Prayer of a Suffering Man Part 2 (Psalm 39)


cfake3.jpgApril 26, 2017 (Wednesday)
Psalm 39, which is pronounced by a great Bible scholar to be “indisputably the most beautiful of all the sad poems in the Psalter,” is a sequel to Psalm 38. The situation of the Psalmist is in the main the same. Prolonged sickness has brought him to the very edge of the grave. But the crisis of suffering is over, and the taunts of his enemies have ceased for the time. You may have noticed that most of the Psalms we have studied follow three general ideas: 1. I’m in trouble, 2. I ask the Lord for help, 3. Everything’s gonna be all right. The song at the end of this blog, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” is much like these Psalms.

Psalm 39
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The Vanity of Life.
For the choir director, for Jeduthun.
A Psalm of David.

I. I CANNOT REMAIN SILENT (1-3)
1 I said, “I will guard my ways
That I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle
While the wicked are in my presence.”
2 I was mute and silent,
I refrained even from good,
And my sorrow grew worse.
3 My heart was hot within me,
While I was musing the fire burned;
Then I spoke with my tongue:
II. I MUST PRAY (4-9)
4 “Lord, make me to know my end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am.
5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man [e]at his best is a mere breath. Selah.
6 “Surely every man walks about as a phantom;
Surely they make an uproar for nothing;
He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.
III. YOU ARE MY ONLY HOPE (7-9)
7 “And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in You.
8 “Deliver me from all my transgressions;
Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 “I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,
Because it is You who have done it.
IV. PLEASE HELP ME (10-13)
10 “Remove Your plague from me;
Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.
11 “With 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.
12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;
Do not be silent at my tears;
For I am a stranger with You,
A sojourner like all my fathers.
13 “Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again
Before I depart and am no more.”


The words of, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” would have made a wonderful prayer for the psalmist in his time of trouble. Click here to hear this song, sung by a precious lady who is now with the Lord. (Go to “Hymnary.org to learn more about this song by Thomas Dorsey). Click here to learn even more.