Psalms 39
Big idea: A man decides not to speak — I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me — and the silence makes it worse. My heart was hot within me; while I meditated, the fire burned; I spoke with my tongue. What comes out is not a complaint about enemies but a request nobody asks casually: show me my end; let me know how frail I am. The psalm is the Psalter at its most unconsoled. Its last line asks God to look away — spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.
Psalm 39 ends asking God to look away. Psalm 40 begins with God turning toward him.
39:1–6 — Show me my end
A man who resolved to say nothing, and the psalm is what happened when the resolution broke. He kept the bridle on 'even from good', which made it worse — the silence banked the pressure rather than releasing it — and when he finally speaks, the request is startling. He does not ask for relief. He asks to be shown how short he is.
1 For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David. I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.” 2 I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. 3 My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue: 4 “Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. 5 Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah. 6 “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
39:7–13 — I am a stranger with you
The second half asks the question the measuring produced — if a lifetime is a breath, what exactly am I waiting for? — and answers it in five words. Then the psalm returns to the silence it started in, now with a reason: 'because YOU did it.' And its last request is the most unusual in the Psalter. He asks God to look away, so he can recover before he goes.
7 Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish. 9 I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. 10 Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. 11 When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah. 12 “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. 13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).