Psalms 39:11
Ver. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,.... The psalmist illustrates his own case, before suggested, by the common case and condition of men, when God corrects them; which he has a right to do, as the Father of spirits, and which he does with rebukes; sometimes with rebukes of wrath, with furious rebukes, rebukes in flames of fire, as the men of the world; and sometimes with rebukes of love, the chastenings of a father, as his own dear children; and always for iniquity, whether one or another; and not the iniquity of Adam is here meant, but personal iniquity: and correction for it is to be understood of some bodily affliction, as the effect of it shows;
thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; that is, secretly, suddenly, and at once; as a moth eats a garment, and takes off the beauty of it; or as easily as a moth is crushed between a man's fingers; so the Targum;
"he melts away as a moth, whose body is broken:''
the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, and so the metaphrase of Apollinarius, read, as a spider which destroys itself. The word rendered "beauty" takes in all that is desirable in man; as his flesh, his strength, his comeliness, his pleasantness of countenance, &c. all which are quickly destroyed by a distemper of the body seizing on it; wherefore the psalmist makes and confirms the conclusion he had made before:
surely every man [is] vanity; See Gill on "Ps 39:5";
Selah; on this word, See Gill on "Ps 3:2". Psalms 39:12Ver. 12. Hear my prayer, O Lord,.... Which was, that he would remove the affliction from him that lay so hard and heavy upon him;and give ear unto my cry; which shows the distress he was in, and the vehemency with which he put up his petition to the Lord;hold not thy peace at my tears; which were shed in great plenty, through the violence of the affliction, and in his fervent prayers to God; see Heb 5:7;for I [am] a stranger with thee; not to God, to Christ, to the Spirit, to the saints, to himself, and the plague of his own heart, or to the devices of Satan; but in the world, and to the men of it; being unknown to them, and behaving as a stranger among them; all which was known to God, and may be the meaning of the phrase "with thee"; or reference may be had to the land of Canaan, in which David dwelt, and which was the Lord's, and in which the Israelites dwelt as strangers and sojourners with him, Le 25:23; as it follows here;[and] a sojourner, as all my fathers [were]; meaning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity; see Ge 23:4; as are all the people of God in this world: this is not their native place; they belong to another and better country; their citizenship is in heaven; their Father's house is there, and there is their inheritance, which they have a right unto, and a meetness for: they have no settlement here; nor is their rest and satisfaction in the things of this world: they reckon themselves, while here, as not at home, but in a foreign land; and this the psalmist mentions, to engage the Lord to regard his prayers, since he has so often expressed a concern for the strangers and sojourners in the land of Israel. Psalms 39:13Ver. 13. O spare me,.... Or "look from me" {f}; turn away thy fierce countenance from me; or "cease from me {g}, and let me alone"; as in Job 10:20; from whence the words seem to be taken, by what follows:that I may recover strength; both corporeal and spiritual:before I go hence; out of this world by death:and be no more; that is, among men in the land of the living; not but that he believed he should exist after death, and should be somewhere, even in heaven, though he should return no more to the place where he was; see Job 10:20, when a man is born, he comes into the world; when he dies, he goes out of it; a phrase frequently used for death in Scripture; so the ancient Heathens called death "abitio", a going away {h}.{f} ynmm evh "respice aliorsum a me", Gejerus; "averte visum a me", Michaelis. {g} "Desine a me", Pagninus; "desiste a me", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; "cessa a me", Vatablus. {h} Fest. Pomp. apud Schindler. Lexic. col. 440.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.