Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 39:7
And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope [is] in thee.
7. And now ] Or, Now therefore (Psa 2:10), introduces a conclusion from a preceding statement.
what wait I for ] What have I waited and still am waiting for? or, What (else) could I have waited for? the form of the question implying that nothing else was possible.
wait hope ] The words form a link between the preceding ( Psa 38:15) and the following ( Psa 40:1) Psalms.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7 9. Man’s life being thus transient, and earthly treasures thus deceitful, the Psalmist turns to God, as the one sure stay in life.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And now, Lord, what wait I for? – From the consideration of a vain world – of the fruitless efforts of man – of what so perplexed, embarrassed, and troubled him – the psalmist now turns to God, and looks to him as the source of consolation. Turning to Him, he gains more cheerful views of life. The expression What wait I for? means, what do I now expect or hope for; on what is my hope based; where do I find any cheerful, comforting views in regard to life? He had found none in the contemplation of the world itself, in man and his pursuits; in the course of things so shadowy and so mysterious; and he says now, that he turns to God to find comfort in his perplexities.
My hope is in thee – In thee alone. My reliance is on thee; my expectation is from thee. It is not from what I see in the world; it is not in my power of solving the mysteries which surround me; it is not that I can see the reason why these shadows are pursuing shadows so eagerly around me; it is in the God that made all, the Ruler over all, that can control all, and that can accomplish His own great purposes in connection even with these moving shadows, and that can confer on man thus vain in himself and in his pursuits that which will be valuable and permanent. The idea is, that the contemplation of a world so vain, so shadowy, so mysterious, should lead us away from all expectation of finding in that world what we need, or finding a solution of the questions which so much perplex us, up to the great God who is infinitely wise, and who can meet all the necessities of our immortal nature; and who, in his own time, can solve all these mysteries.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 39:7-8
And now, Lord, what wait I for?
my hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
The appeal and prayer of a waiting soul
I. His waiting.
1. What he did not wait for–not for any earthly good.
2. What he did wait for–manifestation of love of God. Removal of affliction. The subdual of his sins. A smile from God. Gods will to be done in him.
II. His hope–God.
III. His prayer–Deliver me from all, etc.
1. From the guilt;
2. The filth;
3. The love;
4. The power;
5. The commission-of sin.
IV. The reproach which he feared–that of the foolish. He knew he was liable to it, and he feared it much. (J. C. Philpot.)
Faith and culture
The latter of these two verses is the language of a man who had seen much of life. And yet we must own that the life of man is a fuller, a more intense, a more many-sided thing to-day than ever before. How many interests it touches; amid what wide-reaching complications it lives and moves; under what enormous pressure it rushes on. The age which we call our own is mainly an inventing and contriving one. In a word, for that is the question to which our text directly lead us, Is the world really happier because of what civilization has done for it, or no? No one will say that civilization has done nothing for the race, and that there has been no progress apart from that of the Cross. To affirm that would be to affirm what is untrue. For civilization may be without Christian faith. Enlightened selfishness has long found out that the individual is better off and happier when the community is honest, healthy and mutually self-respecting. Hence, it is not certain that society, as you and I know it, would lapse into barbarism without the knowledge of the faith of the Crucified. But the question is, also, Would human happiness remain? or rather, Is it to civilization that the world owes its happiness, and are we of to-day, with our higher and finer civilization, happier than our forefathers? They were without a multitude of advantages that we have, and the range and the pace of their life were almost infinitely narrower and slower. But in widening the range and in quickening the pace, have we deepened the current and enriched the quality of our lives? Thou hast multiplied the nation, says the prophet, and not increased the joy. And yet there is a Book which tells you of a life which he who lives it is not afraid of any evil tidings, for his heart standeth fast and believeth in the Lord. There is a faith which has learned how to ask and to answer the deepest of all questions in the word, And now, Lord, what is my hope? Truly my hope is even in Thee. There is a life–you know at least one or two who here and there are living it–in which the world is neither a charnel-house, nor its pleasures dust and ashes. It is for this widening of the horizon of its life, that human society wants that message of faith which civilization does not and cannot bring it. Man is going to school here, and the things that he touches, and sees, and requires here, all these are simply toys with which he is building block-houses in the nursery, until he is fit for the life and employments of the future. It is to recall you to this higher range of thought and aspiration that this holy house exists. What do we come to church for if we do not need to be reminded, by what we see and hear and do here, of a world and life outside the boundaries of the widest civilization and unrevealed by the investigations of the most painstaking culture? We have hopes that are not met by any visible attainment. We have fears that are not silenced by any earthly voice. And there are some times when we have another and a more bitter consciousness–the consciousness of personal sin. We want to be forgiven. We want to be renewed. We want to be emancipated. In one word, we want that element in our lives which never enters it until the Cross has entered it, and has at once conquered us by its love and transformed us by its infinite and Divine compassion. We want all this, I say. Has it ever occurred to us to think of those other lives who want it no less, and who vet may so easily be left without it? (H. G. Potter.)
The believer hoping in God
I. His appeal. It implies–
1. An experimental persuasion of insufficiency. This is engraven in characters too deep to be erased by the hand of time, and too legible to be obliterated by passing vanities.
2. A strong sense of danger. He feels that the claims of the Almighty are as imperative as they are reasonable; and he is convinced that while the affections are enslaved by earthly objects, the soul is in danger of perishing everlastingly.
3. The shallowness of those hopes which have respect to creature merit as the procuring cause of salvation.
II. His affirmation.
1. His hope of pardon, acceptance, and eternal salvation centred in God.
2. His hope of support, consolation and happiness was reposed in God. From the world we can often derive neither help nor sympathy; in God we have both: He relieves and He compassionates. (W. Knight, M. A.)
Waiting and hoping
I. Here is a question. A man doesnt go head foremost toward God, he goes heart foremost. The great trouble with sinners is that they put the head before the heart. What wait I for?
1. There is one man who says, I am waiting for the Lords good time, the Lords own time. Well, then, that good time has come at last. These revival services are to get men willing to be saved, and not to get God willing to save them. It is Gods accepted time. Every moment that you are a sinner that is the moment God is ready to save you. Thus much I tell you, You will never see the gates wider open than they are now.
2. Another says, I am not waiting for Gods time, I am waiting for better terms. Let me tell you about that terms business. There are plenty of people that want to go to heaven on their own schedule. They want to drink a little, lie a little, and gamble occasionally. Why will a man ask any better terms than that he quit those things that damage him on earth and prevent him going to heaven?
3. I am not waiting for any better terms, says the sinner; I know that right is right and wrong is wrong. I am waiting for the Church to get right. Waiting for the Church to get right! Let the Church be, and do as it will, I am going to serve the Lord. Dont stay out because of the hypocrites, but come in and help crowd them out.
4. I am waiting for feeling, says some fellow. You look at me. What do you mean by feeling? Do you mean serious thought? If you dont mean that, you dont mean anything. If serious thought is not feeling, there is no serious thought in repentance. When a man sees he ought to do right and quit the wrong, that is the only feeling there is on the subject. Do you think that you ought to be a Christian, and ought to start to-night? If you do, you have got feeling enough to sweep you right under the Cross, if you will start now.
5. Another fellow says, I am not waiting for feeling; I am waiting until I am fit. Here is a fellow starving to death; there is a richly-loaded table. Are you hungry? . . . Yes, I am just as hungry as I can be; but I cant go, my hands aint fit. Here are soap and water and towels. He says, I aint fit to wash. Dont hang back because I am not fit. Come up here and get fit. Did Jesus Christ come into the world to save good people? Oh no; but to save sinners.
6. I know Christ died to save me, but I am waiting to try myself awhile. Many resolve to be good men, and they try. The devil laughs to see them.
7. I am waiting for faith. Yes; you have been waiting forty years for faith. How much have you saved up? Like the fellow who had ten bushels of wheat, and was waiting till more grew before he would sow what he had[ Sow it, and you will have a hundred-fold. I want to be a blacksmith as soon as I get muscle. Why dont you go at it? There he stands, until at last he has not muscle enough to lift the hammer. He is getting it with a vengeance. How did you get faith? by using what you had. But now let us look at the other side. We have been looking at man, let us–
II. Turn now to God. my hope is in God. Now you have struck the keynote for eternal life. My hope is not in riches, pastor, friends, father and mother, children, Church; but my hope is in God. Will you start to-night? You may say, I am mighty weak. I know it; but your hope is in God. Yes; but I am a poor sinner. My hope is in God; it is not in myself. I know I am a sinner. Yes; but you are very, very weak; you are as frail as a bruised reed. Yes; but my hope is in God. If I commit myself to God, I will never go down: I will stay up as long as God stays up. I put my hand in the hand of God, and commit it all to Him to-night. Wont you do it? Let me take your hand, and help you to start to heaven. (S. P. Jones.)
The vanity of earthly things leading to hope in God
The text is a conclusion drawn from the preceding verse which tells of the vain show in which every man walks. Each expression goes to demonstrate this vanity. But we are not to be discontented with earth or to despise those temporal blessings which Providence places within our reach. Far be the thought. It is the resting on such things, and not the use of them, against which men need to be warned. And even Christians need this warning, Hence it is needful that we should deeply feel the vanity of all earthly things in order that we may the more earnestly adopt the language of the text. Never shall we fly to the Creator, as the source of all true happiness, till we utterly despair of finding it in the creature. And now let me rejoice with you who have found your hope in the Lord. We have become so through Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as the ransom for a ruined world, and redeemed us to God by His blood. Happy are the people in such a case, and who can say with David, Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and, etc. (J. Slade, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. And now, Lord, what wait I for?] Have I any object of pursuit in life, but to regain thy favour and thine image.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Seeing this life and all its enjoyments are so vain and short to all men, and especially to me, I will never expect nor seek for happiness here from these vanities; I will compose myself patiently and contentedly to bear both my own afflictions, and the prosperity and glory of ungodly men, for both are vanishing and transitory things, and I will seek for happiness no where but in the love and favour of God, in serving and glorifying him here, and in the hope or confident expectation of enjoying him hereafter; and in the mean time, of receiving from him those supplies and assistances which my present condition calls for.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. The interrogation makes theimplied negative stronger. Though this world offers nothing to ourexpectation, God is worthy of all confidence.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And now, Lord, what wait I for?…. Look for, or expect, in this view of things? not long life, since the days of man are so short, and his age as nothing; not help from man, since he is altogether vanity; not riches and honour, since they are such poor, fading, perishing things; but the glories of another world, and the enjoyment of the Lord himself, both in this and that;
my hope [is] in thee; the psalmist now returns to himself, and comes to his right mind, and to a right way of judging and acting; making the Lord the object of his hope and trust, expecting all good things, grace and glory, alone from him; and this is the hope which makes not ashamed.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 39:8-12) It is customary to begin a distinct turning-point of a discourse with : and now, i.e., in connection with this nothingness of vanity of a life which is so full of suffering and unrest, what am I to hope, quid sperem (concerning the perfect, vid., on Psa 11:3)? The answer to this question which he himself throws out is, that Jahve is the goal of his waiting or hoping. It might appear strange that the poet is willing to make the brevity of human life a reason for being calm, and a ground of comfort. But here we have the explanation. Although not expressly assured of a future life of blessedness, his faith, even in the midst of death, lays hold on Jahve as the Living One and as the God of the living. It is just this which is so heroic in the Old Testament faith, that in the midst of the riddles of the present, and in the face of the future which is lost in dismal night, it casts itself unreservedly into the arms of God. While, however, sin is the root of all evil, the poet prays in Psa 39:9 before all else, that God would remove from him all the transgressions by which he has fully incurred his affliction; and while, given over to the consequences of his sin, he would become, not only to his own dishonour but also to the dishonour of God, a derision to the unbelieving, he prays in Psa 39:9 that God would not permit it to come to this. , Psa 39:9, has Mercha, and is consequently, as in Psa 35:10, to be read with (not o ), since an accent can never be placed by Kametz chatuph . Concerning , Psa 39:9, see on Psa 14:1. As to the rest he is silent and calm; for God is the author, viz., of his affliction ( , used just as absolutely as in Ps 22:32; Psa 37:5; 52:11, Lam 1:21). Without ceasing still to regard intently the prosperity of the ungodly, he recognises the hand of God in his affliction, and knows that he has not merited anything better. But it is permitted to him to pray that God would suffer mercy to take the place of right. is the name he gives to his affliction, as in Psa 38:12, as being a stroke (blow) of divine wrath; , as a quarrel into which God’s hand has fallen with him; and by , with the almighty (punishing) hand of God, he contrasts himself the feeble one, to whom, if the present state of things continues, ruin is certain. In Psa 39:12 he puts his own personal experience into the form of a general maxim: when with rebukes ( from , collateral form with , ) Thou chastenest a man on account of iniquity ( perf. conditionale ), Thou makest his pleasantness (Isa 53:3), i.e., his bodily beauty (Job 33:21), to melt away, moulder away ( , fut. apoc. from to cause to melt, Psa 6:7), like the moth (Hos 5:12), so that it falls away, as a moth-eaten garment falls into rags. Thus do all men become mere nothing. They are sinful and perishing. The thought expressed in Psa 39:6 is here repeated as a refrain. The music again strikes in here, as there.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Confidence in God; David Pleading with God. | |
7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. 9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. 10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. 12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
The psalmist, having meditated on the shortness and uncertainty of life, and the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend all the comforts of life, here, in these verses, turns his eyes and heart heaven-ward. When there is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature it is to be found in God, and in communion with him; and to him we should be driven by our disappointments in the world. David here expresses,
I. His dependence on God, v. 7. Seeing all is vanity, and man himself is so, 1. He despairs of a happiness in the things of the world, and disclaims all expectations from it: “Now, Lord, what wait I for? Even nothing from the things of sense and time; I have nothing to wish for, nothing to hope for, from this earth.” Note, The consideration of the vanity and frailty of human life should deaden our desires to the things of this world and lower our expectations from it. “If the world be such a thing as this, God deliver me from having, or seeking, my portion in it.” We cannot reckon upon constant health and prosperity, nor upon comfort in any relation; for it is all as uncertain as our continuance here. “Though I have sometimes foolishly promised myself this and the other from the world, I am now of another mind.” 2. He takes hold of happiness and satisfaction in God: My hope is in thee. Note, When creature-confidences fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust to, and we should thereby be quickened to take so much the faster hold of him by faith.
II. His submission to God, and his cheerful acquiescence in his holy will, v. 9. If our hope be in God for a happiness in the other world, we may well afford to reconcile ourselves to all the dispensations of his providence concerning us in this world: “I was dumb; I opened not my mouth in a way of complaint and murmuring.” He now again recovered that serenity and sedateness of mind which were disturbed, v. 2. Whatever comforts he is deprived of, whatever crosses he is burdened with, he will be easy. “Because thou didst it; it did not come to pass by chance, but according to thy appointment.” We may here see, 1. A good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us. Of every event we may say, “This is the finger of God; it is the Lord’s doing,” whoever were the instruments. 2. A good man, for that reason, saying nothing against it. He is dumb, he has nothing to object, no question to ask, no dispute to raise upon it. All that God does is well done.
III. His desire towards God, and the prayers he puts up to him. Is any afflicted? let him pray, as David here,
1. For the pardoning of his sin and the preventing of his shame, v. 8. Before he prays (v. 10), Remove thy stroke from me, he prays (v. 8), “Deliver me from all my offences, from the guilt I have contracted, the punishment I have deserved, and the power of corruption by which I have been enslaved.” When God forgives our sins he delivers us from them, he delivers us from them all. He pleads, Make me not a reproach to the foolish. Wicked people are foolish people; and they then show their folly most when they think to show their wit, by scoffing at God’s people. When David prays that God would pardon his sins, and not make him a reproach, it is to be taken as a prayer for peace of conscience (“Lord, leave me not to the power of melancholy, which the foolish will laugh at me for”), and as a prayer for grace, that God would never leave him to himself, so far as to do any thing that might make him a reproach to bad men. Note, This is a good reason why we should both watch and pray against sin, because the credit of our profession is nearly concerned in the preservation of our integrity.
2. For the removal of his affliction, that he might speedily be eased of his present burdens (v. 10): Remove thy stroke away from me. Note, When we are under the correcting hand of God our eye must be to God himself, and not to any other, for relief. He only that inflicts the stroke can remove it; and we may then in faith, and with satisfaction, pray that our afflictions may be removed, when our sins are pardoned (Isa. xxxviii. 17), and when, as here, the affliction is sanctified and has done its work, and we are humbled under the hand of God.
(1.) He pleads the great extremity he was reduced to by his affliction, which made him the proper object of God’s compassion: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. His sickness prevailed to such a degree that his spirits failed, his strength was wasted, and his body emaciated. “The blow, or conflict, of thy hand has brought me even to the gates of death.” Note, The strongest, and boldest, and best of men cannot bear up under, much less make head against, the power of God’s wrath. It was not his case only, but any man will find himself an unequal match for the Almighty, v. 11. When God, at any time, contends with us, when with rebukes he corrects us, [1.] We cannot impeach the equity of his controversy, but must acknowledge that he is righteous in it; for, whenever he corrects man, it is for iniquity. Our ways and our doings procure the trouble to ourselves, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. It is the yoke of our transgressions, though it be bound with his hand, Lam. i. 14. [2.] We cannot oppose the effects of his controversy, but he will be too hard for us. As we have nothing to move in arrest of his judgment, so we have no way of escaping the execution. God’s rebukes make man’s beauty to consume away like a moth; we often see, we sometimes feel, how much the body is weakened and decayed by sickness in a little time; the countenance is changed; where are the ruddy cheek and lip, the sprightly eye, the lively look, the smiling face? It is the reverse of all this that presents itself to view. What a poor thing is beauty; and what fools are those that are proud of it, or in love with it, when it will certainly, and may quickly, be consumed thus! Some make the moth to represent man, who is as easily crushed as a moth with the touch of a finger, Job iv. 19. Others make it to represent the divine rebukes, which silently and insensibly waste and consume us, as the moth does the garment. All this abundantly proves what he had said before, that surely every man is vanity, weak and helpless; so he will be found when God comes to contend with him.
(2.) He pleads the good impressions made upon him by his affliction. He hoped that the end was accomplished for which it was sent, and that therefore it would be removed in mercy; and unless an affliction has done its work, though it may be removed, it is not removed in mercy. [1.] It had set him a weeping, and he hoped God would take notice of that. When the Lord God called to mourning, he answered the call and accommodated himself to the dispensation, and therefore could, in faith, pray, Lord, hold not thy peace at my tears, v. 12. He that does not willingly afflict and grieve the children of men, much less his own children, will not hold his peace at their tears, but will either speak deliverance for them (and, if he speak, it is done) or in the mean time speak comfort to them and make them to hear joy and gladness. [2.] It had set him a praying; and afflictions are sent to stir up prayer. If they have that effect, and when we are afflicted we pray more, and pray better, than before, we may hope that God will hear our prayer and give ear to our cry; for the prayer which by his providence he gives occasion for, and which by his Spirit of grace he indites, shall not return void. [3.] It had helped to wean him from the world and to take his affections off from it. Now he began, more than ever, to look upon himself as a stranger and sojourner here, like all his fathers, not at home in this world, but travelling through it to another, to a better, and would never reckon himself at home till he came to heaven. He pleads it with God: “Lord, take cognizance of me, and of my wants and burdens, for I am a stranger here, and therefore meet with strange usage; I am slighted and oppressed as a stranger; and whence should I expect relief but from thee, from that other country to which I belong?”
3. He prays for a reprieve yet a little longer (v. 13): “O spare me, ease me, raise me up from this illness that I may recover strength both in body and mind, that I may get into a more calm and composed frame of spirit, and may be better prepared for another world, before I go hence by death, and shall be no more in this world.” Some make this to be a passionate wish that God would send him help quickly or it would be too late, like that, Job 10:20; Job 10:21. But I rather take it as a pious prayer that God would continue him here till by his grace he had made him fit to go hence, and that he might finish the work of life before his life was finished. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
7. And now, O Lord! what do I wait for? David, having acknowledged that his heart had been too much under the influence of ardent and impetuous emotion, from which he had experienced great disquietude, now returns to a calm and settled state of mind; and from this what I have before stated is rendered still more obvious, namely, that this psalm consists partly of appropriate prayers and partly of inconsiderate complaints. I have said that David here begins to pray aright. It is true, that even worldly men sometimes feel in the very same way in which David here acknowledges that he felt; but the knowledge of their own vanity does not lead them so far as to seek substantial support in God. On the contrary, they rather wilfully render themselves insensible, that they may indulge undisturbed in their own vanity. We may learn from this passage, that no man looks to God for the purpose of depending upon him, and resting his hope in him, until he is made to feel his own frailty, yea, and even brought to nought. There is tacitly great force in the adverb now, as if David had said, The flattery and vain imaginations by which the minds of men are held fast in the sleep of security no longer deceive me, but I am now fully sensible of my condition. But we must go beyond this elementary stage; for it is not enough, that, being aroused by a sense of our infirmity, we should seek with fear and trembling to know our duty, unless at the same time God manifest himself to us, on whom alone all our expectation should depend. Accordingly, as it serves no end for worldly men to be convinced of their utter vanity, because, although convinced of this, they never improve by it, let us learn to press forward and make still further progress, in order that, being as it were dead, we may be quickened by God, whose peculiar office it is to create all things out of nothing; for man then ceases to be vanity, and begins to be truly something, when, aided by the power of God, he aspires to heavenly things.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) And now, Lord . . .If such is mans condition, what, says the psalmist, is my expectation? We seem to hear the deep sigh with which the words are uttered; and we must remember that the poet can turn for comfort to no hope of immortality. That had not yet dawned. The thought of Gods mercy, and the hope of his own moral deliverance, these form the ground of his noble elevation above the oppressive sense of human frailty. The LXX. and Vulg. give it very expressively:
And now what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord?
And my substance is with thee.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. And now From this humiliating picture, he turns his thought to God for comfort.
What wait I for Literally, what have I expected? What have I rested my hopes on? Quickly he answers,
My hope is in thee Not in man, not in earthly things, not in doctrines of immortality even, objectively considered or speculatively admitted, but “in thee,” the living God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3). His solution lies in hoping in YHWH and walking rightly before Him, being delivered from all his transgressions. Meanwhile therefore he prays that YHWH will restore him to health, while recognising that he himself through his illness experience is being corrected for his own sins ( Psa 39:7-11 ).
Psa 39:7-8
‘And now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
Deliver me from all my transgressions,
Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
His solution lies in hoping in YHWH. He recognises that that is what he is waiting for. If there is any solution it is to be found in God, and in living for Him. So he prays that he might be delivered from all his transgressions, and might live a life that cannot be reproached by the foolish (those who themselves ignore God – Psa 14:1), a life pleasing to God.
Psa 39:9
‘I was dumb, I opened not my mouth,
Because you did it.
Here the suggestion appears to be that he was struck dumb with wonder as he recognised that God had done what he asked. He had delivered him for his transgressions and from all reproach, and had responded to his hope. He had brought him peace and rest in the recognition that his life was in God’s hands.
Psa 39:10-11
Remove your stroke away from me,
I am consumed by the blow of your hand.
When you with rebukes correct man for iniquity,
You make his beauty to consume away like a moth,
Surely every man is vanity.’ Selah.
So he now prays that he might recover from his illness. For his illness had dragged him down and almost devoured him, as by a blow from God’s hand. The result of this rebuke from God, which had been in order to correct him from his sinful ways, was that he had become but a shadow of his former self. He had become, as it were, moth-eaten. And it had revealed to him how vain life in itself was.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 39:7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope [is] in thee.
Ver. 7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? ] q.d. Absit ergo ut de istis quisquiliis sim anxius, Far be it from me to trouble myself about these transitory trifles; I am bent to depend on thee alone, to wait for thy favour, and desire it above all earthly felicity; to place all my hope on thee alone (Beza), who, being my Lord, wilt not, canst not cast off thy poor servant, who desireth to fear thy name.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 39:7-11
7And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in You.
8Deliver me from all my transgressions;
Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,
Because it is You who have done it.
10Remove Your plague from me;
Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.
11With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity;
You consume as a moth what is precious to him;
Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah.
Psa 39:7-11 This strophe is a general summary of how YHWH deals with His faithful followers amidst all the questions and confusion of life in a fallen world.
1. they wait for YHWH
2. they hope in YHWH (#1,2 are the theological key in our mysterious and transitory lives)
3. they pray for deliverance from YHWH BDB 664, KB 717, Hiphil imperative (cf. Psa 51:14; Psa 79:9)
4. they pray not to be foolish BDB 962, KB 1321, Qal imperfect used in a jussive sense
5. YHWH guides our words and life (cf. Psalms 139)
6. they seek the removal of YHWH’s judgment BDB 693, KB 747, Hiphil imperative
In Psa 39:10-11 the reasons for YHWH’s actions are spelled out.
1. YHWH is active in their lives
2. YHWH’s judgments are disciplinary not just punitive
3. YHWH takes away the things we trust in and cherish more than Him! Everything except YHWH is transitory! Do you get it?!
Psa 39:10
NASB, NKJV,
JPSOAplague
NRSVstroke
TEV, REBblows
NJB, LXXscourge
The Hebrew noun (BDB 619, see note at Psa 38:11) is used often of a disease sent by YHWH.
1. plague Gen 12:17; Exo 11:1; 1Ki 8:37; Psa 38:11; Psa 39:10
2. strike/stroke Psa 89:23; Isa 53:8
3. scourge Psa 89:23
YHWH can remove it because He sent it! It is always hard, if not impossible, to know the source of an illness, event, crisis, etc. in this life. The OT’s theology attributed all causality to YHWH as a theological way of asserting monotheism. But from the progressive revelation of the NT several options arise.
1. God does send things
a. for punishment
b. for spiritual growth (cf. Heb 5:8)
2. God allows (not sends) things to occur
3. we live in a fallen world where bad things happen (statistical evil)
I have chosen, by faith (as did the psalmist), to trust, hope, and wait (cf. Psa 38:15; Psa 39:7) on God in the midst of the mysterious, unfair, often evil events of life. I do not understand why or why now or why this or how long, but I do by faith believe that God is with me, for me, and that there can be a purpose and effective outcome for all things (cf. Rom 8:28-39)! It is a worldview, a faith stance, a theological orientation!
the opposition of Your hand Hand is an idiom for power to act (see SPECIAL TOPIC: HAND ). As to the theological issue see Psa 32:4; Psa 38:2. God as a disciplining, loving parent is a wonderful metaphor (cf. Pro 3:11-12). He is active in our lives because He does not want us to destroy ourselves and others. The hand of discipline has a positive purpose (cf. Heb 12:5-13).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
LORD*. The primitive text read “Jehovah”. This is one of the 134 places where the Sopherim altered Jehovah to “Adonai”. See App-32.
is = “it [is]”
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 39:7
Psa 39:7
“And now Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in thee.”
“In this verse, the prayer shifts into a plea for mercy”; and, in sweet communion with God, all of the discouraging thoughts of the first half of the psalm are swallowed up; and the human spirit rejoices in the stability provided by that “anchor which entereth into that which is within the veil.”
“What wait I for?” (Psa 39:7). If life is ‘as nothing,’ a ‘mere shadow,’ ‘all vanity’ (as in Ecclesiastes), etc.? What is there to hope for?
The answer is ‘God,’ and the meaning is not so much that God will be the soul’s portion in the future life, as that God’s presence here and now redeems this life from its nothingness.
How wonderfully true this is! When God “saves us,” through Jesus Christ, that salvation not only includes eternal redemption from death itself and unending happiness throughout eternity, but that salvation endows our present existence with meaning, significance, purpose and an incredibly tremendous value, so great that Christ evaluated the worth of one human soul as greater than the world itself and everything in it.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 39:7. What wait I for means there is no reason to look further than to the Lord for help. There is no hope worth cherishing not based on the promises of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
what wait: Psa 130:5, Psa 130:6, Gen 49:18, Luk 2:25
hope: Psa 38:15, Psa 119:81, Psa 119:166, Job 13:15, Rom 15:13
Reciprocal: Psa 62:5 – my Psa 69:3 – I wait Psa 71:5 – For thou Psa 146:5 – whose Pro 11:23 – desire Ecc 2:20 – General Isa 8:17 – I will Lam 3:25 – good Mat 13:45 – seeking
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 39:7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? &c. Seeing this life, and all its enjoyments, are so vain and short to all men, and especially to me, I will never expect nor seek for happiness here from these vanities. I will compose myself patiently and contentedly to bear both my own afflictions, and the prosperity and glory of ungodly men, for both are vanishing and transitory things. And I will seek for happiness nowhere but in the love and favour of God, in glorifying him here, and in the hope or confident expectation of enjoying him hereafter; and, in the mean time, of receiving from him those supplies and aids which my present condition calls for.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2. The importance of faith in God 39:7-13
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The psalmist threw himself on the Lord, trusting Him to make the rest of his life enjoyable.