Psalm 39:1-3

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Psalm 39:1 sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.
2. Psalm 39:1 tn Heb “I said.”
3. Psalm 39:1 tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”
4. Psalm 39:1 sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil people, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.
5. Psalm 39:2 tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”
6. Psalm 39:2 tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.sn I held back the urge to speak. For a helpful discussion of the relationship (and tension) between silence and complaint in ancient Israelite lamentation, see E. S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part I (FOTL), 166-67.
7. Psalm 39:2 tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.
8. Psalm 39:3 tn Heb “my heart was hot within me.”
9. Psalm 39:3 tn Heb “In my reflection fire burned.” The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite (past tense) or an imperfect being used in a past progressive or customary sense (“fire was burning”).
10. Psalm 39:3 tn Heb “I spoke with my tongue.” The phrase “these words” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.