John Calvin Commentary Psalms 39

I said, I will take heed to my ways. David explains and illustrates the greatness of his grief by this circumstance, that, contrary to his inclination and resolution, he broke forth into the severest complaints. The meaning substantially is, that although he had subdued his heart to patience, and resolved to keep silence, yet the violence of his grief was such that it forced him to break his resolution, and extorted from him, if we might so speak, expressions which indicate that he had given way to an undue degree of sorrow.

The expression, I said, it is well known, does not always mean what is expressed in words, but is often used to denote the purpose of the heart, and, therefore, the words in heart are sometimes added. David, therefore, means not that he boasted of his fortitude and constancy, and made a display of them before men, but that before God he was, by continued meditation, well fortified and prepared to endure patiently the temptations by which he was now assailed.

We should note particularly the carefulness by which he was distinguished. It was not without cause that he was so much intent on exercising watchfulness over himself. He did so because he was conscious of his own weakness, and also well knew the manifold devices of Satan. He, therefore, looked on the right hand and on the left, and kept watch on all sides, lest temptation stealing upon him unawares from any quarter might reach even to his heart.

Access to it, then, had been impossible, since it was shut up on every side, if the extreme severity of his grief had not overpowered him, and broken his resolution. When he says, I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, that I sin not with my tongue, it is not to be understood as if he could with difficulty restrain and conceal his grief (for it is mere pretense for a man to show by the countenance and speech the appearance of meekness when the heart still swells with pride); but as there is nothing more slippery or loose than the tongue, David declares that he had endeavored so carefully to bridle his affections, that not so much as one word should escape from his lips which might betray the least impatience.

And that man must indeed be endowed with singular fortitude who unfeignedly and deliberately restrains his tongue, which is so liable to fall into error. As to what follows, while the wicked standeth before me, it is generally understood, as if David had concealed his grief, lest he should give occasion for blasphemy to the wicked, who, as soon as they see the children of God fail under the weight of their afflictions, insolently break forth into derision against them, which amounts to a contempt of God himself.

But it appears to me that by the term standeth, David meant to express something more—that even while he saw the wicked bearing rule, exercising authority, and exalted to honor, he resolved not to speak a single word, but to bear patiently the poverty and indignity which otherwise grieve and torment not a little even good men.

Accordingly, he says not merely that when he was in the presence of the wicked he restrained himself, lest he should be subjected to their scorn, but that even while the worst of men prospered, and, proud of their high rank, despised others, he was fully determined in his own mind not to be troubled at it.

By this he very plainly shows that he was so beset with wicked men, ever ready for mischief, that he could not freely heave a sigh which was not made the subject of ridicule and scorn. Since, then, it was so hard a task for David to restrain his tongue, lest he should sin by giving way to complaints, let us learn from his example, whenever troubles afflict us, to strive earnestly to moderate our affections, that no impious expression of dissatisfaction against God may slip from us.

I was dumb in silence. He now declares that this resolution he has spoken of was not a mere passing and momentary thought, but that he had shown by his conduct that it was indeed a resolution deeply fixed in his heart. He says, then, that he kept silent for a time, just as if he had been deaf, which was a unique manifestation of his patience.

His determination to be silent was not like the resolutions often made by people of a changeable disposition, who scarcely know their own minds and struggle to carry out their desires. Instead, he had long and steadfastly accustomed himself to the exercise of patience. This he had done not only by keeping silent but by making himself utterly dumb, as if he had been deprived of the power of speech.

The expression from good is expounded by some to mean that he not only refrained from uttering sinful and unadvised words, but also that he abstained from speaking on any subject whatever. Others think that he kept silent from good, either because, being overwhelmed with miseries and afflictions, he found no relief wherever he turned, or else because, due to the greatness of his sorrow, he was unable to sing the praises of God.

But in my opinion, the natural meaning is that although he was able to adequately defend himself, and it could not be shown that he lacked just and proper grounds for complaint, yet he refrained from speaking simply by his own will. He could have confronted the ungodly with a good defense of his own innocence, but he preferred to forgo the pursuit of his righteous cause rather than indulge in any unrestrained sorrow.

He adds in the last clause of the verse that although he so restrained himself for a time, eventually the violence of his grief broke through all the barriers he had set for his tongue. If David, who was so valiant a champion, failed midway through his course, how much more reason do we have to be afraid that we too might fall in the same way?

He says that his sorrow was stirred, because, as we shall soon see, the intensity of his emotions was so inflamed that they became tumultuous. Some interpret the phrase to mean that his sorrow was corrupted, as if his meaning were that it became worse—just as we know a wound becomes worse when it happens to putrefy or fester—but this interpretation is forced.

My heart became hot within me. He now illustrates the greatness of his grief by introducing a simile, telling us that his sorrow, being internally suppressed, became all the more inflamed, until the ardent passion of his soul continued to increase in strength. From this we can learn the very profitable lesson that the more strenuously anyone sets themselves to obey God and uses all their efforts to practice patience, the more vigorously they are assailed by temptation: for Satan, while he is not so troublesome to the indifferent and careless and seldom goes near them, displays all his forces in hostile array against that individual.

Therefore, if at any time we feel ardent emotions struggling and causing a commotion in our hearts, we should remember this conflict of David, so that our courage may not fail us, or at least so that our weakness may not drive us headlong into despair. The dry and hot vapors that the sun causes to rise in summer, if nothing in the atmosphere obstructed their progress, would rise into the air without commotion; but when intervening clouds prevent their free ascent, a conflict arises from which thunder is produced.

It is similar for the godly who desire to lift up their hearts to God. If they were to resign themselves to the vain imaginations that arise in their minds, they might enjoy a kind of unrestrained liberty to indulge in every fancy; but because they endeavor to resist their influence and seek to devote themselves to God, obstructions that arise from the opposition of the flesh begin to trouble them.

Therefore, whenever the flesh puts forth its efforts and kindles a fire in our hearts, let us recognize that we are being tested by the same kind of temptation that caused so much pain and trouble for David. At the end of the verse, he acknowledges that the severity of the affliction with which he was visited had at last overcome him, and that he allowed foolish and ill-advised words to pass from his lips.

In his own person, he sets before us a mirror of human weakness, so that, being warned by the danger to which we are exposed, we may learn early to seek protection under the shadow of God’s wings. When he says that he spoke with his tongue, it is not a superfluous mode of expression but a true and fuller confession of his sin, in that he had not only given way to sinful murmuring, but had even uttered loud complaints.

O Jehovah! cause me to know my end. It appears from this that David was carried away by an improper and sinful excess of passion, since he finds fault with God. This will appear even more clearly from the following verses. It is true, indeed, that in what follows he introduces pious and fitting prayers, but here he complains that, being a mortal man whose life is frail and transitory, he is not treated more mildly by God.

The discourses of Job are almost full of this and similar complaints. It is, therefore, not without anger and resentment that David speaks in this manner: “O God, since you are acting with so much severity toward me, at least let me know how long you have appointed me to live.”

“But if it is so that my life is but a moment, why then do you act with such great rigour? And why do you accumulate upon my head such a load of miseries, as if I still had many ages to live? What does it profit me to have been born, if I must pass the period of my existence, which is so brief, in misery, and oppressed with a continual succession of calamities?”

Accordingly, this verse should be read in connection with the following one: Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth. A hand-breadth is the measure of four fingers and is here taken for a very small measure; as if it had been said, the life of man flies swiftly away, and the end of it, as it were, touches the beginning.

Hence the Psalmist concludes that all men are only vanity before God. As to the meaning of the words, he does not ask that the brevity of human life should be shown to him, as if he did not know it. There is in this language a kind of irony, as if he had said, “Let us count the number of the years which still remain to me on earth, and will they be a sufficient recompense for the miseries which I endure?”

Some render the word חדל, chedel, as mundane; and others as temporal, that is to say, that which endures only for a time. But the latter rendering is not appropriate in this place: for David does not yet expressly declare the shortness of his life but continues to speak on that subject ambiguously.

If the word mundane is adopted, the sense will be, “Show me whether you will prolong my life to the end of the world.” But in my judgment, the translation I have followed is much more appropriate; and, besides, there may have been a transposition of the letters ד, daleth, and ל, lamed, making the word chedel for cheled. It may, however, very properly be taken for an age or period of life.

When he says that his age is, as it were, nothing before God, in order to move God all the more to pity and compassion, he appeals to him as a witness of his frailty, intimating that it is not unknown to him how transitory and passing the life of man is.

The expression, wholly or altogether vanity, implies that among the whole human race there is nothing but vanity. He declares this of men, even while they are standing; that is to say, when, being in the prime and vigor of life, they wish to be esteemed and seem to themselves to be men possessed of considerable influence and power.

It was the pangs of sorrow that forced David to give utterance to these complaints; but it is to be observed that it is chiefly when men are severely oppressed by adversity that they are made to feel their nothingness in the sight of God. Prosperity so intoxicates them that, forgetful of their condition and sunk in insensibility, they dream of an immortal state on earth.

It is very profitable for us to know our own frailty, but we must be careful that, on account of it, we do not fall into such a state of sorrow as may lead us to murmur and repine. David speaks truly and wisely in declaring that man, even when he seems to have risen to the highest state of greatness, is only like the bubble that rises on the water, blown up by the wind; but he is at fault when he uses this as an occasion to complain of God.

Let us, therefore, so feel the misery of our present condition that, however cast down and afflicted, we may, as humble suppliants, lift up our eyes to God and implore his mercy. This we find David does shortly after, having corrected himself; for he does not continue to indulge in rash and inconsiderate lamentations, but lifting up his soul in the exercise of faith, he attains heavenly consolation.

Surely man walks in a shadow. He continues to discuss the same subject. By the word shadow, he means that there is nothing substantial in man, but that he is only, as we say, a vain show, and has an unknown amount of display and ostentation. Some translate the word darkness, and understand the Psalmist’s language in this sense: that the life of man vanishes away before it can be known. But in these words David simply declares of every man individually what Paul extends to the whole world, when he says,

The fashion of this world passes away (1 Corinthians 7:31).

Thus he denies that there is anything abiding in men, because the appearance of strength which displays itself in them for a time soon passes away. What he adds, that men disquiet themselves in vain, shows the very height of their vanity; as if he had said, It seems as if men were born for the very purpose of making themselves more and more contemptible. For although they are only as a shadow, yet as if they were fools, or rather insane, they involve themselves needlessly in harassing cares, and vexing themselves to no purpose.

He expresses still more plainly how they manifest their folly, when he declares that while they anxiously and carefully heap up riches, they never think that they must soon, and it may be suddenly, leave their present home. And why is it that they thus fret away their mind and body, but only because they imagine that they can never have enough?

For by their insatiable desire for gain, they eagerly grasp at all the riches of the world, as if they had to live a hundred times the life of man. Moreover, David does not in this passage hold up to scorn the covetousness of man in the same sense in which Solomon does (Ecclesiastes 5:10); for he not only speaks of their heirs, but declares generally, that men trouble and vex themselves with care, although they do not know who will reap the fruit of their labor in amassing riches.

They may indeed wish to make provision for themselves; but what madness and folly is it for them to torment themselves with incessant and unprofitable cares which have no certain object or limit?

David here condemns those ardent and unbridled desires, under the influence of which worldly men are carried away, and talk in a strange manner, confounding heaven and earth. For they do not admit that they are mortal, much less do they consider that their life is bounded by the narrow limits of a hand-breadth.

David spoke under the influence of a disturbed and troubled state of mind; but there is included in his language this very profitable lesson, that there is no remedy better fitted for enabling us to rise above all unnecessary cares, than the recollection that the brief period of our life is only, as it were, a hand-breadth.