things; some rise early, and sit up late, and yet eat the bread of sorrow; and if they gain their point, yet do not find the pleasure and satisfaction in them they promised themselves and expected;

he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them: according to Jarchi, the metaphor seems to be taken from a man that has been ploughing and sowing, and reaping and laying up the increase of the field in heaps, and yet knows not who shall gather it into the barn, seeing he may die before it is gathered in; compare with this Luk_12:16; or the meaning is, when a man has amassed a prodigious deal of wealth together, he knows not who shall enjoy it, whether a son or a servant, a friend or a foe, a good man or a bad man, a wise man or a fool, Ecc_2:18.

HE�RY, "For the proof of the vanity of man, as mortal, he here mentions three things, and shows the vanity of each of them, Psa_39:6. First, The vanity of our joys and honours: Surely every man walks (even when he walks in state, when he walks in pleasure) in a shadow, in an image, in a vain show. When he makes a figure his fashion passes away, and his great pomp is but great fancy, Act_25:23. It is but a show, and therefore a vain show, like the rainbow, the gaudy colours of which must needs vanish and disappear quickly when the substratum is but a cloud, a vapour; such is life (Jam_4:14), and therefore such are all the gaieties of it. Secondly, The vanity of our griefs and fears. Surely they are disquieted in vain. Our disquietudes are often groundless (we vex ourselves without any just cause, and the occasions of our trouble are often the creatures of our own fancy and imagination), and they are always fruitless; we disquiet ourselves in vain, for we cannot, with all our disquietment, alter the nature of things nor the counsel of God; things will be as they are when we have disquieted ourselves ever so much about them. Thirdly, The vanity of our cares and toils. Man takes a great deal of pains to heap up riches, and they are but like heaps of manure in the furrows of the field, good for nothing unless they be spread. but, when he has filled his treasures with his trash, he knows not who shall gather them, nor to whom they shall descend when he is gone; for he shall not take them away with him. He asks not, For whom do I labour? and that is his folly, Ecc_4:8. but, if he did ask, he could not tell whether he should be a wise man or a fool, a friend or a foe, Ecc_2:19. This is vanity.

CALVI�, "6.Surely man walketh in a shadow. (69) He still prosecutes the same subject. By the word shadow, he means, that there is nothing substantial in man, but

that he is only, as we say, a vain show, and has I know not how much of display and ostentation. (70) Some translate the word darkness, and understand the Psalmist’s language in this sense, That the life of man vanishes away before it can be known. But in these words David simply declares of every man individually what Paul extends to the whole world, when he says,

“The fashion of this world passeth away.” —1 Corinthians 7:31

Thus he denies that there is any thing abiding in men, because the appearance of strength which displays itself in them for a time soon passes away. What he adds, that men disquiet themselves in vain, shows the very height of their vanity; as if he had said, It seems as if men were born for the very purpose of rendering themselves more and more contemptible: for although they are only as a shadow, yet as if they were fools, or rather insane, they involve themselves needlessly in harassing cares, and vexing themselves to no purpose. He expresses still more plainly how they manifest their folly, when he declares that while they anxiously and carefully heap up riches, they never think that they must soon, and it may be suddenly, leave their present abode. And why is it that they thus fret away their mind and body, but only because they imagine that they can never have enough? for by their insatiable desire of gain, they eagerly grasp at all the riches of the world, as if they had to live a hundred times the life of man. Moreover, David does not in this passage hold up to scorn the covetousness of man in the same sense in which Solomon does, Ecclesiastes 5:10; for he not only speaks of their heirs, but declares generally, that men disquiet and vex themselves with care, although they know not who shall reap the fruit of their labor in amassing riches. (71) They may indeed wish to make provision for themselves; but what madness and folly is it for them to torment themselves with incessant and unprofitable cares which have no certain object or limit? David here condemns those ardent and unbridled desires, under the influence of which worldly men are carried away, and talk in a strange manner, confounding heaven and earth; for they admit not that they are mortal, much less do they consider that their life is bounded by the narrow limits of a hand-breadth. David spoke under the influence of a distempered and troubled state of mind; but there is included in his language this very profitable lesson, that there is no remedy better fitted for enabling us to rise above all unnecessary cares, than the recollection that the brief period of our life is only, as it were, a hand-breadth.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew. Life is but a passing pageant. This alone is sure, that nothing is sure. All around us shadows mock us; we walk among them, and too many live for them as if the mocking images were substantial; acting their borrowed parts with zeal fit only to be spent on realities, and lost upon the phantoms of this passing scene. Worldly men walk like travellers in a mirage, deluded, duped, deceived, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair. Surely they are disquieted in vain. Men fret, and fume, and worry, and all for mere nothing. They are shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them. He who toils and contrives, and wearies himself for gold, for fame, for rank, even if he wins his desire, finds at the end of his labour lost; for like

the treasure of the miser's dream, it all vanishes when the man awakes in the world of reality. Read well this text, and then listen to the clamour of the market, the hum of the exchange, the din of the city streets, and remember that all this noise (for so the word means), this breach of quiet, is made about unsubstantial, fleeting vanities. Broken rest, anxious fear, over worked brain, failing mind, lunacy, these are the steps in the process of disquieting with many, and all to be rich, or, in other words, to load one's self with the thick clay; clay, too, which a man must leave so soon. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. He misses often the result of his ventures, for there are many slips between the cup and the lips. His wheat is sheaved, but an interloping robber bears it away—as often happens with the poor Eastern husbandman; or, the wheat is even stored, but the invader feasts thereon. Many work for others all unknown to them. Especially does this verse refer to those all gathering muckrakes, who in due time are succeeded by all scattering forks, which scatter riches as profusely as their sires gathered them parsimoniously. We know not our heirs, for our children die, and strangers fill the old ancestral halls; estates change hands, and entail, though riveted with a thousand bonds, yields to the corroding power of time. Men rise up early and sit up late to build a house, and then the stranger tramps along its passages, laughs in its chambers, and forgetful of its first builder, calls it all his own. Here is one of the evils under the sun for which no remedy can be prescribed.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.Ver. 6. Man walketh in a vain shew. I see that we who live are nothing else but images, and a vain shadow. Sophocles.Ver. 6. (first clause). When in the Bristol election, his competitor died, Burke said, "What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue." William S. Plumer.Ver. 6. Every carnal man walks in a vain shew, and yet how vain is he of his shew of vanity! He is disquieted in vain, and it is only vanity which disquiets him. He labours all his life for the profits of riches, and yet in death his riches will not profit him. He that views an ox grazing in a fat pasture, concludes that he is but preparing for the day of slaughter. William Secker.Ver. 6. He heapeth up riches. This is the great foolishness and disease especially of old age, that the less way a man has to go, he makes the greater provision for it. When the hands are stiff, and fit for no other labour, they are fitted and composed for scraping together. Robert Leighton.Ver. 6. He heapeth up riches. The Hebrew word rendered, He heapeth up, signifies to rake together; in which there is an allusion to the husbandman's collecting his corn together before he carries it to the barn. The metaphor is elegant, intimating the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of human acquisitions; which though heaped up together like corn, by one person, may soon become the possession of another. Samuel Burder.Ver. 6.Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more; it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.William Shakespeare.Ver. 6. The plentiful showers of tears which stand in our eyes when we come from the womb, and when we draw to the tomb, are faithful witnesses of man's vanity. We bid the world "good morrow" with grief, and "good night" with a groan. Edmund Layfielde.

COFFMA�, "Verse 6"Surely, every man walketh in a vain show;

Surely they are disquieted in vain:

He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them."

The thought here is merely a continuation of that in the previous two verses. "Man indeed walks about as a mere shadow."[18] This is the same thought enunciated by the sacred author James: "What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). It should not be overlooked that this persistent evaluation of individuals, and even nations, as vanity, as nothing, appearing for a moment, and then vanishing forever, is not spoken of God's faithful servants but of nations and/or individuals "without God, and without hope in the world."

ELLICOTT, "Verse 6(6) Surely every man . . .—Better, only as a shadow walks a man. A very commonplace of poetry, from the σκιᾶς ὄναρ ἄνθρωποι of Pindar downwards. Thus Sophocles, “I see that we who live are nothing else but images and vain shadows;” Horace, “Pulvis et umbra sumus; Burke, “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.”

The above rendering treats the preposition as the beth essentiæ. If, however, we keep the Authorised Version, the thought is of man’s life, not as a reality, but as a show, a picture, a phantasma (see margin), and himself only an imaginary actor. But this seems modern for the psalms. Shakespeare, no doubt with this passage in his mind, has combined it with the more obvious image:—

“Out, out, brief candle,

Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.”

Surely they . . . —Better, Only for a breath they make a stir.

He heapeth up.—The substantive is left by the Hebrew to be supplied. So we talk of the desire of “accumulating.” (For the whole passage, comp. James 4:13-14; Luke 12:16-21.

COKE, "Psalms 39:6. In a vain shew— In a vain shew of happiness. Green. The word צלם tselem, is only used twice in the psalms: Here, and Psalms 73:20 in both which places it signifies what is imaginary, in opposition to what is real. The Hebrew word יצבר iitsbor rendered, He heapeth up, signifies to rake together; in which there is an allusion to the husbandman's collecting his corn together before he carries it to the barn. The metaphor is elegant, intimating the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of human acquisitions; which, though heaped up together like corn by one person, may soon become the possession of another.

PETT, "Surely every man at his best estate,Is altogether vanity.’ Selah.Only in an image does a man walk,Only (for) a breath do they make a noise,He heaps up riches,And knows not who will gather them.And meanwhile what value does that life have? Even at a man’s very best it is simply vanity. Man’s life is like a dream, a passing image, only for a fleeting breath can men make a noise and enjoy themselves. And during this passing dream he builds up wealth and possessions only for them to fall into other hands in a way which is out of his control. And who knows what they will do with them? Such is life without God.

MACLARE�, "THE BITTER�ESS A�D BLESSED�ESS OF THE BREVITY OF LIFEPsalms 39:6, Psalms 39:12.These two sayings are two different ways of putting the same thing. There is a common thought underlying both, but the associations with which that common thought is connected in these two verses are distinctly different. The one is bitter and sad-a gloomy half truth. The other, out of the very same fact, draws blessedness and hope. The one may come from no higher point of view than the level of worldly experience; the other is a truth of faith. The former is at best partial, and without the other may be harmful; the latter completes, explains, and hallows it.

And that this progress and variety in the thought is the key to the whole psalm is, I think, obvious to any one who will examine it with care. I cannot here enter on that task but in the hastiest fashion, by way of vindicating the connection which I trace between the two verses of our text. The Psalmist begins, then, with telling how at some time recently passed-in consequence of personal calamity not very clearly

defined, but apparently some bodily sickness aggravated by mental sorrow and anxiety-he was struck dumb with silence, so that he ‘held his peace even from good.’ In that state there rose within him many sad and miserable thoughts, which at last forced their way through his locked lips. They shape themselves into a prayer, which is more complaint than petition-and which is absorbed in the contemplation of the manifest melancholy facts of human life-’Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee.’ And then, as that thought dilates and sinks deeper into his soul, he looks out upon the whole race of man-and in tones of bitterness and hopelessness, affirms that all are vanity, shadows, disquieted in vain. The blank hopelessness of such a view brings him to a standstill. It is true-but taken alone is too dreadful to think of. ‘That way madness lies,’-so he breaks short off his almost despairing thoughts, and with a swift turning away of his mind from the downward gaze into blackness that was beginning to make him reel, he fixes his eyes on the throne above-’And now, Lord! what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.’ These words form the turning-point of the psalm. After them, the former thoughts are repeated, but with what a difference-made by looking at all the blackness and sorrow, both personal and universal, in the bright light of that hope which streams upon the most lurid masses of opaque cloud, till their gloom begins to glow with an inward lustre, and softens into solemn purples and reds. He had said, ‘I was dumb with silence-even from good.’ But when his hope is in God, the silence changes its character and becomes resignation and submission. ‘I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it.’ The variety of human life and its transiency is not less plainly seen than before; but in the light of that hope it is regarded in relation to God’s paternal correction, and is seen to be the consequence, not of a defect in His creative wisdom or love, but of man’s sin. ‘Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity.’ That, to him who waits on the Lord, is the reason and the alleviation of the reiterated conviction, ‘Every man is vanity.’ �ot any more does he say every man ‘at his best state,’ or, as it might be more accurately expressed, ‘even when most firmly established,’-for the man who is established in the Lord is not vanity, but only the man who founds his being on the fleeting present. Then, things being so, life being thus in itself and apart from God so fleeting and so sad, and yet with a hope that brightens it like sunshine through an April shower-the Psalmist rises to prayer, in which that formerly expressed conviction of the brevity of life is reiterated, with the addition of two words which changes its whole aspect, ‘I am a stranger with Thee.’ He is God’s guest in his transient life. It is short, like the stay of a foreigner in a strange land; but he is under the care of the King of the Land-therefore he need not fear nor sorrow. Past generations, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-whose names God ‘is not ashamed’ to appeal to in His own solemn designation of Himself-have held the same relation, and their experience has sealed His faithful care of those who dwell with Him. Therefore, the sadness is soothed, and the vain and fleeting life of earth assumes a new appearance, and the most blessed and wisest issue of our consciousness of frailty and insufficiency is the fixing of our desires and hopes on Him in whose house we may dwell even while we wander to and fro, and in whom our life being rooted and established shall not be vain, howsoever it may be brief.If, then, we follow the course of contemplation thus traced in the psalm, we have these three points brought before us-first, the thought of life common to both clauses; second, the gloomy, aimless hollowness which that thought breathes into life

apart from God; third, the blessedness which springs from the same thought when we look at it in connection with our Father in heaven.I. Observe the very forcible expression which is given here to the thought of life common to both verses.‘Every man walketh in a vain show.’ The original is even more striking and strong. And although one does not like altering words so familiar as those of our translation, which have sacredness from association and a melancholy music in their rhythm-still it is worth while to note that the force of the expression which the Psalmist employs is correctly given in the margin, ‘in an image’-or ‘in a shadow.’ The phrase sounds singular to us, but is an instance of a common enough Hebrew idiom, and is equivalent to saying-he walks in the character or likeness of a shadow, or, as we should say, he walks as a shadow. That is to say, the whole outward life and activity of every man is represented as fleeting and unsubstantial, like the reflection of a cloud which darkens leagues of the mountains’ side in a moment, and ere a man can say, ‘Behold!’ is gone again for ever.Then, look at the other image employed in the other clause of our text to express the same idea, ‘I am a stranger and a sojourner, as all my fathers.’ The phrase has a history. In that most pathetic narrative of an old-world sorrow long since calmed and consoled, when ‘Abraham stood up from before his dead,’ and craved a burying-place for his Sarah from the sons of Heth, his first plea was, ‘I am a stranger and a sojourner with you.’ In his lips it was no metaphor. He was a stranger, a visitor for a brief time to an alien land; he was a sojourner, having no rights of inheritance, but settled among them for a while, and though dwelling among them, not adopted into their community. He was a foreigner, not naturalised. And such is our relation to all this visible frame of things in which we dwell. It is alien to us; though we be in it, our true affinities are elsewhere; though we be in it, our stay is brief, as that of ‘a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night.’And there is given in the context still another metaphor setting forth the same fact in that dreary generalisation which precedes my text, ‘Every man at his best state’-or as the word means, ‘established,’- with his roots most firmly struck in the material and visible-’is only a breath.’ It appears for a moment, curling from lip and nostril into the cold morning air, and vanishes away, so thus vaporous, filmy, is the seeming solid fact of the most stable life.These have been the commonplaces of poets and rhetoricians and moralists in all time. But threadbare as the thought is, I may venture to dwell on it for a moment. I know I am only repeating what we all believe-and all forget. It is never too late to preach commonplaces, until everybody acts on them as well as admits them-and this old familiar truth has not yet got so wrought into the structure of our lives that we can afford to say no more about it.‘Surely every man walketh in a shadow.’ Did you ever stand upon the shore on some day of that ‘uncertain weather, when gloom and glory meet together,’ and notice how swiftly there went, racing over miles of billows, a darkening that quenched all the play of colour in the waves, as if all suddenly the angel of the waters had spread his broad wings between sun and sea, and then how in another moment as swiftly it flits away, and with a burst the light blazes out again, and leagues of ocean flash into green and violet and blue. So fleeting, so utterly perishable are our lives for all their seeming solid permanency. ‘Shadows in a career, as George Herbert has it-

breath going out of the nostrils. We think of ourselves as ever to continue in our present posture. We are deceived by illusions. Mental indolence, a secret dislike of the thought, and the impostures of sense, all conspire to make us blind to, or at least oblivious of, the plain fact which every beat of our pulses might preach, and the slow creeping hands of every parish clock confirm. How awful that silent, unceasing footfall of receding days is when once we begin to watch it! Inexorable, passionless-though hope and fear may pray, ‘Sun! stand thou still on Gibeon; and thou moon! in the valley of Ajalon,’-the tramp of the hours goes on. The poets paint them as a linked chorus of rosy forms, garlanded, and clasping hands as they dance onwards. So they may be to some of us at some moments. So they may seem as they approach; but those who come hold the hands of those who go, and that troop has no rosy light upon their limbs, their garlands are faded, the sunshine falls not upon the grey and shrouded shapes, as they steal ghostlike through the gloom-and ever and ever the bright and laughing sisters pass on into that funereal band which grows and moves away from us unceasing. Alas! for many of us it bears away with it our lost treasures, our shattered hopes, our joys from which all the bright petals have dropped! Alas! for many of us there is nothing but sorrow in watching how all things become ‘part and parcel of the dreadful past.’And how strangely sometimes even a material association may give new emphasis to that old threadbare truth. Some more permanent thing may help us to feel more profoundly the shadowy fleetness of man. The trifles are so much more lasting than their owners. Or, as ‘the Preacher’ puts it, with such wailing pathos, ‘One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth for ever.’ This material is perishable-but yet how much more enduring than we are! The pavements we walk upon, the coals in our grates-how many millenniums old are they? The pebble you kick aside with your foot-how many generations will it outlast? Go into a museum and you will see hanging there, little the worse for centuries, battered shields, notched swords, and gaping helmets-aye, but what has become of the bright eyes that once flashed the light of battle through the bars, what has become of the strong hands that once gripped the hilts? ‘The knights are dust,’ and ‘their good swords are’ not ‘rust.’ The material lasts after its owner. Seed corn is found in a mummy case. The poor form beneath the painted lid is brown and hard, and more than half of it gone to pungent powder, and the man that once lived has faded utterly: but the handful of seed has its mysterious life in it, and when it is sown, in due time the green blade pushes above English soil, as it would have done under the shadow of the pyramids four thousand years ago-and its produce waves in a hundred harvest fields to-day. The money in your purses now, will some of it bear the head of a king that died half a century ago. It is bright and useful-where are all the people that in turn said they ‘owned’ it? Other men will live in our houses, will preach from this pulpit, and sit in these pews, when you and I are far away. And other June days will come, and the old rose-trees will flower round houses where unborn men will then be living, when the present possessor is gone to nourish the roots of the roses in the graveyard!‘Our days are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.’ So said David on other occasions. We know, dear brethren! how true it is, whether we consider the ceaseless flux and change of things, the mystic march of the silent-footed hours, or the greater permanence which attaches to the ‘things which perish,’ than to our abode among

them. We know it, and yet how hard it is not to yield to the inducement to act and feel as if all this painted scenery were solid rock and mountain. By our own inconsiderateness and sensuousness, we live in a lie, in a false dream of permanence, and so in a sadder sense we walk in ‘a vain show,’-deluding ourselves with the conceit of durability, and refusing to see that the apparent is the shadowy, and the one enduring reality God. It is hard to get even the general conviction vivified in men’s minds, hardest of all to get any man to reflect upon it as applying to himself. Do not think that you have said enough to vindicate neglect of my words now, when you call them commonplace. So they are. But did you ever take that well-worn old story, and press it on your own consciousness-as a man might press a common little plant, whose juice is healing, against his dim eye-ball-by saying to yourself, ‘It is true of me. I walk as a shadow. I am gliding onwards to my doom. Through my slack hands the golden sands are flowing, and soon my hour-glass will run out, and I shall have to stop and go away.’ Let me beseech you for one half-hour’s meditation on that fact before this day closes. You will forget my words then, when with your own eyes you have looked upon that truth, and felt that it is not merely a toothless commonplace, but belongs to and works in thy life, as it ebbs away silently and incessantly from thee.II. Let me point, in the second place, to the gloomy, aimless hollowness which that thought, apart from God, infuses into life.There is, no doubt, a double idea in the metaphor which the Psalmist employs. He desires to set forth, by his image of a shadow, not only the transiency, but the unsubstantialness of life. Shadow is opposed to substance, to that which is real, as well as to that which is enduring. And we may further say that the one of these characteristics is in great part the occasion of the other. Because life is fleeting, therefore, in part, it is so hollow and unsatisfying. The fact that men are dragged away from their pursuits so inexorably makes these pursuits seem, to any one who cannot see beyond that fact, trivial and not worth the following. Why should we fret and toil and break our hearts, ‘and scorn delights, and live laborious days’ for purposes which will last so short a time, and things which we shall so soon have to leave? What is all our bustle and business, when the sad light of that thought falls on it, but ‘labouring for the wind’? ‘Were it not better to lie still?’ Such thoughts have at least a partial truth in them, and are difficult to meet as long as we think only of the facts and results of man’s life that we can see with our eyes, and our psalm gives emphatic utterance to them. The word rendered ‘walketh’ in our text is not merely a synonym for passing through life, but has a very striking meaning. It is an intensive frequentative form of the word-that is, it represents the action as being repeated over and over again. For instance, it might be used to describe the restless motion of a wild beast in a cage, raging from side to side, never still, and never getting any farther for all the racing backward and forward. So here it signifies ‘walketh to and fro,’ and implies hurry and bustle, continuous effort, habitual unrest. It thus comes to be parallel with the stronger words which follow,- ‘Surely they are disquieted in vain’; and one reason why all this effort and agitation are purposeless and sad, is because the man who is straining his nerves and wearying his legs is but a shadow in regard to duration-’He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.’Yes! if we have said all, when we have said that men pass as a fleeting shadow-if my

life has no roots in the Eternal, nor any consciousness of a life that does not pass, and a light that never perishes, if it is derived from, directed to, ‘cribbed, cabined, and confined’ within this visible diurnal sphere, then it is all flat and unprofitable, an illusion while it seems to last, and all its pursuits are folly, its hopes dreams, its substances vapours, its years a lie. For, if life be thus short, I who live it am conscious of, and possess whether I be conscious of them or no, capacities and requirements which, though they were to be annihilated to-morrow, could be satisfied while they lasted by nothing short of the absolute ideal, the all-perfect, the infinite-or, to put away abstractions, ‘My soul thirsteth for God, the living God!’ ‘He hath put eternity in their heart,’ as the book of Ecclesiastes says. Longings and aspirations, weaknesses and woes, the limits of creature helps and loves, the disproportion between us and the objects around us-all these facts of familiar experience do witness, alike by blank misgivings and by bright hopes, by many disappointments and by indestructible expectations surviving them all, that nothing which has a date, a beginning, or an end, can fill our souls or give us rest. Can you fill up the swamps of the Mississippi with any cartloads of faggots you can fling in? Can you fill your souls with anything which belongs to this fleeting life? Has a flying shadow an appreciable thickness, or will a million of them pressed together occupy a space in your empty, hungry heart?And so, dear brethren! I come to you with a message which may sound gloomy, and beseech you to give heed to it. �o matter how you may get on in the world-though you may fulfil every dream with which you began in your youth-you will certainly find that without Christ for your Brother and Saviour, God for your Friend, and heaven for your hope, life, with all its fulness, is empty. It lasts long, too long as it sometimes seems for work, too long for hope, too long for endurance; long enough to let love die, and joys wither and fade, and companions drop away, but without God and Christ, you will find it but ‘as a watch in the night.’ At no moment through the long weary years will it satisfy your whole being; and when the weary years are all past, they will seem to have been but as one troubled moment breaking the eternal silence. At every point so profitless, and all the points making so thin and short a line! The crested waves seem heaped together as they recede from the eye till they reach the horizon, where miles of storm are seen but as a line of spray. So when a man looks back upon his life, if it have been a godless one, be sure of this, that he will have a dark and cheerless retrospect over a tossing waste, with a white rim of wandering barren foam vexed by tempest, and then, if not before, he will sadly learn how he has been living amidst shadows, and, with a nature that needs God, has wasted himself upon the world. ‘O life! as futile then as frail’; ‘surely,’ in such a case, ‘every man walketh in a vain show.’III. But note, finally, how our other text in its significant words gives us the blessedness which springs from this same thought of life, when it is looked at in connection with God.The mere conviction of the brevity and hollowness of life is not in itself a religious or a helpful thought. Its power depends upon the other ideas which are associated with it. It is susceptible of the most opposite applications, and may tend to impel conduct in exactly opposite directions. It may be the language of despair or of bright hope. It may be the bitter creed of a worn-out debauchee, who has wasted his life in hunting shadows, and is left with a cynical spirit and a barbed tongue. It may be the

passionless belief of a retired student, or the fanatical faith of a religious ascetic. It may be an argument for sensuous excess, ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die’; or it may be the stimulus for noble and holy living, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh.’ The other accompanying beliefs determine whether it shall be a blight or a blessing to a man.And the one addition which is needed to incline the whole weight of that conviction to the better side, and to light up all its blackness, is that little phrase in this text, ‘I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner.’ There seems to be an allusion here to remarkable words connected with the singular Jewish institution of the Jubilee. You remember that by the Mosaic law, there was no absolute sale of land in Israel, but that every half century the whole returned to the descendants of the original occupiers. Important economical and social purposes were contemplated in this arrangement, as well as the preservation of the relative position of the tribes as settled at the Conquest. But the law itself assigns a purely religious purpose-the preservation of the distinct consciousness of the tenure on which the people held their territory, namely, obedience to and dependence on God. ‘The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.’ Of course, there was a special sense in which that was true with regard to Israel, but David thought that the words were as true in regard to his whole relation to God, as in regard to Israel’s possession of its national inheritance.If we grasp these words as completing all that we have already said, how different this transient and unsubstantial life looks! You must have the light from both sides to stereoscope and make solid the flat surface picture. Transient! yes-but it is passed in the presence of God. Whether we know it or no, our brief days hang upon Him, and we walk, all of us, in the light of His countenance. That makes the transient eternal, the shadowy substantial, the trivial heavy with solemn meaning and awful yet vast possibilities. ‘In our embers is something that doth live.’ If we had said all, when we say ‘We are as a shadow,’ it would matter very little, though even then it would matter something, how we spent our shadowy days; but if these poor brief hours are spent ‘in the great Taskmaster’s eye,’-if the shadow cast on earth proclaims a light in the heavens-if from this point there hangs an unending chain of conscious being-Oh! then, with what awful solemnity is the brevity, with what tremendous magnitude is the minuteness, of our earthly days invested! ‘With Thee’-then I am constantly in the presence of a sovereign Law and its Giver; ‘with Thee’-then all my actions are registered and weighed yonder; ‘with Thee’-then ‘Thou, God, seest me.’ Brethren! it is the prismatic halo and ring of eternity round this poor glass of time that gives it all its dignity, all its meaning. The lives that are lived before God cannot be trifles.And if this relation to time be recognised and accepted and held fast by our hearts and minds, then what calm blessedness will flow into our souls!‘A stranger with Thee,’-then we are the guests of the King. The Lord of the land charges Himself with our protection and provision; we journey under His safe conduct. It is for His honour and faithfulness that no harm shall come to us travelling in His territory, and relying on His word. Like Abraham with the sons of Heth, we may claim the protection and help which a stranger needs. He recognises the bond and will fulfil it. We have eaten of His salt, and He will answer for our safety.-’He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of Mine eye.’

‘A stranger with Thee,’-then we have a constant Companion and an abiding Presence. We may be solitary and necessarily remote from the polity of the land. We may feel amid all the visible things of earth as if foreigners. We may not have a foot of soil, not even a grave for our dead. Companionships may dissolve and warm hands grow cold and their close clasp relax-what then? He is with us still. He will join us as we journey, even when our hearts are sore with loss. He will walk with us by the way, and make our chill hearts glow. He will sit with us at the table-however humble the meal, and He will not leave us when we discern Him. Strangers we are indeed here-but not solitary, for we are ‘strangers with Thee.’ As in some ancestral home in which a family has lived for centuries-son after father has rested in its great chambers, and been safe behind its strong walls-so, age after age, they who love Him abide in God.-’Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.’‘Strangers with Thee,’-then we may carry our thoughts forward to the time when we shall go to our true home, nor wander any longer in a land that is not ours. If even here we come into such blessed relationships with God, that fact is in itself a prophecy of a more perfect communion and a heavenly house. They who are strangers with Him will one day be ‘at home with the Lord,’ and in the light of that blessed hope the transiency of this life changes its whole aspect, loses the last trace of sadness, and becomes a solemn joy. Why should we be pensive and wistful when we think how near our end is? Is the sentry sad as the hour for relieving guard comes nigh? Is the wanderer in far-off lands sad when he turns his face homewards? And why should not we rejoice at the thought that we, strangers and foreigners here, shall soon depart to the true metropolis, the mother-country of our souls? I do not know why a man should be either regretful or afraid, as he watches the hungry sea eating away this ‘bank and shoal of time’ upon which he stands-even though the tide has all but reached his feet-if he knows that God’s strong hand will be stretched forth to him at the moment when the sand dissolves from under him, and will draw him out of many waters, and place him high above the floods in that stable land where there is ‘no more sea.’Lives rooted in God through faith in Jesus Christ are not vanity. Let us lay hold of Him with a loving grasp-and ‘we shall live also’ because He lives, as He lives, so long as He lives. The brief days of earth will be blessed while they last, and fruitful of what shall never pass. We shall have Him with us while we journey, and all our journeyings will lead to rest in Him. True, men walk in a vain show; true, ‘the world passeth away and the lust thereof,’ but, blessed be God! true, also, ‘He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.’

SBC, "I. The central superficialness of this age, and of what calls itself its theology, is that it is so occupied with things of sense or intellect which do not bear on man’s inner nature, that it forgets itself and its relation to God. It treats with God, not with the tender familiarity of reverential love, but with the calm complacency of one whose rights God is bound to respect, and who is, on the whole, on good terms with God; and therefore it is false and hollow to God and to itself.

II. These two objects of knowledge, unlike as they are, of God and of ourselves, mutually condition one another, and that in part because God has revealed Himself to us chiefly in reference to ourselves. The soul which knows not itself, and has not, by the grace of God, purified itself, will not see clearly the image of God, which it has deformed in itself.

III. Set God before thee, and the Pharisee religion of the day will not be thine. Thou shalt walk, not in a shadowy being, as this life would in itself be, but up and down with God; in God thou shalt take thy rest, with God converse; His wisdom shall be thy wisdom, His truth thy light, His love thy joy. And if this be the mirror, what is the "face to face"? "And now, Lord, what have I ever longed for? My longing expectation is for Thee."

E. B. Pusey, Lenten Sermons, p. 278.

Psalms 39:6

Psa_39:6, Psa_39:12

I. Observe the very forcible expression which is given here to the thought of life common to both verses. (1) "Every man walketh in a vain show." The force of the expression which the Psalmist employs is correctly given in the margin, "in an image," or "in a shadow." The phrase is equivalent to saying, he walks in the character or likeness of a shadow, or, as we should say, he walks as a shadow. That is to say, the whole outward life and activity of every man is represented as fleeting and unsubstantial, like the reflection of a cloud, which darkens leagues of the mountain’s side in a moment, and ere a man can say, Behold! is gone again for ever. (2) Look at the other image employed in the other clause of our text to express the same idea: "I am a stranger and sojourner, as all my fathers were." The phrase has a history. In that most pathetic narrative of an old-world sorrow long since calmed and consoled, when "Abraham stood up from before his dead" and craved a burying-place for his Sarah from the sons of Heth, his first plea was, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you." He was a foreigner, not naturalised. And such is our relation to all this visible frame of things in which we dwell.

II. Let me point, in the second place, to the gloomy, aimless hollowness which that thought apart from God infuses into life. Shadow is opposed to substance, to that which is real, as well as that which is enduring. No matter how you may get on in the world, though you may fulfil every dream with which you began in your youth, you will certainly find that without Christ for your Brother and Saviour, God for your Friend, and heaven for your hope, life, with all its fulness, is empty. The crested waves seem heaped together as they recede from the eye till they reach the horizon, where miles of storm are seen but as a line of spray. So when a man looks back upon his life, if it have been a godless one, be sure of this, that it will be a dark and cheerless retrospect over a tossing waste, with a white rim of wandering, barren foam vexed by tempest.

III. Note, finally, how our other text in its significant words gives us the blessedness which springs from this same thought when it is looked at in connection with God: "I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner." (1) A stranger with Thee—then we are the guests of the King. (2) A stranger with Thee—then we have a constant Companion and an abiding presence. (3) Strangers with Thee—then we may carry our thoughts forward to the time when we shall go to our true home, nor wander any longer in the land that is not ours.

A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, 3rd series, p. 15.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

BAR�ES, "And now, Lord, what wait I for? - From the consideration of a vain world - of the fruitless efforts of man - of what so perplexed, embarrassed, and troubled him - the psalmist now turns to God, and looks to him as the source of consolation. Turning to Him, he gains more cheerful views of life. The expression “What wait I for?” means, what do I now expect or hope for; on what is my hope based; where do I find any cheerful, comforting views in regard to life? He had found none in the contemplation of the world itself, in man and his pursuits; in the course of things so shadowy and so mysterious; and he says now, that he turns to God to find comfort in his perplexities.

My hope is in thee - In thee alone. My reliance is on thee; my expectation is from thee. It is not from what I see in the world; it is not in my power of solving the mysteries which surround me; it is not that I can see the reason why these shadows are pursuing shadows so eagerly around me; it is in the God that made all, the Ruler over all, that can control all, and that can accomplish His own great purposes in connection even with these moving shadows, and that can confer on man thus vain in himself and in his pursuits that which will be valuable and permanent. The idea is, that the contemplation of a world so vain, so shadowy, so mysterious, should lead us away from all expectation of finding in that world what we need, or finding a solution of the questions which so much perplex us, up to the great God who is infinitely wise, and who can meet all the necessities of our immortal nature; and who, in his own time, can solve all these mysteries.

CLARKE,"And now, Lord, what wait I for? - Have I any object of pursuit in life, but to regain thy favor and thine image.

GILL, "And now, Lord, what wait I for?.... Look for, or expect, in this view of things? not long life, since the days of man are so short, and his age as nothing; not help from man, since he is altogether vanity; not riches and honour, since they are such poor, fading, perishing things; but the glories of another world, and the enjoyment of the Lord himself, both in this and that;

my hope is in thee; the psalmist now returns to himself, and comes to his right mind, and to a right way of judging and acting; making the Lord the object of his hope and trust, expecting all good things, grace and glory, alone from him; and this is the hope which makes not ashamed.

HE�RY, "The psalmist, having meditated on the shortness and uncertainty of life,

and the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend all the comforts of life, here, in these verses, turns his eyes and heart heaven-ward. When there is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature it is to be found in God, and in communion with him; and to him we should be driven by our disappointments in the world. David here expresses,

I. His dependence on God, Psa_39:7. Seeing all is vanity, and man himself is so, 1. He despairs of a happiness in the things of the world, and disclaims all expectations from it: “Now, Lord, what wait I for? Even nothing from the things of sense and time; I have nothing to wish for, nothing to hope for, from this earth.” Note, The consideration of the vanity and frailty of human life should deaden our desires to the things of this world and lower our expectations from it. “If the world be such a thing as this, God deliver me from having, or seeking, my portion in it.” We cannot reckon upon constant health and prosperity, nor upon comfort in any relation; for it is all as uncertain as our continuance here. “Though I have sometimes foolishly promised myself this and the other from the world, I am now of another mind.” 2. He takes hold of happiness and satisfaction in God: My hope is in thee. Note, When creature-confidences fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust to, and we should thereby be quickened to take so much the faster hold of him by faith.

JAMISO�,"The interrogation makes the implied negative stronger. Though this world offers nothing to our expectation, God is worthy of all confidence.

CALVI�, "7.And now, O Lord! what do I wait for? David, having acknowledged that his heart had been too much under the influence of ardent and impetuous emotion, from which he had experienced great disquietude, now returns to a calm and settled state of mind; and from this what I have before stated is rendered still more obvious, namely, that this psalm consists partly of appropriate prayers and partly of inconsiderate complaints. I have said that David here begins to pray aright. It is true, that even worldly men sometimes feel in the very same way in which David here acknowledges that he felt; but the knowledge of their own vanity does not lead them so far as to seek substantial support in God. On the contrary, they rather wilfully render themselves insensible, that they may indulge undisturbed in their own vanity. We may learn from this passage, that no man looks to God for the purpose of depending upon him, and resting his hope in him, until he is made to feel his own frailty, yea, and even brought to nought. There is tacitly great force in the adverb now, as if David had said, The flattery and vain imaginations by which the minds of men are held fast in the sleep of security no longer deceive me, but I am now fully sensible of my condition. But we must go beyond this elementary stage; for it is not enough, that, being aroused by a sense of our infirmity, we should seek with fear and trembling to know our duty, unless at the same time God manifest himself to us, on whom alone all our expectation should depend. Accordingly, as it serves no end for worldly men to be convinced of their utter vanity, because, although convinced of this, they never improve by it, let us learn to press forward and make still further progress, in order that, being as it were dead, we may be quickened by God, whose peculiar office it is to create all things out of nothing; for man then ceases to be vanity, and begins to be truly something, when, aided by the power of God, he aspires to heavenly things.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? What is there in these phantoms to enchant me? Why should I linger where the prospect is so uninviting, and the present so trying? It were worse than vanity to linger in the abodes of sorrow to gain a heritage of emptiness. The psalmist, therefore, turns to his God, in disgust of all things else; he has thought on the world and all things in it, and is relieved by knowing that such vain things are all passing away; he has cut all cords which bound him to earth, and is ready to sound "Boot and saddle, up and away." My hope is in thee. The Lord is self existent and true, and therefore worthy of the confidence of men; he will live when all the creatures die, and his fulness will abide when all second causes are exhausted; to him, therefore, let us direct our expectation, and on him let us rest our confidence. Away from sand to rock let all wise builders turn themselves, for if not today, yet surely ere long, a storm will rise before which nothing will be able to stand but that which has the lasting element of faith in God to cement it. David had but one hope, and that hope entered within the veil, hence he brought his vessel to safe anchorage, and after a little drifting all was peace.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.Ver. 7. Lord, what wait I for?At first her mother earth she holdeth dear,And doth embrace the world and worldly things:She flies close by the ground and hovers hereAnd mounts not up with her celestial wings.Yet under heaven she cannot light on oughtThat with her heavenly nature doth agree;She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought,She cannot in this world contented bee.Then as a bee which among weeds doth fall,Which seem sweet flowers with lustre fresh and gay:She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all,But pleased with none, doth rise, and soar away.So, when the soul finds here no true content,And like �oah's dove, can no sure footing take,She doth return from whence she first was sent,And flies to Him, that first her wings did make.Sir John Davies.Ver. 7.O loose this frame, this knot of man untie,That my free soul may use her wing.Which is now pinioned with mortality,As an entangled, hampered thing.What have I left that I should stay and groan?The most of me to heaven is fled;My thoughts and joys are all packed up and gone,And for their old acquaintance plead.George Herbert.Ver. 7. My hope is in thee. Sweet is it that our hope should rest in him who is never

shaken: should abide in him who never changeth; should bind us to him who can hold us fast to himself, who alone is the full contentment of the soul; should, as it were, enter into him; since in him is our being, who is love. E. B. Pusey, D.D., 1853.

COFFMA�, "Verse 7"And now Lord, what wait I for?

My hope is in thee."

"In this verse, the prayer shifts into a plea for mercy";[19] and, in sweet communion with God, all of the discouraging thoughts of the first half of the psalm are swallowed up; and the human spirit rejoices in the stability provided by that "anchor which entereth into that which is within the veil."

"What wait I for?" (Psalms 39:7). If life is 'as nothing,' a 'mere shadow,' 'all vanity' (as in Ecclesiastes), etc.? What is there to hope for?

The answer is 'God,' and the meaning is not so much that God will be the soul's portion in the future life, as that God's presence here and now redeems this life from its nothingness.[20]

How wonderfully true this is! When God "saves us," through Jesus Christ, that salvation not only includes eternal redemption from death itself and unending happiness throughout eternity, but that salvation endows our present existence with meaning, significance, purpose and an incredibly tremendous value, so great that Christ evaluated the worth of one human soul as greater than the world itself and everything in it.

ELLICOTT, "(7) And now, Lord . . .—“If such is man’s condition, what,” says the psalmist, “is my expectation?” We seem to hear the deep sigh with which the words are uttered; and we must remember that the poet can turn for comfort to no hope of immortality. That had not yet dawned. The thought of God’s mercy, and the hope of his own moral deliverance, these form the ground of his noble elevation above the oppressive sense of human frailty. The LXX. and Vulg. give it very expressively:—

“And now what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord?

And my substance is with thee.”

BE�SO�, "BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? &c. — Seeing this life, and all its enjoyments, are so vain and short to all men, and especially to me, I will never expect nor seek for happiness here from these vanities. I will compose myself patiently and contentedly to bear both my own afflictions, and the prosperity and glory of ungodly men, for both are vanishing and transitory things. And I will seek for happiness nowhere but in the love and favour of God, in glorifying him here, and in the hope or confident expectation of enjoying him

hereafter; and, in the mean time, of receiving from him those supplies and aids which my present condition calls for.

PETT, "Psalms 39:7-8

‘And now, Lord, what do I wait for?My hope is in you.Deliver me from all my transgressions,Make me not the reproach of the foolish.His solution lies in hoping in YHWH. He recognises that that is what he is waiting for. If there is any solution it is to be found in God, and in living for Him. So he prays that he might be delivered from all his transgressions, and might live a life that cannot be reproached by the foolish (those who themselves ignore God - Psalms 14:1), a life pleasing to God.

K&D 7-11 "(Heb.: 39:8-12) It is customary to begin a distinct turning-point of a

discourse with וע�ה: and now, i.e., in connection with this nothingness of vanity of a life

which is so full of suffering and unrest, what am I to hope, quid sperem (concerning the perfect, vid., on Psa_11:3)? The answer to this question which he himself throws out is, that Jahve is the goal of his waiting or hoping. It might appear strange that the poet is willing to make the brevity of human life a reason for being calm, and a ground of comfort. But here we have the explanation. Although not expressly assured of a future life of blessedness, his faith, even in the midst of death, lays hold on Jahve as the Living One and as the God of the living. It is just this which is so heroic in the Old Testament faith, that in the midst of the riddles of the present, and in the face of the future which is lost in dismal night, it casts itself unreservedly into the arms of God. While, however, sin is the root of all evil, the poet prays in Psa_39:9 before all else, that God would remove from him all the transgressions by which he has fully incurred his affliction; and while, given over to the consequences of his sin, he would become, not only to his own dishonour but also to the dishonour of God, a derision to the unbelieving, he prays in

Psa_39:9 that God would not permit it to come to this. �ל, Psa_39:9, has Mercha, and

is consequently, as in Psa_35:10, to be read with å (not ŏ), since an accent can never be

placed by Kametz chatûph. Concerning נבל, Psa_39:9, see on Psa_14:1. As to the rest he is

silent and calm; for God is the author, viz., of his affliction (עשה, used just as absolutely as in Ps 22:32; Psa_37:5; 52:11, Lam_1:21). Without ceasing still to regard intently the prosperity of the ungodly, he recognises the hand of God in his affliction, and knows that he has not merited anything better. But it is permitted to him to pray that God would

suffer mercy to take the place of right. -נגעך is the name he gives to his affliction, as in

Psa_38:12, as being a stroke (blow) of divine wrath; -�גרת-ידך, as a quarrel into which

God's hand has fallen with him; and by אני, with the almighty (punishing) hand of God,

he contrasts himself the feeble one, to whom, if the present state of things continues, ruin is certain. In Psa_39:12 he puts his own personal experience into the form of a

general maxim: when with rebukes (וכחות� from וכחת�, collateral form with וכחות ,�וכחה�) Thou chastenest a man on account of iniquity (perf. conditionale), Thou makest his pleasantness (Isa_53:3), i.e., his bodily beauty (Job_33:21), to melt away, moulder away

like the moth (Hos_5:12), so that ,(to cause to melt, Psa_6:7 המסה fut. apoc. from ,ו�מס)

it falls away, as a moth-eaten garment falls into rags. Thus do all men become mere nothing. They are sinful and perishing. The thought expressed in Psa_39:6 is here repeated as a refrain. The music again strikes in here, as there.

8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

BAR�ES, "Deliver me from all my transgressions - Recognising, as in Psa_38:3-5, his sins as the source of all his troubles and sorrows. If his transgressions were forgiven, he felt assured that his trouble would be removed. His first petition, therefore, is, that his sins might be pardoned, with the implied conscious assurance that then it would be consistent and proper for God to remove his calamity, and deliver him from the evils which had come upon him.

Make me not the reproach of the foolish - Of the wicked; of those who are foolish, because they are wicked. See the notes at Psa_14:1. The prayer here is, that God would not suffer him to become an object of reproach to wicked and foolish men; that is, as the passage implies, that God would not so continue to treat him as if he were a sinner as to justify to themselves their reproaches of him as a wicked man. In other words, he prays that God would forgive his sin, and would withdraw his hand of affliction, so that even the wicked might see that he was not angry with him, but that he was an object of the divine favor.

CLARKE,"Deliver one from all may transgressions - I seek the pardon of my sins; I expect it from thy mercy. Grant it, “that I be not the reproach of the foolish,” (the godless and the profane), who deride my expectation, and say no such blessings can be had. Let them know, by thy saving me, that there is a God who heareth prayer, and giveth his Holy Spirit to all them that ask him.

GILL, "Deliver me from all my transgressions,.... Which were the cause and occasion of all his distresses, inward and outward; and the deliverance prayed for includes a freedom from the dominion of sin, which is by the power of efficacious grace; and from the guilt of sin, which is by the application of the blood of Christ; and from

obligation to punishment for it, or deliverance from wrath to come, which is through Christ's being made a curse, and enduring wrath in the room and stead of his people; and from the very being of sin, which, though it cannot be expected in this life, is desirable: and the psalmist prays that he might be delivered from "all" his transgressions; knowing: that if one of them was left to have dominion over him, or the guilt of it to lie upon him, and he be obliged to undergo due punishment for it, he must be for ever miserable;

make me not the reproach of the foolish; of a Nabal; meaning not any particular person; as Esau, according to Jarchi; or Absalom, as others; but every foolish man, that is, a wicked man; such who deny the being and providence of God, make a mock at sin, and scoff at the saints: and the sense of the psalmist is, that the Lord would keep him from sinning, and deliver him out of all his afflictions, on account of which he was reproached by wicked men.

HE�RY, " His desire towards God, and the prayers he puts up to him. Is any afflicted? let him pray, as David here,

1. For the pardoning of his sin and the preventing of his shame, Psa_39:8. Before he prays (Psa_39:10), Remove thy stroke from me, he prays (Psa_39:8), “Deliver me from all my offences, from the guilt I have contracted, the punishment I have deserved, and the power of corruption by which I have been enslaved.” When God forgives our sins he delivers us from them, he delivers us from them all. He pleads, Make me not a reproach to the foolish. Wicked people are foolish people; and they then show their folly most when they think to show their wit, by scoffing at God's people. When David prays that God would pardon his sins, and not make him a reproach, it is to be taken as a prayer for peace of conscience (“Lord, leave me not to the power of melancholy, which the foolish will laugh at me for”), and as a prayer for grace, that God would never leave him to himself, so far as to do any thing that might make him a reproach to bad men. Note, This is a good reason why we should both watch and pray against sin, because the credit of our profession is nearly concerned in the preservation of our integrity.

JAMISO�,"Patiently submissive, he prays for the removal of his chastisement, and that he may not be a reproach.

CALVI�, "8.Deliver me from all my sins. In this verse the Psalmist still continues his godly and holy prayer. He is now no longer carried away by the violence of his grief to murmur against God, but, humbly acknowledging himself guilty before God, he has recourse to his mercy. In asking to be delivered from his transgressions, he ascribes the praise of righteousness to God, while he charges upon himself the blame of all the misery which he endures; and he blames himself, not only on account of one sin, but acknowledges that he is justly chargeable with manifold transgressions. By this rule we must be guided, if we would wish to obtain an alleviation of our miseries; for, until the very source of them has been dried up, they will never cease to follow one another in rapid succession. David unquestionably wished an alleviation of his miseries, but, as he expected that, as soon as he should be reconciled to God, the chastisement of his sins would also cease, he only here asks that his sins may be forgiven him. We are thus taught by the example of David, not

merely to seek deliverance from the miseries which afflict and trouble us, but to trace them to their cause and source, entreating God that he would not lay our sins to our charge, but blot out our guilt. What follows concerning the reproach or scorn of the foolish may be understood in an active as well as a passive signification, denoting, either that God would not abandon him to the mockery of the wicked, or that he would not involve him in the same disgrace to which the ungodly are given over. As, however, either of these senses will agree very well with the design of the Psalmist, I leave it to the reader to adopt the one which he prefers. Besides, the word nabal, signifies not only a foolish person, but also a contemptible man, one who , נבלis utterly worthless and base. It is at least certain, that by this word the reprobate, whom the Scriptures condemn for their folly, are intended; because, being deprived of their reason and understanding, they break forth into every excess in contemning and reproaching God.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 8. Deliver me from all my transgressions. How fair a sign it is when the psalmist no longer harps upon his sorrows, but begs freedom from his sins! What is sorrow when compared with sin! Let but the poison of sin be gone from the cup, and we need not fear its gall, for the bitter will act medicinally. �one can deliver a man from his transgression but the blessed One who is called Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins; and when he once works this great deliverance for a man from the cause, the consequences are sure to disappear too. The thorough cleansing desired is well worthy of note: to be saved from some transgressions would be of small benefit; total and perfect deliverance is needed. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. The wicked are the foolish here meant: such are always on the watch for the faults of saints, and at once make them the theme of ridicule. It is a wretched thing for a man to be suffered to make himself the butt of unholy scorn by apostasy from the right way. Alas, how many have thus exposed themselves to well deserved reproach! Sin and shame go together, and from both David would fain be preserved.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.Ver. 8. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. Let not their prosperity and my misery give them occasion to deride and reproach me for my serving of thee and trusting in thee to so little purpose. Matthew Pool.Ver. 8. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. Doubt not this; that of all the bitter agony which will be the portion of the lost soul at that, "Depart, ye cursed, "not the least will be the bitter reproaches and derision of those evil spirits who have seduced him to his ruin. "For this morsel of meat to have sold thy birthright! For the fleshly pleasures of a few days to have bartered thine eternal jewel! For a few grains of yellow earth to have missed the city with streets of gold, and gates of several pearls! O fool, beyond all folly! O madman, beyond all insanity! Truly we have need to pray with all earnestness, Make me not the reproach of the foolish." Origen, quoted by J. M. �eale.

COFFMA�, "Verse 8"Deliver me from all my transgressions:

Make me not the reproach of the foolish."

Here is the glory of Old Testament faith. How heroic it is, that in the midst of the riddles of the present, and the looming darkness of that night in which no man can work, and the pitiful brevity of our earthly pilgrimage, that faith lays hold on God as the ultimate reality. He created us; he is the answer; he is the Redeemer; he is our hope and our salvation!

ELLICOTT, "(8) Here the psalmist recurs to his initial thought, but lets us see deeper down into his heart. It was no mere fancy that if he gave vent to his feelings the wicked might find cause for reproach; the cause was there in his own consciousness of transgression.

The reproach of the foolish.—Better, The scorn of the fool. (Comp. Psalms 22:6.)

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:8. Deliver me from all my transgressions — That I may not be disappointed of my hopes of enjoying thee and thy favour, which is the chief thing I desire, pardon and deliver me from all my sins, which stand like a thick cloud between thee and me, and even fill me with fears about my condition both here and hereafter. Make me not the reproach of the foolish — Of the ungodly. Let not my remaining under the guilt, and power of my transgressions give them reason to reproach me as a hypocrite, and a person whose life is not consistent with his profession. And let not their prosperity and my misery give them occasion to deride me, for my serving of thee, and trusting in thee to so little purpose or advantage. He terms the ungodly foolish, because though they profess and think themselves to be wise, yet they are indeed fools, as is manifest from their eager pursuit of fruitless vanities, Psalms 39:6, and from their gross neglect of God and his service, who only is able to make men happy.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

BAR�ES, "I was dumb - See the notes at Psa_39:2. Compare Isa_53:7. The meaning here is, that he did not open his mouth to complain; he did not speak of God as

if he had dealt unkindly or unjustly with him.

I opened not my mouth - I kept entire silence. This would be better rendered, “I am dumb; I will not open my mouth.” The meaning is, not that he had been formerly silent and uncomplaining, but that he was now silenced, or that his mind was now calm, and that he acquiesced in the dealings of Divine Providence. The state of mind here, if should be further observed, is not that which is described in Psa_39:2. There he represents himself as mute, or as restraining himself from uttering what was in his mind, because he felt that it would do harm, by encouraging the wicked in their views of God and of his government; here he says that he was now silenced - he acquiesced - he had no disposition to say anything against the government of God. He was mute, not by putting a restraint on himself, but because he had nothing to say.

Because thou didst it - thou hast done that which was so mysterious to me; that about which I was so much disposed to complain; that which has overwhelmed me with affliction and sorrow. It is now, to my mind, a sufficient reason for silencing all my complains, and producing entire acquiescence, that it has been done by thee. That fact is to me sufficient proof that it is right, and wise, and good; that fact makes my mind calm. “The best proof that anything is right and best is that it is done by God.” The most perfect calmness and peace in trouble is produced, not when we rely on our own reasonings, or when we attempt to comprehend and explain a mystery, but when we direct our thoughts simply to the fact that “God has done it.” This is the highest reason that can be presented to the human mind, that what is done is right; this raises the mind above the mysteriousness of what is done, and makes it plain that it should be done; this leaves the reasons why it is done, where they should be left, with God. This consideration will calm down the feelings when nothing else would do it, and dispose the mind, even under the deepest trials, to acquiescence and peace. I saw this verse engraved, with great appropriateness, on a beautiful marble monument that had been erected over a grave where lay three children that had been suddenly cut down by the scarlet fever. What could be more suitable in such a trial than such a text? What could more strikingly express the true feelings of Christian piety - the calm submission of redeemed souls -than the disposition of parents, thus bereaved, to record such a sentiment over the grave of their children?

GILL, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth,.... This refers either to his former silence, before he broke it, Psa_39:1, or to what he after that came into again, when he had seen the folly of his impatience, the frailty of his life, the vanity of man, and all human affairs, and had been directed to place his hope and confidence in the Lord, Psa_39:5; or to the present frame of his mind, and his future conduct, he had resolved upon; and may be rendered, "I am dumb"; or "will be dumb, and will not open my mouth" (e); that is, not in a complaining and murmuring way against the Lord, but be still, and know or own that he is God;

because thou didst it; not "because thou hast made me", as Austin reads the, words, and as the Arabic version renders them, "because thou hast created me"; though the consideration of God being a Creator lays his creatures under obligation as to serve him, so to be silent under his afflicting hand upon them; but the sense is, that the psalmist was determined to be patient and quiet under his affliction, because God was the author of it; for though he is not the author of the evil of sin, yet of the evil of affliction; see Amo_3:6; and it is a quieting consideration to a child of God under it, that it comes from God, who is a sovereign Being, and does what he pleases; and does all things well and wisely, in truth and faithfulness, and in mercy and loving kindness: this some refer to the

rebellion of Absalom, and the cursing of Shimei, 2Sa_12:11; or it may refer to the death of his child, 2Sa_12:22; or rather to some sore affliction upon himself; since it follows,

HE�RY, " His submission to God, and his cheerful acquiescence in his holy will, Psa_39:9. If our hope be in God for a happiness in the other world, we may well afford to reconcile ourselves to all the dispensations of his providence concerning us in this world: “I was dumb; I opened not my mouth in a way of complaint and murmuring.” He now again recovered that serenity and sedateness of mind which were disturbed, Psa_39:2. Whatever comforts he is deprived of, whatever crosses he is burdened with, he will be easy. “Because thou didst it; it did not come to pass by chance, but according to thy appointment.” We may here see, 1. A good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us. Of every event we may say, “This is the finger of God; it is the Lord's doing,” whoever were the instruments. 2. A good man, for that reason, saying nothing against it. He is dumb, he has nothing to object, no question to ask, no dispute to raise upon it. All that God does is well done.

SBC, "I. "Thou didst it." It is something to have got firm hold of a fact. A great deal is gained when the sorrow has been traced up to God.

II. "Thou didst it" has some treasures of knowledge for us. As we go round it we begin to make discoveries. (1) God did it; then I know that infinite wisdom did it. (2) God did it; then I know that infinite power did it. (3) God did it, and therefore I know that infinite love did it.

M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, p. 207.

CALVI�, "9.I was dumb Here David blames himself, because he had not preserved that silence which, as we have already seen, the violence of his grief forced him to break. When he says then that he was dumb, he does not mean this as a commendation of the uniform and persevering restraint which he had exercised over himself. It is rather a correction of his error, as if reproving his own impatience, he had spoken within himself in this way: What doest thou? thou hadst enjoined upon thyself silence, and now thou murmurest proudly against God; what wilt thou gain by this presumption? We have here a very profitable and instructive lesson; for nothing is better fitted to restrain the violent paroxysms of grief, than the recollection that we have to do, not with a mortal man, but with God, who will always maintain his own righteousness in opposition to all that men may say against it in their murmuring complaints, and even in their outrageous accusations. What is the reason why the great majority of men run to such excess in their impatience, but because they forget that, in doing so, they dare to plead a controversy with God? Thus, while some impute all their miseries to fortune, and others to men, and others account for them from a variety of causes which their own fancy suggests, while scarcely one in a hundred recognises in them the hand of God, they allow themselves to indulge in bitter complaint, without ever thinking that in so doing they offend God. David, on the contrary, in order to subdue every unholy desire and sinful excess, returns to God, and resolves to keep silence, because the affliction which he is now suffering proceeded from God. As David, who was thus afflicted with the severest trials, resolved nevertheless to keep silence, let us learn from this, that it is

one of the chief exercises of our faith to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and to submit to his judgments without murmuring or complaint. It is to be observed, that men humbly and calmly submit themselves to God only when they are persuaded, not only that he does by his almighty power whatever he pleases, but that he is also a righteous Judge; for although the wicked feel that the hand of God is upon them, yet as they charge him with cruelty and tyranny, they cease not to pour forth horrible blasphemies against him. In the meantime, David regards the secret judgments of God with such reverence and wonder, that, satisfied with his will alone, he considers it sinful to open his mouth to utter a single word against him.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. This had been far clearer if it had been rendered, "I am silenced, I will not open my mouth." Here we have a nobler silence, purged of all sullenness, and sweetened with submission. �ature failed to muzzle the mouth, but grace achieved the work in the worthiest manner. How like in appearance may two very different things appear! silence is ever silence, but it may be sinful in one case and saintly in another. What a reason for hushing every murmuring thought is the reflection, "because thou didst it."! It is his right to do as he wills, and he always wills to do that which is wisest and kindest; why should I then arraign his dealings? �ay, if it be indeed the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 2-9. See Psalms on "Psalms 39:2" for further information.Ver. 9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. See David's carriage here; it was a patience not constrained, but from satisfaction of spirit: he saw love in his affliction, and that sweetened his soul. Joseph Symonds.Ver. 9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. God is training up his children here. This is the true character of his dealings with them. The education of his saints is the object he has in view. It is training for the kingdom; it is education for eternity...It is the discipline of love. Every step of it is kindness. There is no wrath nor vengeance in any part of the process. The discipline of the school may be harsh and stern; but that of the family is love. We are sure of this; and the consolation which it affords is unutterable. Love will not wrong us. There will be no needless suffering. Were this but kept in mind there would be fewer hard thoughts of God amongst men, even when his strokes are most severe. I know not a better illustration of what the feelings of a saint should be, in the hour of bitterness, than the case of Richard Cameron's father. The aged saint was in prison "for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." The bleeding head of his martyred son was brought to him by his unfeeling persecutors, and he was asked derisively if he knew it. "I know it, I know it, "—said the father, as he kissed the mangled forehead of his fair haired son —"it is my son's, my own dear son's! It is the Lord! good is the will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me or mine, but who hath made goodness and mercy to follow us all our days." Horatius Bonar, in "The �ight of Weeping, "1847.Ver. 9. Because thou didst it. This holy man had a breach made both at his body and spirit at this time; he was sick and sad; yet he remembers from whose hand the blow came. Thou, Lord, didst it; thou, whom I love dearly, and so can take it kindly; thou

whom I have offended, and so take it patiently; yea, thou, who mightest have cast me into a bed of flames, instead of my bed of sickness, and therefore I accept thy correction thankfully. Thus he catches at the blow without retorting it back upon God by any quarrelling discontented language. William Gurnall.Ver. 9. Because thou didst it. We digest not a blow from our equals, but a blow from our king we can well digest. If the King of kings lays his hand on our backs, let us, beloved, lay our hands on our mouths. I am sure this stopped David's mouth from venting fretful speeches. "I held my tongue and said nothing." Why didst thou so, David? Because thou, Lord, didst it; and God gives this testimony of such an one; that he is a prudent man that keeps silence at an evil time. Amos 5:13. �icholas Estwick, B.D., 1644.Ver. 9. Perkins, in his "Salve for a Sick Man, "gives the "last words" of many holy men, among others of Calvin: —"I held my tongue, because thou, Lord, hast done it—I mourned as a dove— Lord, you ground me to powder, but it suffices me because it is thy hand."Ver. 9. I wondered once at providence, and called white providence black and unjust, that I should be smothered in a town where no soul will take Christ off my hand. But providence hath another lustre (shining; appearance) with God than with my bleared eyes. I proclaim myself a blind body, who knoweth not black and white, in the unco (strange) course of God's providence. Suppose that Christ should set hell where heaven is, and devils up in glory beside the elect angels (which yet cannot be), I would I had a heart to acquiesce in his way, without further dispute. I see that infinite wisdom is the mother of his judgments, and that his ways pass finding out. I cannot learn, but I desire to learn, to bring my thoughts, will, and lusts in under (close under) Christ's feet, that he may trample upon them. But, alas! I am still upon Christ's wrong side. Samuel Rutherford.Ver. 9. A little girl, in the providence of God, was born deaf and dumb. She was received, and instructed, at an institution established for these afflicted ones. A visitor was one day requested to examine the children thus sadly laid aside from childhood's common joys. Several questions were asked, and quickly answered by means of a slate and pencil. At length the gentleman wrote, Why were you born deaf and dumb? A look of anguish clouded for the moment the expressive face of the little girl; but it quickly passed, as she took her slate, and wrote, "Even so, Father; for so it seemeth good in thy sight." Mrs. Rogers, in "The Shepherd King."

COFFMA�, "Verse 9"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth;

Because thou didst it."

It is better to follow the RSV in this verse, which has: "I am dumb, I do not open my mouth; for it is thou who hast done it." This simply means that all of David's questions are answered. Having turned to God and having sought his pardon and forgiveness, everything else is suddenly all right; and that is the way it has ever been for people who truly turned to the Lord.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:9. I opened not my mouth — In the way of murmuring or repining against thee or thy providence, as I promised I would not, Psalms 39:1. For though, when I looked only to instruments, I was discomposed, and did at last speak foolishly; yet when I recollected myself, and looked up to thee, the first cause and sovereign disposer of this afflictive dispensation, I returned to my former silence. Because thou didst it — Didst send this chastisement: meaning, probably, either, 1st, The rebellion and untimely death of Absalom; in which he acknowledged the just hand of God, punishing his sins: or, 2d, Some other affliction.

10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

BAR�ES, "Remove thy stroke away from me - And yet this calm submission, as expressed in Psa_39:9, does not take away the desire that the hand of God may be removed, and that the suffering that is brought upon us may cease. Perfect submission is not inconsistent with the prayer that, if it be the will of God, the calamity may be

removed: Luk_22:42. On the word here rendered “stroke” - ‛nega נגע - see the notes at

Psa_38:11. It is equivalent here to chastisement, or judgment. It refers to the trial which he was then enduring, whatever it was, which had given occasion to the feelings that he says Psa_39:1-2 he had felt bound to suppress when in the presence of the wicked, but in reference to which he had learned entirely to acquiesce Psa_39:9. From that trial itself he now prays that he may be delivered.

I am consumed - I am wasting away. I cannot long bear up under it. I must sink down to the grave if it is not removed. See Psa_39:13.

By the blow of thine hand -Margin, as in Hebrew: “conflict.” That is, the blow which God brings on anyone when he has, as it were, a “strife” or a “conflict” with him. It is designed here to express his affliction, as if God had “struck” him.

CLARKE,"Remove thy stroke away from me - This seems to be a figure taken from gladiators, or persons contending in single combat. One is wounded so as to be able to maintain the fight no longer: he therefore gives in, and prays his adversary to spare his life. I am conquered; I can hold the contest no longer: thou art too powerful for me. He cries what our ancestors used to term craven; the word spoken by him who was conquered in the battle ordeal, or trial by combat.

GILL, "Remove thy stroke away from me,.... The psalmist still considers his affliction as coming from the hand of God, as his stroke upon him, and which lay as a heavy burden on him, and which God only could remove; and to him he applies for the removal of it, who is to be sought unto by his people to do such things for them; nor is such an application any ways contrary to that silence and patience before expressed;

I am consumed by the blow of thine hand; meaning either that his flesh was consumed by his affliction, which came from the hand of God, or he should be consumed if he did not remove it: he could not bear up under it, but must sink and die; if he continued to strive and contend with him, his spirit would fail before him, and the soul that he had made; and therefore he entreats he would remember he was but dust, and remove his hand from him; for this is a reason enforcing the preceding petition.

HE�RY, " For the removal of his affliction, that he might speedily be eased of his present burdens (Psa_39:10): Remove thy stroke away from me. Note, When we are under the correcting hand of God our eye must be to God himself, and not to any other, for relief. He only that inflicts the stroke can remove it; and we may then in faith, and with satisfaction, pray that our afflictions may be removed, when our sins are pardoned (Isa_38:17), and when, as here, the affliction is sanctified and has done its work, and we are humbled under the hand of God.

(1.) He pleads the great extremity he was reduced to by his affliction, which made him the proper object of God's compassion: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. His sickness prevailed to such a degree that his spirits failed, his strength was wasted, and his body emaciated. “The blow, or conflict, of thy hand has brought me even to the gates of death.” Note, The strongest, and boldest, and best of men cannot bear up under, much less make head against, the power of God's wrath. It was not his case only, but any man will find himself an unequal match for the Almighty, Psa_39:11. When God, at any time, contends with us, when with rebukes he corrects us, [1.] We cannot impeach the equity of his controversy, but must acknowledge that he is righteous in it; for, whenever he corrects man, it is for iniquity. Our ways and our doings procure the trouble to ourselves, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. It is the yoke of our transgressions, though it be bound with his hand, Lam_1:14. [2.] We cannot oppose the effects of his controversy, but he will be too hard for us. As we have nothing to move in arrest of his judgment, so we have no way of escaping the execution. God's rebukes make man's beauty to consume away like a moth; we often see, we sometimes feel, how much the body is weakened and decayed by sickness in a little time; the countenance is changed; where are the ruddy cheek and lip, the sprightly eye, the lively look, the smiling face? It is the reverse of all this that presents itself to view. What a poor thing is beauty; and what fools are those that are proud of it, or in love with it, when it will certainly, and may quickly, be consumed thus! Some make the moth to represent man, who is as easily crushed as a moth with the touch of a finger, Job_4:19. Others make it to represent the divine rebukes, which silently and insensibly waste and consume us, as the moth does the garment. All this abundantly proves what he had said before, that surely every man is vanity, weak and helpless; so he will be found when God comes to contend with him.

CALVI�, "10Take away thy stroke from me. David here confirms the prayer which he had already presented, namely, that having obtained pardon from God, he might, at the same time, be gently dealt with by him. This prayer, however, does not disturb the silence of which he had just made mention; for our desires and prayers,

if they are framed according to the rule of God’s word, are not inconsiderate and noisy so as to provoke the divine displeasure against us, but proceed from the calm stillness which faith and patience produce in our hearts. It is indeed true, that when any one prays earnestly to God, he cannot fail to mix up with it his own feelings, pour forth his complaints, and manifest an extreme ardor. But we see that David, who formerly bewailed his miseries in loud lamentations, now sets himself calmly to consider and weigh what he merited, and prays for pardon. His meaning is, that God would mitigate the punishment which he had inflicted upon him. The reason immediately follows; for I have fainted by the blow of thy hand. In thus speaking, David does not allege this as an excuse to extenuate his fault, but desires that he may be borne with in his infirmity. As he says with respect to himself individually, that he is consumed, because he feels that the hand of God is against him, so he immediately states in the 11th verse the same truth in general terms, telling us, that if God should begin to deal with us according to the strict demands of the law, the consequence would be, that all would perish, and be utterly overwhelmed under his wrath. He plainly shows, first, that he is speaking not of any one man, or even of men generally, for he makes use of a Hebrew word, which denotes a man renowned for his valor, courage, or excellence; (74) and then, secondly, he says, that if God should set himself to chastise such persons, every thing which they esteem precious in themselves would consume away or be dissolved. The sum is, that among men there is no one endued with such power and glory whom the wrath of God, if it burn fiercely against him, will not forthwith bring to nothing. But it will be necessary to examine the words more minutely. David does not simply describe the dreadful character of God’s wrath; but at the same time he declares and sets forth his righteousness in all the punishments which he inflicts upon men. The judgments of God sometimes strike fear and dread into the hearts even of heathen men, but their blindness fills them with such rage, that they still continue to fight against God. By the term rebukes, David means severe punishments, such as are the tokens of strict justice and signs of divine wrath. We know that God often exercises the rod of his chastisement upon true believers, but he does it in such a manner as that in punishing them he at the same time gives them a taste of his mercy and his love, and not only tempers the chastisements with which he visits them, but also mingles them with comfort, which serves to render them much more tolerable. David, then, is not speaking in this place of fatherly chastisement, but of the punishment which God inflicts upon the reprobate, when, like an inexorable judge in the exercise of his office, he executes against them the judgment which they have merited. He tells us that when God makes this rigour to be felt, there is no man who does not forthwith consume or pine away. At first view the comparison of God to a moth may seem absurd; for what relation is there, it may be said, between a small moth-worm and the infinite majesty of God? I answer, That David has with much propriety made use of this simile, that we may know that although God does not openly thunder from heaven against the reprobate, yet his secret curse ceases not to consume them away, just as the moth, though unperceived, wastes by its secret gnawing a piece of cloth or wood. (75) At the same time, he alludes to the excellency (76) of man, which he says is destroyed as it were by corruption, when God is offended, even as the moth destroys the most precious cloths by wasting them. The Scriptures often very appropriately employ various similitudes in this Way, and are wont to apply them

sometimes in one view and sometimes in another. When Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:13) compares God to a lion, he does so in reference to the feelings of his own mind, because he was so prostrated and overwhelmed with fear and terror. But in this place David teaches us, that although the world may not perceive the dreadful vengeance of God, yet it consumes the reprobate by secretly gnawing them. This sentence, that every man is vanity, is again very properly repeated; for until we are overcome by the power of God, and as it were humbled in the dust, we never search into our own hearts, that the knowledge of our own vanity may divest us of all presumption. Whence is it that men are so foolishly satisfied with themselves, yea, and even applaud themselves, unless it be that, so long as God bears with them, they are wilfully blind to their own infirmities? The only remedy, then, by which men are cured of pride is when, alarmed with a sense of God’s wrath, they begin not only to be dissatisfied with themselves, but also to humble themselves even to the dust.

“With rebukes thou chastisest man for iniquity,Then thou destroyest his goodliness as a mothdestroyeth a garment.”

This is precisely Calvin’s interpretation. The moth is called in Hebrew עש,ash, from its corroding and destroying the texture of cloth, etc. See Parkhurst’s Lexicon on the word עש. The metaphor here employed is of frequent occurrence in Scripture. For example, in Hosea 5:12, God says, “I will be to Ephraim as a moth,” that is, I will consume them; and in Isaiah 50:9, it is said, “The moth shall eat them as a garment.”

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 10. Remove thy stroke away from me. Silence from all repining did not prevent the voice of prayer, which must never cease. In all probability the Lord would grant the psalmist's petition, for he usually removes affliction when we are resigned to it; if we kiss the rod, our Father always burns it. When we are still, the rod is soon still. It is quite consistent with resignation to pray for the removal of a trial. David was fully acquiescent in the divine will, and yet found it in his heart to pray for deliverance; indeed, it was while he was rebellious that he was prayerless about his trial, and only when he became submissive did he plead for mercy. I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. Good pleas may be found in our weakness and distress. It is well to show our Father the bruises which his scourge has made, for peradventure his fatherly pity will bind his hands, and move him to comfort us in his bosom. It is not to consume us, but to consume our sins, that the Lord aims at in his chastisements.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 10. Remove thy plague away from me: thy plague and mine; thine by affliction, mine by passion; thine because thou didst send it, mine because I endure it; thine because it comes from thy justice, mine because it answers my injustice; remit what I have done, and remove what thou hast done. But whosoever laid it on, the Lord will take it off. Thomas Adams.Ver. 10. Remove, etc. Having first prayed off his sin, he would now pray off his pain, though it less troubled him; and for ease he repairs to Jehovah that healeth, as well

as woundeth. Hosea 6:1. John Trapp.HI�TS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHERVer. 10.1. Afflictions are sent by God. Thy strokes. They are strokes of his hand, not of the rod of the law, but of the shepherd's rod. Every affliction is his stroke.2. Afflictions are removed by God. Remove. He asks not for miracles, but that God in his own way, in the use of natural means, would interpose for his deliverance. We should seek his blessing upon the means employed for our deliverance both by ourselves and others. "Cause to remove, "etc.3. Afflictions have their end from God. I am consumed by the conflict, etc. God hath a controversy with his people. It is a conflict between his will and their wills. The psalmist owns himself conquered and subdued in the struggle. We should be more anxious that this end should be accomplished than that the affliction should be removed, and when this is accomplished the affliction will be removed. G. Rogers.Ver. 10.1. The cause of our trials: "for iniquity." Oh, this trial is come to take away my comforts, my peace of mind, and the divine smile! �o, this is all the fruit to take away their sin—the dross, none of the gold —sin, nothing but sin.2. The effect of our trials. All that he counted desirable in this life, but not for his real good, is consumed. His robes which are beautiful in men's esteem are moth eaten, but the robe of righteousness upon his soul cannot decay.3. The design of our trials. They are not penal inflictions, but friendly rebukes and fatherly corrections. On Christ our Surety the penal consequences were laid, upon us their paternal chastisements only.4. The reasonableness of our trials. "Surely every man is vanity." How in a world like this could any expect to be exempt from trials! The world is the same to the Christian as before, and his body is the same. He has a converted soul in an unconverted body, and how can he escape the external ills of life? G. Rogers.

COFFMA�,"Verse 10"Remove thy stroke away from me;

I am consumed by the blow of thy hand."

This is a prayer that God will take away the hindrance that came to David in some defeat, some illness, some sorrow, or some sin that caused God's displeasure. It is impossible for us to know what exactly that might have been; but there was some consciousness on David's part of God's being displeased; and here he pleads for forgiveness and the removal of that displeasure.

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:10-11. Remove thy stroke away from me — But though I may not, I will not, open my mouth to complain, yet I may open it to pray, that thou wouldest take off the judgment that thou hast inflicted upon me. I am consumed, &c. — Help me, therefore, before I be utterly and irrecoverably lost. When thou with rebukes — That is, with punishments, which are often so called; dost correct man for iniquity — Dost punish him as his iniquity deserves. Thou makest his

beauty to consume away — Hebrew, חמודו, chamudo, desiderabile ejus, his desirable things, as this word signifies, Lamentations 1:11 ; Daniel 9:23; Daniel 10:3; Daniel 10:11; Daniel 10:19; his comeliness, strength, wealth, prosperity, and all his present excellences and felicities; like a moth — As a moth is easily crushed to pieces with a touch. Thus the Chaldee paraphrase, Like a moth broken asunder: or, rather, as a moth consumeth a garment, as Job 13:28; Isaiah 50:9, to which God compares his judgments secretly and insensibly consuming a people, Isaiah 51:8; Hosea 5:12. Surely every man is vanity — As was affirmed, Psalms 39:5, and is hereby confirmed. For though men in the height of their prosperity will not believe it, yet when God contendeth with them by his judgments, they are forced to acknowledge it.

PETT, "Psalms 39:10-11

Remove your stroke away from me,I am consumed by the blow of your hand.When you with rebukes correct man for iniquity,You make his beauty to consume away like a moth,Surely every man is vanity.’ Selah.So he now prays that he might recover from his illness. For his illness had dragged him down and almost devoured him, as by a blow from God’s hand. The result of this rebuke from God, which had been in order to correct him from his sinful ways, was that he had become but a shadow of his former self. He had become, as it were, moth-eaten. And it had revealed to him how vain life in itself was.

11 When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

BAR�ES, "When thou with rebukes - The word here rendered “rebukes” means properly:

(a) proof or demonstration;

(b) confutation or contradiction;

(c) reproof or admonition by words;

(d) reproof by correction or punishment.

This is the meaning here. The idea of the psalmist is, that God, by punishment or calamity, expresses his sense of the evil of human conduct; and that, under such an expression of it, man, being unable to sustain it, melts away or is destroyed.

Dost correct man for iniquity - Dost punish man for his sin; or dost express thy sense of the evil of sin by the calamities which are brought upon him.

Thou makest his beauty -Margin: “That which is to be desired in him.” The Hebrew means “desired, delighted in;” then, something desirable, pleasant; a delight. Its meaning is not confined to “beauty.” It refers to anything that is to man an object of desire or delight - strength, beauty, possessions, life itself. All are made to fade away before the expressions of the divine displeasure.

To consume away like a moth - Not as a moth is consumed, but as a moth consumes or destroys valuable objects, such as clothing. See the notes at Job_4:19. The beauty, the vigor, the strength of man is marred and destroyed, as the texture of cloth is by the moth.

Surely every man is vanity - That is, he is seen to be vanity - to have no strength, no permanency - by the ease with which God takes away all on which he had prided himself. See the notes at Psa_39:5.

CLARKE,"When thou with rebukes dost correct man - tochachoth תוכחותsignifies a vindication of proceedings in a court of law, a legal defense. When God comes to maintain the credit and authority of his law against a sinner, he “causes his beauty to consume away:” a metaphor taken from the case of a culprit, who, by the arguments of counsel, and the unimpeachable evidence of witnesses, has the facts all proved against him, grows pale, looks terrified; his fortitude forsakes him, and he faints in court.

Surely every man is vanity - He is incapable of resistance; he falls before his Maker; and none can deliver him but his Sovereign and Judge, against whom he has offended.

Selah - This is a true saying, an everlasting truth.

GILL, "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,.... The psalmist illustrates his own case, before suggested, by the common case and condition of men, when God corrects them; which he has a right to do, as the Father of spirits, and which he does with rebukes; sometimes with rebukes of wrath, with furious rebukes, rebukes in flames of fire, as the men of the world; and sometimes with rebukes of love, the chastenings of a father, as his own dear children; and always for iniquity, whether one or another; and not the iniquity of Adam is here meant, but personal iniquity: and correction for it is to be understood of some bodily affliction, as the effect of it shows;

thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; that is, secretly, suddenly, and at once; as a moth eats a garment, and takes off the beauty of it; or as easily as a moth is crushed between a man's fingers; so the Targum;

"he melts away as a moth, whose body is broken:''

the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, and so the metaphrase of Apollinarius, read, as a spider which destroys itself. The word rendered "beauty" takes in

all that is desirable in man; as his flesh, his strength, his comeliness, his pleasantness of countenance, &c. all which are quickly destroyed by a distemper of the body seizing on it; wherefore the psalmist makes and confirms the conclusion he had made before:

surely every man is vanity; See Gill on Psa_39:5;

JAMISO�,"From his own case, he argues to that of all, that the destruction of man’s enjoyments is ascribable to sin.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity. God does not trifle with his rod; he uses it because of sin, and with a view to whip us from it; hence he means his strokes to be felt, and felt they are. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. As the moth frets the substance of the fabric, mars all its beauty, and leaves it worn out and worthless, so do the chastisements of God discover to us our folly, weakness, and nothingness, and make us feel ourselves to be as worn out vestures, worthless and useless. Beauty must be a poor thing when a moth can consume it and a rebuke can mar it. All our desires and delights are wretched moth eaten things when the Lord visits us in his anger. Surely every man is vanity. He is as Trapp wittily says "a curious picture of nothing." He is unsubstantial as his own breath, a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away. Selah. Well may this truth bring us to a pause, like the dead body of Amasa, which, lying in the way, stopped the hosts of Joab.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 11. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. The meaning may be, As the moth crumbles into dust under the slightest pressure, or the gentlest touch, so man dissolves with equal ease, and vanishes into darkness, under the finger of the Almighty. Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture.Ver. 11. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Moths I must not omit naming. I once saw some knives, the black bone hafts of which were said to have been half consumed by them. I also saw the remains of a hair seated sofa which had been devoured. It is no uncommon thing to find dresses consumed in a single night. In Isaiah 51:6, "wax old" probably refers to a garment that is moth eaten. So in Ps 6:7 31:9, consumed means moth eaten; and again in Psalms 39:11. John Gadsby.Ver. 11. Like a moth. The moths of the East are very large and beautiful, but short lived. After a few showers these splendid insects may be seen fluttering in every breeze, but the dry weather, and their numerous enemies, soon consign them to the common lot. Thus the beauty of man consumes away like that of this gay rover, dressed in his robes of purple, and scarlet, and green. John Kitto.Ver. 11. The body of man is as a "garment" to the soul: in this garment sin hath lodged a "moth, "which, by degrees, fretteth and weareth away, first, the beauty, then the strength, and finally, the contexture of its parts. Whoever has watched the progress of a consumption, or any other lingering distemper, nay, the slow and silent devastations of time alone, in the human frame, will need no farther illustration of this just and affecting similitude; but will discern at once the propriety of the reflection which follows upon it. Surely every man is vanity. George

Horne.Ver. 11. Surely every man is vanity. What is greatness? Can we predicate it of man, independently of his qualities as an immortal being? or of his actions, independently of principles and motives? Then the glitter of nobility is not superior to the plumage of the peacock; nor the valour of Alexander to the fury of a tiger; nor the sensual delights of Epicurus to those of any animal that roams the forest. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., in Lectures on Homiletics, 1834.

COFFMA�, ""When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,

Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth;

Surely every man is vanity. (Selah)"

This is a comment upon the dire results of being rebuked by God for iniquity. It is no light thing at all. "When God corrects a man for sin, he consumes what the man holds dear, just like a moth eats up clothes."[21]

ELLICOTT, "Verse 11(11) When.—This is unnecessary. With judgments for sin Thou chastenest a man.

Rebukes.—The word rendered “reproofs” in Psalms 38:14, where see �ote.

Beauty.—Literally, Something desirable. (See margin.) Thou, like a moth (consuming a garment: see Pr. Bk. Version), causest his desirable things to melt. (For the image, singularly apt. and natural in a country where “changes of raiment” were so prized, and hoarded up as wealth, comp. Job 13:28; Matthew 6:19; James 5:2.)

COKE, "Psalms 39:11. Like a moth— i.e. "As a moth consumes a garment." The Chaldee paraphrase has it, like a moth broken asunder; but the phrase is more properly applied to the moth's consuming other things, and not to the being itself consumed: thus Hosea 5:12. I will be to Ephraim as a moth; i.e. "I will consume him." and Isaiah 50:9. The moth shall eat them as a garment.

12 “Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping.

I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were.

BAR�ES, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry - That is, in view of my

affliction and my sins; in view, also, of the perplexing questions which have agitated my bosom; the troublous thoughts which passed through my soul, which I did not dare to express before man Psa_39:1-2, but which I have now expressed before thee.

Hold not thy peace - Be not silent. Do not refuse to answer me; to speak peace to me.

At my tears - Or rather, at my weeping; as if God heard the voice of his weeping. Weeping, if uncomplaining, is of the nature of prayer, for God regards the sorrows of the soul as he sees them. The weeping penitent, the weeping sufferer, is one on whom we may suppose God looks with compassion, even though the sorrows of the soul do not find “words” to give utterance to them. Compare the notes at Job_16:20. See also Rom_8:26,

For I am a stranger - The word used - gêr גר - means properly a sojourner; a

foreigner; a man living out of his own country: Gen_15:13; Exo_2:22. It refers to a man who has no permanent home in the place or country where he now is; and it is used here as implying that, in the estimation of the psalmist himself, he had no permanent abode on earth. He was in a strange or foreign land. He was passing to a permanent home; and he prays that God would be merciful to him as to a man who has no home - no permanent abiding place - on earth. Compare the notes at Heb_11:13; notes at 1Pe_2:11.

And a sojourner - This word has substantially the same signification. It denotes one living in another country, without the rights of a citizen.

As all my fathers were - All my ancestors. The allusion is doubtless derived from the fact that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob thus lived as men who had no permanent home here - who had no possession of soil in the countries where they sojourned - and whose whole life, therefore, was an illustration of the fact that they were “on a journey” - a journey to another world. 1Ch_29:15 - “for we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” Compare the notes at Heb_11:13-15.

CLARKE,"Hear my prayer - Therefore, O Lord, show that mercy upon me which I so much need, and without which I must perish everlastingly.

I am a stranger with thee - I have not made this earth my home; I have not trusted in any arm but thine. Though I have sinned, I have never denied thee, and never cast thy words behind my back. I knew that here I had no continuing city. Like my fathers, I looked for a city that has permanent foundations, in a better state of being.

GILL, "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 Heb_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, Lev_25:23; as it follows here;

and a sojourner, as all my fathers were; meaning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity; see Gen_23:4; 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.

HE�RY, "He pleads the good impressions made upon him by his affliction. He hoped that the end was accomplished for which it was sent, and that therefore it would be removed in mercy; and unless an affliction has done its work, though it may be removed, it is not removed in mercy. [1.] It had set him a weeping, and he hoped God would take notice of that. When the Lord God called to mourning, he answered the call and accommodated himself to the dispensation, and therefore could, in faith, pray, Lord, hold not thy peace at my tears, Psa_39:12. He that does not willingly afflict and grieve the children of men, much less his own children, will not hold his peace at their tears, but will either speak deliverance for them (and, if he speak, it is done) or in the mean time speak comfort to them and make them to hear joy and gladness. [2.] It had set him a praying; and afflictions are sent to stir up prayer. If they have that effect, and when we are afflicted we pray more, and pray better, than before, we may hope that God will hear our prayer and give ear to our cry; for the prayer which by his providence he gives occasion for, and which by his Spirit of grace he indites, shall not return void. [3.] It had helped to wean him from the world and to take his affections off from it. Now he began, more than ever, to look upon himself as a stranger and sojourner here, like all his fathers, not at home in this world, but travelling through it to another, to a better, and would never reckon himself at home till he came to heaven. He pleads it with God: “Lord, take cognizance of me, and of my wants and burdens, for I am a stranger here, and therefore meet with strange usage; I am slighted and oppressed as a stranger; and whence should I expect relief but from thee, from that other country to which I belong?”

JAMISO�,"Consonant with the tenor of the Psalm, he prays for God’s compassionate

regard to him as a stranger here; and that, as such was the condition of his fathers, so, like them, he may be cheered instead of being bound under wrath and chastened in displeasure.

CALVI�, "12Hear my prayer, O Jehovah! David gradually increases his vehemence in prayer. He speaks first of prayer; in the second place, of crying; and in the third place, of tears This gradation is not a mere figure of rhetoric, which serves only to adorn the style, or to express the same thing in different language. This shows that David bewailed his condition sincerely, and from the bottom of his heart; and in this he has given us, by his own example, a rule for prayer. When he calls himself a stranger and a sojourner, he again shows how miserable his condition was; and he adds expressly, before God, not only because men are absent from God so long as they dwell in this world, but in the same sense in which he formerly said, My days are before thee as nothing; that is to say, God, without standing in need of any one to inform him, knows well enough that men have only a short journey to perform in this world, the end of which is soon reached, or that they remain only a short time in it, as those who are lodged in a house for pay. (78) The purport of the Psalmist’s discourse is, that God sees from heaven how miserable our condition would be, if he did not sustain us by his mercy.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Drown not my pleadings with the sound of thy strokes. Thou hast heard the clamour of my sins, Lord; hear the laments of my prayers. And give ear unto my cry. Here is an advance in intensity: a cry is more vehement, pathetic, and impassioned, than a prayer. The main thing was to have the Lord's ear and heart. Hold not thy peace at my tears. This is a yet higher degree of importunate pleading. Who can withstand tears, which are the irresistible weapons of weakness? How often women, children, beggars, and sinners, have betaken themselves to tears as their last resort, and therewith have won the desire of their hearts! —"This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul, "falls not in vain. Tears speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues; they act as keys upon the wards of tender hearts, and mercy denies them nothing, if through them the weeper looks to richer drops, even to the blood of Jesus. When our sorrows pull up the sluices of our eyes, God will ere long interpose and turn our mourning into joy. Long may he be quiet as though he regarded not, but the hour of deliverance will come, and come like the morning when the dewdrops are plentiful. For I am a stranger with thee. �ot to thee, but with thee. Like thee, my Lord, a stranger among the sons of men, an alien from my mother's children. God made the world, sustains it, and owns it, and yet men treat him as though he were a foreign intruder; and as they treat the Master, so do they deal with the servants. "It is no surprising thing that we should be unknown." These words may also mean, "I share the hospitality of God, "like a stranger entertained by a generous host. Israel was bidden to deal tenderly with the stranger, and the God of Israel has in much compassion treated us poor aliens with unbounded liberality. And a sojourner, as all my fathers were. They knew that this was not their rest; they passed through life in pilgrim guise, they used the world as travellers use an inn, and even so do I. Why should we dream of rest on earth when our fathers' sepulchres are before our eyes? If they had been

immortal, their sons would have had an abiding city this side the tomb; but as the sires were mortal, so must their offspring pass away. All of our lineage, without exception, were passing pilgrims, and such are we. David uses the fleeting nature of our life as an argument for the Lord's mercy, and it is such a one as God will regard. We show pity to poor pilgrims, and so will the Lord.EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, etc. �ow, in this prayer of David, we find three things, which are the chief qualifications of all acceptable prayers. The first is humility. He humbly confesses his sins, and his own weakness and worthlessness. We are not to put on a stoical, flinty kind of spirit under our affliction, that so we may seem to shun womanish repinings and complaints, lest we run into the other evil, of despising the hand of God, but we are to humble our proud hearts, and break our unruly passions...The second qualification of this prayer is, fervency and importunity, which appears in the elegant gradation of the words, Hear my prayer, my words; if not that, yet, Give ear to my cry, which is louder; and if that prevail not, yet, Hold not thy peace at my tears, which is the loudest of all; so David, elsewhere, calls it the voice of weeping. ...The third qualification is faith. "He who comes to God must believe that he is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11:6. And, certainly, as he that comes to God must believe this, so he that believes this, cannot but come to God; and if he be not presently answered, "he that believes makes no haste, "he resolves patiently to wait for the Lord, and go to no other. Condensed from Robert Leighton.Ver. 12. Hold not thy peace at my tears. We may, in all humility, plead our heart breakings and weepings in sense of want of mercies which we crave, and our pantings and faintings after the same. Thomas Cobbett.Ver. 12. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Both in thy judgment expressed Leviticus 25:23, and in their own opinion Hebrews 11:13. Upon which account thou didst take a special care of them, and therefore do so to me also. Matthew Poole.Ver. 12. I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner. How settled soever their condition be, yet this is the temper of the saints upon earth—to count themselves but strangers. All men indeed are strangers and sojourners, but the saints do best discern it, and most freely acknowledge it. Wicked men have no firm dwelling upon earth, but that is against their intentions; their inward thought and desire is that they may abide for ever; they are strangers against their wills, their abode is uncertain in the world, and they cannot help it. And pray mark, there are two distinct words used in this case, strangers and sojourners. A stranger is one that hath his abode in a foreign country, that is not a native and a denizen of the place, though he liveth there, and in opposition to the natives he is called a stranger: as if a Frenchman should live in England, he is a stranger. But a sojourner is one that intends not to settle, but only passes through a place, and is in motion travelling homeward. So the children of God in relation to a country of their own in another place, namely, heaven, they are denizens there, but strangers in the world; and they are sojourners and pilgrims in regard of their motion and journey towards their country. Thomas Manton.Ver. 12. A Stranger. 1. A stranger is one that is absent from his country, and from his father's house: so are we, heaven is our country, God is there, and Christ is

there. 2. A stranger in a foreign country is not known, nor valued according to his birth and breeding: so the saints walk up and down in the world like princes in disguise. 3. Strangers are liable to inconveniences: so are godly men in the world. Religion, saith Tertullian, is like a strange plant brought from a foreign country, and doth not agree with the nature of the soil, it thrives not in the world. 4. A stranger is patient, standeth not for ill usage, and is contented with pilgrim's fare and lodging. We are now abroad and must expect hardship. 5. A stranger is wary, that he may not give offence, and incur the hatred and displeasure of the natives. 6. A stranger is thankful for the least favour; so we must be thankfully contented with the things God hath bestowed upon us: anything in a strange country is much. 7. A stranger, that hath a journey to go, would pass over it as soon as he can, and so we, who have a journey to heaven desire to be dissolved.8. A stranger buyeth not such things as he cannot carry with him; he doth not buy trees, house, household stuff, but jewels and pearls, and such things as are portable. Our greatest care should be to get the jewels of the covenant, the graces of God's Spirit, those things that will abide with us. 9. A stranger's heart is in his country; so is a saint's. 10. A stranger is inquisitive after the way, fearing lest he should go amiss, so is a Christian. 11. A stranger provides for his return, as a merchant, that he may return richly laden. So we must appear before God in Sion. What manner of persons ought we to be? Let us return from our travel well provided. Condensed from Thomas Manton.

COFFMA�,"Verse 12"Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry;

Hold not thy peace at my tears:

For I am a stranger with thee,

A sojourner, as all my fathers were."

"Hold not thy peace at my tears" (Psalms 39:12). God is ever concerned with human tears. Our Lord said to the widow of �ain, "Weep not"! and to Mary Magdalene, "Woman, why weepest thou? .... If a man can scarcely ignore a person's tears, how much less can God? God numbers the tears of believers (Psalms 56); and the ultimate purpose of the Father is to 'Wipe away all tears from human eyes' (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17; 21:4)."[22]

"A sojourner, as all my fathers were" (Psalms 39:12). Men are tempted to treat this world as a permanent residence, but it is not so.

"We are here today, and gone tomorrow;Yes I know, that is so."

- From Gilbert and Sullivan's H. M. S. Pinafore.SIZE>

The word "pilgrim" is often used as a synonym for "sojourner," and it is extremely

appropriate. A "pilgrim," is literally, "one who crosses the field." The word came from the period of the Crusades, when lonely persons attempting to make their way to the Holy Land, could often be seen "crossing the fields" of homesteaders; and, of course, they appeared briefly only once and then vanished forever. That is the way it is with all of us pilgrims and sojourners.

ELLICOTT, "Verse 12(12) For I am a stranger.—A reminiscence of Genesis 23:4, and adopted 1 Peter 2:11 from the LXX. (See �ew Testament Commentary, and comp. Hebrews 11:13.) The psalmist, like the Apostle, applies Abraham’s words metaphorically to this earthly pilgrim age (comp. 1 Chronicles 29:15), and pathetically asks why, when the tenure of life is so uncertain, God looks angrily on him? (For the passionate appeal for a respite, comp. Job 10:20-21, and for the Hebrew conception of the under world, Psalms 6:5, �ote.)

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:12. Hold not thy peace at my tears — Joined with my prayers. For I am a stranger, &c. — Though I be not only a native, but actually king of this land, yet, in truth, I am but a stranger and sojourner, both in regard of my very uncertain and short continuance here, where I am only on my journey to my real and long home; and in respect of the many wants, hardships, contempts, and injuries to which I am exposed, as men usually are in strange lands. And, therefore, I greatly need and desire thy pity and help. With thee — Either, 1st, In thy sight or judgment, and therefore in reality. We are apt to flatter ourselves that we are settled inhabitants, and can hardly believe we are but strangers on earth, but thou knowest the truth of the matter, that we really are such. Or, 2d, In thy land, or territory, who art the only proprietor of it, in which I only sojourn by thy leave and favour, and during thy pleasure, as is expressed Leviticus 25:23, whence these words are taken. As all my fathers were — Both in thy judgment and in their own, Hebrews 11:13, upon which account thou didst take special care of them, and, therefore, take care also of me.

COKE, "Psalms 39:12. For I am a stranger with thee, &c.— More like a stranger, and sojourner in this country, than an inhabitant or lord of it; with thee, who in a particular manner art the proprietor of this land, which thou hast chosen to be thy peculiar inheritance. The land, says Moses, is thine; we are but strangers and sojourners with thee. Leviticus 25:23.

REFLECTIO�S.—1st, This psalm contains much matter for a mournful song, suited to soothe the sorrows which mortality is heir to, and reconcile our souls to the holy will of God.

David reflects upon the solemn purposes that he had formed, to watch over his words and ways; which was so needful when many eyes were upon him, waiting for his halting. He said within his heart, I will take heed to my ways, to walk circumspectly after the word and will of God. I will keep my mouth with a bridle from every murmuring expression under my trials, while the wicked is before me;

who would take pleasure in seeing him provoked to speak unadvisedly with his lips. �ote; (1.) We need much watchfulness and circumspection, in order to walk aright; a careless heart will make crooked ways. (2.) �othing is more difficult to restrain than the tongue; and he is a perfect man who can always govern it.

2nd, The views of man's vanity bid him look for a more enduring portion in God. And therefore,

1. He professes that on him all his hope is stayed; and that, as he could expect nothing beneath the sun as his happiness, neither would he be disquieted with the light and momentary troubles to which he might be exposed. �ote; (1.) The less we expect on earth, the more will our eyes be turned to heaven. (2.) All else is a vain hope; they who hope in God shall never be ashamed.

2. He prays for pardon and deliverance. His sins were his great concern; he longs above all things to be delivered from their condemning guilt and their prevailing power, that he may enjoy true peace of conscience. �ote; (1.) Our ceaseless prayer must be for pardoning mercy, till obtained. The sting of affliction is removed, when sin is forgiven. (2.) One stroke of disease makes strange alterations; the bloom of beauty fades, the sparkling eye is dim, the ruddy lip is livid; and languor, paleness, and decay, mar all the lovely form. What poor things then to be proud of, what precarious vanities! (3.) The prayer of faith, and the tears of penitence, will never be disregarded of God. (4.) When we consider ourselves as really strangers upon earth, who neither have nor seek our rest below, every trial that we meet will quicken our pace, and whet our longings after our house and home, a mansion in the skies.

3. With holy resignation he surrenders up himself to God; having begun to pray, his ruffled spirits are composed, and his soul returns to its rest again. Since God's hand is in every affliction, and every chastisement most righteous, yea, less than our iniquity deserves, it ill becomes us to find fault, but rather continually to acknowledge that he doth all things well.

WHEDO�, "Verse 12-1312, 13. The concluding verses are a prayer for restoration, urged by the shortness and frailty of life.

Prayer… cry… tears— “Prayer,” here, must be understood of prostrate pleading; “cry,” or outcry, as lamentable wailing; and “tears” alone could climax the earnestness of his devotions. “When the gates of prayer seem to be closed, the gates of tears still remain unclosed.”—Delitzsch.

Stranger… sojourner—A glance at the primitive nomadic life of his ancestors, Genesis 23:4; Genesis 47:9; compare Hebrews 11:9; Hebrews 11:13. A “stranger” is a traveller, one passing through a country with no fixed abode; a “sojourner” is one dwelling in a country for a time, and holding property by legal sufferance, but not a citizen: both transient.

Oh spare me—Literally, look away from me; that is, turn away thy threatening look and avenging hand.

That I may recover strength— Hebrew, and 1 will be joyful. Bishop Alexander reads: “That I may smile again.”

Before I go hence—The verb simply means to depart, but is sometimes used to signify departing by death, dying, as Genesis 15:2, “I go childless,” I die, or depart, childless.

And be no more—Literally, and am not; exist no longer with living men upon earth, death being represented as it affects our relation to earthly life. On this verse see Job 7:8; Job 7:19-21; Job 10:20-21; Job 14:6; to which the metaphors and sentiments correspond. The phrase “I go,” or, depart, is grounded in the belief that the “I,” or ego, is different from and independent of the body.

PETT,‘For the Chief Musician, for Jeduthun. A Psalm to/for David.’

This Psalm is offered to the person responsible for the sacred music, or the choirmaster, and is of the Davidic collection. ‘To (or ‘for’) David’ may indicate that it was dedicated to David, written for the Davidic house, or even written by David himself.

Jeduthun’s name appears also in the headings of Psalms 62, 77. He is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 16:41 ff; 1 Chronicles 25:1 ff; 2 Chronicles 5:12; 2 Chronicles 35:15, along with Heman and Asaph, as one of the directors of the music in the Temple, and his descendants continued to officiate after the Exile (�ehemiah 11:17). His other name Ethan was probably his name before he was appointed (1 Chronicles 6:44 ff; 1 Chronicles 15:17; 1 Chronicles 15:19).

The Psalm appears to have been written while the Psalmist is going through a ‘near death’ illness, and divides into four sections:

1) The Psalmist is determined not to say anything in the presence of the unrighteous that might give him occasion to criticise God. Once he is alone, however, he cannot keep silent (Psalms 39:1-3).2) His concern is with his awareness of his own frailty and of the fact that life appears on the whole to be vain and that a man does not know what will happen to the possessions that he has built up once he is dead. Thus as he lies on his sickbed it raises the question of the very meaning of life (Psalms 39:4-6).3) His solution lies in hoping in YHWH and walking rightly before Him, being delivered from all his transgressions. Meanwhile therefore he prays that YHWH will restore him to health, while recognising that he himself through his illness experience is being corrected for his own sins (Psalms 39:7-11).4) Recognising the brevity of a man’s life on this earth in comparison with God’s he prays that he may be restored and given a little more time before his life is

finally over so that he can make good use of it.Verses 1-31). The Psalmist is determined not to say anything in the presence of unrighteous people that might give them occasion to criticise God. Once he is alone, however, he cannot keep silent (Psalms 39:1-3).

Psalms 39:1

‘I said, I will take heed to my ways,That I sin not with my tongue,I will keep my mouth with a bridle,While the wicked person is before me.’The Psalmist declares that he will ‘keep his ways’. That is, he will watch over them and control them. And his aim and purpose is in order that he might not sin with his tongue by bringing his doubts about life before the unrighteous while they are in his presence, or alternatively by bringing his doubts about the unrighteous who are in his thoughts, before men. The latter problem was a constant one in the Psalms. Why did the unrighteous flourish?

So he determines to keep a bridle on his tongue, lest he say anything that brings dishonour on God. Wise is the man or woman who keeps a watch over what comes from their mouths.

Psalms 39:2-3

‘I was dumb with silence,I held my peace, even from good,And my sorrow was stirred.My heart was hot within me,While I was musing the fire burned,Then spoke I with my tongue.’Thus he was ‘dumb with silence’, saying nothing, even about what was good, lest he slip up with his tongue. But such was the force of the thoughts that were flowing into his mind, that his sorrow was stirred, and his heart was hot within him. His meditations were so powerful that they were too much for him to hold in. And thus while he was musing a fire burned in his heart, and in the end he could no longer keep silence.

Verses 4-62). His concern was with his awareness of his own frailty and of the fact that life appears on the whole to be vain and that a man does not know what will happen to the possessions that he has built up once he is dead. Thus as he lies on his sickbed it raises the question of the very meaning and purpose of life (Psalms 39:4-6).

Psalms 39:4-5

‘YHWH, make me to know my end,

And the measure of my days, what it is,Let me know how frail I am.Behold, you have made my days as handbreadths,And my lifetime is as nothing before you,He calls on YHWH to bring home to him how short his life is, what the measure of his days is, and how frail he is. Indeed he recognises that each of his days are but a handsbreadth, a tiny length of time in the great ocean of time, and that his whole life from start to finish is as nothing before God.

Psalms 39:6

Surely every man at his best estate,Is altogether vanity.’ Selah.Only in an image does a man walk,Only (for) a breath do they make a noise,He heaps up riches,And knows not who will gather them.And meanwhile what value does that life have? Even at a man’s very best it is simply vanity. Man’s life is like a dream, a passing image, only for a fleeting breath can men make a noise and enjoy themselves. And during this passing dream he builds up wealth and possessions only for them to fall into other hands in a way which is out of his control. And who knows what they will do with them? Such is life without God.

Verses 7-113). His solution lies in hoping in YHWH and walking rightly before Him, being delivered from all his transgressions. Meanwhile therefore he prays that YHWH will restore him to health, while recognising that he himself through his illness experience is being corrected for his own sins (Psalms 39:7-11).

Psalms 39:7-8

‘And now, Lord, what do I wait for?My hope is in you.Deliver me from all my transgressions,Make me not the reproach of the foolish.His solution lies in hoping in YHWH. He recognises that that is what he is waiting for. If there is any solution it is to be found in God, and in living for Him. So he prays that he might be delivered from all his transgressions, and might live a life that cannot be reproached by the foolish (those who themselves ignore God - Psalms 14:1), a life pleasing to God.

Psalms 39:9

‘I was dumb, I opened not my mouth,Because you did it.Here the suggestion appears to be that he was struck dumb with wonder as he

recognised that God had done what he asked. He had delivered him for his transgressions and from all reproach, and had responded to his hope. He had brought him peace and rest in the recognition that his life was in God’s hands.

Psalms 39:10-11

Remove your stroke away from me,I am consumed by the blow of your hand.When you with rebukes correct man for iniquity,You make his beauty to consume away like a moth,Surely every man is vanity.’ Selah.So he now prays that he might recover from his illness. For his illness had dragged him down and almost devoured him, as by a blow from God’s hand. The result of this rebuke from God, which had been in order to correct him from his sinful ways, was that he had become but a shadow of his former self. He had become, as it were, moth-eaten. And it had revealed to him how vain life in itself was.

Verse 124). Recognising the brevity of a man’s life on this earth, in comparison with God’s, he prays that he may be restored and given a little more time before his life is finally over so that he can make good use of it.

Psalms 39:12

Hear my prayer, O YHWH,And give ear to my cry,Hold not your peace at my tears,For I am a stranger with you,A sojourner,As all my fathers were.Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,Before I go hence, and am no more.The idea behind these words is that the earth is God’s, and we enter into it but briefly, as though we were mere immigrants with only a short time to dwell on the earth, before finally going on our way from here and being no longer on it, God being the only One Who has permanence here.

This idea of being a sojourner is applied by Abraham to himself (Genesis 23:4), by Moses to all Israel, considered as the feudal subjects and dependents of YHWH (Leviticus 25:23) and by David to himself and his contemporaries (1 Chronicles 29:15). All saw themselves as just ‘passing through’.

Thus he prays for the restoration of his strength so that he might fulfil his days on earth, before he must finally depart from it. He wants to be able to make the best use of the time he has left. The Psalm gives no indication of what lies beyond (unlike, for example Psalms 16:11; Psalms 17:15; Psalms 23:6), but it does exude a confidence and faith in God that is in line with those ideas. He simply rests his hope

in God. Peter applies this idea of the ‘stranger and sojourner’ to the Christian as he goes through life towards his heavenly home (1 Peter 2:11).

�ISBET, "THE PILGRIM’S PRAYER‘Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.’Psalms 39:12-13There are three points in the text calling for notice.

I. The spirit of the prayer.—In this prayer we observe a mixture of

(a) Faith.—The Psalmist believed that God is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. And therefore he says, ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord.’ He felt that he was not praying to a deaf idol, which has ears, but hears not. He felt, too, that he was not praying into the air, but to an unseen yet present God. Alas! too many have no faith in prayer. They do not really desire that for which they pray.

(b) Earnestness.—‘Give ear unto my cry.’ We often complain that God does not hear our supplications. But whose is the fault? The fault is not God’s. The fault is our own. ‘Ye have not,’ replies God, ‘because ye ask not; or if you do ask, ye ask amiss. Ye ask without faith. Ye ask without earnestness. And therefore God heareth you not.’

(c) Contrition.—David knew that he was a sinner—a miserable, gross sinner—and therefore he cried, ‘Deliver me from my transgressions.’ Oh, that our prayers may be equally acceptable in God’s sight! Oh, that He may see faith, earnestness, and contrition, even with tears, marking our supplications! And then, through the Saviour’s intercession, we shall boldly make David’s form of prayer our own.

II. The occasion of the prayer.—Some writers think the psalm was written during Absalom’s rebellion, when David was compelled to flee from Jerusalem and to go over Jordan as an outcast and a wanderer. He thereupon cried unto God for deliverance, and said, ‘I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.’ But, whatever was the occasion of the psalm, the mind of David seems to have been greatly discomposed when he wrote it; and he had a deep impression of the vanity and uncertainty and shortness of human life. �ow this feeling ought to be our feeling also; and that, too, not on particular occasions, but at all times. We should feel that life is short, and that therefore we ought to wait more and more in prayer upon our God. And why need we go to God in prayer? This will be seen from the last verse of our text.

III. The object of the prayer.—The object of the prayer was that David might be in a prepared state before his soul departed into the eternal world. ‘O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.’ If David imagined that the rebellion of Absalom might prove successful, and end in some way in his own death, he might well ponder the solemnity of that event. To die, even to the

Christian, is a momentous thing; and most Christians, if suddenly asked whether they are willing to depart, would inwardly cry, with the Psalmist, ‘O spare me a little!’ You have a good hope through God’s grace; you trust your sins are all pardoned through the blood of the Saviour; you glory in Christ as the Lord your righteousness; and yet, like Hezekiah you feel you would like time to set your house in order before you go. Let us learn to meditate, and so learn to pray. Meditate on your sins, and you will then pray, as David did, ‘Deliver me from all my transgressions.’ Meditate on the purifying influences of Christ’s atonement, and you will then pray, ‘Purge me with hyssop,’ the hyssop of the Redeemer’s blood, ‘and I shall be clean; wash me in the purifying fountain, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ Meditate on the converting power of the Holy Ghost, and your prayer will then be, ‘Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.’ Meditate on the shortness of time, and you will then pray, as David prayed, ‘Hold not Thy peace at my tears; for I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner.’

Canon Clayton.

13 Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again before I depart and am no more.”

BAR�ES, "O spare me - The word used here - from שעה shâ‛âh - means “to look;”

and then, in connection with the preposition, “to look away from;” and it here means, “Look away from me;” that is, Do not come to inflict death on me. Preserve me. The idea is this: God seemed to have fixed his eyes on him, and to be pursuing him with the expressions of his displeasure (compare Job_16:9); and the psalmist now prays that he would “turn away his eyes,” and leave him.

That I may recover strength - The word used here - bâlag בלג - means, in Arabic,

to be bright; to shine forth; and then, to make cheerful, to enliven one’s countenance, or to be joyful, glad. In Job_9:27, it is rendered “comfort;” in Job_10:20, that I “may take comfort;” in Amo_5:9, “strengtheneth.” It is not used elsewhere. The idea is that of being “cheered up;” of being strengthened and invigorated before he should pass away. He wished to be permitted to recover the strength which he had lost, and especially to receive consolation, before he should leave the earth. He desired that his closing days might not be under a cloud, but that he might obtain brighter and more cheerful views,

and have more of the consolations of religion before he should be removed finally from this world. It is a wish not to leave the world in gloom, or with gloomy and desponding views, but with a cheerful view of the past; with joyful confidence in the government of God; and with bright anticipations of the coming world.

Before I go hence - Before I die.

And be no more - Be no more upon the earth. Compare Psa_6:5, note; Psa_30:9, note. See also the notes at Job_14:1-12. Whatever may have been his views of the future world, he desired to be cheered and comforted in the prospect of passing away finally from earth. He was unwilling to go down to the grave in gloom, or under the influence of the dark and distressing views which he had experienced, and to which he refers in this psalm. A religious man, about to leave the world, should desire to have bright hopes and anticipations. For his own comfort and peace, for the honor of religion, for the glory of God, he should not leave those around under the impression that religion does nothing to comfort a dying man, or to inspire with hope the mind of one about to leave the earth, or to give to the departing friend of God cheerful anticipations of the life to come. A joyful confidence in God and his government, when a man is about to leave the world, does much, very much, to impress the minds of others with a conviction of the truth and reality of religion, as dark and gloomy views can hardly fail to lead the world to ask what that religion is worth which will not inspire a dying man with hope, and make him calm in the closing scene.

CLARKE,"O spare me - Take me not from this state of probation till I have a thorough preparation for a state of blessedness. This he terms recovering his strength -being restored to the favor and image of God, from which he had fallen. This should be the daily cry of every human spirit: Restore me to thine image, guide me by thy counsel, and then reeeive me to thy glory!

GILL, "O spare me,.... Or "look from me" (f); turn away thy fierce countenance from me; or "cease from me (g), and let me alone"; as in Job_10:20; from whence the words seem to be taken, by what follows:

that I may recover strength; both corporeal and spiritual:

before I go hence; out of this world by death:

and be no more; that is, among men in the land of the living; not but that he believed he should exist after death, and should be somewhere, even in heaven, though he should return no more to the place where he was; see Job_10:20, when a man is born, he comes into the world; when he dies, he goes out of it; a phrase frequently used for death in Scripture; so the ancient Heathens called death "abitio", a going away (h).

HE�RY, " He prays for a reprieve yet a little longer (Psa_39:13): “O spare me, ease me, raise me up from this illness that I may recover strength both in body and mind, that I may get into a more calm and composed frame of spirit, and may be better prepared for another world, before I go hence by death, and shall be no more in this world.” Some make this to be a passionate wish that God would send him help quickly or it would be too late, like that, Job_10:20, Job_10:21. But I rather take it as a pious prayer that God

would continue him here till by his grace he had made him fit to go hence, and that he might finish the work of life before his life was finished. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee.

CALVI�, "13Let me alone, that I may recover strength. Literally, it is, cease from me, and therefore some explain it, Let there be a wall raised betwixt us, that thy hand may not reach me. Others read, as a supplement, the word eyes; but as to the sense, it matters little which of the expositions be adopted, for the meaning is the same, That David entreats God to grant him a little relaxation from his trouble, that he might recover strength, or, at least, enjoy a short respite, before he depart from this world. This concluding verse of the psalm relates to the disquietude and sinful emotions which he had experienced according to the flesh; for he seems in the way of complaining of God, to ask that at least time might be granted him to die, as men are wont to speak who are grievously harassed by their affliction. I admit, that he speaks in a becoming manner, in acknowledging that there is no hope of his being restored to health, until God cease to manifest his displeasure; but he errs in this, that he asks a respite, just that he may have time to die. We might, indeed, regard the prayer as allowable, by understanding it in this sense: Lord, as it will not be possible for me to endure thy stroke any longer, but I must, indeed, miserably perish, if thou continuest to afflict me severely, at least grant me relief for a little season, that in calmness and peace I may commit my soul into thy hands. But we may easily infer, from the language which he employs, that his mind was so affected with the bitterness of his grief that he could not present a prayer pure and well seasoned with the sweetness of faith; for he says, before I depart, and be no more: a form of speech which indicates the feeling almost of despair. �ot that David could regard death as the entire annihilation of man, or that, renouncing all hope of his salvation, he resigned himself to destruction; but he employs this language, because he had previously been so much depressed by reason of grief, that he could not lift up his heart with so much cheerfulness as it behoved him. This is a mode of expression which is to be found more than once in the complaints of Job. It is obvious, therefore, that, although David endeavored carefully to restrain the desires of the flesh, yet these occasioned him so much disquietude and trouble, that they forced him to exceed the proper limits in his grief.

SPURGEO�, "Ver. 13. O spare me. Put by thy rod. Turn away thine angry face. Give me breathing time. Do not kill me. That I may recover strength. Let me have sufficient cessation from pain, to be able to take repose and nourishment, and so recruit my wasted frame. He expects to die soon, but begs a little respite from sorrow, so as to be able to rally and once more enjoy life before its close. Before I go hence, and be no more. So far as this world is concerned, death is a being no more; such a state awaits us, we are hurrying onward towards it. May the short interval which divides us from it be gilded with the sunlight of our heavenly Father's love. It is sad to be an invalid from the cradle to the grave, far worse to be under the Lord's chastisements by the month together, but what are these compared with the endurance of the endless punishment threatened to those who die in their sins!EXPLA�ATORY �OTES A�D QUAI�T SAYI�GSVer. 13. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

Man in his corrupt state is like �ebuchadnezzar, he hath a beast's heart, that craves no more than the satisfaction of his sensual appetite; but when renewed by grace, then his understanding returns to him, by which he is enabled in praying for temporals to elevate his desires to a nobler end. Doth David pray that some farther time may be added to his temporal life? It is not out of a fond love for this world, but to prepare himself the better for another. Is he comforted with hopes of a longer stay here? It is not this world's carnal pleasures that kindle this joy in his holy breast, but the advantage that thereby he shall have for praising God in the land of the living...O spare me, that I may recover strength. David was not yet recovered out of that sin which had brought him exceeding low as you may perceive, Psalms 39:10-11. And the good man cannot think of dying with any willingness till his heart be in a holier frame: and for the peace of the gospel, serenity of conscience, and inward joy; alas! all unholiness is to it as poison is to the spirits which drink them up. William Gurnall.Ver. 13. O spare me, etc. Attachment to life, the feeling cherished by the psalmist, when he thus appealed to the Sovereign of the universe, varies in its character with the occasions and the sentiments by which it is elicited and confirmed. Take one view of it, and you pronounce it criminal; take another, and you pronounce it innocent; take a third, and you pronounce it laudable.I. Life may inspire a criminal attachment, warranting our censure. The most obvious and aggravated case is that in which the attachment has its foundations in the opportunities which life affords, of procuring "the wages of unrighteousness, "and "the pleasures of sin."2. Life may inspire an innocent attachment, awakening our sympathy...Life is a scene in which we often descry a verdant and luxuriant spot, teeming with health, and ease, and harmony, and joy. We have beheld the husbands and the wives whose interwoven regards have, from year to year, alleviated all their afflictions, and heightened all their privileges. We have beheld the parents and the children whose fellowship has yielded them, through the shifting seasons, a daily feast. There are indulgent masters, and faithful servants; some neighbourhoods are undisturbed; some Christian societies are exquisitely attractive; here and there we have intercourse with those individuals in whom are seen the beauties of high character irradiated by the beans of general prosperity. You would pronounce no censure on a man thus happily connected, were he, when beginning to languish, as one "going the way of all the earth, to cry, "O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.3. The last view which it has been proposed to take of human life, shows that it may inspire a laudable attachment, at once challenging our approbation, and urging us to bring our minds under its influence. The language before us admits of being illustrated as the prayer of a penitent, a saint, and a philanthropist.1. Commend him who pleads for life as a penitent. Was it recently that the Holy Spirit first wounded him with the arrows of conviction? Perhaps, he doubts the source, the quality, and the result, of his powerful feelings. He knows that we may be solemnly impressed, without being converted. There are many considerations which entitle to favourable opinion those who, not having arrived at a view of their moral state, at once evident and encouraging, wish earnestly to live till grace shall have carried them from victory to victory, and enabled them "to make" their

"calling and election sure." Even they may fall from their steadfastness; and these words, "O spare me, that I may recover strength, "may proceed from the lips of a backslider, once more blushing, trembling, and petitioning to be restored.2. Commend him, in the next place, who pleads for life, as a saint. ...The distinguishing office of pleading, acting, and suffering, for the advancement of the divine honour among the profane, the sensual, the formal, and the worldly is delegated, exclusively, to "the saints which are upon the earth." Yet, surely he whose attachment to life is strongly enhanced by a commission which dooms him to the contradiction of sinners, and defers "the fulness of joy, "a saint so magnanimous and devoted, puts forth the expressions of a piety which the very angels are compelled to revere.3. Commend him, finally, who pleads for life as a philanthropist. I refer to the generous patron, a man intent on doing good. I would also refer to a fond parent. I would now refer to "a preacher of righteousness, ""a good minister of Jesus Christ."Outline of a Sermon entitled "Attachment to Life, "preached by Joseph Hughes, M.A., as a Funeral Sermon for Rev. John Owen, M.A.,1822.Ver. 13. May not the very elect and faithful themselves fear the day of judgment, and be far from fetching comfort at it? I answer, he may. First, at his first conversion and soon after, before he have gotten a full persuasion of the remission of his sins. And again, in some spiritual desertion, when the Lord seems to leave a man to himself, as he did David and others, he may fear to think of the same. And lastly, when he hath fallen into some great sin after he is a strong man in Christ, he may fear death and judgment, and be constrained to pray with Job and David, O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more. John Barlow's Sermon, 1618.

COFFMA�, "Verse 13"O spare me, that I may recover strength,

Before I go hence and be no more."

"The psalmist here no longer wishes for death, yet he expects it, and requests of God a little breathing space."[23]

"�othing is to be made of the expression, `and be no more,' which was merely David's way of mentioning death."[24] We have often called attention to the fact that Old Testament heroes certainly believed in the resurrection, although they did not have the vivid and detailed assurances of it which belong to Christians in the �ew Testament.

ELLICOTT, "Verse 13(13) Recover strength.—Better, Let me become cheerful, i.e., look up with a glad look once more on my face, as the angry look fades from the Divine countenance.

Before.—Literally, before I go, and am not. All the words and phrases of this last

verse occur in the Book of Job. (See Job 7:8; Job 7:19; Job 7:21; Job 14:6; Job 10:20-21.)

BE�SO�, "Psalms 39:13. O spare me — Hebrew, השע ממני, hashang, memenni —Desiste a me, desist, or cease from me, that is, from afflicting me: do not destroy me; my life at best is short, and full of trouble, and thou knowest sufficient for it is the evil thereof: do not add affliction to the afflicted. That I may recover strength —Both in my outward and inward man, both which are much weakened and oppressed. Hebrew, אבליגה, abligah, recreabo me, that I may refresh myself or may be refreshed, or comforted, namely, eased of the burden of my sins, and of thy terrors consequent upon them; and better prepared for a comfortable and happy dissolution. Before I go hence — Unto the grave, as this phrase is often used; or the way of all the earth, Joshua 23:14 ; or whence I shall not return, as it is, Job 10:21. And be no more — �amely, among the living, or in this world.