Psa 39:12 | KingComments | STEP | David, under tears, makes an urgent appeal to God to listen to his prayer and cry for help ( ). He doesn’t ask for much, only that God will make his life bearable in the short time he is still here. Let God not remain silent. David presents himself to God as “a stranger …, a sojourner” with Him. This means that the LORD is the Owner of the land ( ) and that as a stranger he expects help from Him. That he is a “sojourner” means that he is a pilgrim merely passing through, which emphasizes the temporality of his existence. He points to “all my fathers”. They have been strangers and sojourners in the world, just as he is now, while they have lived with God. He will have thought of Abraham and the patriarchs and all who have lived in the faith ( ; ). For us, too, we are aliens and strangers in the world ( ). How long that situation will last, God alone knows and determines. That is not determined by the wicked. They do boast that they have the future in their own hands, but that is unbridled presumption. Now that he has acknowledged his iniquity ( ), he asks God to turn away from him His chastening, angry gaze that now rests on him ( ). Then he can smile again (cf. ), which means that his vitality and joy of life return. Then he will be able to enjoy a few more days of rest and peace before his already short life on earth comes to an end and he departs and is no more. That he is no more means that he is no longer on earth. It does not mean that he would cease to exist. He wishes to be delivered from his sufferings during his short life and to die in peace, with the assurance that God’s discipline is over and God has accepted him. It is his wish to leave the world not in gloom or with a gloomy and discouraging outlook, but with a joyful look back at the past and the glad expectation of the world to come.

‏ Psalms 39:12

Cry for Help

David, under tears, makes an urgent appeal to God to listen to his prayer and cry for help (Psa 39:12). He doesn’t ask for much, only that God will make his life bearable in the short time he is still here. Let God not remain silent.

David presents himself to God as “a stranger …, a sojourner” with Him. This means that the LORD is the Owner of the land (Lev 25:23) and that as a stranger he expects help from Him. That he is a “sojourner” means that he is a pilgrim merely passing through, which emphasizes the temporality of his existence. He points to “all my fathers”. They have been strangers and sojourners in the world, just as he is now, while they have lived with God. He will have thought of Abraham and the patriarchs and all who have lived in the faith (1Chr 29:15; Heb 11:13). For us, too, we are aliens and strangers in the world (1Pet 2:11).

How long that situation will last, God alone knows and determines. That is not determined by the wicked. They do boast that they have the future in their own hands, but that is unbridled presumption.

Now that he has acknowledged his iniquity (Psa 39:9), he asks God to turn away from him His chastening, angry gaze that now rests on him (Psa 39:13). Then he can smile again (cf. Job 10:20), which means that his vitality and joy of life return. Then he will be able to enjoy a few more days of rest and peace before his already short life on earth comes to an end and he departs and is no more. That he is no more means that he is no longer on earth. It does not mean that he would cease to exist.

He wishes to be delivered from his sufferings during his short life and to die in peace, with the assurance that God’s discipline is over and God has accepted him. It is his wish to leave the world not in gloom or with a gloomy and discouraging outlook, but with a joyful look back at the past and the glad expectation of the world to come.