John Calvin Commentary Psalms 39:7

"And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee." — Psalms 39:7 (ASV)

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 unease, now returns to a calm and settled state of mind; and from this, what I have previously stated is made even more obvious, namely, that this psalm consists partly of appropriate prayers and partly of thoughtless complaints.

I have said that David here begins to pray correctly. It is true that even worldly people sometimes feel in the very same way David here acknowledges 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 deliberately make themselves numb so that they may indulge undisturbed in their own vanity. We may learn from this passage that no one looks to God for the purpose of depending on him and resting his hope in him until he is made to feel his own frailty, indeed, and even brought to nothing.

There is implicitly great force in the adverb now, as if David had said, The flattery and vain imaginations by which the minds of people are firmly held in a false sense of security no longer deceive me, but I am now fully aware of my condition. But we must go beyond this elementary stage; for it is not enough that, being aroused by a sense of our weakness, we should seek with fear and trembling to know our duty, unless at the same time God reveals himself to us, on whom alone all our expectation should depend.

Accordingly, since it serves no purpose for worldly people to be convinced of their complete vanity (because, although convinced of this, they never learn from it), let us learn to press on and make further progress. We do this so that, being as if dead, we may be made alive by God, whose unique role it is to create all things out of nothing. For a person then ceases to be vanity and begins to be truly something when, aided by the power of God, they aspire to heavenly things.