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.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; And my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me; While I was musing the fire burned: `Then' spake I with my tongue:
4 Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days `as' handbreadths; And my life-time is as nothing before thee: Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Selah
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.
7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; Because thou didst it.
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand.
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
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.
13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, Before I go hence, and be no more. Psalm 40 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
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Commentary on Psalms 39 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 39
Ps 39:1-13. To Jeduthun (1Ch 16:41, 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.
1. I said—or, "resolved."
will take heed—watch.
ways—conduct, of which the use of the tongue is a part (Jas 1:26).
bridle—literally, "muzzle for my mouth" (compare De 25:4).
while … before me—in beholding their prosperity (Ps 37:10, 36).
2. even from good—(Ge 31:24), everything.
3. His emotions, as a smothered flame, burst forth.
4-7. 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."
5, 6. 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.
7. The interrogation makes the implied negative stronger. Though this world offers nothing to our expectation, God is worthy of all confidence.
8-10. Patiently submissive, he prays for the removal of his chastisement, and that he may not be a reproach.
11. From his own case, he argues to that of all, that the destruction of man's enjoyments is ascribable to sin.
12, 13. 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.