“Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am.” Psalm 39:4 NASB Make me know – The Jewish Bible translates this opening phrase as “I would know when I will cease.” The verb is familiar, yādaʿ, used 944 times in the Tanakh for virtually every…
My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: Psalm 39:3 NASB Hot, musing, burned– The NASB translation of this psalm adds the title, “The Vanity of Life.” The choice is probably based on similarities between Ecclesiastes and the words in verses 5 and 6. But the title distracts…
I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, and my sorrow grew worse; Psalm 39:2 NASB Grew worse – Let’s make sure we read this in a Hebraic context. In the Western world, sorrow is usually an internal, personal experience. It would probably be located in the “sad” dimension of the “feelings wheel,” right along with stupid, inferior,…
I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, and my sorrow grew worse; Psalm 39:2 NASB Refrained– David feels as if his voice is tied down. He wants to say something in the face of this evil, but he doesn’t know how. As a result, something even more debilitating happens. He discovers that when he doesn’t speak up…
I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, and my sorrow grew worse; Psalm 39:2 NASB Mute and silent– When YHVH uses more than one word to communicate a single idea, we pay very close attention. For example, Genesis 1:26 uses two words to describe the image of God in Man. They aren’t simply synonyms. The differences…
I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, and my sorrow grew worse. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned; Psalm 39:2-3a NASB Sorrow – We investigated this verse on September 6. Here it is again, just so we can keep working verse by verse through this psalm. Listen! Silence is a good…
I 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.” Psalm 39:1 NASB In my presence – Listen! We’re surrounded by wickedness. Pick up any newspaper. Turn on any news channel. Listen to the gossip and rumors. …
I 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.” Psalm 39:1 NASB Will guard– It always begins at the beginning. The first occurrence of šāmar is at the creation of Man. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him…
For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. Psalm 39:1 Hebrew text numbering, NASB translation [For the rest of this year, we will investigate Psalm 39. We will play a great game of connect-the-dots as we attempt to understand whyDavid wrote these words for a song. Now that you know where we’re going,…
I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength, Psalm 88:4 NASB Down to the pit– “Modern man’s greatest fault, Kierkegaard maintains, is his total self-reliance. It is his nineteenth-century delusion that he has progressed beyond his ancestors. This conceit derives from egotism. There is but one…
