Psalms 39:1-13
1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my moutha 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.b
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 I am.
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.
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 blowc 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.
Again the circumstances are sorrow and affliction. The attitude of the sufferer is true dignity. If the psalm be taken in connection with the preceding one, it marks an advance, perhaps a gain out of that experience. Then we saw a man crying out for Jehovah and His help. Here is a man still undergoing trial and acutely conscious of it, but he has found the secret place of communion and this conditions his attitudes. Toward his foes he maintains a great silence, the secret of which he presently declares-"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it." Yet the things he sees strangely stir him and at last he breaks the silence.
Here again the result of his knowledge of Jehovah is seen in that he speaks to Jehovah and not to his enemies. Thus he sets the strange prosperity of the wicked in relation to God. All the apparent success is seen to be nothing worth and this sorrowful man makes his personal appeal to Jehovah.