Commentary - Psalm 39:4-6

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Psalm 39, David moves from a strained silence in the presence of the wicked (vv. 1-3) to an honest and raw prayer before God. He is wrestling with the profound brevity and seeming futility of human existence. This is not the despair of an unbeliever, but rather the unsettled cry of a saint who knows where to take his troubles. He asks God to give him the right perspective on his own mortality, not so he can wallow in it, but so that he might gain wisdom. This passage confronts us with the universal human condition, our lives are short, our labors are often vain, and our earthly treasures are fleeting. The only sane response, as the psalmist will show, is to place our hope squarely in the Lord.

David is not just venting here; he is doing theology in the crucible of his own experience. He acknowledges that God is the one who has ordained the length of our days, and it is before this sovereign God that our entire lives are as nothing. This is a foundational truth that must be grasped before we can understand the gospel. Until we see the vanity of life lived under the sun, apart from God, we will never flee to the one who is our only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage, therefore, is a necessary preparation of the heart for the good news.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 39 is one of the psalms given to Jeduthun, a chief musician in the time of David, indicating its use in corporate worship. This is not just a private journal entry; it is inspired instruction for the people of God on how to process the deep anxieties that come with our mortal condition. The psalm is a masterful example of a lament that moves from internal turmoil toward a settled hope in God. It honestly grapples with the problem of suffering and the fleeting nature of life, themes that are common throughout the Psalter (e.g., Psalm 90) and the wisdom literature (e.g., Ecclesiastes).

The immediate context is David's struggle to keep his mouth shut about his troubles when wicked men are around. He knows they would twist his words and use his honest lament as an occasion to blaspheme God. But bottling it up only makes the internal pressure worse, until it bursts forth in this prayer. This teaches us a crucial lesson: there is a right and a wrong audience for our deepest struggles. We must not give the enemies of God ammunition, but we must be utterly transparent before our heavenly Father.

Verse by Verse Commentary

4. “Yahweh, cause me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.”

David begins his prayer not by asking for deliverance from his troubles, but by asking for a right understanding of them. He wants divine illumination. "Cause me to know my end." This is a request for perspective. He is not asking for a prophetic prediction of the day of his death. Rather, he is asking God to impress upon his heart the reality that his life will, in fact, end. In our culture of denial, where we do everything we can to pretend death isn't coming, this is a radically counter-cultural prayer. The first step to wisdom is to number our days (Ps. 90:12).

He continues, "And what is the extent of my days." He wants to know the measure of his life, to see it as a finite, measured quantity. God holds the measuring tape, and David wants to see the measurement. Why? "Let me know how transient I am." The word for transient here means frail, or ceasing. David wants to feel the truth of his own fragility in his bones. This is not morbid introspection. It is a necessary spiritual discipline. Until we understand that we are like grass that withers and flowers that fade, we will continue to place our trust in ourselves, in our plans, and in our fleeting strength. This prayer is a request to be humbled, so that he might be prepared to receive grace.

5. “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing before You; Surely every man, even standing firm, is altogether vanity. Selah.”

Here, David answers his own prayer. He has asked God to show him his frailty, and now he confesses what he knows to be true. "Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths." A handbreadth is a small measurement, the width of four fingers. This is how God has fashioned our lives. They are intentionally short. This is not an accident; it is by divine design. We are not infinite beings who have been tragically cut short. We are finite creatures made for a brief pilgrimage on this earth.

Then the perspective shifts from our view to God's. "And my lifetime as nothing before You." From our vantage point, a lifetime can seem long. But when set against the backdrop of eternity, in the presence of the everlasting God, it is less than a vapor. It is "as nothing." This is the great corrective to all human pride. We strut about as though we were lords of creation, when in the sight of God our entire existence is a mere blip.

"Surely every man, even standing firm, is altogether vanity." This is a sweeping, comprehensive statement. It applies to every man, without exception. Even at his best state, when he is "standing firm," healthy, prosperous, and secure, he is still "altogether vanity." The word for vanity here is hebel, the great theme of Ecclesiastes. It means vapor, smoke, a puff of air. All our accomplishments, our strength, our stability, it is all smoke. The Selah punctuates this staggering thought, telling us to pause and consider its weight. This is a truth that should stop us in our tracks.

6. “Surely every man walks about as a shadow; Surely they make an uproar in vain; He piles up riches and does not know who will gather them.”

David now illustrates the vanity he just declared. "Surely every man walks about as a shadow." A shadow is an image, a phantom. It has form but no substance. This is what our lives are like as we move through this world. We appear for a moment and then we are gone. There is an unreality to our earthly existence when it is disconnected from the ultimate reality of God.

"Surely they make an uproar in vain." Men are busy. They are noisy. They rush about, making plans, striving, competing, and creating a great commotion. But to what end? David says it is all "in vain." The striving is for nothing. The noise is just noise. It accomplishes nothing of ultimate, lasting value. This is a radical critique of all humanistic endeavor, of all attempts to build a kingdom for ourselves on this earth.

He gives a specific example of this vain uproar. "He piles up riches and does not know who will gather them." This gets right to the heart of so much human activity. Men labor their entire lives to accumulate wealth, to build up a great pile of stuff. They sacrifice their families, their health, and their integrity for it. And yet, they have no control over what happens to it after they are gone. A fool might inherit it and squander it in a week. The government might tax it away. The economy might collapse and render it worthless. The pursuit of wealth as an end in itself is the height of folly, a chasing after the wind. This is a truth that our materialistic age desperately needs to hear. The man who lives for his portfolio is a man walking in a shadow, making a lot of noise about nothing.

Application

The first and most obvious application is that we must pray David's prayer. We must ask God to teach us the brevity of our lives. We should not run from this truth, or try to distract ourselves from it with entertainment and busyness. We should face it head-on. A right understanding of our mortality is the foundation for a life of wisdom. It is what will drive us out of ourselves and to Christ, who is our only hope for life beyond the grave.

Second, we must recognize the vanity of a life lived for this world. All the things that men chase after, wealth, fame, power, pleasure, are smoke. They cannot satisfy, and they will not last. If your hope is in your 401(k), you are a fool. If your identity is in your career, you are building on sand. This passage calls us to a radical re-evaluation of our priorities. What are you making an uproar about? Is it something of eternal value, or is it just vanity?

Finally, this sober assessment of our condition is not meant to lead us to despair, but to drive us to the only source of true hope. The very next verse says, "And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you" (Ps. 39:7). The recognition of our frailty and vanity is the black velvet on which the diamond of the gospel shines most brightly. Because we are transient, we need an eternal Savior. Because our lives are as nothing, we need the one who is the Alpha and the Omega. Because we walk as shadows, we need the one who is the Light of the World. Our vanity is met by His substance. Our brevity is swallowed up in His eternal life. This is the good news that a passage like this prepares us to hear and to cherish.