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
The Vanity of Life
1For the leader, for Jeduthun.#1 Chr 16:41; Ps 62:1; 77:1. A psalm of David.
I
2I said, “I will watch my ways,
lest I sin with my tongue;
I will keep a muzzle on my mouth.”
3Mute and silent before the wicked,
I refrain from good things.
But my sorrow increases;
4my heart smolders within me.#Jer 20:9.
In my sighing a fire blazes up,
and I break into speech:
II
5Lord, let me know my end, the number of my days,
that I may learn how frail I am.
6To be sure, you establish the expanse of my days;
indeed, my life is as nothing before you.
Every man is but a breath.#Ps 62:10; 90:9–10; 144:4; Jb 7:6, 16; 14:1, 5; Eccl 6:12; Wis 2:5.
Selah
III
7Man goes about as a mere phantom;
they hurry about, although in vain;
he heaps up stores without knowing for whom.
8And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
You are my only hope.
9From all my sins deliver me;
let me not be the taunt of fools.
10I am silent and do not open my mouth
because you are the one who did this.
11Take your plague away from me;
I am ravaged by the touch of your hand.
12You chastise man with rebukes for sin;
like a moth you consume his treasures.
Every man is but a breath.
Selah
13Listen to my prayer, Lord, hear my cry;
do not be deaf to my weeping!
For I am with you like a foreigner,
a refugee, like my ancestors.#Ps 119:19; Gn 23:4; Heb 11:13; 1 Pt 2:11.
14Turn your gaze from me, that I may smile
before I depart to be no more.
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