Psalm 39
Psalm 39
Milt Reynolds | Last updated: July 9, 2022
I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.” I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather! “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool! I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand. When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath!
Selah
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more! - (Psalm 39:1–13, ESV)
How Weary I Am!
O LORD! How weary I am! How spent and dispirited I feel in this circumstance and condition you are using to teach and mature me!
Grant me peace today...grant me moments in which to smile...refine my soul to see beyond this fleeting life on earth, to seek joy from that which heaps of money and things cannot support.
For what do I wait? I wait for you!
Doomed If Not For God
The heart is stonger than the tongue! Distress and passion and thought demand expression. what is the source of David's distress? He desires to guard his mouth because of the presence of wickedness, but is that only a side issue...an unwillingness to bare his heart in the hearing of wickedness?
Lord! My life is short! So fleeting! Those who persecute do so on the basis that this earthly life is all we have, there is no hope for nothing more than 70 or 80 years of pleasure. Persecutors scheme to trade affliction for pleasure by persecuting others, despite having only 70 or 80 years to enjoy what they steal! For naught is the stirring of such turmoil! Heaping up wealth and pleasure that will end in 70 or 80 years...or less?
it is time, Lord! I'm exhausted by my sin and this hostile world that consumes me. My hope is that you will bring me peace, not persecution.
David's psalm conveys no sense of his being right and good. He feels suddenly crushed together with the wicked, seeing his own sin and expecting loss of all that is dear to him on earth.
He pleads for mercy and peace for which he has no more right to ask than the wicked that surround him. All he sees of God is wrath and justice, which feels like a setence of death.
On what basis does David ask for deliverance, mercy and peace? On the basis that there is none other than God. God alone can declare a sinner saved. God alone determines whether a person has a few decades of life, or never-ending life. Unless God grants a declaration of innocence, we are all doomed when we depart this earthly, natural life!
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