Psalm XXXIX

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.

i 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 mc.

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

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, wluit it i.s; That I may know how frail I am.

5 Behold, thou hast made my da3’s as an handbreath; And mine age is as nothing before thee:

Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Sclah.

6 Surely every man walketh in a vain show! 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 I’eproach 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 0 spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no

more.

In last Psalm, verses 18, 14, resemble the first verse here, and on this account the two Psalms have been put side by side. But besides, here is one whom we might call “Gershora,” for he is a stranger in a strange land, and he is the same sf)eaker (whoever that was) as in the previous Psalm. For, if the one Psalm spoke thus, “/ said, I am ready to halt” (ver. 16), this begins with, “/ said, 1 will tal’e heed to my ways;” and if the one spoke of being “dumb with silence” (ver. 14), not less does this in verse 2; and if the one said, verse 15, “In thee do / hope” this also says, verse 7, “My hope is in thee.” The title does not tell us more than that there was a musical chorus, in which, perhaps, “Jeduthun” may have been the name of the presiding singer, to whose care it was committed. But The contents, a glance at the contents shews a pilgrim-spirit, one journeying through a world of vanity, and praying at every step to be Christ and hia taught and kept in the will of God. Christ, when “learning people. obedience” and identifying himself with us (as in ver. 12), could

use it, supplicating his Father in verse 4; sympathising with our feeble frame in verse 5, “Thou hast given me some handbreadths as the length of my days: and my life is as non-existence before thee;” pronouncing the sentence of “Vanity and Vexation” on all that this world presents, however good and fair to the eye (ver. 6), and in verse 7 turning towards Jehovah, as the only source of bliss. In verses 9, 1 0, not only can every believer find his own experience, or what should be his experience under trial, but the Lord Jesus also could have used these words. On earth, he said, “Even so. Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight,” praying at the same time, “If it be possible, let this cup pass.” The marred countenance of the Son of Man, in which nothing of the “King in his beauty” could be seen, may be described in the words of verse 11. Like verse 5, this verse is followed by a “Selah,” calling for silent thought. But intermixed with all the pilgrim’s melancholy laments, do we not recognise his hope and expectation of something better to come? Is not “the vanity” of verse 6, like that of Romans viii. 20, for it is followed up by verse 7, “My hope is in thee.” There is “Hope” for this world! its “vanity” may give place to reality of bliss. An Israelite, amid Canaan’s plenty, could feel this, as 1 Chron. xxix. 15 shews, and as Levit. xxv. 33 had taught them to feel. And is not verse 13 a Samson-like cry (Judges xvi. 28) to be carried through the crisis of a final struggle! The believer and his Lord could find here a most suitable petition. Alexander notices also how full of references to Job is this verse: thus chap. vii. 1 9, xiv. 6, and x. 20, 21. But “Spare me that I may he refreshed” is a prayer that all in him which sin withered may be renovated, and his sad soul be refreshed with Divine grace. The Psaimist thus describes Christ when on earth, and at the same time every one of his family while passing through this earth to the kingdom. It is,

Ihe Righteous One a Pilgrim and a Stranger.

PSALxU XL. — MESSIAH OUR SACRIFICE AND SALVATION. 133