Continuing a chronological Bible study set forth by Skip Andrews, we move to a psalm of David. In the last post, in 1 Samuel 16, David was anointed to be the next king. However, Saul did not yet know this, and he called David to be a musician for him. Although the following psalm seems inappropriate for this time in David's life, as I started with this particular chronological study, I must complete it so that I don't miss any part of the Bible.
(Psalm 39:1) To the chief musician, to Jeduthun, a psalm of David: 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 me."
David wrote this psalm to the chief musician, Jeduthun, who was, and remained under the reign of David, one of the chief leaders of worship. David purposed to take heed of his actions and to mind his tongue that he not sin. He would bridle his tongue and restrain himself from saying what was in his mind. While these seem like expected thoughts of someone new to the palace of the king, the fact that he spoke of the wicked, sounds like it was a later time. There has yet been no evidence of David facing the wicked, so once again, I don't feel that this is the correct chronological place for this psalm. However, being new to the palace, it would be smart to bridle his tongue before anyone.
(2) I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred.
It seems David was quite silent, as if mute. He held his peace even from saying good things, and because he held all his feelings in, his sorrow was stirred. Again this sounds like a later point in David's life when he had a reason for sorrow or anguish. However, a lesson here might be that it is not good to hold all thoughts and feelings inside. Even if it is not wise to speak them to present company, those feelings can always go to God. One can always pour out his feelings to God in prayer, and then he might find answers to prayer which will direct him and give him relief.
(3) My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue, (4) "Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am."
While David meditated on the subject on which he had been silent, that sorrow that was stirred became as a flame inside of him, and he had to speak to the Lord. He seemed to be suggesting he was weary with life and wanted to know how much longer he must endure it. Perhaps he meant he was weary with his present struggle and wanted to know how much longer he must endure that. These definitely are not the words of a young fresh-faced man just anointed by God and living in the palace of the king and surely don't belong here chronologically. However, recognizing how frail one is and his need for God are appropriate responses to any situation.
(5) "Behold, You have made my days a handbreadth and my age as nothing before You; verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity." Selah.
He realized that his life was but the span of a hand or even nothing in the eternity of God. He recognized that man at his best was really nothing in the scheme of God's eternity. All his projects, plans, schemes, etc., soon come to nothing, as even his body would return to dust and pass from the sight and remembrance of men. "Selah" meant a suspension of music or a pause at that point in the psalm, according to Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries.
(6) "Surely every man walks in a vain show; surely they are disquieted in vain. He heaps up and does not know who shall gather them."
He sees man as walking in a vain show, an illusion, in which there is nothing solid or satisfactory. Men are full of anxiety as they bustle about doing things that are of no real value. Men heap up things, possessions or wealth, in a lifetime, not knowing who will gather them to themselves after they are gone.
(7) "And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You."
Realizing that man's life on earth is only vanity, he turns his attention back to God, the only one in whom his hope lies.
(8) "Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish."
He asked the Lord to deliver him from his transgressions and pardon his sins. He seemed to acknowledge that his sins were the source of his troubles and sorrow. He asked that he not be a laughingstock of the foolish and Godless, because in his transgressions he might be ridiculed as a hypocrite and a fake. His desire was to be more Godlike, a reflection of his Lord, an object of divine favor, that would put the foolish and Godless to shame.
(9) "I was dumb; I did not open my mouth because You did it."
I believe the sense is that at that point he became mute again and held his tongue from complaining, realizing all was God's will. He was submitting to God's will.
(10) "Remove Your stroke away from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. (11) When You with rebukes correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man is vanity." Selah
He quit complaining and submitted to God's will, but then prayerfully asked that God remove that cup from him, so to speak, as Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done." Jesus demonstrated that submitting to God's will did not mean we couldn't humbly ask for His deliverance. Without God's deliverance, David felt he would be totally consumed. When the all-powerful God of the universe rebukes a man, all his vain beauty, strength, desires, etc., are brought to nothing. Every man is vanity, nothing, with no strength or permanency, by the ease with which God takes away all on which he had prided himself.
(12) "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not hold Your peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with You, a sojourner, as all my fathers."
David pleaded with the Lord to hear his prayer, his cries, and not to refuse to answer him, for he was a stranger with God, a sojourner, just passing through this world to the next, in eternity, just as his forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, lived their entire lives as men with no permanent home here. They lived their lives on a journey to their promised land, an illustration of how we are to live as on a journey to our promised land, our eternal home in heaven with Jesus.
(13) "O spare me that I may recover strength before I go away and am no more."
David asked that the Lord spare him from complete destruction so that he might recover his strength before this calamity completely consumed him until he was no more.
This psalm was evidently composed in a time of affliction and does not belong here chronologically, but as it cannot be ascertained exactly when it was written, the author of this particular chronological Bible study placed it here. The feelings expressed in the psalm often feel incongruent with one another, and I believe that might be the point. They are all the feelings that might pass through the mind of one undergoing a trial. In the beginning, one might try to suppress his feelings and not give voice to them, until they become so intense like a fire burning inside, that he must let them out. Those thoughts often explode into complaints about the vanity, unfairness, and sorrows of human life. Then the mind turns back to God, realizing He is the only hope in this fallen world. It is brought back into submission to God, and one seeks forgiveness and deliverance, and also strength to endure the trial.
We can take comfort in the fact that these thoughts are quite normal and do not shock God. He allowed them to be written in His book of instruction for our lives. Even David had these thoughts, and he was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22).
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