Embrace the Word for Friday, March 20, 2026
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Psalm 39 is the cry of a heavy heart before the LORD. As the superscription states, Psalm 39 is a Psalm of David: “To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.” Jeduthun, along with men like Aspah and Heman, is one of the men to whom David entrusted the responsibilities of Israel’s worship music (See 1 Chronicles 16:38-42). It seems that Jeduthun is the particular choirmaster to whom David entrusted this Psalm. Psalm 39 has several links with Psalm 38. Both Psalms speak about silence (38:13-14; 39:1-3,9). Each Psalm references waiting on the LORD (38:15; 39:7). Each Psalm mentions the joyful scorn of enemies (38:16; 39:8). Both Psalms involve confession of sin (38:3-5,18; 39:8), as well as the discipline of the LORD (38:1-2,11; 39:10-11). Psalm 39 opens with David’s struggle (39:1-3), proceeds to the start of David’s petition (39:4-6), before closing with David’s confession of hope (39:7-13).
David begins by acknowledging his struggle to not verbally respond to the wicked around him: “I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.” I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned” (39:1-3a). David’s need to restrain himself, while feeling the urge to say something, feels so intense that he believes a muzzle might help him. Evidently, David was concerned that he might say something that would be sinfully wrong and/or practically unhelpful, making his situation only worse. The internal struggle between the urge to speak out and the concern that speaking out would not be appropriate, created great distress for David. The longer he maintained his silence, the hotter the fire burned within him to say something.
But then David exploded and his words poured forth: “then I spoke with my tongue” (39:3b). However, David’s eruption was not to the wicked around him, but to the LORD before him: “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (39:4). How David resolved the boiling of his blood surrounded by the wicked provocateurs was to pray to the LORD. Before we consider the details of this prayer, which is actually the rest of the Psalm, we should first let things seep in. David felt that something needed to be said to the wicked, but he also realized that he was capable of saying something that was sinful and stupid. So David breaks his resolve to be quiet by pouring out his troubles to the LORD. The matter of prayer is so consequential and foundational and yet we have perhaps at times made it so minor and optional. After all we don’t want to be accused of being people who “just pray about it.” Well sometimes prayer is all that can be done, while at others times, even if there is something else that can be done, it is still proper and fitting to pray. Prayer is never a concession for when we can’t think of something better to do; prayer is the best thing to do, regardless of whatever else we can or cannot do. We need not flippantly think of “just pray about it,” but “we can take this to the Lord in prayer.”
As to the details of David’s conversation with the LORD, he starts off with three things he wishes to know: “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (39:4). As David is struggling within himself in regards to the struggles that he is experiencing with his enemies, he asks the LORD to (1) tell him his end, so that (2) he would know how to measure his days, and thus (3) he would realize how short life is. David is not literally asking when he will actually die so that he would count off the number of days he has left. No, David is grappling with how brief life is: “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!” (39:5-6). David is wishing to understand, and live in light of such understanding, just how transitory life is. David is wanting to realize the full import of the statement, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (See James 4:14). David realizes that it is not only his life that is transitory, but that all of mankind, as David does literally say, “Surely every Adam is an Abel.” The term “mankind” is the name Adam, while the phrase “mere breath” is the name Abel. In other words, ever since Adam brought sin into the world, our lives are essentially as brief as Abel’s. Life is short because of sin, for sin resulted in judgment and it is the judgment of God that results in a hard, frail, vulnerable, and brief existence. Practically speaking, David is realizing that he doesn’t have to get the last word in to the wicked. In fact, he won’t get the last word in, God will. And in a relatively short period of time.
So David shifts his focus from his urge to say something to the wicked, to stating something to the LORD: “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you” (39:7). David anchors his hard, frail, vulnerable, and brief existence to the LORD Himself. This is the turning point of this Psalm. After groaning under the consideration of the brevity of life, which is under the judgment of God, he turns to hope in the One who is eternally permanent. And David begins with the matter of his sin: “Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!” (39:8). David realizes that he must be rescued from his sin or else he will be just another Nabal. Nabal, which means fool, was a man who exuded extreme foolishness before David (See 1 Samuel 25:25), and David is asking that he not become like him. The only way to avoid being a fool is to experience the LORD’s deliverance from our sins. David acknowledges the LORD’s hand of discipline that had been upon him: “I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand. When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah” (39:9-11). David asks the LORD to remove His chastening hand from upon him, for the LORD’s hostile strokes only add further pain to a life that is already hard, frail, vulnerable, and brief. While the LORD maintained His rebuke upon David, no happiness would remain.
David asks the LORD to hear his prayer: “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers” (39:12). In fact, David states his petition three times: “Hear my prayer,” “give ear to my cry,” and “hold not your peace at my tears.” David has expressed desperation and brokenness, so his request has an urgency to it. David pleads his case in light of his condition of sorrow and suffering. But David also pleads his case in light of his status as “a sojourner with you.” David has just been passing through this hard, frail, vulnerable, and brief existence. He is not a resident, but a temporary guest. However, we should not miss the incredible significance of the little phrase “with you.” The LORD had made this same statement to Israel: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Leviticus 25:23). This statement is a sure promise of the LORD’s protection and care. The LORD would be with them, and so they would have what they needed. David is clinging to that same promise. Yes, David is just an alien in a hard, frail, vulnerable, and brief existence, but he is the LORD’s alien. Therefore, he can rest in all that the LORD has for him. So David prays: “Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!” (39:13). David pleads for the LORD to remove His chastening hand from upon him. In the short time he has, David requests that the LORD relent before all of David’s hope is spent. David pleads that he might still experience a bit more of happiness on this hard, frail, vulnerable, and brief stay. He might, but only if God wills.
As we reflect on Psalm 39 we can consider the silence of Christ during His arrest and trials. As David opens Psalm 39 with his resolve to remain silent before his enemies, so too did Jesus remain silent. Before the High Priest, Jesus did not reply: “And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” But Jesus remained silent” (See Matthew 26:62-63). Then before Pilate, Jesus did not reply: “Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed” (See Matthew 27:11-14). David’s silence previewed our Lord’s silence, while Isaiah prophesied about it: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (See Isaiah 53:7). The silence of Jesus is an integral part of His obedient submission to go to the Cross: “being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (See Philippians 2:7b-8). After Jesus was crucified, the Father raised Him from the dead declaring Him Lord (See Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the only means of eternal life, but it is also the model that followers of Christ are to reflect through humility, service, and self-forgetfulness: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (See Philippians 2:5).
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Friday, March 20, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Monday, March 23, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 40.