Psalms 39:12

_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._ Hear my prayer, O Lord ... hold not thy peace at my tears - the petition. The ground on which it rests follows. FOR I AM A STRANGER WITH THEE, AND A SOJOURNER, AS ALL MY FATHERS WERE. Tears move us instinctively to speak to the weeping one: much more do they move the compassion of Yahweh; as when "the Lord saw"' the widow of Nain in tears, "He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not." Compare also John 20:13. God puts His people's tears in His bottle, and writes them in His book (Psalms 56:8), and will at last wipe them all away (Isaiah 25:

12_Hear my prayer, O Jehovah! _David gradually increases his vehemence in prayer. He speaks first of _prayer; _in the second place, of _crying; _and in the third place, of _tears _This gradation is not a mere figure of rhetoric, which serves only to adorn the style, or to express the same thing in different language. This shows that David bewailed his condition sincerely, and from the bottom of his heart; and in this he has given us, by his own example, a rule for prayer. When he calls himself a _stranger _and a _sojourner, _he again shows how miserable his condition was; and he adds expressly, _before God, _not only because men are absent from God so long as they dwell in this world, but in the same sense in which he formerly said, _My days are before thee as nothing; _that is to say, God, without standing in need of any one to inform him, knows well enough that men have only a short jo...

7-13 There is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature; but it is to be found in the Lord, and in communion with him; to him we should be driven by our disappointments. If the world be nothing but vanity, may God deliver us from having or seeking our portion in it. When creature-confidences fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust in. We may see a good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us; and a good man, for that reason, says nothing against it. He desires the pardoning of his sin, and the preventing of his shame. We must both watch and pray against sin. When under the correcting hand of the Lord, we must look to God himself for relief, not to any other. Our ways and our doings bring us into trouble, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. What a poor thing is beauty! and what fools are those that are proud of it, when it will c...

Verse Psalms 39:12. _HEAR MY PRAYER_] Therefore, O Lord, show that mercy upon me which I so much need, and without which I must perish everlastingly. I AM _A STRANGER WITH THEE_] I have not made this earth my home; I have not trusted in any arm but thine. Though I have sinned, I have never denied thee, and never cast thy words behind my back. I knew that _here_ I had no continuing city. _Like my fathers_, I looked for a city that has permanent foundations, in a better state of being....

HEAR MY PRAYER, O LORD, AND GIVE EAR UNTO MY CRY - That is, in view of my affliction and my sins; in view, also, of the perplexing questions which have agitated my bosom; the troublous thoughts which passed through my soul, which I did not dare to express before man Psalms 39:1, but which I have now expressed before thee. HOLD NOT THY PEACE - Be not silent. Do not refuse to answer me; to speak peace to me. AT MY TEARS - Or rather, at my weeping; as if God heard the voice of his weeping. Weeping, if uncomplaining, is of the nature of prayer, for God regards the sorrows of the soul as he sees them. The weeping penitent, the weeping sufferer, is one on whom we may suppose God looks with compassion, even though the sorrows of the soul do not find “words” to give utterance to them.

EXPOSITION THE psalmist, vexed and disgusted with life, feeling a desire to murmur and complain, but aware that his words are watched, and his wicked enemies ready to make use of them against him, has resolved on maintaining an entire silence—at any rate, while the ungodly are in his sight (Psalms 39:1, Psalms 39:2), but is unable to keep to his resolve. Despite himself, he bursts out into speech—a speech of bitter complaint (Psalms 39:4). "How long has he got to endure this life so unsatisfactory, so full of vanity?" The outburst relieves him, and he continues in a gentler strain, recognizing God's hand in the griefs and woes of life, entreating his help, and finally asking to be spared a little

HEAR MY PRAYER, O LORD,.... Which was, that he would remove the affliction from him that lay so hard and heavy upon him; AND GIVE EAR UNTO MY CRY; which shows the distress he was in, and the vehemency with which he put up his petition to the Lord; HOLD NOT THY PEACE AT MY TEARS; which were shed in great plenty, through the violence of the affliction, and in his fervent prayers to God; see Hebrews 5:7; FOR I [AM] A STRANGER WITH THEE; not to God, to Christ, to the Spirit, to the saints, to himself, and the plague of his own heart, or to the devices of Satan; but in the world, and to the men of it; being unknown to them, and behaving as a stranger among them; all which was known to God, and may be the meaning of the phrase "with thee"; or reference may be had to the land of Canaan, in which David dwelt, and which was the Lord's, and in wh

Psalms 39:1. _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._ This is what David said; what he had deliberately resolved upon and solemnly determined in his own mind: «I said, I will take heed to my ways.» That is a good thing for all of us to resolve and to say: «I will take heed.» To be heedless is to be graceless. No man ever does a good thing by accident. We shall none of us get to heaven by blundering. «I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.» The tongue may be a most powerful instrument of evil. Tongue sins are terrible sins. They are like sparks of fire which may set a whole town upon a blaze. He that can take heed to his tongue will probably be able to manage all the rest of the members of his body. The tongue is the most unmanageable member of our frame; and if

Psalms 39 Deep Soul Exercise in View of Man's Frailty and Nothingness _ 1. The vanity of life (Psalms 39:1)_ 2. Self-judgment and prayer (Psalms 39:7) This Psalm is connected closely with the preceding one and shows deep soul exercises. In the midst of trial, with God's hand resting upon the sufferer, he had been silent before his enemies. Before the Lord he did not maintain silence but pours out his heart, confessing the vanity of his fleeting life which appears to him as a hand-breadth and altogether vanity. Beautiful is Psalms 39:7. “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee.” All else the saint waits for in

XXXIX. PRAYER OF A PIOUS ISRAELITE IN DISTRESS. Psalms 39:3. The poet, afflicted though he is, is silent in presence of the wicked, lest they should impugn or ridicule God's righteous government of the world. But silence is unendurable. PSALMS 39:1. Read, I will _set_ a muzzle on my mouth (LXX). Psalms 39:2. The LXX suggests a better text: I am bowed down with misery, I am far from welfare. PSALMS 39:4. The Psalmist begs God to teach him how brief, uncertain, and vain life is. PSALMS 39:5. Read, Surely