USB ~ Psalms 39

The Vanity of Life

1 For the leader, for Jeduthun. a A psalm of David.

2 I said, “I will watch my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will keep a muzzle on my mouth.”

3 Mute and silent before the wicked, I refrain from good things. But my sorrow increases;

4 my heart smolders within me. b In my sighing a fire blazes up, and I break into speech:

5 LORD, let me know my end, the number of my days, that I may learn how frail I am.

6 To be sure, you establish the expanse of my days; indeed, my life is as nothing before you. Every man is but a breath. c Selah

III

7 Man goes about as a mere phantom; they hurry about, although in vain; he heaps up stores without knowing for whom.

8 And now, LORD, for what do I wait? You are my only hope.

9 From all my sins deliver me; let me not be the taunt of fools.

10 I am silent and do not open my mouth because you are the one who did this.

11 Take your plague away from me; I am ravaged by the touch of your hand.

12 You chastise man with rebukes for sin; like a moth you consume his treasures. Every man is but a breath. Selah

13 Listen to my prayer, LORD, hear my cry; do not be deaf to my weeping! For I am with you like a foreigner, a refugee, like my ancestors. d

14 Turn your gaze from me, that I may smile before I depart to be no more.

Footnotes

†. Psalm 39 The lament of a mortally ill person who at first had resolved to remain silently submissive (Ps 39:2-4). But the grief was too much and now the psalmist laments the brevity and vanity of life (Ps 39:5-7), yet remaining hopeful (Ps 39:8-10). The psalmist continues to express both acceptance of the illness and hope for healing in Ps 39:11-13.

39:1 1 Chr 16:41; Ps 62:1; 77:1.
39:4 Jer 20:9.
39:6 Ps 62:10; 90:9-10; 144:4; Jb 7:6, 16; 14:1, 5; Eccl 6:12; Wis 2:5.
39:13 Ps 119:19; Gn 23:4; Heb 11:13; 1 Pt 2:11.