Psalms 39

So that if the angels bring glory to God, much more should we, being dignified with honor above the angelical spirits. 5. Response. We must bring glory to God, because all our hopes hang upon him (Psalm 39:7). My hope is in you.

By reading this love-letter, we shall be the more enamored with love to God: As by reading lascivious books, comedies, romances, lust is provoked. 3. Meditate much of God, and this will be a means to love him (Psalm 39:3). While I was musing, the fire burned.

There's the fire of lust in the eye, and the fire of passion in the tongue. (Psalm 39:1) I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue. A hard lesson!

Love is the soul of religion, the purest affection; it is not rivers of oil, but sparks of love, that Christ values. And sure, as David said, while I was musing, the fire burned (Psalm 39:3). So while we are musing of Christ's love in redeeming us, the fire of our love would bur…

If men do not act as we would have them, they shall act as God would have them. His providence it is his master-wheel that turns these lesser wheels, and God will bring his glory out of all at last: (Psalm 39:9) I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because you, Lord, did it. It m…

2. We pray, that God will deliver us out of temporal evils. That he will remove his judgments from us, whether famine, sword, pestilence (Psalm 39:10). Remove your stroke away from me.

Distracted with terrors (as Heman pleads in Psalm 88:15), the powers and forces of your soul are scattered and dissolved and cannot attend upon their duty. And besides this distraction in your spirit, plead that it consumes your strength also, as David often complains and makes…

David says, Psalm 24.1. The earth is the Lords, and all that therein is: The same David confesses, Psalm 39.12, He is a stranger before God, and a sojourner as all his Fathers were, and thereupon desires God to hear his prayer, hearken to his cry, and not to keep silence at his…

Every man is to prepare, I confess: then if every man, especially they that be old: The young man may die, the old man must die: the youngest cannot live always, the old man cannot live long; the aged man's grave is as it were made already, and his one foot is in it. And this is…

Secondly, if there be a providence of God over every thing, then we must learn contentment of mind in every estate: indeed, in adversity under the cross when all goes against us we must be content, because God's providence has so appointed. So David in the greatest of his griefs…

Pause a while upon your sins, wants, troubles; steep your thoughts a while in these before you address yourself to duty. David first mused, and then spoke with his tongue (Psalm 39:3-4). So Psalm 45:1: 'My heart is inditing.'

Lastly, The afflicted Christian may in a humble submissive manner, plead with God and be earnest for the removal of the affliction. When affliction presses us above strength, when it disables us for duty, or when it gives advantage to temptation, then we may say with David, Remo…

It was so to good Eli (1 Samuel 3:18), It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him. And it was so to David (Psalm 39:9), I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because you did it. O let it be forever remembered, that he whose name alone is Jehovah, is the most high over all th…

Rule 4. If you would bear the loss of your dear relations with moderation, fix your eyes on God throughout the whole process of the affliction, and less on secondary causes and circumstances. Psalm 39:9: I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because you did it. Consider the hand of…

I grant, satisfactory justice does not here put men to silence, but it proves how little we can answer for sin. Even David remembering that Shimei, and other instruments had deservedly afflicted him, in relation to Divine justice, says (Psalm 39:9): I was dumb, I opened not my m…

Indeed, sweetest ordinances, because it is but created sweetness that is in them, are near of blood to nothing, and in comparison of God mere shadows; that cannot fathom the immortal soul; and nothing, and partake of vanity common to all creatures. So the Scripture says, Man at…

If he see it good to take all away as he sometime saw it good, to give it all, this patient submission of the heart to God, is an undoubted argument, that we have the Lord for our God, had we not him for our God, the heart of man would so grudge at this and that evil which befal…

Some also there are, that by sinful lusts waste, instead of growing, as a thief in a candle wastes it, but if there be a thief in the heart, a lurking lust in the soul; a living soul is not well till it be removed, by some good means or other, that so it may recover itself. It i…

In the greatest advancements we should think of our dissolution, if Christ in all his glory discoursed of his death, surely it more becomes us, as necessary for us to prevent the surfeit of worldly pleasures; we should think of the change that is coming. For surely every man at…

1. Let this draw forth our love to such a blessed estate, which is so full of delight and contentment, and wean us from these things which are most pleasing in the world. 1. The best estate in the world is but vanity, altogether vanity (Psalm 39:5), mingled with some grievances.…

The fashion of this world passes away [illegible: non-Latin script]. It is but a draft, an empty pageantry; so it is called (Psalm 39:6). A vain show; an image, shadow, or dream, that vanishes in a trice.

(Psalm 37:7): be silent to Jehovah. Consider the example of Aaron (Leviticus 10:3), of David (Psalm 39:9), of the Jews (Acts 11:18). The sixth: in all things we do or suffer, we must depend on the goodness, providence, and mercy of God, for the success of our labors, and for eas…

And one cryed unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of his glory. The baseness, vileness and utter unworthiness of Man, yea, the holiest and best of men before God, Psalm 39:5 Verily every man, at his best estate, is altogether va…

The thought of God's sovereignty over us and over ours, may quiet our spirits in all that he does to us or ours. As it does justify God, so it should quiet us: hear David (Psalm 39:9). I was dumb, says he, and opened not my mouth, because you did it: he does not say, I was conte…

Why does the living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sin? God has opened his mouth, and spoken terribly, but let London shut her mouth, because God has spoken righteously; God has spoken with a loud voice, let London be in deep silence; I was dumb, I opened not my m…

Here Christian prudence interposes, and is of singular use. Though David was full of a treasure of holy thoughts, yet he knew there was as well a time to keep silence as a time to speak; therefore he kept his lips with a bridle while the wicked were present (Psalm 39:1). David h…

The blossom of childhood hopes to come to the budding of youth; and the bud of youth hopes to come to the flower of age; and the flower of age hopes to come to old age; and old age hopes to renew its strength as the eagle. But if we measure life by a pair of Scripture compasses,…

Which some interpreters give as the sense of that which God said to Cain (Genesis 4:7): To you, or subject to you, shall be its desire, and you shall rule over it; namely, over this passion of anger, which you have conceived in your bosom, you should and (if you would use the gr…

With our repentance for our former unquietness, we must engage ourselves by a firm resolution, in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ to be more mild and gentle for the future. Say, you will take heed to your ways that you offend not, as you have done, with your tongue; an…

I will lay my hand upon my mouth. And experience likewise of our weakness, and the vanity of the Creature more now then ever, Psalm 39:11 When you with rebukes doest correct man,you makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity, Selah: he can then say…

Why would you preposterously have the crown before you have overcome? Imagine the most setled condition you can in this world, and although you had it, yet it were but vanity: so says the Psalmist, Psalm 39:5 Man in his best estate, is vanity: the word is in the Original, in his…

When the word was come to them, it was as a fire within them, that must be delivered, or it would consume them. Psalm 39:3. Jeremiah 20:9. Amos 3:8. Chapter 7:15, 16. So Jonah found his attempt to hide the Word that he had received, to be altogether vain.

Teach us (says Moses, Psalm 90) so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And David (Psalm 39) make me to know my life how frail I am. So James 4:14.

Consider it as the hand of God, and from that argue the soul into submission. Psalm 39:9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because you did it. But this heaviness is mitigated, and set as it were within its banks, between these two considerations: 1. The utility of it. 2. The b…

Thus to the persons for whom, as their coming to him reflects upon that first donation, as flowing from that, all that the Father has given me shall come to me (John 6). Now this being God's great design; that he would have men eye and consider more than all the rest of his work…

It is the desires God hears. Psalm 39:9: Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hid from you. The Lord needs not the tongue, to be an interpreter between him and the hearts of his children.

Hannah adds that her mouth was opened wide against her enemies — namely because, previously held in mockery, she was forced to suppress her pain in silence. So we see David speaking of himself in Psalm 39, saying that he was utterly silent while the wicked held sway. And this do…

Therefore it must necessarily be kept in check by God as within an enclosure, and our speech ruled by him; which David's example admonishes us to obtain from him by prayer. And it is certain that David himself was taught by this experience, when in Psalm 39 he burst out into the…

A man must look for changes, and lay forth for several conditions in the world. (Psalm 39:11) When you with rebukes correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity, Selah. Like glass, brittle, when most glistering.

Yet in the land of promise he lived as in a strange place. So David here, and in other places, that had so ample a possession, he was King over an opulent and flourishing kingdom, yet (Psalm 39:12) I am a stranger with you, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Not only he th…

But now uprightness gives us courage, strength, and stands by us in the very agonies of death. 4. Heedfulness, and a watch upon the tongue (Psalm 39:1): I said I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. Let us speak of what we think, and think of what we speak,…

And partly, because sin never carries it away clearly, but with some dislikes and resistances of the new nature. The children of God make it their business to avoid all sin, by watching, praying, mortifying (Psalm 39:1), I said I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my…

To the wrong of the body; see how they are described in Scripture (Psalm 127:2): They rise early, they sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. And (Psalm 39:6): He disquiets himself in vain. By biting cares (Ecclesiastes 2:23): All his days are sorrows, and his travel grief; i…

We inflame our hearts with these things, and lust puts a lovely face upon the object that suits with it, but alas what are they, whatever they seem to the beholder? It is but vanity (Psalm 39:6). Man flatters himself in a vain show: all the splendor and beauty of it is but vain…

1. The doctrine concerning particular providence, that nothing falls out without God's appointment, and that he looks after every individual person, as if none else to care for: this is a mighty ground of comfort; for nothing can befall me but what my Father wills, and he is min…

Rather metaphorically for the whole course of his life, whether spent in the palace, or in the wilderness, in whatever place he was, he was still in the house of his pilgrimage: so he accounted his best and his worst condition, compare verse 19. I am a stranger in the earth, and…

Admire his love, Oh how excellent is your loving-kindness! (Psalm 36:7). Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for them that fear you, which you have wrought for them that trust in you before the sons of men (Psalm 39:19). The name of his power (Psalm 145:3). Gre…

As often as we look to ourselves, we shall find something that needs amendment, and therefore we need to press the heart with new and pregnant thoughts to mind our duty, and to use constant caution, and taking heed to our ways that we may not go wrong. Psalm 39:1 — thus did Davi…

There is both faith implied, and also some assurance of our interest. They knew there was substance to be had in the other world; they that live by sense count present things only substance, but the world to come only fancy and shadows; but the gracious heart on the contrary loo…

This in the soul has the authority of a principle; he that means to be a thorough Christian, must set the bent, and bias, and purpose of his heart strongly upon it. (Psalm 39:1) I said I will take heed to my ways. So (Psalm 32:5) I said I will confess my iniquities.