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.