Psalm 39
Darby Translation · 13 verses
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked is before me.2I was dumb with silence, I held my peace from good; and my sorrow was stirred.3My heart burned within me; the fire was kindled in my musing: I spoke with my tongue,4Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.5Behold, thou hast made my days [as] hand-breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before thee; verily, every man, [even] the high placed, is altogether vanity. Selah.6Verily, man walketh in a vain show; verily they are disquieted in vain; he heapeth up [riches], and knoweth not who shall gather them.7And now, what wait I for, Lord? my hope is in thee.8Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish.9I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; for thou hast done [it].10Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand.11When thou with rebukes dost correct a man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely, every man is vanity. Selah.12Hear my prayer, Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry; be not silent at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner, like all my fathers.13Look away from me, and let me recover strength, before I go hence and be no more.Darby's Synopsis
In Psalm 39, the godly man is still under the stroke of God; but there is more the sense of the emptiness of all flesh under the hand of God than disgrace and shame and fear. He bows before God rather than let his spirit rise and speak foolishly with his tongue. He might have retorted — been fretted to do evil; but, restraint, when under the hand of God, was his fitting place. It is ever so.
Text: J. N. Darby, The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages, public domain. Emphasized words are Darby's own. Provenance on the sources page.