Commonplace –
“Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
Psalm 39 is a meditation. David introduces the meditation by saying,
“I will take heed to my ways” (Psalm 39:1a).
He continues by specifically addressing how he will control his tongue: “I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me” (v. 1b). He was able to hold his “peace”, yet he also refrained “from good” (v. 2). This troubled him, and his “sorrow was stirred” (v.2). He had an opportunity to say something good but refrained. So he implored the Lord to remind him that life has an end. His sin weighed heavy on him. He reminded himself that his “hope is in the [Lord]” (v.7).
Matthew Henry had some helpful insights into this meditation. In reference to verse 2, when David held his peace, “even from good” Henry notes the following:
“Watchfulness and resolution, in the strength of God’s grace, will do more towards the bridling of the tongue than we can imagine, though it be an unruly evil. But what shall we say of his keeping silence even from good? Was it his wisdom that he refrained from good discourse when the wicked were before him, because he would not cast his pearls before swine? I rather think it was his weakness; because he might not say anything, he would say nothing but ran into an extreme, which was a reproach to the law, for that prescribes a mean between extremes. The same law which forbids all corrupt communication requires that which is good and to the use of edifying, Eph. 4:29. (312).
When David does finally speak, Henry considers that David was remorseful in withholding the good,
“He had nothing to say to the wicked that were before him, for to them he knew not how to place his words, but, after long musing, the first word he said was a prayer, and a devout meditation upon a subject which it will be good for all of us to think much of” (312).
In his summary, Henry suggests the following in regard to Psalm 39:
“It is a funeral psalm, and very proper for the occasion; in singing it we should get our hearts duly affected with the brevity, uncertainty, and calamitous state of human life; and those on whose comforts God has, by death, made breaches, will find this psalm of great use to them, in order to their obtaining what we ought much to aim at under such an affliction, which is to get it sanctified to us for our spiritual benefit and to get our hearts reconciled to the holy will of God in it” (311).
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 39.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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