Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 39:10

Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

10. stroke ] The same word as that rendered plague in Psa 38:11. Cp. Job 9:34.

I am consumed &c.] By the conflict of thy hand am I consumed. ‘I’ stands in emphatic contrast with ‘thy hand’. When the power of the Almighty contends with me, I, frail mortal that I am, must needs perish. Cp. Job 10:2 ff.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10 13. Petition for relief (10, 11) and respite (12, 13).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Remove thy stroke away from me – And yet this calm submission, as expressed in Psa 39:9, does not take away the desire that the hand of God may be removed, and that the suffering that is brought upon us may cease. Perfect submission is not inconsistent with the prayer that, if it be the will of God, the calamity may be removed: Luk 22:42. On the word here rendered stroke – nega – see the notes at Psa 38:11. It is equivalent here to chastisement, or judgment. It refers to the trial which he was then enduring, whatever it was, which had given occasion to the feelings that he says Psa 39:1-2 he had felt bound to suppress when in the presence of the wicked, but in reference to which he had learned entirely to acquiesce Psa 39:9. From that trial itself he now prays that he may be delivered.

I am consumed – I am wasting away. I cannot long bear up under it. I must sink down to the grave if it is not removed. See Psa 39:13.

By the blow of thine hand – Margin, as in Hebrew: conflict. That is, the blow which God brings on anyone when he has, as it were, a strife or a conflict with him. It is designed here to express his affliction, as if God had struck him.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 10. Remove thy stroke away from me] This seems to be a figure taken from gladiators, or persons contending in single combat. One is wounded so as to be able to maintain the fight no longer: he therefore gives in, and prays his adversary to spare his life. I am conquered; I can hold the contest no longer: thou art too powerful for me. He cries what our ancestors used to term craven; the word spoken by him who was conquered in the battle ordeal, or trial by combat.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

But although I may not, I will not, open my mouth to complain of thee, yet I may open it to complain and pray to thee, that thou wouldst take off the judgment which thou hast inflicted upon me.

I am consumed; help me, therefore, before I be utterly and irrecoverably lost.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Remove thy stroke away from me,…. The psalmist still considers his affliction as coming from the hand of God, as his stroke upon him, and which lay as a heavy burden on him, and which God only could remove; and to him he applies for the removal of it, who is to be sought unto by his people to do such things for them; nor is such an application any ways contrary to that silence and patience before expressed;

I am consumed by the blow of thine hand; meaning either that his flesh was consumed by his affliction, which came from the hand of God, or he should be consumed if he did not remove it: he could not bear up under it, but must sink and die; if he continued to strive and contend with him, his spirit would fail before him, and the soul that he had made; and therefore he entreats he would remember he was but dust, and remove his hand from him; for this is a reason enforcing the preceding petition.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

10 Take away thy stroke from me. David here confirms the prayer which he had already presented, namely, that having obtained pardon from God, he might, at the same time, be gently dealt with by him. This prayer, however, does not disturb the silence of which he had just made mention; for our desires and prayers, if they are framed according to the rule of God’s word, are not inconsiderate and noisy so as to provoke the divine displeasure against us, but proceed from the calm stillness which faith and patience produce in our hearts. It is indeed true, that when any one prays earnestly to God, he cannot fail to mix up with it his own feelings, pour forth his complaints, and manifest an extreme ardor. But we see that David, who formerly bewailed his miseries in loud lamentations, now sets himself calmly to consider and weigh what he merited, and prays for pardon. His meaning is, that God would mitigate the punishment which he had inflicted upon him. The reason immediately follows; for I have fainted by the blow of thy hand. In thus speaking, David does not allege this as an excuse to extenuate his fault, but desires that he may be borne with in his infirmity. As he says with respect to himself individually, that he is consumed, because he feels that the hand of God is against him, so he immediately states in the 11th verse the same truth in general terms, telling us, that if God should begin to deal with us according to the strict demands of the law, the consequence would be, that all would perish, and be utterly overwhelmed under his wrath. He plainly shows, first, that he is speaking not of any one man, or even of men generally, for he makes use of a Hebrew word, which denotes a man renowned for his valor, courage, or excellence; (74) and then, secondly, he says, that if God should set himself to chastise such persons, every thing which they esteem precious in themselves would consume away or be dissolved. The sum is, that among men there is no one endued with such power and glory whom the wrath of God, if it burn fiercely against him, will not forthwith bring to nothing. But it will be necessary to examine the words more minutely. David does not simply describe the dreadful character of God’s wrath; but at the same time he declares and sets forth his righteousness in all the punishments which he inflicts upon men. The judgments of God sometimes strike fear and dread into the hearts even of heathen men, but their blindness fills them with such rage, that they still continue to fight against God. By the term rebukes, David means severe punishments, such as are the tokens of strict justice and signs of divine wrath. We know that God often exercises the rod of his chastisement upon true believers, but he does it in such a manner as that in punishing them he at the same time gives them a taste of his mercy and his love, and not only tempers the chastisements with which he visits them, but also mingles them with comfort, which serves to render them much more tolerable. David, then, is not speaking in this place of fatherly chastisement, but of the punishment which God inflicts upon the reprobate, when, like an inexorable judge in the exercise of his office, he executes against them the judgment which they have merited. He tells us that when God makes this rigour to be felt, there is no man who does not forthwith consume or pine away. At first view the comparison of God to a moth may seem absurd; for what relation is there, it may be said, between a small moth-worm and the infinite majesty of God? I answer, That David has with much propriety made use of this simile, that we may know that although God does not openly thunder from heaven against the reprobate, yet his secret curse ceases not to consume them away, just as the moth, though unperceived, wastes by its secret gnawing a piece of cloth or wood. (75) At the same time, he alludes to the excellency (76) of man, which he says is destroyed as it were by corruption, when God is offended, even as the moth destroys the most precious cloths by wasting them. The Scriptures often very appropriately employ various similitudes in this Way, and are wont to apply them sometimes in one view and sometimes in another. When Hezekiah (Isa 38:13) compares God to a lion, he does so in reference to the feelings of his own mind, because he was so prostrated and overwhelmed with fear and terror. But in this place David teaches us, that although the world may not perceive the dreadful vengeance of God, yet it consumes the reprobate by secretly gnawing them. This sentence, that every man is vanity, is again very properly repeated; for until we are overcome by the power of God, and as it were humbled in the dust, we never search into our own hearts, that the knowledge of our own vanity may divest us of all presumption. Whence is it that men are so foolishly satisfied with themselves, yea, and even applaud themselves, unless it be that, so long as God bears with them, they are wilfully blind to their own infirmities? The only remedy, then, by which men are cured of pride is when, alarmed with a sense of God’s wrath, they begin not only to be dissatisfied with themselves, but also to humble themselves even to the dust.

(74) “ Car il use d’un mot par lequel les Hebrieux signifient un homme vertueux, courageux, ou excellent.” — Fr. The Hebrew word is איש, ish See volume 1, p. 40, note.

(75) The meaning according to our English version seems to be, that the beauty of man is consumed as the moth is consumed. “But,” says Walford, “this gives no correct or suitable sense. The design is to state, not that the moth is consumed, but that it is a consumer or spoiler of garments.” He reads,

“

With rebukes thou chastisest man for iniquity, Then thou destroyest his goodliness as a moth destroyeth a garment.”

This is precisely Calvin’s interpretation. The moth is called in Hebrew עש, ash, from its corroding and destroying the texture of cloth, etc. See Parkhurst’s Lexicon on the word עש. The metaphor here employed is of frequent occurrence in Scripture. For example, in Hos 5:12, God says, “I will be to Ephraim as a moth,” that is, I will consume them; and in Isa 50:9, it is said, “The moth shall eat them as a garment.”

(76) The original word, which Calvin renders “excellency,” is translated by Hammond “precious things;” by which he understands wealth, greatness, health, beauty, strength, and, in short, whatever is most precious to us.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(10) Stroke.See Note to Psa. 38:11.

Blow.Margin, conflict. A word only found here; from a root meaning rough. LXX. and Vulg. have strength.

Calvins last words are said to have been a reminiscence of this verse.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 39:10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

Ver. 10. Remove thy stroke away from me ] Having first prayed off his sin, he would now pray off his pain, though it less troubled him; and for ease he repaireth to Jehovah, that healeth as well as woundeth, Hos 6:1 .

– nam qui tibi vulnera fecit,

Solus Achilleo tollere more potest

(Ovid. Trist).

I am consumed by the blow of thine hand ] Heb. By the conflict or buffetings. Oh, keep out of his fingers, for it is a fearful thing to fall into them, Heb 10:31 , Cavebis autem si pavebis.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)