Charles Spurgeon

But like a deaf man, I do not hear; and like a mute man, I do not open my mouth.

“But I, as a deaf man, heard not. Well and bravely was this done. A sacred indifference to the slanders of malevolence is true courage and wise policy. It is well to be as if we could not hear or see.”

I am like a man who cannot hear, whose mouth offers no reply.

“Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. He repeats the fact of his silence that we may note it, admire it, and imitate it. We have an advocate, and need not therefore plead our own cause.”

I wait for You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God.

“David committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, and so in patience was able to possess his soul. Hope in God's intervention, and belief in the power of prayer, are two most blessed stays to the soul in time of adversity.”

For I said, “Let them not gloat over me— those who taunt me when my foot slips.”

“For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me. The good man was not insensible, he dreaded the sharp stings of taunting malice; he feared lest either by his conduct or his condition, he should give occasion to the wicked to triumph.”

For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.

“For I am ready to halt. Like one who limps, or a person with tottering footsteps, in danger of falling. How well this befits us all. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."”

Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.

“For I will declare mine iniquity. The slander of his enemies he repudiates, but the accusations of his conscience he admits. Open confession is good for the soul.”

Many are my enemies without cause, and many hate me without reason.

“But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong. However weak and dying the righteous man may be, the evils which oppose him are sure to be lively enough.”

Those who repay my good with evil attack me for pursuing the good.

“They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries. Such would a wise man wish his enemies to be. Why should we seek to be beloved of such graceless souls?”

Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God.

“Forsake me not, O Lord. Now is the time I need thee most. When sickness, slander, and sin, all beset a saint, he requires the especial aid of heaven, and he shall have it too.”

Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

“Make haste to help me. Delay would prove destruction. The poor pleader was far gone and ready to expire, only speedy help would serve his turn. See how sorrow quickens the importunity of prayer!”

I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are…

“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.”

I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

“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. Neither bad nor good escaped his lips.”

My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:

“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.”

“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.

“ACCORDING to the judgment of Calvin, and some of the ablest commentators, there is a kind of pettishness in this verse. The context appears to imply that David had grown impatient under the chastening hand of God.”

“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.

“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…”

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

“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!”

Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

“Surely every man walketh in a vain shew. Life is but a passing pageant. This alone is sure, that nothing is sure.”

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.

“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?”

Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of fools.

“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!”

I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.

“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.”

Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

“Remove thy stroke away from me. Silence from all repining did not prevent the voice of prayer, which must never cease.”

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping.

“IF you read the whole verse, you will see that David used these words as an argument in prayer—"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Your peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with You, and a…”

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping.

“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.”

I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.

“I waited patiently for the Lord. Patient waiting upon God was a special characteristic of our Lord Jesus. Impatience never lingered in his heart, much less escaped his lips.”

He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit. When our Lord bore in his own person the terrible curse which was due to sin, he was so cast down as to be like a prisoner in a deep, dark, fearful dungeon, amid whose…”