Title - To the Chief Musician, even to Jeduthun. Jeduthun's name, which signifies praising or celebrating, was a most appropriate one for a leader in sacred psalmody. He was one of those ordained by the King's order "for song in the house of the Lord with cymbals, psalteries, and harps" (1 Chronicles 15:6), and his children after him appear to have remained in the same hallowed service, even so late as the days of Nehemiah. To have a name and a place in Zion is no small honour, and to hold this place by a long entail of grace is an unspeakable blessing. O that our households may never lack a man to stand before the Lord God of Israel to do him service. David left this somewhat sorrowful ode in Jeduthun's hands because he thought him most fit to set it to music, or because he would distribute the sacred honour of song among all the musicians who in their turn presided in the choir. A Psalm of David. Such as his chequered life would be sure to produce; fit effusion for a man so tempted, so strong in his passions, and yet so firm in faith.

Division - The Psalmist, bowed down with sickness and sorrow, is burdened with unbelieving thoughts, which he resolves to stifle, lest any evil should come from their expression, Psalm 39:1, Psalm 39:2. But silence creates an insupportable grief which at last demands utterance, and obtains it in the prayer of Psalm 39:3, which is almost a complaint and a sigh for death, or at best, a very desponding picture of human life. From Psalm 39:7the tone is more submissive, and the recognition of the divine hand more distinct: the cloud has evidently passed, and the mourner's heart is relieved.

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 39:1, Psalm 39:2 - "I was dumb, etc."

I. There is a time to be silent. He had been enabled to do this when reproached and unjustly accused by others. He did it for good; others might attribute it to sullenness, or pride, or timidity, or conscious guilt; but he did it for good. Breathe upon a polished mirror and it will evaporate and leave it brighter than before; endeavour to wipe it off, and the mark will remain.

II. There is a time to meditate in silence. The greater the silence without, often the greater commotion within. "His heart was hot." The more he thought, the warmer he grew. The fire of pity and compassion, the fire of love, the fire of holy zeal burned within him.

III. There is a time to speak. "Then spake I." The time to speak is when the truth is clear and strong in the mind, and the feeling of the truth is burning in the heart. The emotions burst forth as from a volcano. Jeremiah 20:8, Jeremiah 20:9. The language should always be a faithful representation of the mind and the heart.

- G. Rogers, Tutor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College.

Psalm 39:2 - There is a sevenfold silence.

1. A stoical silence.

2. A politic silence.

3. A foolish silence.

4. A sullen silence.

5. A forced silence.

6. A despairing silence.

7. A prudent, a holy, a gracious silence.

- Thomas Brooks' "Mute Christian."

Psalm 39:4 - "Make me to know mine end."

I. What we may desire to know about our end. Not its date, place, circumstances, but

1. Its nature. Will it be the end of saint or sinner?

2. Its certainty.

3. Its nearness.

4. Its issues.

5. Its requirements. In the shape of attention, preparation, passport.

II. Why ask God to make us know it? Because the knowledge is important, difficult to acquire, and can be effectually imparted by the Lord only.

- W. Jackson.

Psalm 39:4 - David prays,

I. That he may be enabled continually to keep in view the end of life: all things should be judged by their end. "Then understood I their end." Life may be honourable, and cheerful, and virtuous here; but the end! What will it be?

II. That he may be diligent in the performance of all the duties of this life. The measure of his days, how short, how much to be done, how little time to do it in!

III. He prays that he may gain much instruction and benefit from the frailties of life. "That I may know," etc. My frailties may make me more humble, more diligent, while I am able for active service; more dependent upon divine strength, more patient and submissive to the divine will, more ripe for heaven.

- G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:5 (last clause) - Man is vanity, i.e., he is mortal, he is mutable. Observe how emphatically this truth is expressed here.

I. Every man is vanity, without exception, high and low, rich and poor.

II. He is so at his best estate; when he is young, and strong, and healthful, in wealth and honour, etc.

III. He is altogether vanity, as vain as you can imagine.

IV. Verily he is so.

V. Selah is annexed, as a note commanding observation.

- Matthew Henry.

Psalm 39:6 - The vanity of man, as mortal, is here instanced in three things, and the vanity of each shown.

I. The vanity of our joys and honours: "Surely every man walketh in a vain show."

II. The vanity of our griefs and fears: "Surely they are disquieted in vain."

III. The vanity of our cares and toils: "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them."

- Matthew Henry.

Psalm 39:6 - The world's trinity consists,

1. In fruitless honours: what appears to them to be substantial honours are but "a vain show."

2. In needless cares. "They are disquieted in vain." Imaginary cares are substituted for real ones.

3. In useless riches; such as yield no lasting satisfaction to themselves, or in their descent to others.

- G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:7 - "What wait Ifor?"

1. For what salvation as a sinner? Of works or grace - from Sinai or Calvary.

2. For what consolation as a sufferer? Earthly or heavenly?

3. For what supply as a suppliant? Meagre or bountiful? Present or future?

4. For what communication as a servant? Miraculous or ordinary? Pleasing or unacceptable?

5. For what instruction as a pupil? Mental or spiritual? Elating or humbling? Ornamental or useful?

6. For what inheritance as a heir? Sublunary or celestial?

- W. Jackson.

Psalm 39:7 -

I. An urgent occasion. "And now Lord," etc. There are seasons that should lead us specially to look up to God, and say, "Now, Lord." "Father, the hour is come."

II. A devout exclamation, "Now, Lord, what wait I for?" Where is my expectation? Where my confidence? To whom shall I look? am nothing, the world is nothing, all earthly sources of confidence and consolation fail: "What wait I for?" In life, in death, in a dying world, in a coming judgment, in an eternity at hand; what is it that Ineed?

- G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:8

I. Prayer should be general: "Deliver me from all my transgressions." We often need anew to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Afflictions should remind us of our sins. If we pray to be delivered from all transgressions, we are sure to be delivered from the one for which affliction was sent.

II. Prayer should be particular: "Make me not the reproach of the foolish." Suffer me not so to speak or show impatience in affliction as to give occasion even to the foolish to blaspheme. The thought that many watch for our halting should be a preservative from sin.

- G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:9

I. The occasion referred to. "I was dumb," etc. We are not told what the particular trial was, that each one may apply it to his own affliction, and because all are to be viewed in the same light.

II. The conduct of the Psalmist upon that particular occasion: "I opened not my mouth."

1. Not in anger and rebellion against God in murmurs or complaints.

2. Not in impatience, or complaining, or angry feelings against men.

III. The reason he assigns for this conduct: "Because thou didst it." - G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:10 -

I. Afflictions are sent by God. "Thy strokes." They are strokes of his hand, not of the rod of the law, but of the shepherd's rod. Every affliction is his stroke.

II. Afflictions are removed by God. "Remove." He asks not for miracles, but that God in his own way, in the use of natural means, would interpose for his deliverance. We should seek his blessing upon the means employed for our deliverance both by ourselves and others. "Cause to remove," etc.

III. Afflictions have their end from God. "I am consumed by the conflict," etc. God has a controversy with his people. It is a conflict between his will and their wills. The Psalmist owns himself conquered and subdued in the struggle. We should be more anxious that this end should be accomplished than that the affliction should be removed, and when this is accomplished the affliction will be removed.

- G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:10

I. The cause of our trials: "for iniquity." Oh, this trial is come to take away my comforts, my peace of mind, and the divine smile! No, this is all the fruit to take away their sin - the dross, none of the gold - sin, nothing but sin.

II. The effect of our trials. All that he counted desirable in this life, but is not for his real good, is "consumed." His robes which are beautiful in men's esteem are moth-eaten, but the robe of righteousness upon his soul cannot decay.

III. The design of our trials. They are not penal infliction, but friendly rebukes and fatherly corrections. On Christ our Surety the penal consequences were laid, upon us their paternal chastisements only.

IV. The reasonableness of our trials. "Surely every man is vanity." How in a world like this could any expect to be exempt from trials! The world is the same to the Christian as before, and his body is the same. He has a converted soul in an unconverted body, and how can he escape the external ills of life?

- G. Rogers.

Psalm 39:12 - David pleads the good impressions made upon him by his affliction.

I. It had set him a weeping.

II. It had set him a praying.

III. It had helped to wean him from the world.

- Matthew Henry.

Psalm 39:12 (last clause) - Am I a stranger and a sojourner with God? Let me realise, let me exemplify the condition.

I. Let me look for the treatment such characters commonly meet with.

II. And surely if any of my own nation be near me, I shall be intimate with them.

III. Let me not be entangled in the affairs of this life.

IV. Let my affection be set on things that are above, and my conversation be always in heaven.

V. Let me be not impatient for home; but prizing it.

- W. Jay.

Psalm 39:13

I. The subject of his petition - not that he may escape death and live always in this life, because he knows that he must go hence; but

1. That he may be recovered from his afflictions; and,

2. That he may continue longer in this life. Such a prayer is lawful when offered in submission to the will of God.

II. The reasons for this petition.

1. That he may remove by his future life the calumnies that had been heaped upon him.

2. That he may have brighter evidences of his interest in the divine favour.

3. That he may become a blessing to others, his family and nation.

4. That he might have greater peace and comfort in death; and,

5. That he might "have an entrance ministered more abundantly," etc.

- G. Rogers.

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.

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

Psalm 39:1

"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. It is right excellent when a man can strengthen himself in a good course by the remembrance of a well and wisely-formed resolve. "What I have written I have written," or what I have spoken I will perform, may prove a good strengthener to a man in a fixed course of right. "I will take heed to my ways." To avoid sin one had need be very circumspect, and keep one's actions as with a guard or garrison. Unguarded ways are generally unholy ones. Heedless is another word for graceless. In times of sickness or other trouble we must watch against the sins peculiar to such trials, especially against murmuring and repining. "That I sin not with my tongue." Tongue sins are great sins: like sparks of fire, ill-words spread, and do great damage. If believers utter hard words of God in times of depression, the ungodly will take them up and use them as a justification for their sinful courses. If a man's own children rail at him, no wonder if his enemies' mouths are full of abuse. Our tongue always wants watching, for it is restive as an ill-broken horse; but especially must we hold it in when the sharp cuts of the Lord's rod excite it to rebel. "I will keep my mouth with a bridle," or more accurately, with a muzzle. The original does not so much mean a bridle to check the tongue as a muzzle to stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise as our translation would make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his speech, it would have been altogether commendable, but when he went so far as to condemn himself to entire silence, "even from good," there must have been at least a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one fault, he fell into another. To use the tongue against God is a sin of commission, but not to use it at all involves an evident sin of omission. Commendable virtues may be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices; to avoid Scylla we run into Charybdis. "While the wicked is before me." This qualifies the silence, and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so sure to misuse even our holiest speech, that it is as well not to cast any of our pearls before such swine; but what if the Psalmist meant, "I was silent while I had the prosperity of the wicked in my thoughts," then we see the discontent and questioning of his mind, and the muzzled mouth indicates much that is not to be commended. Yet, if we blame we must also praise, for the highest wisdom suggests that when good men are bewildered with sceptical thoughts, they should not hasten to repeat them, but should fight out their inward battle upon its own battlefield. The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil's work with a vengeance if they were to publish abroad all their questionings and suspicions. If I have the fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbours. If any on board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in quarantine, and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a clean bill of health.

Psalm 39:2

"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. Perhaps he feared that if he began to talk at all, he would be sure to speak amiss, and, therefore, he totally abstained. It was an easy, safe, and effectual way of avoiding sin, if it did not involve a neglect of the duty which he owed to God to speak well of his name. Our divine Lord was silent before the wicked, but not altogether so, for before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession, and asserted his kingdom. A sound course of action may be pushed to the extreme, and become a fault. "And my sorrow was stirred." Inward grief was made to work and ferment by want of vent. The pent-up floods were swollen and agitated. Utterance is the natural outlet for the heart's anguish, and silence is, therefore, both an aggravation of the evil and a barrier against its cure. In such a case the resolve to hold one's peace needs powerful backing, and even this is most likely to give way when grief rushes upon the soul. Before a flood gathering in force and foaming for outlet the strongest banks are likely to be swept away. Nature may do her best to silence the expression of discontent, but unless grace comes to her rescue, she will be sure to succumb.

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

4 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail Iam.

5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew; surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

Psalm 39:3

"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. Silence is an awful thing for a sufferer, it is the surest method to produce madness. Mourner, tell your sorrow; do it first and most fully to God, but even to pour it out before some wise and godly friend is far from being wasted breath. "While I was musing the fire burned." As he thought upon the ease of the wicked and his own daily affliction, he could not unravel the mystery of providence, and therefore he became greatly agitated. While his heart was musing it was fusing, for the subject was confusing. It became harder every moment to be quiet; his volcanic soul was tossed with an inward ocean of fire, and heaved to and fro with a mental earthquake; an eruption was imminent, the burning lava must pour forth in a fiery stream. "Then spake I with my tongue." The original is grandly laconic. "I spake." The muzzled tongue burst all its bonds. The gag was hurled away. Misery, like murder, will out. You can silence praise, but anguish is clamorous. Resolve or no resolve, heed or no heed, sin or no sin, the impetuous torrent forced for itself a channel and swept away every restraint.

Psalm 39:4

"Lord." It is well that the vent of his soul was Godward 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 be more patient with me than man, and upon thy purity it can cast not stain; whereas if I speak to my fellows, they may harshly rebuke me or else learn evil from my petulance. "Make me to know my end." Did he mean the same as Elias in his agony, "Let me die, I am no better than my fathers?" Perhaps so. At any rate, he rashly and petulantly desired to know the end of his wretched life, that he might begin to reckon the days till death should put a finis to his woe. Impatience would pry between the folded leaves. As if there were no other comfort to be had, unbelief would fain hide itself in the grave and sleep itself into oblivion. David was neither the first nor the last who had spoken unadvisedly in prayer. Yet, there is a better meaning: the Psalmist would know more of the shortness of life, that he might better bear its transient ills, and herein we may safely kneel with him, uttering the same petition. That there is no end to its misery is the hell of hell; that there is an end to life's sorrow is the hope of all who have a hope beyond the grave. God is the best teacher of the divine philosophy which looks for an expected end. They who see death through the Lord's glass, see a fair sight, which makes them forget the evil of life in foreseeing the end of life. "And the measure of my days." David would fain be assured that his days would be soon over and his trials with them; he would be taught anew that life is measured out to us by wisdom, and is not a matter of chance. As the trader measures his cloth by inches, and ells, and yards, so with scrupulous accuracy is life measured out to man. "That I may know how frail I am," or when I shall cease to be. Alas! poor human nature, dear as life is, man quarrels with God at such a rate that he would sooner cease to be than bear the Lord's appointment. Such pettishness in a saint! Let us wait till we are in a like position, and we shall do no better. The ship on the stocks wonders that the barque springs a leak, but when it has tried the high seas, it marvels that its timbers hold together in such storms. David's case is not recorded for our imitation, but for our learning.

Psalm 39:5

"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! One moment we cry to be rid of existence, and the next instant beg to have it prolonged! A handbreadth is one of the shortest natural measures, being the breadth of four fingers; such is the brevity of life, by divine appointment; God has made it so, fixing the period in wisdom. The "behold" calls us to attention; to some the thought of life's hastiness will bring the acutest pain, to others the most solemn earnestness. How well should those live who are to live so little! Is my earthly pilgrimage so brief? then let me watch every step of it, that in the little of time there may be much of grace. "And mine age is as nothing before thee." So short as not to amount to an entity. Think of eternity, and an angel is as a new-born babe, the world a fresh blown bubble, the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity. Before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. "Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity." This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half-mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust.

Psalm 39:6

"Surely every man walketh in a vain shew." Life is but a passing pageant. This alone is sure, that nothing is sure. All around us shadows mock us; we walk among them, and too many live for them as if the mocking images were substantial; acting their borrowed parts with zeal fit only to be spent on realities, and lost upon the phantoms of this passing scene. Worldly men walk like travellers in a mirage, deluded, duped, deceived, soon to be filled with disappointment and despair. "Surely they are disquieted in vain." Men fret, and fume, and worry, and all for mere nothing. They are shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them. He who toils and contrives, and wearies himself for gold, for fame, for rank, even if he wins his desire, finds at the end his labour lost; for like the treasure of the miser's dream, it all vanishes when the man awakes in the world of reality. Read change, the din of the city streets, and remember that all this noise (for so the word means), this breach of quiet, is made about unsubstantial, fleeting vanities. Broken rest, anxious fear, over-worked brain, failing mind, lunacy, these are steps in the process of disquieting with many, and all to be rich, or, in other words, to load one's self with the thick clay; clay, too, which a man must leave so soon. "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." He misses often the result of his ventures, for there are many slips between the cup and the lips. His wheat is sheaved, but an interloping robber bears it away - as often happens with the poor Eastern husbandman; or, the wheat is even stored, but the invader feasts thereon. Many work for others all unknown to them. Especially does this verse refer to those all-gathering muckrakes, who in due time are succeeded by all-scattering forks, which scatter riches as profusely as their sires gathered them parsimoniously. We know not our heirs, for our children die, and strangers fill the old ancestral halls; estates change hands, and entail, though riveted with a thousand bonds, yields to the corroding power of time. Men rise up early and sit up late to build a house, and then the stranger tramps along its passages, laughs in its chambers, and forgetful of its first builder, calls it all his own. Here is one of the evils under the sun for which no remedy can be prescribed.

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

8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

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

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

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.

12 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

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

Psalm 39:7

"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? It were worse than vanity to linger in the abodes of sorrow to gain a heritage of emptiness. The Psalmist, therefore, turns to his God, in disgust of all things else; he has thought on the world and all things in it, and is relieved by knowing that such vain things are all passing away; he has cut all cords which bound him to earth, and is ready to sound "Boot and saddle, up and away." "My hope is in thee." The Lord is self-existent and true, and therefore worthy of the confidence of men; he will live when all the creatures die, and his fulness will abide when all second causes are exhausted; to him, therefore, let us direct our expectation, and on him let us rest our confidence. Away from sand to rock let all wise builders turn themselves, for if not today, yet surely ere long, a storm will rise before which nothing will be able to stand but that which has the lasting element of faith in God to cement it. David had but one hope, and that hope entered within the veil, hence he brought his vessel to safe anchorage, and after a little drifting all was peace.

Psalm 39:8

"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! Let but the poison of sin be gone from the cup, and we need not fear its gall, for the bitter will act medicinally. None can deliver a man from his transgressions but the blessed One who is called Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins; and when he once works this great deliverance for a man from the cause, the consequences are sure to disappear too. The thorough cleansing desired is well worthy of note' to be saved from some transgressions would be of small benefit; total and perfect deliverance is needed. "Make me not the reproach of the foolish." The wicked are the foolish here meant: such are always on the watch for the faults of saints, and at once make them the theme of ridicule. It is a wretched thing for a man to be suffered to make himself the butt of unholy scorn by apostasy from the right way. Alas, how many have thus exposed themselves to well-deserved reproach! Sin and shame go together and from both David would fain be preserved.

Psalm 39:9

"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. Nature failed to muzzle the mouth, but grace achieved the work in the worthiest manner. How like in appearance may two very different things appear! silence is ever silence, but it may be sinful in one case and saintly in another. What a reason for hushing every murmuring thought is the reflection, "because thou didst it"! It is his right to do as he wills, and he always wills to do that which is wisest and kindest; why should I then arraign his dealings? Nay, if it be indeed the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.

Psalm 39:10

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