Psalm 39: My Days as a Handbreadth

"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 was dumb with silence… and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue."

"LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. 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. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew… he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them."

"And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee… Remove thy stroke away from me… Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more."

Hevel

"Vanity" is hevel, "breath, vapour": the key word of Ecclesiastes ("vanity of vanities"). The speaker's life is a breath, a shadow (tselem, "image") walking about. Psalm 39 is the Psalter's most Ecclesiastes-like poem.

Stranger and sojourner

Ger and toshav, "resident alien and tenant," describe Israel's status in God's land (Leviticus 25:23) and Abraham's in Canaan (Genesis 23:4). Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11 apply the language to believers.

Jeduthun

Jeduthun was one of David's chief musicians with Asaph and Heman (1 Chronicles 16:41–42; 25:1–6). His name appears in the titles of Psalms 39, 62 and 77, perhaps as a musician's guild or a musical mode. In the library's Hebrew of 39:1 the written text (ketiv) has ידיתון and the reading tradition (qere) לִידוּתוּן, a spelling difference preserved side by side. The Vulgate has "ipsi Idithun."

"Look away from me"

39:13 Hebrew asks God to "look away from me" (hasha' mimmenni) so the speaker may smile again before death, an echo of Job's plea (Job 7:19; 10:20–21). The library's Vulgate reads "Remitte mihi," "forgive me."