Psalms 39 - Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Jeduthun was one of those who led the sacred song in the house of God in David's day, and, long afterwards, we find the son of Jeduthun still engaged in this holy service. What a blessing it is to be succeeded in the work of God by your children from generation to generation! May that be your privilege, my dear brethren! May your families never lack a man to stand before the Lord God of Israel to sing his praises! This is called, «A Psalm of David.» His life was a very chequered one; sometimes he was very joyous, and then he wrote bright and happy Psalms. But he was a man of strong passions and deep feelings; so at times he was very sad, and then he touched the mournful string. This is a very sorrowful Psalm, but it is full of teaching. How grateful we ought to be that such a man as David ever lived, and that he had such a wonderful experience! It may be said of him that he was «A man so various, that he seemed to be not one, but all mankind's epitome.» Well was he made the type of Christ in whose great heart the joys and sorrows of humanity met to the full. Thus the psalmist sings,

Psalms 39:1. I said, I will take heed to my ways,

It is not everybody who would like to recollect what he has uttered; but David could remember and dwell upon what he had formerly said: «I said, I will take heed to my ways.» That is a good thing to do. He that does not take heed to his ways had need do so. Heedless and careless, and heedless and graceless, are much the same thing. He that does not take heed what he does will be sure to do wrong.

Psalms 39:1. That I sin not with my tongue:

He that does not sin with his tongue usually has his whole nature under government. The tongue is the rudder of the vessel, and if that be managed well, the ship will be rightly steered. «I said, I resolved, I determined and I uttered my determination, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.» Just then David was sinning in his heart, for it was in a great state of ferment, but he said, «I will not sin with my tongue.» It was with him as it sometimes is with the captain of a vessel; if someone on board is suffering from the yellow fever, the ship-master will not send a boat to the shore for fear of spreading infection, his vessel will be in quarantine untill all danger is past. It was thus with David; while all within him was seething and boiling in feverish impatience, he said, «I shall not speak for the present, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.»

Psalms 39:1. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

The marginal reading is, «with a muzzle for my mouth.» David would not speak at all, and herein he was not right. If he had said, «I will keep my mouth with a bridle,» as our translation has it, that would have been perfectly proper. We ought never to leave off bridling our tongue, but David muzzled his. He would not speak at all while the wicked were before him, he knew that they would misconstrue his words, that they would make mischief of whatever he said, so he muzzled himself when in their company.

Psalms 39:2. I was dumb with silence,

«I did not speak, I could not speak: ‘I was dumb with silence.'»

Psalms 39:2. I held my peace, even from good;

David's conduct proves that, even when we are doing something which is right, we are apt to overdo it, and so we stray into a vice while pursuing a virtue. You can run so close to the heels of a virtue that they may knock out your teeth; you may be so ardent for one good thing that you may miss another: «I held my peace, even from good.»

Psalms 39:2. And my sorrow was stirred.

Not giving it vent, it boiled and seethed: «My sorrow was stirred.» Sometimes, a little talk is a great easement to a troubled spirit; but, as David was dumb, his sorrow was not still.

Psalms 39:3. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned:

There was an inward friction, his griefs kept revolving till his heart grew hot; this heat generated fire, which burned so vehemently that, at last, the psalmist could not help himself, and he was obliged to speak.

Psalms 39:3. Then spake I with my tongue,

Whether rightly or wrongly, he must say something, he could not hold himself in any longer: «Then spake I with my tongue.»

Psalms 39:4. LORD,

If you must speak, address your words to the Lord. So David does, he does not speak to the wicked, but he prays to God most holy.

Psalms 39:4. Make me to know mine end,

Did he wish to die? Perhaps so; you remember that one of the two men who never died once prayed that he might die. Elijah did so; and David does so here, I think, if I put a hard construction on his speech: «Lord, make me to know mine end.» But if I read it more tenderly, I may make it to mean, «Lord, help me to recollect that my sorrows will not last for ever! That thought will tone them down, and keep them in cheek. ‘Make me to know mine end.'»

Psalms 39:4-5. 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 handbreadth;

That is, the breadth of your four fingers; all the length of life is to he measured by a span.

Psalms 39:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee:

All that exists is as nothing before God. What are even the elder-born of angels but the infants of an hour in contrast with the ages of eternity? The world itself is only like a bubble blown yesterday, the sun is as a spark struck from the anvil of omnipotence but a few days ago; and as for man, compared with the eternal God, he is «as nothing.»

Psalms 39:5. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

Or, as the Hebrew has it, every Adam is all Abel. Was not Abel the child of Adam, and was he not soon cut off? Every man even at his best state is altogether vanity. What poor creatures we are! Our breath is not more airy than we ourselves are; our lives are but as a mist that is blown away by the wind. «Selah.» When the psalmist had come so far, he stopped a while, to screw up the strings of his harp; such pressure as he had given it had taken away its melodious tones, and it needed to be brought again up to concert pitch.

Psalms 39:6. Surely every man walketh in a vain show:

Like players, or actors, all of us are walking in a phantom show; which is not really anything, but only seems to be.

Psalms 39:6. Surely they are disquieted in vain:

They make a dreadful noise in the tumult of the battle, the din of the exchange, the hum of the streets, the fret and worry of the counting-house; but it is all in vain.

Psalms 39:6. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

If a man does succeed in amassing wealth, it is a poor success; the muck-rake gathers, and then comes the fork that scatters. One man hoards it up, and another takes as much delight in squandering it. They think that they have entailed their estate, and that their name and house will continue as long as the sun, but it all comes to nothing. «Vanity of vanities,» said the son of David, «all is vanity,» and his father had said so before him.

Psalms 39:7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

There is no vanity in that declaration. Now we are on the rock, now we have come to something real. When a man trusts in the unchanging God, and hopes in the ever-blessed Saviour, he has come out of his state of vanity: «My hope is in thee.»

Psalms 39:8. Deliver me from all my transgressions:

We had not expected David to offer that prayer, we might have thought that he would say, «Deliver me from all my troubles, and from my many vexing thoughts.» But no, he lays the axe at the root of the evil: «Deliver me from all my transgressions.» There is only One who can do that, even the glorious Son of God, who lived and died to save his people from their sins.

Psalms 39:8. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

«The wicked will be ready enough to catch me up, and pour scorn upon me. Lord, keep me so right with thee, and so near to thyself, that they may never be able to reproach me!»

Psalms 39:9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.

This verse should read, «I will be dumb, I will not open my mouth, because thou hast done it.» That is a better silence than the first, for the psalmist is getting into a right state. This is the proper silence, the other was brazen, this is golden. God help us to know how and when to practice it! Never speak against God whatever he does, open not your mouth when he chastens because whatever he does must be right.

Psalms 39:10. Remove thy stroke away from me:

Having come to complete submission, he ventures to pray for deliverance from his sorrow. You may pray very boldly, and very freely, when you can truly say, «Thy will be done.» David had said that he would not open his mouth against his God, and now he begins to plead, «Remove thy stroke away from me.»

Psalms 39:10. I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

When God does strike, it is no playing matter; a blow of his hand consumes us.

Psalms 39:11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:

As a moth eats up the fur or the cloth, and spoils it, so, when God's corrections come upon us, our beauty is soon gone. Poor beauty it must be that can so soon go. Lord, let thy beauty be upon us, for no moth can ever eat into that!

Psalms 39:11. Surely every man is vanity. Selah.

In the fifth verse, you see that, when the psalmist reached that point, he stopped, and said, «selah,» and he does so again here. Striking his lyre with a heavy hand, he has put it out of tune again, so he pauses, and begin to screw the strings up once more. You and I often need to be screwed up like the strings of a harp, to put us in right order before we go on to praise or to pray.

Psalms 39:12. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry;

See how David's «prayer» grows into a «cry.» It deepens in intensity; there is more power in a cry than in an ordinary prayer, it shows more earnestness, and implies greater urgency: «Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry.»

Psalms 39:12. Hold not thy peace at my tears:

That is a still more powerful mode of pleading. Tears are the irresistible weapons of weakness. Women, children, beggars, and sinners can all conquer by tears: when they can win by nothing else, if they will take to these pearly drops, and especially if they can look through them to the crimson drops of a Saviour's blood, they can win what they will of God:

«Hold not thy peace at my tears.»

Psalms 39:12. For I am a stranger with thee,

The believer is a stranger in this world, just as God is. The Lord made the world, but the world does not know its Maker, and it does not know his people.

«Tis no surprising thing, That we should be unknown:

The Jewish world knew not their King,

God's everlasting Son.»

«I am a stranger,» not to thee, but «with thee, a stranger even as thou art.» There is another very beautiful meaning to this expression. You know how the Orientals exercise hospitality to strangers; when they once take them into their tent, they supply them liberally, and treat them honourably. «I am a stranger with thee: «I am a poor alien who has come into God's house to tarry for a while with him. I have eaten of his salt, I have cast myself upon his protection, so he will certainly take care of me: «I am a stranger with thee.»

Psalms 39:12. And a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

«They did not remain here. My fathers used this world merely as an inn, at which they stayed for a night; in the morning, they hurried on to the city that hath foundations, on the other side of Jordan,

«To the islands of the Blessed,

To the land of the Hereafter,»

where the saints dwell for ever with their Lord.

Psalms 39:13. O spare me,

«Deal gently with me; do not break me in pieces. If thou must needs smite me, yet do not altogether crush me. O spare me,»

Psalms 39:13. That I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

«Let me be able to take a little nourishment, and to gather my faculties together yet again, that I may sing to thee some sweeter hymn before I cease to be in the land of the living, and go hence out of this world.» So, you see, this is a sweet Psalm after all, it is a bitter sweet, a sweet bitter, a Psalm that tends towards our spiritual health. Many of us understand what David meant by it. May others, who as yet do not, soon be taught its gracious lessons! Amen.

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. David dedicated some Psalms to Asaph, and one or two to Jeduthun. Some of this chief musician's family appear to have remained singers as late as the time of Nehemiah. It is a great honour to be a singer in the house of God. Ungodly men have no right to lead the psalmody; only redeemed lives can sing aright the song of redemption. I reckon that it is almost as wrong to have an unconverted person to lead the singing as it would be to have an unconverted man to preach the Gospel. David was in a great heat of spirit, and much tried, when he wrote this Psalm. There is little that is cheerful in it, yet there is much that may cheer us, Sometimes, when we are unusually thoughtful, we are more likely to be blessed than at other times. Specific gravity is better than specific levity; there are some who have a great deal of the latter quality.

Psalms 39:1. I said,

«I thought it, and at last I said it. I resolved; I determined upon it; and I registered the vow.»

Psalms 39:1. I will take heed to my ways,

Men never go right by accident, he who is heedless is graceless. A holy life is a life that comes of taking heed.

Psalms 39:1. That I sin not with my tongue:

He who keeps his tongue can keep all the rest of his body. The tongue is the helm of the ship, and if that be well managed, the ship will be steered aright. How many sins of the tongue there are, proud words, false words, trifling words, unclean words! I cannot mention the whole list. The tongue is the best thing in the world or the worst thing, according to how it is savoured.

Psalms 39:1. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

«I may feel free when I am with God's people; then I may wear my heart upon my sleeve, for there are no claws to peck at it. But when I am with the wicked, I must not cast my pearls before swine. I must be careful what I say, for they will be sure to misunderstand and misrepresent me.»

Psalms 39:2. I was dumb with silence,

Ah, me! How often we do wrong even when we try to do right! He tried not to sin with his tongue, so he was silent, but silence itself may be a sin of the tongue. God forgive our idle silence, and silence our idle words! I do not think we often sin this way; but silence may sometimes be more wicked than speech even though at other times speech is silvern and silence is golden. If silence is sometimes better than speech, it may also be worse. So poor David, like a pendulum, swings first this way and then the other way. Yet he went too far in the silent direction.

Psalms 39:2. I held my peace, even from good;

Which he should not have done. A dumb sorrow is a heavy sorrow.

Psalms 39:2. And my sorrow was stirred.

Or «troubled.» Water, while it is quiet, may look clear, the sediment lies still at the bottom; but if you stir it, you see all there is in it. So is it with sorrow; when it is stirred, you find its bitterness.

Psalms 39:3. My heart was hot within me,

The fire was kept in his heart; it was not allowed space to break forth, so his heart was hot as an oven.

Psalms 39:3. While I was musing the fire burned:

He grew so hot with grief, that he was compelled to speak.

Psalms 39:3. Then spake I with my tongue,

I am not sure that he did not sin then. We sin if we are silent, and we sin if we speak, for we are such sinful creatures. It would have been better perhaps, if David had said, «Lord, help me to take heed to my ways, and rule thou over my tongue, «for as it was, you see, he could not manage his tongue. He was either too fast or too slow. However, this time he spake well, for he spoke to God. More talk to God and less chat to men, and we should be wiser and better.

Psalms 39:4. Lord, make me to know mine end,

It is greatly wise for us to be familiar with our last hours. There is much to be discovered in the shroud, the mattock, and the spade.

Psalms 39:4. And the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

A bubble is more substantial than I am, a little handful of dust, easily blown to the wind, rather an appearance than a reality. Ah, me! little do we know, any of us, how frail we are.

Psalms 39:5. Behold thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;

How short is our life! It is just a span, and no more,

Psalms 39:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee:

What multitudes of generations of men have come and gone! An angel might have cried, long before, «Man is but a thing of yesterday compared with the eternal God.» God created the first star that twinkled out of the primeval darkness. «The everlasting hills,» as we call them, are but infants of a day compared to him; therefore, man may truly say, «Mine age is as nothing before thee.»

Psalms 39:5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

The best man is only man at the best, and when he is at his best, he is nothing but vanity. It is strange that he should get vain of his best state, when his best is only vanity.

Psalms 39:6. Surely every man walketh in a vain show:

He is a shadow walking among shadows.

Psalms 39:6. Surely they are disquieted in vain:

They fret and fume about nothing.

Psalms 39:6. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

He is busy with a rake, but another will be busy with a fork. What the miser gathers the spendthrift scatters.

Psalms 39:7. And now, Lord, what wait I for?

«Do I wait to gather riches for another to squander? Do I wait to worry myself? Do I wait here to walk as a vanity in the midst of vanities? No, Lord, I am waiting for something better than that!»

Psalms 39:7. My hope is in thee.

Here the psalmist steps off the sand, and puts his foot on the rock. Happy is the man who can say to the Lord, «My hope is in thee.»

Psalms 39:8. Deliver me from all my transgressions:

When he gets near to God, he sees himself to be a sinner.

Psalms 39:8-9. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

That is fine silence when a man will not complain because his affliction comes from the hand of God. There is something better even than that when a man breaks the silence, and begins to praise God under the rod. A mute Christian smarting under the rod is a wonder of grace; but a singing Christian under a cutting stroke is a still greater miracle of mercy. Such ought all Christians to be.

Psalms 39:10. Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

When God smites, he never plays at chastisement, and there are times when his blows are very heavy, and then the smitten one cries out, «Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.»

Psalms 39:11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:

Stout, he is reduced to a shadow, comely and beautiful he is wrinkled, and looks like a skeleton, joyful and blithe, he ends his day in mourning. Ah, dear friends, we who have joy, and calm, and peace, ought to be very grateful! Praise God while you can, for it may be that a dark night will follow the bright day. Oh, for grace to praise God then! That is the best of music that comes from God's nightingales. Music by night is music indeed. But when God corrects men, how soon he takes them down!

Psalms 39:11-12. Surely every man is vanity. Selah. Hear my prayer, O LORD,

«If I cannot do anything else, I can pray, and I will pray.» That is the best relief that mourners have: «Hear my prayer, O Lord.»

Psalms 39:12. And give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears:

«Do not see me weeping, and yet refuse me comfort and relief. Do not, I pray thee, hear my cry, and yet turn thy back upon me.»

Psalms 39:12. For I am a stranger with thee,

Notice, not a stranger to thee, but, «a stranger with thee. Thou art a stranger in thine own world, and I also am a stranger here.» Men will not entertain the King, for they know him not; therefore,

«Tis no surprising thing,

That we should be unknown:

The Jewish world knew not their King

God's everlasting Son.»

«I am a stranger with thee.» There is a sweet familiarity about this expression, as if the psalmist said, «Lord, I am not at home, I am a stranger here; and thou, too, art a stranger; men will not acknowledge thee. Therefore, Lord, sympathize with me. Hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee.»

Psalms 39:12. And a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

«Thou art my Host; I am thy guest; thou dost entertain me. Lord, look at my tears! When the good man entertains a stranger, then he is kind, he pours oil and wine into his wounds. Lord, do so with me, thou art the Good Samaritan, and I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, a temporary guest with thee in this world, as all my fathers were.»

Psalms 39:13. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

There is much sweet comfort here, though the Psalm reads like a dirge, rather than a hymn. God give us, if we are obliged to sing such words as these, to sing them with a full belief that the Lord will hear us, and will bless our trials to us, and make them work our lasting good!

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.

This is what David said; what he had deliberately resolved upon and solemnly determined in his own mind: «I said, I will take heed to my ways.» That is a good thing for all of us to resolve and to say: «I will take heed.» To be heedless is to be graceless. No man ever does a good thing by accident. We shall none of us get to heaven by blundering. «I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.» The tongue may be a most powerful instrument of evil. Tongue sins are terrible sins. They are like sparks of fire which may set a whole town upon a blaze. He that can take heed to his tongue will probably be able to manage all the rest of the members of his body. The tongue is the most unmanageable member of our frame; and if we sin not with our tongue, we shall most likely be kept from sinning in other ways. «I will keep my mouth with a bridle,» says David; it should be rendered, «with a muzzle.» He did not mean that he would merely control his tongue, but that he would silence it altogether. «I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked is before me.» I do not know whether that was a right resolution on David's part. Tongues were meant to be used and there are often opportunities of using them to God's glory even in the presence of the wicked. Sometimes, we are bound to use our tongue in rebuking their sin; yet we cannot criticize David's resolution very much, because when the wicked are before us, it may be only like casting pearls before swine if we begin to speak to them even upon the best themes, and we may be drawn away, by their company to speak that which is questionable. So that often, it may be best to keep our mouth muzzled while the wicked are before us.

Psalms 39:2. I was dumb with silence,

«I was as silent as if I had been dumb. I did not say a word.» It seems to me that this silence of the psalmist was partly sullen and partly judicious: «I was dumb with silence,»

Psalms 39:2. I held my peace, even from good;

He was a total abstainer from all speech. Perhaps he felt that he could not speak a little without speaking too much, and so he refrained from speech altogether. Yet we must not follow his example so closely in this matter, for there is a time for speech as well as a time for silence. It was not good for David to hold his peace even from good. It is good for us to hold our peace rather than speak unwisely, but it would be better for us to speak wisely, discreetly, as God's Spirit should direct us.

Psalms 39:2. And my sorrow was stirred.

It is a great relief to sorrow to be able to speak about it. Be not silent in thy grief, lest thy grief should burn too fiercely within thy heart. It is often one of the signs of a failing mind when persons sit quite still, and will not tell their grief to anyone. Tell thy grief to thy God first of all, and thou mayest also tell it with advantage to some sympathizing friend. But David felt that he could not speak, so his sorrow was stirred, troubled, agitated, like a pent-up fire that must sooner or later burst into a blaze.

Psalms 39:3. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned:

While he was musing, his heart was fusing, and there was much that was most confusing to him. He saw the prosperity of the wicked, and the oppression of the righteous. He heard the reproaches of the ungodly, and he felt the stings of affliction and trial in his own soul. So, as he did not speak, his heart grew hot within him: «While I was musing the fire burned:

Psalms 39:3. Then spake I with my tongue,

We say, «Murder will out,» and so will misery. David's heart had become like a volcano, and the fire burned so furiously within that he was obliged to let the burning lava flow forth, and so give his soul vent. There is no speech like that which comes from a hot heart. That shot from the tongue which has been made red-hot in the heart is sure to tell upon the adversary. «Then spake I with my tongue;» and what he said was not unwise. There was nothing of boasting or excitement in it; it was a very wise, plain, earnest prayer.

Psalms 39:4. LORD,

That was a good beginning of David's speech. When we turn our burning words towards God, and not towards men, good will come of them. David's hot heart finds a vent Godward. This was the wisest thing that he could do, cry unto his God. «Lord,»

Psalms 39:4. Make me to know mine end,

Did David mean to pray, «Let me die,» like Elias did? I am half afraid that he did, and many a time some of God's servants, in their great heats when their soul has been fuller of passion than of faith, have prayed in this sense, «Make me to know mine end.» Yet a better meaning may be put upon the psalmist's words, and we are bound to put the best meaning upon them that we can. He may have meant, «Let me know, Lord, that my sorrows will come to an end, that they are not to last for ever.» Death may be looked at through the glass of faith till it becomes even a goodly and desirable object. «Lord, make me to know mine end,»

Psalms 39:4. And the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

Our days are all measured, they do not come to an end by accident As mercers measure their ells and their yards of silk or cotton goods, so does God measure out life to us. There is not half an inch more or less than God himself determines that we shall have. If David wanted to know what the measure of his days was, he was trying to pry into the folded leaves of the future. Such prying is both wrong and futile, and we may be thankful that we do not know what the measure of our days is in this sense. We do know that, at their utmost, they are not likely to exceed the threescore years and ten, or the fourscore years, which now make up the ordinary measure of human life.

Psalms 39:5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;

That is a very short measure, the breadth of a hand, the space that we can span with one of our hands, yet that is the true measure of our life: «Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;»

Psalms 39:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee:

What are seventy or eighty years, even if we live so long as that, out of the thousands of years that men have lived on the face of the earth? One man's life seems but a drop in the great ocean of human history. Yet what an insignificant thing human history itself is! Some thousands of years ago, there were no men upon this earth; yet what is the history of the whole world compared with eternity? It is not worth speaking of, it is scarcely one tick of the clock of eternity. Why, this world is only like a newly blown bubble, and the sun is but a spark fresh from the eternal fire. As compared with the eternal God, man is a non entity, a nullity, and David was right when he said to the Lord, «Mine age is as nothing before thee.»

Psalms 39:5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

When he is strongest, calmest, happiest, when he is in his prime, when he is at his best, of which he is so vain, is itself vain. Whatever there may be true about man, this is true, that he is unstable, and soon passes away. He is constant in nothing but his inconstancy. «Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.»

Psalms 39:6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew:

This world is a mere theater, and men strut across its stage, acting their various parts. They come and they go as if they were mere figures moved by invisible wires; the most of men do not live at all, but only seem to live for they have not the true, spiritual, eternal life within them. Every man walks like a performer in a pageant, or like those who march in a procession. We think we are standing still, and watching others pass by, but we are ourselves part of the vain show, and are passing away with the rest.

Psalms 39:6. Surely they are disquieted in vain:

They fret, they fume, they vex themselves, but it is all in vain. They make a noise, so the Hebrew says, in vain. Hear the clamor of the streets, hear the buzz of the exchange, hear the noise of war, and the shouts of conflict. It is all in vain, it is all for nothing. You are troubled about your business, troubled about your children, troubled about your wealth, troubled about I know not what; surely, you are disquieted in vain. Oh, that we could but believe that all this disquietude is only vanity! Then might we live much more peaceful lives.

Psalms 39:6. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

He has cut his corn, and it stands in sheaves in the field, but his enemy comes, and carts it away; or if he has gathered it into his granary, it is consumed by rats or mice, or it becomes mildewed and useless. How many there are who spend their lives gathering wealth with the muck-rake, and then their sons come with the fork and shovel, and scatter it quite as quickly as their fathers gathered it. What is the good of getting all this gold together, and stinting yourself in order to get it, when the one who has it after you will never thank you for it, or if he did, you would be dead and buried, and would know nothing of his gratitude?

Psalms 39:7. And now, Lord, what wait I for?

The psalmist improves as he advances. Now you see that he is cut loose from the world. He has seen the vanity of man, and he has seen the vanity of wealth, so he says, «'Now, Lord, what wait I for? What is there here, in this land of shadows, that I should wait for? Why sit I down where nothing good has ever come, or ever can come? «The ropes that held the balloon to earth are cut, and up it mounts.

Psalms 39:7. My hope is in thee.

This is a glorious hope; this is a hope that finds its all in God, this hope will outlast death and the grave; this hope will be our treasure in eternity. Can each of you truly say this, «My hope is in thee»? Let this be the language of your heart as you speak to your God, «This is what I wait for, that I may enjoy thy presence here, and that I may rejoice in thy presence hereafter; I wait for the coming of my Lord; I wait for the time when the Lord shall call me home.»

Psalms 39:8. Deliver me from all my transgressions:

That is a better prayer than if David had said, «Deliver me from all my sorrows.» Now he has hit the very center of the target: «Deliver me from all my transgressions.» So let each one of us pray at this moment, «O Lord, I do not ask to be saved from thy rod, but I do ask to be washed from my sin. Do what thou wilt with me, but do forgive me, do sanctify me, do let me be washed in the precious blood of Jesus. ‘Deliver me from all my transgressions.'»

Psalms 39:8. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

Do not let the wicked be able to say, «See the sadness of that man's countenance, see how sullen he looks. His face is like a thundercloud, it is clear that a Christian has no joy.» Let not the wicked be able to say that, my Lord; but save me from sin, and give me the full joy of thy salvation, and then they will not be able to reproach me.

Psalms 39:9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

You will understand this verse much better if we read it in another tense as it should be: «Now I will be dumb, I will not open my mouth, because thou didst it.» David was wrong the first time when he was dumb, but he is right this second time. Two things may be very like one another outwardly, yet very different inwardly. There is a silence which the Christian ought to keep.

Psalms 39:10. Remove thy stroke away from me:

The child of God, who is perfectly resigned to his heavenly Father's will may yet pray to be delivered from his trouble. Prayer for deliverance from grief is quite consistent with perfect submission to the will of God. We may pray, for Jesus prayed, «O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;» but we must take care also to add, «Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.»

Psalms 39:10. I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

«Thou hast beaten me sorely; oh, smite me not again!» This is good pleading, for God does not mean to consume his own children. He means to consume our sins, and when he makes us cry, «Deliver me from all my transgressions,» and when we submit to his holy will, he will soon put his rod away. As soon as you are willing to bear it, you shall not have to hear it any longer. When you submit yourself to the stroke, then the stroke will cease to be given.

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.

When God whips his children, he does not play with them. God is in earnest, if we are not; and when he corrects us, he means us to feel his rod, and he means us to bear the scars it leaves upon us. There must be real strokes, and real smarts, ere we are likely to be cured of sin, and, sometimes, when he is dealing in chastisement with his people, he makes their beauty to depart like a piece of cloth or fur when the moth gets into it, and utterly destroys it. What a poor thing beauty is if the moth can eat it up! If a little affliction can take away our beauty, we may well pray for that beauty for which Moses pleaded, «Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.» That is a beauty of quite another kind, the beauty of grace which no moth can consume. But if we have not that, our beauty is a poor thing. Let no man, let no woman, be vain of beauty which can so soon be gone.

Psalms 39:12. Hear my prayer, O LORD,

David is dumb, yet he prays, dumb as to complaints, but eloquent as to pleading with his God.

Psalms 39:12. And give ear unto my cry;

The psalmist goes from pleading to crying, and believers often thus intensify their prayers. There is something more sorrowful, more earnest, more prevalent, about crying unto God than mere ordinary praying: «Give ear unto my cry;»

Psalms 39:12. Hold not thy peace at my tears:

David goes further still, for the most eloquent things in the world are tears. They are the irresistible weapons of weakness. Many a woman, many a beggar, many a child, has gained by tears what could not be obtained in any other way; so David pleaded most powerfully when he prayed, «Hold not thy peace at my tears:»

Psalms 39:12. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

«Thou dost entertain me in thy tent as I have entertained wanderers many a time. I have broken bread with thee, and eaten of thy salt, be kind to the stranger and sojourner as thou hast bidden thy servants to be.» Or does David mean that, as God is a stranger in his own world, so are we while necessarily passing through it?

Psalms 39:13. O spare me,

That is a singular petition, for just now, he seemed to be wanting to get to the end of his days; yet he says, «O spare me,» like Elias, who was afraid to die, and so ran away from Jezebel, and then prayed to God, «Let me die.» So are God's children still a mass of contradictions, longing for death, and yet, when death comes, they cry, «O spare me! O spare me!»

Psalms 39:13. That I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

«Give me a little respite, that I may take my nourishment, and have my sleep before I go hence to be no more, for soon I shall do that. But give me a little interlude first, wherein I may again take my harp, and sing to thy praise.» If worldlings cannot understand this mingled experience God's children know that this is only one of the many paradoxes with which they are perfectly familiar. In any case, may each one of us be ready when it shall be God's time for us to «go hence, and be no more» here!

This Psalm gives a description of David's experience and conduct when stretched upon a sick-bed. He appears to have felt impatience working within him, which I am sorry to say is a very common disease with most of us when God's hand is heavy upon us. Yet David struggled against his impatience, though he felt it, he would not know it, lest he should thereby open the mouths of his enemies, and cause them to speak evil of his God. Let us imitate his restraint if we resemble him in the temptation to impatience.

Psalms 39:1. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue:--

This government of the tongue is a most important part of our ways; it in a very essential part of holy discipline, yet we have heard of one saint who said that he had lived for seventy years, and had tried to control his tongue, but that he had only begun to understand the art when he died. David said, «I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue;»-

Psalms 39:1. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

They have such quick ears, and they are so ready to misinterpret and misrepresent our words, and if they can find one word awry, they will straightway preach a long sermon over it, so let us muzzle our mouths while they are near. The ill words of Christians often make texts for sinners, and thus God is blasphemed out of the mouths of his own beloved children. Let it not be so with any of you, beloved.

Psalms 39:2. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

We all know that, unless our grief can find expression, it swells and grows till our heart is ready to break. We have heard of a wise physician who bade a man in great trouble weep as much as ever he could. «Do not restrain your grief,» he said, «but let it all out.» He felt that only in that way would the poor sufferer's heart be kept from breaking. David determined that, before the wicked, he would have nothing at all to say, and though his griefs were surging within him, yet for a time he kept them from bursting out.

Psalms 39:3. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

He could not hold his peace any longer; it would have been well if he had done so, for he uttered an unwise prayer when be spake with his tongue.

Psalms 39:4. LORD, make me to know mine end,

That is what you and I are apt to say when we get into a little trouble; we want to die, and get away from it all. We say that we long to be with Christ, but I am afraid that it is often only a lazy wish to share the spoils of victory without fighting the battle, to receive the saints' wages without doing the saints' work, and to enter into heaven without the toils and dangers of the pilgrims' way. Perhaps this has been the case with us sometimes when we have thought that our aspirations were of the best and holiest kind. When David prayed, «Lord, make me to know mine end,» his prayer was not a very wise one, but the next sentences were not quite so foolish:--

Psalms 39:4. And the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

Oh, that we could all know how frail we are! But we reckon upon living for years when we have scarcely many more minutes left, we think our life's hour-glass is full when the sands have almost run out, and although the hand of God's great clock may be upon the striking-point, we think our brief hour has but just begun.

Psalms 39:5. Behold, thou hast made my days as, an handbreadth;

This is a very common measure, the breadth of the human hand; and David says that this span is the measure of his life. Some here must surely have spent a great part of that handbreadth; let them and all of us be prepared to meet our God when that short span's limit is reached.

Psalms 39:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee:

It is an incalculably tiny speck when compared with the immeasurable age of the Eternal: «Mine age is as nothing before thee.» When Alcibiades boasted of his great estates, the philosopher brought him a map of the world, and said to him, «Can you find your estates on this map?» Even Athens itself was but as a pin's point; where, then, were the estates of Alcibiades? Nowhere to be seen. So, when we see the great map of eternity spread out before us, where is the whole of this world's history? It is but a speck, and where then, are your life and mine? They are as nothing before God.

Psalms 39:5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.

Then what must he be at his worst state

Psalms 39:6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain:

They fret, and fume, and flurry, and worry, and all about what? About nothing. We sometimes say, «It will be all the same a hundred years hence.» Ah! but it will be all the same much sooner than that, when the six feet of earth shall be all our heritage.

Psalms 39:6. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

«Bethink thee,» says an old writer, «every time thou dost lock up thy money in a box, how soon death shall lock thee up in thy coffin.» Some men seem to be like our children's money-boxes, into which money is put, but they must be broken before any can come out. To some men, how sad must be the thought that they have been accumulating wealth all their days, and they know not for whom they have been gathering it! A stranger may, perhaps, inherit it; or if their own kith and kin shall get it, they may squander it just as thoroughly as the misers hoarded it.

Psalms 39:7. And now, Lord,-

If all earthly things are nothing but emptiness,-

Psalms 39:7. What wait I for?

«I wait for nothing here, for there is nothing here to wait for.»

Psalms 39:7. My hope is in thee.

Ah! this hope makes life worth living. Now that we hope in God, now that we know that there remaineth another and a better world than this world of shadows, life is invested with true solemnity.

Psalms 39:8-9. Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

It is always a blessed reason for resignation when we can say of any bereavement or affliction, «The Lord has done it.» Shall he not do as he wills with his own? Then let us say, with Job, «The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.»

Psalms 39:10-12. Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 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. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears:

Tears have ever had great prevalence with God. Christ used these sacred weapons when, «with strong crying and tears,» he prayed to his Father in Gethsemane, «and we heard in that he feared.» Sinner, there is such potency in a penitent's tears that thou mayest prevail with God if thou wilt come to him weeping over thy sin, and pleading the precious blood of Christ. Thy tears cannot merit heaven, or wash away thy sins, but if thou dost penitently grieve over them, and trust in the great atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, thy tearful prayers shall have a gracious answer of peace. Mr. Bunyan describes the City of Mansoul as sending Mr. Wet-eyes as one of her ambassadors to the Prince Emanuel, and he is still a most acceptable ambassador to the King of kings. He who knows how to weep his heart out at the foot of the cross shall not be long without finding mercy. Tears are diamonds that God loves to behold.

Psalms 39:12. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

«I am not a stranger to thee, O my God! Blessed be thy holy name, I know thee well; but ‘I am a stranger with thee.' Thou art a stranger in shine own world, and so am I. The world knows thee not, and the world knows me not; and when I act as thou actest, the world hateth me even as it hateth thee.»

Psalms 39:13. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.