Psalm 39--What Is the Measure of My Days?

Psalm 39
English Standard Version

What Is the Measure of My Days?
To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
39 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.”
2 I was mute and silent;
    I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
3     My heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
    then I spoke with my tongue:

4 “O LORD, make me know my end
    and what is the measure of my days;
    let me know how fleeting I am!
5 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
6     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!

7 “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
    My hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
    Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
9 I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
    for it is you who have done it.
10 Remove your stroke from me;
    I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
11 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

12 “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.
13 Look away from me, that I may smile again,
    before I depart and am no more!”

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While we are not to speak out of anger, it also doesn't help to hold everything inside and let it stew and fester.  David thought he was doing the right thing by following the advice many of us know from Thumper in the movie Bambi, "If you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all."  However, David soon realized (like Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount) that the issue is not so much his mouth or his tongue, but with his heart, because it is out of the heart that the mouth and tongue speak. (See Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21, and James 3:1-12).

David seems to be fed up with the problems and struggles of living this life where he wants to live one way and he's constantly battling temptation to do the opposite of what he knows God wants him to do and be.  David wishes he knew how much longer he had to put up with all of this before he would be in heaven with God and be freed from the presence of the evil men and of his own sin nature.  He knows this life is nothing to God--like a short distance that can be measured using a man's hand or like a single breath.  I'd assume David is near the end of his natural life here, but we really don't know as all of us feel this way at different points in our lives--either wanting Jesus to return and make everything right or asking that if Jesus is not going to return soon that we know how much longer we have to deal with living as aliens in a world that is not our home.

David does not know for sure what awaits him other than that the Lord (notice this is not capitalized so David is using a different word that means "king" or "master" or "sovereign" that often, but not always, refers to Jesus in the Old Testament) awaits him and that is enough for David.  The Lord is his salvation and will deliver him not only from his transgressions (his accidental sins), but also his iniquities (his intentional sins).  David takes no credit for his salvation because he knows the Lord has accomplished all of it and done it to David.  David simply praises the Lord for what He has done and asks for the Lord to remove the punishment that was meant to teach David this lesson that David thinks he has learned.  The Lord has taken away from David the things that David relied on and shown David that he will take no riches with him to heaven and that everything he held onto in this life nothing more than a breath or was like a moth that would fly into the fire and be consumed.

David cries out for the LORD to hear his prayer and answer him, not because of him being someone special, but because David sees he is just like all of his forefathers.  David wishes that the LORD allow his joy to return just once more before it is time for him to die.  Most likely David is old and reliving all the bad decisions that he made and all the ways that he messed up morally and failed as a father.  He's had sons follow in his footsteps of moral depravity and some lead open rebellion to try to take the throne that was not promised to them, and they were killed for their rebellion.  How much more of this could this old man take and would he ever be happy again before he dies and goes to heaven to be with the LORD forever?  That seems to be the meaning of this song.  Not a very happy song at all, but one which is very honest about how many of us feel, especially those who approach what we imagine to be the end of our days and have trouble finding meaning in continuing to live if it means continuing to fight battles that we no longer feel we have the desire or energy to fight.

The LORD knows and has numbered all of our days and knows exactly what His purpose is for all of them.  Trust the LORD that if He's keeping you alive, He still has a purpose for you (like Paul did in Philippians 1) and turn your focus outward if possible like Paul did to say that even though for himself he wished to depart and be with Christ, he also had a strong desire for the Church to stay and help them for as long as he could, so he decided that he was being called to stay for their benefit and so that they too would be spiritually mature and be able to stand firm one day when he was no longer with them.  I sense David and Paul were having a lot of the same kinds of thoughts and were at similar points in there lives during these two texts.

​I think David also feels like Paul did in Romans 7 when Paul said, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"  I'm much younger than Paul or David were here most likely, and even I have felt that way at points in my life.    I must balance my desire to be with God in heaven with the fact that I know God has left me here to do the work of the gospel so that even more people will be gathered around the throne one day praising Him and more voices will join together to sing His praises for who He is and what He has done.  We must not have a selfish faith, but God does always give us hope that no matter how bad things are now, that they will not be that way for those who belong to Him in eternity.