Prayer and psalm 39

By: Chris Gaffney

Psalm 39 reads in the New Oxford Annotated Bible as follows:
I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue,

I will keep a muzzle on my mouth, as long as the wicked are in my presence,

I was silent and still,

I held my peace to no avail,

My distress grew worse,

My heart became hot within me,

While I mused, the fire burned:

Then I spoke with my tongue;

Lord, let me know my end,

And what is the measure of my days,

Let me know how fleeting my life ease,

You have made my days a few handbreadths,

and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight,

Surely everyone stands as a mere breadth,

Surely everyone goes about like a shadow,

Surely for nothing they are in turmoil,

They heap up and know not who will gather,

And now, O Lord, what do I wait for?

My hope is in you,

Deliver me from all my transgressions,

Do not make me the scorn of the fool,

I am silent, I do not open my mouth,

For it is you who have done it,

I am worn down by the blows of your hand,

You chastise mortals,

In punishment for sin,

consuming like a moth what is dear to them,

surely everyone is a mere breath,

Hear my prayer, O Lord,

And give ear to my cry,

Do not hold your peace at my tears,

For I am your passing guest,

An alien, like all my forebears,

Turn your gae away from me, that I might smile again, before I depart and I am no more.

This psalm contains a degree of regret in it. The psalmist seems to have circled into other realms of behavior, where he now realizes he had jeopardized the relationship with the Lord. The psalm as a whole seems to relate to the correct identification. Many of the mistakes made by the psalmist and others have been from an incorrect identification of who they are and what they are seeking. Some have been lured into the whole idea of gathering up, without the knowledge of who will benefit from their laborious tasks.

In his initial distresses, the psalmist figured as his first strategy the idea of just keeping quiet, and sought thru this a degree of stillness to relieve his distress. He has made significant mistakes and misidentifications and figured he better just not say anything. He had his distresses, but it would be between him and the Lord and not fodder for his enemies.

But this didn’t work for him as a strategy. His desire to speak to the Lord just seemed to come on in waves. He had to say something but at the same time this period of quiet might have given him a chance to reunite with what he actually was seeking from the Lord and what his position was in the Lord’s sight.

Then he talks again and goes first into his own difficulties and intertwines them with the human condition and also some of the difficulties of others.

He sees that others have been and are going at great lengths to pile or horde up material goods to the point that is upsetting them, into more or less a heap that is also ill defined, but there is no guarantee that they will get to the point where they are the user of these goods. The goods obtained to do not issue as a guarantee and in fact just about nothing in guaranteed. The days are just like handbreadths, they fly by to the point that there are almost like a blink to the very user or active participant of the day, the psalmist himself. Everyone is that is standing is only doing so by their breath which is also of questionable duration.

In verse for where he says, “Lord, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days, he is trying to get a handle on what the Lord really wants from him, in outline form. He is asking for a divine measure of things, which is different than man’s measure of things.

It is interesting that the yardstick of success becomes often standardized in ways that are rather unspoken but soon enough the flock does follow. Anything we ask for in prayer or any real undertaking that will entail investments of significant time and energy is something we can ask for a measurement of its value and purpose from the Lord in prayer.

This may be especially pertinent today where the idea of more is better often comes into play, but if this more, even if it is good things like good old fashion work, comes at the expense of a focused prayer life, then this is dangerous territory spiritually and all these good effort do not come with guarantees.

Verse 11 does speak of the chastisement. This chastisement is not an outright banishment. It is the type of chastisement that contains with it the call back. These hard earned riches can be taken away, and really as a mercy and a favor that after this all the escape routes back to normalcy are cut off except they be found through seeking the Lord’s good graces.

Other imagery brought forth is that of the shadow, where is says surely everyone goes about like a shadow, rather haunting imagery, where is almost like are they there, or are these just images left over from the night?

The psalmist seems to have seen that the inordinate search for a type of wealth has reduced these people he has observed into shadowy figures. But, to many this would seem like a rather harmless but misguided behavior rather than some things which would seemingly be quite worse and it is easy enough to think of what they might be. But, from the psalmist’s point of view, even the over the top pursuit of the material was enough to have these people pass into the shadowy realm, not a good image in the spiritual sense. And the author of this particular psalm is the man himself and the observations that are coming are directly from him, whose heart was unto the Lord, David, so this coming from the big guy so to speak is a bit more deafening in what it is saying that even the seeming relatively harmless pursuit of wealth to where the person is taken into turmoil can be the very trigger to a spiritual demise. David himself had seen it with his very eyes.

The pursuit of maybe even good things that bring us into a turmoil that takes us away from the Lord is something to guard ourselves from. The moral is that relatively or seemingly less of a big deal type pursuit, if it results in walking away from the table of the Lord’s presence, might be as bad in some ways as the more obvious.

The tidal wave of God’s judgment has come upon him, but he is asking for a second chance from the chastisement as he searches for identification.

In verse 7, he says, And now, O Lord, what do I wait for? He is at a point where, things maybe have gone altogether wrong, but he is still able to communicate with the Lord and despite his transgressions from which now he is asking deliverance, from the trouble he now finds himself in there is still the question, what do I do now?

As he searches for identification, he finds it in verse 12 where he says,’ For I am your passing guest, an alien, like all my forebears."

With this, the psalm presents two stark contrasts. One is the better, to keep the position of the passing guest at the table of prayer and communion with the Lord. Or, the other option is to pass into the form of something like a living shadow, outside the shining light of the Lord’s good graces, not seeking him in diligent prayer as a passing guest.

The things to think about from this psalm for us, is what is tending to put us into the realm of a shadow, and one of the things listed here is the overload on seeking tangible things that can be heaped up, but even while seeking them we have dipped into the shadow.

A strong parallel to this is the story of the Prodigal Son in the Gospels. In this story, the prodigal son is like a shadowy figure in the land, not just from one thing but from several things. His own dealings have brought him into a lot of trouble and then he realizes he has another identification, he is a guest at his fathers house. In the case of the prodigal son, the father sees him coming back in the distance, the distance indicating the separation that was there, but the sighting in the distance is also indicating that he was looking for him in the far reaches and even his approach back was the point of rejoicing. And while the chastisement brought about wasn’t from the father but from his own dealings, he isn’t chastised as he is welcomed back with a great feast. He has come home not only physically but spiritually and into the presence of his father’s house as a guest. The symbolism of the story relates how there are even angels as part of the party awaiting the coming back of the errant soul as well as brothers and sisters in the Lord who may have never left.

In the parable of the Good Shepherd, the man leaves 99 sheep to find the one stray and when he finds it he rejoices more than the 99 than over didn’t stray.

We however don’t want to stray and get lost in the first place, but the tendency is that entanglements will arise, and the only route back from them is to seek the Lord and his divine mercy for us going forward.

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