Psalms 39:8

_DELIVER ME FROM ALL MY TRANSGRESSIONS: MAKE ME NOT THE REPROACH OF THE FOOLISH._ Deliver me from all my transgressions - alike from their guilt, power, and penalty; especially from being delivered up to mine enemies (cf. next clause). MAKE ME NOT THE REPROACH OF THE FOOLISH. This is the "stroke" of God which he dreads (Psalms 39:10). He hath 'the wicked still before him' (Psalms 39:1, note), but his language shows that he now feels his "transgressions" to be the true cause of his sufferings not any harshness or unrighteousness in God, such as he had heretofore complained of....

8._Deliver me from all my sins. _In this verse the Psalmist still continues his godly and holy prayer. He is now no longer carried away by the violence of his grief to murmur against God, but, humbly acknowledging himself guilty before God, he has recourse to his mercy. In asking to be delivered from his transgressions, he ascribes the praise of righteousness to God, while he charges upon himself the blame of all the misery which he endures; and he blames himself, not only on account of one sin, but acknowledges that he is justly chargeable with manifold transgressions. By this rule we must be guided, if we would wish to obtain an alleviation of our miseries; for, until the very source of them has been dried up, they will never cease to follow one another in rapid succession. David unquestionably wished an alleviation of his miseries, but, as he expected that, as soon as he should be rec...

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 39:8. _DELIVER ONE FROM ALL MY TRANSGRESSIONS_] I seek the pardon of my sins; I expect it from thy _mercy_. Grant it, "that I be not the reproach of the foolish," (the godless and the profane,) who deride my expectation, and say no such blessings can be had. Let them know, by thy saving me, that there is a God who heareth prayer, and giveth his Holy Spirit to all them that ask him....

DELIVER ME FROM ALL MY TRANSGRESSIONS - Recognising, as in Psalms 38:3, his sins as the source of all his troubles and sorrows. If his transgressions were forgiven, he felt assured that his trouble would be removed. His first petition, therefore, is, that his sins might be pardoned, with the implied conscious assurance that then it would be consistent and proper for God to remove his calamity, and deliver him from the evils which had come upon him. MAKE ME NOT THE REPROACH OF THE FOOLISH - Of the wicked; of those who are foolish, because they are wicked. See the notes at Psalms 14:1. The prayer here is, that God would not suffer him to become an object of reproach to wicked and foolish men; that is, as the passage implies, that God would

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

DELIVER ME FROM ALL MY TRANSGRESSIONS,.... Which were the cause and occasion of all his distresses, inward and outward; and the deliverance prayed for includes a freedom from the dominion of sin, which is by the power of efficacious grace; and from the guilt of sin, which is by the application of the blood of Christ; and from obligation to punishment for it, or deliverance from wrath to come, which is through Christ's being made a curse, and enduring wrath in the room and stead of his people; and from the very being of sin, which, though it cannot be expected in this life, is desirable: and the psalmist prays that he might be delivered from "all" his transgressions; knowing: that if one of them was left to have dominion over him, or the guilt of it to lie upon him, and he be obliged to undergo due punishment for it, he must be for ever miserable; MAKE ME NOT THE REPROACH OF THE FOOLISH;...

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Jeduthun was one of those who led the sacred song in the house of God in David's day, and, long afterwards, we find the son of Jeduthun still engaged in this holy service. What a blessing it is to be succeeded in the work of God by your children from generation to generation! May that be your privilege, my dear brethren! May your families never lack a man to stand before the Lord God of Israel to sing his praises! This is called, «A Psalm of David.» His life was a very chequered one; sometimes he was very joyous, and then he wrote bright and happy Psalms. But he was a man of strong passions and deep feelings; so at times he was very sad, and then he touched the mournful string. This is a very sorrowful Psalm, but it is full of teaching. How grateful we ought to be that such a man as David ever lived, and that he had such a wonder...

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