5 Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age `is' as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity `is' every man set up. Selah.
Only -- vanity `are' the low, a lie the high. In balances to go up they than vanity `are' lighter.
Remember, I pray Thee, what `is' life-time? Wherefore in vain hast Thou created All the sons of men?
And Jacob saith unto Pharaoh, `The days of the years of my sojournings `are' an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojournings.'
My days swifter than a weaving machine, And they are consumed without hope.
Man, born of woman! Of few days, and full of trouble! As a flower he hath gone forth, and is cut off, And he fleeth as a shadow and standeth not.
With reproofs against iniquity, Thou hast corrected man, And dost waste as a moth his desirableness, Only, vanity `is' every man. Selah.
For all our days pined away in Thy wrath, We consumed our years as a meditation. Days of our years, in them `are' seventy years, And if, by reason of might, eighty years, Yet `is' their enlargement labour and vanity, For it hath been cut off hastily, and we fly away.
Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, Vanity of vanities: the whole `is' vanity.
All the nations `are' as nothing before Him, Less than nothing and emptiness, They have been reckoned to Him.
who do not know the thing of the morrow; for what is your life? for it is a vapour that is appearing for a little, and then is vanishing;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 39
Commentary on Psalms 39 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 39
Ps 39:1-13. To Jeduthun (1Ch 16:41, 42), one of the chief singers. His name mentioned, perhaps, as a special honor. Under depressing views of his frailty and the prosperity of the wicked, the Psalmist, tempted to murmur, checks the expression of his feelings, till, led to regard his case aright, he prays for a proper view of his condition and for the divine compassion.
1. I said—or, "resolved."
will take heed—watch.
ways—conduct, of which the use of the tongue is a part (Jas 1:26).
bridle—literally, "muzzle for my mouth" (compare De 25:4).
while … before me—in beholding their prosperity (Ps 37:10, 36).
2. even from good—(Ge 31:24), everything.
3. His emotions, as a smothered flame, burst forth.
4-7. Some take these words as those of fretting, but they are not essentially such. The tinge of discontent arises from the character of his suppressed emotions. But, addressing God, they are softened and subdued.
make me to know mine end—experimentally appreciate.
how frail I am—literally, "when I shall cease."
5, 6. His prayer is answered in his obtaining an impressive view of the vanity of the life of all men, and their transient state. Their pomp is a mere image, and their wealth is gathered they know not for whom.
7. The interrogation makes the implied negative stronger. Though this world offers nothing to our expectation, God is worthy of all confidence.
8-10. Patiently submissive, he prays for the removal of his chastisement, and that he may not be a reproach.
11. From his own case, he argues to that of all, that the destruction of man's enjoyments is ascribable to sin.
12, 13. Consonant with the tenor of the Psalm, he prays for God's compassionate regard to him as a stranger here; and that, as such was the condition of his fathers, so, like them, he may be cheered instead of being bound under wrath and chastened in displeasure.