Psalms of David

There’s a Yorkshire motto:

“See all, ‘ear all, say nowt.
Eat all, sup all, pay nowt.
And if tha ivver does owt for nowt
Do it for thissen.”*

I find this motto to be too selfish to be Christian.

-o0o-

Psalms in Book 1 (Psalms 1 to 41) are primarily personal songs, so I will look at how they apply to us personally. Social and communal aspects of life and work do not come in until the later books of Psalms.

The books of Psalms are roughly themed like this:

Book 1: Psalms 1 – 41: God is beside us.
Book 2: Psalms 42 – 72: God goes before us
Book 3: Psalms 73 – 89: God is all around us.
Book 4: Psalms 90 – 106: God is above us.
Book 5: Psalms 107 – 150: God is among us.

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

39 I said, “I will guard my ways,
    that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth with a muzzle,
    so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
² I was mute and silent;
    I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
³     My heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
    then I spoke with my tongue:
⁴ “O Lord, make me know my end
    and what is the measure of my days;
    let me know how fleeting I am!
⁵ Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
    and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
⁶     Surely a man goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
    man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
⁷ “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
    My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions.
    Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
⁹ I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
    for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰ Remove your stroke from me;
    I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
¹¹ When you discipline a man
    with rebukes for sin,
you consume like a moth what is dear to him;
    surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
¹² “Hear my prayer, O Lord,
    and give ear to my cry;
    hold not your peace at my tears!
For I am a sojourner with you,
    a guest, like all my fathers.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may smile again,
    before I depart and am no more!”

Psalm 39 ESVUK

The commentaries and sermon notes I have read talk about David writing this psalm from his sick bed because of an illness caused by his sins. I am not sure about this, I have been taught that we should translate poetry as poetry, history as history, philosophy as philosophy and prophecy as prophecy, so my immediate thought is, “Which kind or kinds of writing is Psalm 39?” My answer is that it is poetry, being a psalm, but I also noticed that twice the word vanity is used, in verse 5, “every man at his best state is altogether vanity,” and in verse 12, “surely every man is vanity,” which is a phrase used often in the book of Proverbs, which is Wisdom literature, an ancient form of philosophy. As laments as often prophetic in the Bible, I am noting that it could be prophecy as well.

I am not saying that Psalm 39 is not historical. It is possible that David did write this from his sick bed, This psalm could be history, poetry, philosophy and prophecy, but there are lots of commentaries and sermon notes on-line taking the historical angle: If that interests you use your search engine of choice. Many of them are very good (search engines as well as commentaries).

I mentioned sermon notes, interestingly I am left with three words beginning with the same letter of the alphabet, the letter P. These are, prophecy, poetry and philosophy. But this is a blog post, too short for the average sermon.

Prophesy

A psalm does not have to be quoted in the Bible for it to point to Jesus. Psalms often occur together with a similar theme. Psalm 38 used the theme of restoration through suffering found in Isaiah 53, and here in Psalm 39, we find someone keeping silent, also a theme of Isaiah 53. These psalms were probably written before Isaiah, could it be that Isaiah was familiar with these psalms? Both Psalm 39 and Isaiah 53’s prophecies are fulfilled in the trial of Jesus where he stayed quiet and did not answer the accusations of his oppressors.

Poetry

It is a good idea to look for repeating words, phrases or themes when looking at poetry. This will give a better idea about what the poem/song is about than trudging through it line by line or word by word. There are three themes here that are repeated in order:

“I will guard my mouth” in verse 1 and “I was mute” in verse 2 are repeated in verse 9, “I am mute; I do not open my mouth.”

As I said above: ‘I also noticed that twice the word vanity is used, in verse 5, “every man at his best state is altogether vanity,” and in verse 12, “surely every man is vanity,”‘

The last pairing is verse 8’s “Deliver me” and verse 13’s “Look away from me, ” translated as “spare me” in other English versions.

We have themes of staying quiet, vanity or mere breath and deliverance.

Philosophy

The theme of the vanity sections of Proverbs is living a life without regard to God. In general Wisdom literature is to provide direction to those who sought to live moral and productive lives. It uses the devices of oral storytelling to achieve this aim. Just because Psalm 39 may not be literal does not make it something to act on. When David talks about keeping quiet, even about what is good, then there is an impossibility here, it causes such stress as to make him ill, if you make it about actions as well as words it sounds so modern, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing.” OK, not so modern, Edmund Burke said this in the 18th Century.

The dilemma is that if you do not speak out against injustice, then injustice continues. If you do speak out then you will get opposition from the purveyors of injustice, who are usually people wielding power. It’s a vicious circle. The person who opposes injustice cannot win.

Psalm 39 is grappling with this problem and does not provide answers. It is here to make us think.

See all, ‘ear all, say nowt is not the way to do things, it can lead us to despair. Do we always have to speak out, or is there a time to speak out and a time to keep silent? If so, when is it time to speak or to be silent? That’s the dilemma.

---

< Psalm 38 | Psalm 39 | Psalm 40 part 1>
< Previous | Psalms of David | Next >

---

*Translation of the Yorkshire motto for those who need it:

“See all, hear all, say nothing.
Eat all, drink all, pay nothing.
And if you ever do anything for nothing
do it for yourself.”