Psalm 39
13 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Job 14×3Psalms 38×2Job 13×2Proverbs 21×1Psalms 141×1James 1×1
Summary
Chapter summary
'I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue', silence held until the fire burned. Then the prayer for perspective: 'Jehovah, make me to know mine end… behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths.' Surely every man walketh in a vain show; he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them. 'And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.' The psalm ends as a sojourner's plea ('a stranger with thee, a sojourner, as all my fathers were') for one smile before departure.
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 39The history
Jeduthun, named in the heading, was a real man — one of the three music leaders David appointed over the sanctuary singers, alongside Asaph and Heman. His family served as a musical guild for generations. Handing a psalm to Jeduthun meant handing it to a working choir.
"I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me" is the same horse tackle as Psalm 32, this time chosen voluntarily. He muzzles himself so he will not say something in front of scoffers that dishonors God — and the effort makes the trouble hotter, not cooler: "my heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned."
"Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth" uses the smallest common unit of measure — the width of four fingers, about three inches, the bottom of the ancient measuring system that ran up through the span and the cubit. A whole life measured in the shortest ruler available.
"I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were" uses the legal term for a resident alien: a person living in a land he does not own, protected by a patron, with no ancestral claim. Israel's own law commanded kindness to such people, and the Law said the land itself was God's and the Israelites were sojourners on it. The king of the country is calling himself a tenant.
What it meant to them
This psalm is unusually bleak, and Israel kept it. Every man at his best state is altogether vanity — a breath. He heaps up riches and does not know who will gather them.
Its last request is stranger still: "O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more." A prayer for God to look away for a moment. First hearers were given room to say even that.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 39
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 39. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.