Psalm 39: The New Creation
To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1 I said, “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me.” 2 I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; and my sorrow was stirred up. 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 what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. 5 Indeed, You have made my days as a handbreadth, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah
Shimei, and men like him, condemned David— giving no room for repentance, saying in effect "The kingdom has been taken from you and you will surely died." And David said in his heart: “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me.” “He resolved so, Psalms 38:13-14, sc. to continue as one deaf and dumb, to use Isaac’s apology to scoffing Ishmael, viz. no apology, unless it be that which is real;… slanderers and railers are best answered by silence….(Kimchi).” (John Trapp) “‘I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good’—… I spoke nothing, either good or bad. I did not even defend myself." (Adam Clarke) for I was not sure.
"‘My heart was hot within me;’… It is a metaphor taken from vegetables, which, being heaped together, begin to heat and ferment, if not scattered and exposed to the air; and will soon produce a flame, and consume themselves and every thing within their reach.” (Adam Clarke)— “‘while I was musing, the fire burned.’ In our view, this is the same situation that once confronted Jeremiah, who wrote: ‘If I say I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name, then there is in my heart a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary with forbearing, and cannot contain’ (Jeremiah 20:9)... Silence is not the final answer to man's problems, however distressing they may be.” (Albert Barnes)
Still until he was restored to the throne, David answered not man but rather inquired of Yahweh. “‘Then I spoke with my tongue’— verbally not silently, seeing Him who is invisible— ‘Lord, make me to know my end,’ what will become of me and my kingdom, ‘and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as a handbreadth,' —but a span—... which is the smallest of the three measures of stature; the span and the cubit being also in use.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— “‘and my age’ or חלד cheled - means properly ‘duration of life,’ lifetime; and then, life itself; Job 11:17.” (Albert Barnes)— “is as nothing before You.’” “‘Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.’ “His body also moulders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men.” (Adam Clarke)
6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. 7 “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of the foolish. 9 I was mute, I did not open my mouth, because it was You who did it. 10 Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. 11 When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; surely every man is vapor. Selah
The Psalmist in his first strophe sets forth the shortness of life, but also here in the second “the vanity of all earthly things to satisfy the desires of the soul; and from hence takes occasion to seek an interest in the favour and love of God, to guide him, as a stranger and a sojourner, safely home through the whole of the wilderness state.” (Hawker) And the Cure. “‘Surely every man walks about like a shadow;’ an image, or shadow, as opposed to reality, or substance.” (Daniel Whedon)— “‘Surely they busy themselves in vain’ with no eternal value to their futile activities— for “‘he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.’ The Hebrew word ‘יצבר iitsbor’ rendered, He ‘heapeth up’, signifies to rake together; in which there is an allusion to the husbandman's collecting his corn together before he carries it to the barn. The metaphor is elegant, intimating the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of human acquisitions; which, though heaped up together like corn by one person, may soon become the possession of another.” (Thomas Coke)
“‘And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee.’ All else the saint waits for in this little life down here is vanity except the Lord.” (Arno Gaebelein) David sought the Creator and the New Creation— as Isaiah 65:17-25, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, or the voice of crying. No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of Yahweh, and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says Yahweh.
The key is the forgiveness of sin and delivery from its power. “‘Deliver me from all my transgressions;’ It was You who struck me dumb before my enemies. Remove my guilty conscience by full confidence in the proper Sacrifice. “‘Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; surely every man is vapor. Selah"
12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with You, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 13 Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, before I go away and am no more.”
These precepts should be contrasted with the gnostic view that the real man is a soul captured in a gross mortal body. The immortality of the human soul is a fable, not supported in the Bible. It is only Jesus who can deliver from sin and death... and “guide, as stranger and a sojourner, safely home through the whole of the wilderness state… who alone can give us to inherit substance, and fill our souls with durable riches and righteousness, this will be to convert the vanity of our present state into the means, under God, of procuring substantial good, and over-ruling the shortness of our existence, into the greater opportunity of obtaining in Christ an everlasting duration, in an inheritance that fadeth not away… Are you then asking for the good old way the holy fathers trod? Are you seeking the way to Zion with your face thitherward? Is Jesus the pearl of great price, God your Father, the Holy Spirit your guide, the church of Christ your inn, the ordinances of the gospel like waggons on the road to refresh you, and the holy sabbaths like so many wells of salivation to draw from? Oh! how blessed is it to sit loose and detached from all things here below, that we may have our conversation in heaven, that while going home to our Father's house we may use the world as not abusing it, knowing that the fashion of it passeth away; and, like the patriarchs, may be always on the look-out for that city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)