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.
Psalm 39 is the prayer of a chastened man who has been forced to reckon with the shortness, vanity, and frailty of life. David had resolved to keep his mouth with a bridle while the wicked were before him (v.1). His silence became painful, his sorrow was stirred, and his heart burned within him (vv.2-3). He then prayed to know his end and the measure of his days, that he might know how frail he was (v.4). He confessed that every man at his best state is altogether vanity (v.5). By verse 12 he is not arguing with God, boasting before men, or pretending strength. He is praying with tears to Jehovah, knowing he is a stranger and sojourner in the earth.
“Hear my prayer, O LORD.” David begins with direct pleading. He does not address circumstances, men, fate, or himself. He prays to Jehovah. LORD in all capital letters is the King James Bible’s usual way of representing the divine name Jehovah. This matters in Psalm 39, for David’s trouble is not outside God’s hand. He had asked the LORD to remove His stroke from him, confessing that he was consumed by the blow of God’s hand (v.10). He knew God rebukes man for iniquity and makes his beauty consume away like a moth (v.11). Therefore, he goes to the very God who chastened him. Faith does not flee from God under correction; it flees to God.
“Hear my prayer.” God is not deaf, forgetful, or distant. The God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). His eyes are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry (Psalm 34:15). But saints pray this way because they need God to act in mercy according to what He hears. David is not asking for bare awareness in God, but gracious attention, favourable regard, and deliverance suited to his condition. The words are humble. A dying, chastened, frail man asks the eternal God to hear him.
“And give ear unto my cry.” The prayer intensifies. David’s request is not formal speech without inward distress. It is a cry. A cry is prayer sharpened by urgency, pain, need, and dependence. Earlier he had been silent, even from good, while the wicked were before him (vv.1-2). Now silence breaks into supplication. There is a time to hold the tongue before men, and there is a time to pour out the heart before God. David had learned both. He would not sin with his tongue before the wicked (v.1), but he would cry unto the LORD in his affliction (v.12).
“Hold not thy peace at my tears.” Here is one of the tenderest lines in the psalm. David brings tears before God. Tears are not arguments of merit, but they are real expressions of distress. The LORD saw the tears of Hezekiah and sent word, “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears” (2 Kings 20:5). David elsewhere said that God put his tears into His bottle and asked if they were not in His book (Psalm 56:8). The God of Scripture is not moved by theatrical religion, but He does regard the broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). David asks that his tears not be met with silence.
“Hold not thy peace” must be understood carefully. God’s silence is often the hardest part of affliction to the soul. David is not accusing God of injustice. He is pleading that the LORD would not continue without answering in mercy. In Psalm 28 he prayed, “Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” (Psalm 28:1). In Psalm 35 he prayed, “Keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me” (Psalm 35:22). When God seems silent, faith keeps praying. It would be unbelief to turn away; it is faith to cry again.
“For I am a stranger with thee.” David gives the reason for his plea. He is a stranger. A stranger is one who does not belong as a settled possessor in the land through which he passes. This confession agrees with verse 4, where David asked to know his end and the measure of his days. He knows his life is brief. He is not rooted here forever. Abraham confessed to the sons of Heth, “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you” (Genesis 23:4). The saints confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, seeking a better country, that is, an heavenly (Hebrews 11:13-16). David stands in that same line of faith.
The words “with thee” add weight. David is a stranger, but not away from God. He is a stranger with God. He lives his pilgrim life under God’s eye, in God’s presence, by God’s mercy, and before God’s judgment. This is different from the world’s loneliness. The wicked are strangers to God’s covenant and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). David is a stranger in the earth with God. He has no permanent resting place here, but he has Jehovah. That is enough for faith, even when tears fill the prayer.
“And a sojourner.” David repeats the thought with another word to deepen the confession. A sojourner stays for a time in a place that is not his final home. He may dwell there, work there, suffer there, and serve there, but he does not belong there permanently. This is why Psalm 39 presses so hard upon the brevity of life. Man walks in a vain show, disquiets himself in vain, heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them (v.6). A sojourner must not live as if earth were final. He must number his days, hope in the LORD, and prepare to go hence (vv.4,7,13).
“As all my fathers were.” David does not claim a strange exception for himself. He joins the whole line of God’s people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents as heirs of promise, confessing by their lives that they looked for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:9-10). Jacob told Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years” (Genesis 47:9). David himself confessed before Israel, “we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers” (1 Chronicles 29:15). Psalm 39:12 is not despair. It is the old confession of pilgrims who know that earth is temporary and God is their hope.
This verse should correct the reader’s view of life. Men live as if houses, accounts, reputations, plans, and pleasures were permanent. But every man at his best state is altogether vanity (v.5). Riches pass to others (v.6). Beauty consumes like a moth under God’s rebuke (v.11). Strength fades. Breath ends. The wise man does not deny these things; he prays in light of them. He says, “Hear my prayer, O LORD.” He says, “I am a stranger with thee.” The confession of pilgrimage should make prayer more earnest, not less.
It also comforts the afflicted saint. Tears do not prove God has forsaken you. David had tears. Chastening does not prove you are cast away. David felt God’s stroke and still prayed to Jehovah (vv.10-12). Frailty does not make prayer useless. It makes prayer necessary. The believer may be weak, passing, chastened, and sorrowful, yet he is a stranger with God. The world is not his home, but the LORD is his God.
The Lord Jesus Christ entered this pilgrim condition in perfect righteousness. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not (John 1:11). He said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared (Hebrews 5:7). David’s tears were the tears of a chastened sinner; Christ’s tears were the tears of the sinless Son of man. Yet Christ shows perfectly that the pilgrim path is walked by prayer, dependence, and submission to God.
Psalm 39:12 is therefore a prayer for saints who feel the shortness of life and the weight of God’s hand. Do not waste affliction in bitterness. Do not answer vanity with vanity. Cry to Jehovah. Bring Him your prayer, your cry, and your tears. Confess that you are a stranger and sojourner, as all the faithful have been. The life that is passing away should be spent in prayer to the God who does not pass away.
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.
Psalm 39 is the prayer of a chastened man who has been forced to reckon with the shortness, vanity, and frailty of life. David had resolved to keep his mouth with a bridle while the wicked were before him (v.1). His silence became painful, his sorrow was stirred, and his heart burned within him (vv.2-3). He then prayed to know his end and the measure of his days, that he might know how frail he was (v.4). He confessed that every man at his best state is altogether vanity (v.5). By verse 12 he is not arguing with God, boasting before men, or pretending strength. He is praying with tears to Jehovah, knowing he is a stranger and sojourner in the earth.
“Hear my prayer, O LORD.” David begins with direct pleading. He does not address circumstances, men, fate, or himself. He prays to Jehovah. LORD in all capital letters is the King James Bible’s usual way of representing the divine name Jehovah. This matters in Psalm 39, for David’s trouble is not outside God’s hand. He had asked the LORD to remove His stroke from him, confessing that he was consumed by the blow of God’s hand (v.10). He knew God rebukes man for iniquity and makes his beauty consume away like a moth (v.11). Therefore, he goes to the very God who chastened him. Faith does not flee from God under correction; it flees to God.
“Hear my prayer.” God is not deaf, forgetful, or distant. The God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). His eyes are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry (Psalm 34:15). But saints pray this way because they need God to act in mercy according to what He hears. David is not asking for bare awareness in God, but gracious attention, favourable regard, and deliverance suited to his condition. The words are humble. A dying, chastened, frail man asks the eternal God to hear him.
“And give ear unto my cry.” The prayer intensifies. David’s request is not formal speech without inward distress. It is a cry. A cry is prayer sharpened by urgency, pain, need, and dependence. Earlier he had been silent, even from good, while the wicked were before him (vv.1-2). Now silence breaks into supplication. There is a time to hold the tongue before men, and there is a time to pour out the heart before God. David had learned both. He would not sin with his tongue before the wicked (v.1), but he would cry unto the LORD in his affliction (v.12).
“Hold not thy peace at my tears.” Here is one of the tenderest lines in the psalm. David brings tears before God. Tears are not arguments of merit, but they are real expressions of distress. The LORD saw the tears of Hezekiah and sent word, “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears” (2 Kings 20:5). David elsewhere said that God put his tears into His bottle and asked if they were not in His book (Psalm 56:8). The God of Scripture is not moved by theatrical religion, but He does regard the broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). David asks that his tears not be met with silence.
“Hold not thy peace” must be understood carefully. God’s silence is often the hardest part of affliction to the soul. David is not accusing God of injustice. He is pleading that the LORD would not continue without answering in mercy. In Psalm 28 he prayed, “Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” (Psalm 28:1). In Psalm 35 he prayed, “Keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me” (Psalm 35:22). When God seems silent, faith keeps praying. It would be unbelief to turn away; it is faith to cry again.
“For I am a stranger with thee.” David gives the reason for his plea. He is a stranger. A stranger is one who does not belong as a settled possessor in the land through which he passes. This confession agrees with verse 4, where David asked to know his end and the measure of his days. He knows his life is brief. He is not rooted here forever. Abraham confessed to the sons of Heth, “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you” (Genesis 23:4). The saints confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, seeking a better country, that is, an heavenly (Hebrews 11:13-16). David stands in that same line of faith.
The words “with thee” add weight. David is a stranger, but not away from God. He is a stranger with God. He lives his pilgrim life under God’s eye, in God’s presence, by God’s mercy, and before God’s judgment. This is different from the world’s loneliness. The wicked are strangers to God’s covenant and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). David is a stranger in the earth with God. He has no permanent resting place here, but he has Jehovah. That is enough for faith, even when tears fill the prayer.
“And a sojourner.” David repeats the thought with another word to deepen the confession. A sojourner stays for a time in a place that is not his final home. He may dwell there, work there, suffer there, and serve there, but he does not belong there permanently. This is why Psalm 39 presses so hard upon the brevity of life. Man walks in a vain show, disquiets himself in vain, heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them (v.6). A sojourner must not live as if earth were final. He must number his days, hope in the LORD, and prepare to go hence (vv.4,7,13).
“As all my fathers were.” David does not claim a strange exception for himself. He joins the whole line of God’s people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents as heirs of promise, confessing by their lives that they looked for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:9-10). Jacob told Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years” (Genesis 47:9). David himself confessed before Israel, “we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers” (1 Chronicles 29:15). Psalm 39:12 is not despair. It is the old confession of pilgrims who know that earth is temporary and God is their hope.
This verse should correct the reader’s view of life. Men live as if houses, accounts, reputations, plans, and pleasures were permanent. But every man at his best state is altogether vanity (v.5). Riches pass to others (v.6). Beauty consumes like a moth under God’s rebuke (v.11). Strength fades. Breath ends. The wise man does not deny these things; he prays in light of them. He says, “Hear my prayer, O LORD.” He says, “I am a stranger with thee.” The confession of pilgrimage should make prayer more earnest, not less.
It also comforts the afflicted saint. Tears do not prove God has forsaken you. David had tears. Chastening does not prove you are cast away. David felt God’s stroke and still prayed to Jehovah (vv.10-12). Frailty does not make prayer useless. It makes prayer necessary. The believer may be weak, passing, chastened, and sorrowful, yet he is a stranger with God. The world is not his home, but the LORD is his God.
The Lord Jesus Christ entered this pilgrim condition in perfect righteousness. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not (John 1:11). He said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). In the days of His flesh He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared (Hebrews 5:7). David’s tears were the tears of a chastened sinner; Christ’s tears were the tears of the sinless Son of man. Yet Christ shows perfectly that the pilgrim path is walked by prayer, dependence, and submission to God.
Psalm 39:12 is therefore a prayer for saints who feel the shortness of life and the weight of God’s hand. Do not waste affliction in bitterness. Do not answer vanity with vanity. Cry to Jehovah. Bring Him your prayer, your cry, and your tears. Confess that you are a stranger and sojourner, as all the faithful have been. The life that is passing away should be spent in prayer to the God who does not pass away.