Verse 6
I am troubled - In mind. I am bowed down in body. I am altogether afflicted, and full of distress.
Verse 7
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease - Or rather, a burning; נקלה nikleh, from קלה kalah, to fry, scorch, etc., hence נקלה nikleh, a burning, or strongly feverish disease.
There is no soundness in my flesh - All without and all within bears evidence that the whole of my solids and fluids are corrupt.
Verse 8
I am feeble and sore broken - I am so exhausted with my disease that I feel as if on the brink of the grave, and unfit to appear before God; therefore "have I roared for the disquietness of my heart."
That David describes a natural disease here cannot reasonably be doubted; but what that disease was, who shall attempt to say? However, this is evident, that whatever it was, he most deeply deplored the cause of it; and as he worthily lamented it, so he found mercy at the hand of God. It would be easy to show a disease of which what he here enumerates are the very general symptoms; but I forbear, because in this I might attribute to one what, perhaps, in Judea would be more especially descriptive of another.
Verse 9
Lord, all my desire is before thee - I long for nothing so much as thy favor; and for this my heart is continually going out after thee. Instead of אדני Adonai, Lord, several of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. have יהוה Yehovah.
Verse 10
My heart panteth - סחרחר secharchar, flutters, palpitates, through fear and alarm.
My strength faileth - Not being able to take nourishment.
The light of mine eyes - is gone - I can scarcely discern any thing through the general decay of my health and vigor, particularly affecting my sight.
Verse 11
My lovers - Those who professed much affection for me; my friends, רעי reai, my companions, who never before left my company, stand aloof.
My kinsmen - קרובי kerobai, my neighbors, stand afar off. I am deserted by all, and they stand off because of נגעי nigi, my plague. They considered me as suffering under a Divine judgment; and, thinking me an accursed being, they avoided me lest they should be infected by my disease.
Verse 12
They also that seek after my life - They act towards me as huntsmen after their prey; they lay snares to take away my life. Perhaps this means only that they wished for his death, and would have been glad to have had it in their power to end his days. Others spoke all manner of evil of him, and told falsities against him all the day long.
Verse 13
But I, as a deaf man - I was conscious of my guilt, I could not vindicate myself; and I was obliged in silence to bear their insults.
Verse 14
No reproofs - תוכחות tochachoth, arguments or vindications; a forensic term. I was as a man accused in open court, and I could make no defense.
Verse 15
In thee, O Lord, do I hope - I have no helper but thee.
Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God - Thou art eternal in thy compassions, and wilt hear the prayer of a penitent soul. In the printed copies of the Hebrew text we have אדני אלהי Adonai Elohai, Lord my God; but, instead of אדני Adonai, one hundred and two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read יהוה Yehovah. As this word is never pronounced by the Jews, and they consider it dreadfully sacred, in reading, wherever it occurs, they pronounce אדני Adonai; and we may well suppose that Jewish scribes, in writing out copies of the sacred Scriptures, would as naturally write Adonai for Yehovah, as they would in reading supply the former for the latter.
Verse 16
When my foot slippeth - They watched for my halting; and when my foot slipped, they rejoiced that I had fallen into sin!
Verse 17
For I am ready to halt - Literally, I am prepared to halt. So completely infirm is my soul, that it is impossible for me to take one right step in the way of righteousness, unless strengthened by thee.
Verse 18
I will declare mine iniquity - I will confess it with the deepest humiliation and self-abasement.
Verse 19
But mine enemies are lively - Instead of חיים chaiyim, lively, I would read חינם chinam, without cause; a change made by the half of one letter, נ nun for a י yod. See the parallel places, [Psa 35:19] (note); [Psa 79:5] (note). See also the Preliminary Dissertation to Dr. Lowth's Isaiah, p. 40: "But without cause my enemies have strengthened themselves; and they who wrongfully hate me are multiplied." Here the one member of the verse answers to the other.
Verse 20
Because I follow the thing that good is - The translation is as bad as the sentence is awkward. תחת רדפי טוב tachath rodpi tob, because I follow goodness. There is a remarkable addition to this verse in the Arabic: "They have rejected me, the beloved one, as an abominable dead carcass; they have pierced my body with nails." I suppose the Arabic translator meant to refer this to Christ.
None of the other Versions have any thing like this addition; only the Ethiopic adds, "They rejected their brethren as an unclean carcass." St. Ambrose says this reading was found in some Greek and Latin copies in his time; and Theodoret has nearly the same reading with the Arabic: Και απερῥιψαν με τον αγαπητον, ῳς νεκρον εβδελυγμενον· "And they cast me, the beloved, out, as an abominable dead carcass." Whence this reading came I cannot conjecture.
Verse 21
Forsake me not, O Lord - Though all have forsaken me, do not thou.
Be not far from me - Though my friends keep aloof, be thou near to help me.
Verse 22
Make haste to help me - I am dying; save, Lord, or I perish. Whoever carefuIly reads over this Psalm will see what a grievous and bitter thing it is to sin against the Lord, and especially to sin after having known his mercy, and after having escaped from the corruption that is in the world. Reader, be on thy guard; a life of righteousness may be lost by giving way to a moment's temptation, and a fair character sullied for ever! Let him that most assuredly standeth take heed lest he fall. 'Tis but a grain of sweet that one can sow,
To reap a harvest of wide-wasting wo.
Introduction
The psalmist's care and watchfulness over his thoughts, tongue, and actions, [Psa 39:1-3]. He considers the brevity and uncertainty of human life, [Psa 39:4-7]; prays for deliverance from sin, [Psa 39:8-11]; and that he may be protected and spared till he is fitted for another world, [Psa 39:12], [Psa 39:13].
The title says, To the chief Musician, Jeduthun himself, A Psalm of David. It is supposed that this Jeduthun is the same with Ethan, [1Chr 6:44], compared with [1Chr 16:41]; and is there numbered among the sons of Merari. And he is supposed to have been one of the four masters of music, or leaders of bands, belonging to the temple. And it is thought that David, having composed this Psalm, gave it to Jeduthun and his company to sing. But several have supposed that Jeduthun himself was the author. It is very likely that this Psalm was written on the same occasion with the preceding. It relates to a grievous malady by which David was afflicted after his transgression with Bath-sheba. See what has been said on the foregoing Psalm.