Psalm 39:1-6

1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
while the wicked is before me.

2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I
am.

5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily
every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and
knoweth not who shall gather them.

REMINISCING

Reminiscing is to talk or write about past experiences that you remember with pleasure or Reminiscing is
all about happy recollections and thinking back to stories from the past.

David here recalls and records the workings of his heart during his afflictions; and it is good for us to do
so so that what was thought wrong can be corrected, and what was well thought of can be enhanced the
next time around.

Psalm 39:1

1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
while the wicked is before me.

I. THE COVENANT

– the pledge, promise or commitment

* David remembered the covenants he had made with God to walk circumspectly, and to be very
cautious both of what he did and what he said. When at any time we are tempted to sin, and are in
danger of falling into it, we must call to mind the solemn vows we have made against sin, against the
particular sin we are upon the brink of. God can, and will, remind us of them, and therefore we ought to
remind ourselves of them. So David did here.
*He remembers that he had resolved, in general, to be very cautious and circumspect in his walking as a
great concern of every one of us to take heed to our ways, that is, to walk cautiously or circumspectly,
while others walk at all adventures.

*We ought to be steadfast to resolve that we will take heed to our ways, and frequently to renew that
resolution.

* Having resolved to take heed to our ways, we must, upon all occasions, remind ourselves of that
resolution, for it is a covenant never to be forgotten, but which we must be always mindful of.

* He remembers that he had covenanted his tongue not to sin—that he would not speak amiss, either to
offend God or offend the generation of the righteous, in Ps. 73:15.

II. THE CHOICE

Psalm 39:2

2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

*Pursuant to the covenants he made a shift with much ado to bridle or restrain his tongue.

*His silence was commendable; and the greater the provocation was the more praiseworthy was his
silence.

Ephesians 4:29

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying,
that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

III.

Psalm 39:3

3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

* The less he said, the more he pondered and the warmer he became.

So Less talk…less mistake.

III.

Psalm 39:4

4 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I
am.
* David prays to God to make him sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of life and the near
approach of death

Ps. 39:4

Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days. He does not mean, “Lord, let me know how
long I shall live and when I shall die.” We could not, in faith, pray such a prayer; for God has nowhere
promised to let us know, but has, in wisdom, locked up that knowledge among the secret things which
belong to Him, nor would it be good for us to know it. But, Lord, make me to know my end, means,
“Lord, give me wisdom and grace to consider it and to improve what I know concerning it.”

Deuteronomy 32:29

29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

He meditates upon the brevity and vanity of life, pleading them with God for relief under the burdens of
life, as Job often, and pleading them with himself for his quickening to the business of life.

(1.) Man’s life on earth is short and of no continuance, and that is a reason why we should sit loose to it
and prepare for the end of it (Ps. 39:5): Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth, the breadth
of four fingers, a certain dimension, a small one, and the measure whereof we have always about us,
always before our eyes. We need no rod, no pole, no measuring line, wherewith to take the dimension of
our days, nor any skill in arithmetic wherewith to compute the number of them. No; we have the
standard of them at our fingers’ end, and there is no multiplication of it; it is but one hand-breadth in all.
Our time is short, and God has made it so; for the number of our months is with him. It is short, and he
knows it to be so: It is as nothing before thee. he remembers how short our time is, Ps. 89:47. It is
nothing in comparison with thee; so some. All time is nothing to God’s eternity, much less our share of
time.

(2.) Man’s life on earth is vain and of no value, and therefore it is folly to be fond of it and wisdom to
make sure of a better life. Adam is Abel—man is vanity, in his present state. He is not what he seems to
be, has not what he promised himself. He and all his comforts lie at a continual uncertainty; and if there
were not another life after this, all things considered, he were made in vain. He is vanity; he is mortal, he
is mutable. Observe, [1.] How emphatically this truth is expressed here. First, Every man is vanity,
without exception; high and low, rich and poor, all meet in this. Secondly, He is so at his best estate,
when he is young, and strong, and healthful, in wealth and honour, and the height of prosperity; when
he is most easy, and merry, and secure, and thinks his mountain stands strong. Thirdly, He is altogether
vanity, as vain as you can imagine. All man is all vanity (so it may be read); every thing about him is
uncertain; nothing is substantial and durable but what relates to the new man. Fourthly, Verily he is so.
This is a truth of undoubted certainty, but which we are very unwilling to believe and need to have
solemnly attested to us, as indeed it is by frequent instances. Fifthly, Selah is annexed, as a note
commanding observation. “Stop here, and pause awhile, that you may take time to consider and apply
this truth, that every man is vanity.” We ourselves are so. [2.] For the proof of the vanity of man, as
mortal, he here mentions three things, and shows the vanity of each of them, Ps. 39:6. First, The vanity
of our joys and honours: Surely every man walks (even when he walks in state, when he walks in
pleasure) in a shadow, in an image, in a vain show. When he makes a figure his fashion passes away, and
his great pomp is but great fancy, Acts 25:23. It is but a show, and therefore a vain show, like the
rainbow, the gaudy colours of which must needs vanish and disappear quickly when the substratum is
but a cloud, a vapour; such is life (Jas. 4:14), and therefore such are all the gaieties of it. Secondly, The
vanity of our griefs and fears. Surely they are disquieted in vain. Our disquietudes are often groundless
(we vex ourselves without any just cause, and the occasions of our trouble are often the creatures of our
own fancy and imagination), and they are always fruitless; we disquiet ourselves in vain, for we cannot,
with all our disquietment, alter the nature of things nor the counsel of God; things will be as they are
when we have disquieted ourselves ever so much about them. Thirdly, The vanity of our cares and toils.
Man takes a great deal of pains to heap up riches, and they are but like heaps of manure in the furrows
of the field, good for nothing unless they be spread. But, when he has filled his treasures with his trash,
he knows not who shall gather them, nor to whom they shall descend when he is gone; for he shall not
take them away with him. He asks not, For whom do I labour? and that is his folly, Eccl. 4:8. But, if he did
ask, he could not tell whether he should be a wise man or a fool, a friend or a foe, Eccl. 2:19. This is
vanity.