Psalms 39
39
A Cry for Help
For the Pure and Shining One
A song of praising by King David # 39 The Hebrew inscription includes the name Jeduthun, which can be translated “praising.”
1-2Here’s my life motto, the truth I live by:
I will guard my ways for all my days.
I will speak only what is right, guarding what I speak.
Like a watchman guards against an attack of the enemy,
I’ll guard and muzzle my mouth
when the wicked are around me.
I will remain silent and will not grumble
or speak out of my disappointment.
But the longer I’m silent, the more my pain grows worse!
3-4My heart burned with a fire within me,
and my thoughts eventually boiled over
until they finally came rolling out of my mouth:
“Lord, help me to know how fleeting my time on earth is.
Help me to know how limited is my life
and that I’m only here but for a moment more.
5What a brief # 39:5 Interestingly, the Hebrew word for “brief” in this verse is “a handbreadth,” or the span of a man’s hand. Our life’s duration is compared to a mere six-inch span! time you’ve given me to live!
Compared to you my lifetime is nothing at all!
Nothing more than a puff of air—I’m gone so swiftly.
So too are the grandest of men;
they are nothing but a fleeting shadow!”
Pause in his presence
6We live our lives like those living in shadows. # 39:6 Or “like phantoms going to and fro.”
All our activities and energies are spent for things that pass away.
We gather, we hoard, we cling to our things,
only to leave them all behind for who knows who.
7And now, God, # 39:7 The Aramaic is Maryah, the Aramaic form of YHWH or Lord Yahweh. I’m left with one conclusion:
my only hope is to hope in you alone!
8Save me from being overpowered by my sin;
don’t make me a disgrace before the degenerate.
9Lord, I’m left speechless and I have no excuse,
so I’ll not complain any longer.
Now I know you’re the one who is behind it all.
10But I can’t take it much longer.
Spare me these blows from your discipline-rod.
For if you are against me, I will waste away to nothing.
11No one endures when you rebuke and discipline us for our sins.
Like a cobweb is swept away with a wave of the hand,
you sweep away all that we once called dear.
How fleeting and frail our lives!
We’re nothing more than a puff of air.
Pause in his presence
12Lord, listen to all my tender cries.
Read my every tear, like liquid words that plead for your help.
I feel all alone at times, like a stranger to you,
passing through this life just like all those before me.
13Don’t let me die without restoring
joy and gladness to my soul.
May your frown over my failure
become a smile over my success.
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Psalms 39: TPT
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Learn More About The Passion TranslationPsalms 39
39
PSALM 39
The Vanity of Life.
For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1I said, “I will guard my ways
That I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle
While the wicked are in my presence.”
2I was mute and silent,
I #Lit kept silencerefrained even from good,
And my #Lit painsorrow grew worse.
3My 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 extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.
5Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.
6Surely every man walks about as #Lit an imagea phantom;
Surely they make an uproar for nothing;
He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.
7“And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in You.
8Deliver me from all my transgressions;
Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,
Because it is You who have done it.
10Remove Your plague from me;
Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.
11With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity;
You consume as a moth what is precious to him;
Surely every man is a mere breath. 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 like all my fathers.
13Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may #Or become cheerfulsmile again
Before I depart and am no more.”
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