Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 39
The Thirty Ninth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian even to Jeduthun, a Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The Thirty ninth Psalm, composed on the same occasion as the 37th. and 73d. viz. on the scandal David took at the prosperity of wicked men, whilst he was himselfe in misery, hath also a mixture of contemplation of the vanity of all worldly things, as a motive to repress all impatience in whatsoever adversity. It was composed by David, and committed to Jeduthun a skilfull Musitian, 1 Chron. xvi. 41, 42. and the Prefect of his Musick.
1. I said, I will take heed to my wayes, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
I have stedfastly resolved to keep a very strict guard over my selfe; especially over my tongue, that part of me which meets with most frequent provocations at this time, when mine adversaries, ungodly and wicked men, are so successfull and prosperous in their wickedness, that I have need of all care and resolution to keep me from breaking out into some intemperate passionate speeches, as oft as I see or consider them.
2. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was‖troubled foreign stirred.
My purpose therefore was, in the presence of these, or when my thoughts or other discourse were on them, to keep perfect silence; neither to use words to vindicate mine own innocence, nor to blame or reprove mine adversaries. But whilst I thus restreined my tongue, I could not repress my sorrow; that was rather increased by this method.
3. While I was musing, the fire burned; then spake I with my tongue.
And being so, it grew by degrees to such an heat and flame, that it required some vent toward heaven: though I restreined my tongue from all anger and imp…tience toward men, yet there was no reason I should repress it from making my mone to God. To him therefore in all humility I thus address my selfe.
4. Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my dayes, what it is; that I may know*what a frail, or clasing man I am. foreign how frail I am.
Lord, If it be thy sacred will that I should be cut off by mine enemies, that I should not long live to discharge that office to which thou hast called me; if my sins, which justly might provoke thee to this, have called forth this decree against me, as one unfit to be farther imployed, or honoured, or own'd by thee; then be thou pleased some way to reveal this part of thy will unto me, that I may know what to expect, and accordingly which way to turne and prepare my selfe.
5. Behold, thou hast made my dayes asa. an hand-breadth, andb. mine age is nothing before thee; verily every man†standing or living, foreign at his best estate is*all foreign altogether vanity.
I know right well that my life is very short, a meer nothing being compared with thine eternity: and this is common to me with all other men; for there is not a man living in the world, who is not as frail and mortal, and almost as short-liv'd, as any the meanest creature: man is the compendium of this lower world, and so there is no degree of frailty, and brittleness, and fadingness in any creature, which is not to be found in man also.
6. ‖only in an image man walketh, foreign see note on Ps. 73.1.Surely every man walketh in a vain shew,†yet foreign surely they are disquieted in vain: hec. heapeth up*and knoweth not who shall carry them in. riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
Our life is but a picture, or image, shadow, or dream of life, it vanisheth in a trice; and when we are gone, we have no power of what we leave behinde us: all the fruits, riches, honours, or whatsoever else is most desirable on earth, must suddenly he parted with, and we know not who shall possesse them after us (and so this is an evidence of the perfect vanity of them all, a proof that they are not worth the least value, if we have them, or the least pains to acquire them;) and yet we silly and vain creatures carke, and labour, and turmoile to get together these transitory fraile nothings, as if they would continue to us to all eternity, and had some solid durable enjoyment and satisfaction in them.
7. And now, Lord, what waite I for? my hope is in thee.
There is nothing therefore upon the earth, even a kingdome, that is worth the patience of expecting, or the sollicitude of averting the dangers of losing it. One thing onelyonly there is in the world, fit to be matter of a sober mans ambition or hope; the favour of God, and the glorifying him in that condition, whatsoever it is, that he in mercy shall choose for us.
8. Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
For these therefore I make my humblest requests to thee, that thou wilt pardon my many horrible breaches of thy law, and free me from those punishments which are due to me for them: and not suffer wicked men, that are my deadly enemies, to prosper, lest they at once triumph over me and piety, and reproach the relying and depending on thee, as the greatest folly: for this will turn to the dishonour of thee and thy service.
9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.
What is befallen me, I am far from repining or murmuring at: It comes, I know, from thee, whose disposals are most wise: and be it never so sharp, I am sure I have well deserved it.
10. Remove thy stroak away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
Yet if it may be thy will, set now a period to my calamities, lest I be utterly destroyed by them.
11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his‖pretious things. beauty to consume awayd. like a moth:†every man is only vanity. surely every man is vanity. Selah.
If thou be displeased, as our sins very oft provoke thee, the very withdrawing thy favour doth insensibly blast and consume all our wealth, and greatness, health, and beauty, and whatsoever is most pretious to us. So sure and visible is it, that we men and all we have are meer nothing.
12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry: hold not thy peace at my tears; for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Be pleased therefore, O Lord, to hearken to my sad and mournfull request, which I now poure out before thee; that seeing my time, and all mens, is so short and tran…itory in this world, (this being so contrary to a place of rest or stability)
13. *Let … alone. foreign See Job 7.19.O spare me a little, that I may recover strength, before I goe hence, and be no more.
Thou wilt give me a little space of relaxation, that I may serve and glorifie thee here on earth, before I dy.
Annotations on Psalm XXXIX.
V. 5. Hand-breadth] foreign foreignsignifies palmas, and being here applyed to dayes of mans life, certainly denotes the shortness thereof, as it were commensurate to the breadth of the palme or hand. The copies of the LXXII. which now we have, read variously; some foreign, followed by several of the antients, others foreign, without sense. But methinks there should be no doubt, but the Original rendring was foreign or foreign, either of which differs very little (even but by one letter) from foreign, which the Antients most commonly retein, and is also exactly answerable to the Hebrew. For foreign, saith Hesychius, those two words are Synonymas, foreign, called also foreign. And accordingly Symmachus renders foreign as hand-breadths. The other interpreters render it paraphrastically, the Arabick, short, the Chaldee, light, the Syriack, with a measure, the Latine, mensurabiles; both these as from the Greek, taking foreign for mensurabiles.
V. 5. Mine age] foreign foreignsignifies time, age, particularly this age of ours, which here we live; which belonging to the body, the Chaldee by way of paraphrase render it foreign body, both here and in Job, and the Lxxii. foreign substance, the Syriack life, the Arabick consistence.
V. 6. Heapeth up] The difference of foreign foreignand foreign must here be taken notice of. The former here appears to contain all the toyle of the harvest, in reaping, binding, cocking, all congestion and heaping things together, bringing them from the several places where they grow, into a cumulus: the Chaldee renders it by foreign to congregate. The latter notes the stowing, foreignor housing; laying it up, removing or carrying it out of the field, where 'tis heaped or cockt up, ready for carriage. For so foreign is sometimes to lay up, sometimes to take away. And accordingly foreign the feast of Ingathering, is the feast of Tabernacles, after this last part of harvest was fully ended. This then is the description of the vanity of our humane estate, that when a man hath run through all the labours of acquisition, and hath nothing visible to interpose betwixt him and his enjoyments, yet even then, he is uncertain, not only whether himself shall possess it at last, but whether his heir shall do it; nay, he knows not whether his enemy may not; he cannot tell who shall gather them into the barne, or enjoy them when they are there.
V. 11. Moth] For foreign foreignas a moth, the Lxxii. read foreign as a spider, paraphrastically expressing the same thing; viz. consumption of that which is most pretious; the moth so consuming the garment, and the spider his own vital faculties, when out of his own bowels he spins his webbe. The Chaldee reads it, like a moth broken asunder. But the phrase is in reason to be applyed to the moths consuming other things, not being himself consumed, Hos. v. 12. I will be to Ephraim foreign as a moth, i. e. I will consume them; Isa. L. 9. the moth shall eat them as a garment. The Syriack paraphrase it another way, thou hast made their desires fly away as chaffe, by desires] rendring foreign,foreign which signifies any thing desirable, from foreign desideravit; and so may here be taken for beauty, for health, for strength, for any thing that is most desirable. In the end of the verse, where in the Hebrew we read foreign onelyonly vanity is every man, the Lxxii. from v. 6. read foreign is troubled in vain; which shews that they used this larger liberty, and kept not themselves to strict literal version. The Chaldee reads, is nothing, the Syriack, as a vapour, by way of paraphrase also; and so we know S. James, c. iv. 14. resolves our life to be a vapour. The Syriack foreign notes such a vapour as comes out of the mouth in speaking.