11 When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath." Selah.
Though I am decaying like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.
My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
> Yahweh, don't rebuke me in your wrath, Neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. For your arrows have pierced me, Your hand presses hard on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, Neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness. I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long. For my loins are filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh. I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, Our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh. The days of our years are seventy, Or even by reason of strength eighty years; Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, For it passes quickly, and we fly away.
Because of your indignation and your wrath, For you have taken me up, and thrown me away. My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, And to the house of Judah like rottenness.
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn't be judged. But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, And scourges every son whom he receives."
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 39
Commentary on Psalms 39 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 39
Ps 39:1-13. To Jeduthun (1Ch 16:41, 42), one of the chief singers. His name mentioned, perhaps, as a special honor. Under depressing views of his frailty and the prosperity of the wicked, the Psalmist, tempted to murmur, checks the expression of his feelings, till, led to regard his case aright, he prays for a proper view of his condition and for the divine compassion.
1. I said—or, "resolved."
will take heed—watch.
ways—conduct, of which the use of the tongue is a part (Jas 1:26).
bridle—literally, "muzzle for my mouth" (compare De 25:4).
while … before me—in beholding their prosperity (Ps 37:10, 36).
2. even from good—(Ge 31:24), everything.
3. His emotions, as a smothered flame, burst forth.
4-7. Some take these words as those of fretting, but they are not essentially such. The tinge of discontent arises from the character of his suppressed emotions. But, addressing God, they are softened and subdued.
make me to know mine end—experimentally appreciate.
how frail I am—literally, "when I shall cease."
5, 6. His prayer is answered in his obtaining an impressive view of the vanity of the life of all men, and their transient state. Their pomp is a mere image, and their wealth is gathered they know not for whom.
7. The interrogation makes the implied negative stronger. Though this world offers nothing to our expectation, God is worthy of all confidence.
8-10. Patiently submissive, he prays for the removal of his chastisement, and that he may not be a reproach.
11. From his own case, he argues to that of all, that the destruction of man's enjoyments is ascribable to sin.
12, 13. Consonant with the tenor of the Psalm, he prays for God's compassionate regard to him as a stranger here; and that, as such was the condition of his fathers, so, like them, he may be cheered instead of being bound under wrath and chastened in displeasure.