Fathers

Psalms 39

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I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.” I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue: “Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather. Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish. I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 39:7

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"And now" [Psalm 39:7]. "And now," saith this Idithun,-looking back on a certain "vain" show, and looking up to a certain Truth, standing midway where he has something beyond him, and something also behind him, having below him the place from which he took his spring, having above him that toward which he has stretched forth;-"And now," when I have "over-leaped" some things, when I have trampled many things under foot, when I am no longer captivated by things temporal; even now, I am not perfect, "I have not yet apprehended." "For it …

Exposition on Psalm 39 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

Our hope and our patience is Christ; he is our redemption; he is our expectation.… Look on us, Lord, when you come in judgment; let your mercy look on us.… In the power of your mercy lies the substance of our soul and life. We must not fear physical death; rather, we should fear him who can save or destroy our soul. Our soul's substance is that virtue that God has poured into hearts made in the image of himself.

Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms ↗

Thomas Aquinas

"And now, what is my expectation," etc. Here he asks God's help against misery. And first he sets forth the confidence from which his prayer proceeds. Second he sets forth his prayer, at "From all my iniquities." Third he asks to be heard, at "Hear." Sometimes a man is in misery; and then either he trusts to be freed by himself, or by another. If he trusts to be freed by himself, he does not wait for another but has recourse in himself. If by another, then he waits, because he hopes to be helped by another. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗