Псалом 39

The entire content of the psalm can be divided into three parts. In the first (2–9), David recalls the dangers he experienced, from which the Lord delivered him; in the second (10-11) he talks about the revelation that came to him from God, which he announced before all the people, and in the third - (12-18) he prays to God for deliverance from the disasters he is experiencing again, and also points out his sinfulness before Him (13). By the first disasters, as having already passed, we must understand persecution from Saul, which is indirectly indicated in Ps.39:7, and by the experienced disasters we must understand persecution from Absalom. The entire psalm, therefore, is written regarding the latest persecutions. Ps.39:2. I firmly trusted in the Lord, and He bowed down to me and heard my cry; Ps.39:3. He brought me out of the terrible pit, out of the miry swamp, and set my feet on a rock and established my steps; Ps.39:4. and he put a new song in my mouth - praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. “I firmly trusted in the Lord,” says David, I endured a lot, but these sufferings did not weaken my faith in Him, I suffered a lot, but remained devoted to the Lord and the Lord heard my “cry” for help: He freed me from disasters. “Terrible ditch” - a ditch of suffering, deep, strong disasters; “muddy swamp” - i.e., unstable, shaking soil found in swamps, means David's restless and dangerous life. The Lord brought him out of this ditch and mud, gave him a solid and safe existence. In accordance with the changed situation, David’s songs also changed: instead of the previous ones, prayers and petitions, he began to compose new ones - thanks and praise. By these disasters David means persecution from Saul. The miraculous help that God often provided to David at this time, and his extraordinary fate, which elevated him to the throne, are so amazing that they should have aroused reverence for God and faith only in Him, and not in their own strengths, in all people who knew the story of his life. Ps.39:5. Blessed is the man who places his hope in the Lord and does not turn to the proud or to those who turn to lies. Therefore, blessed is he for whom the Lord is his only hope and who does not turn his attention “to the proud and to those who turn aside to lies.” By the latter are meant the wicked, who, however, possess external means of protection that are valuable in the eyes of people, whether in the form of wealth or their high position. Hope in them, according to David, is deceptive. Ps.39:6. You have done much, O Lord my God: about Your miracles and Your thoughts about us - whoever will be like You! – I would like to preach and speak, but they exceed the number. The Lord shows His mercies over people in many wonderful deeds. He creates and created them, both in the life of David and among the Jews in such numbers that it is impossible to count them. The works of God are inexplicable to the human mind, they are beyond its limited understanding, and no one is able to imagine with their thoughts, with their minds, the degree of love and the amount of mercy that He pours out on man. Ps.39:7. You did not want sacrifices and offerings; You have opened my ears; 2 You did not require burnt offerings or sin offerings. Ps.39:8. Then I said: here I come; in the book scroll it is written about me: Ps.39:9. I desire to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is in my heart. It is also incomprehensible to man that God did not require David to observe the ritual Mosaic Law; He did not demand from him any sacrifice (bloody) or offerings (bloodless), nor burnt offerings (peaceful), nor a sacrifice for sin, but in return for this he “opened my ears.” This indicates the custom of the Jews to pierce the ears of a Jewish slave who, at the end of the Sabbath year, expressed a desire to remain with his former master. This expression indicates the voluntary dedication of oneself to the service of God, which dedication is higher than ritual sacrifice. In LXX: “he prepared a body for me” (σώμα), that is, he made me a body, he demanded from David not to serve Himself in the rites of the law, but to serve with his whole body, his whole being - thoughts, feelings and actions. The word soma means a person with soul and body. Both expressions - Hebrew and Greek - thus mean the same thing. Such a time when God did not count David as a sin for not making sacrifices was the time of his flight from Saul to Ziklag (cf. Ps. 15). David responded to this call of God to serve Him with all his being with a joyful feeling: “then I said: behold, I am coming.” This obedience is “written... in the scroll of the book,” in the scroll of the book of the law, by which this obedience was imposed on man by God as an external requirement and command. For David, this obedience was not only the external requirement of the law, but also the internal attraction of his spirit (“I desire to do Your will”); in his activities and life, he is always guided by this obedience - “Your law is in my heart,” it constitutes an integral internal property, which cannot remain unexpressed externally. The replacement of sacrifices in relation to David by serving God with thoughts and actions indicated that for God it is not the very objects of the offering that are valuable, and for a person it is not the very process of performing the ritual that is beneficial, but the sublime, internal mood of the sacrificer, which should be caused by an understanding of the meaning of the ideological side of the external action. This fact of not charging David with the sin of non-observance of the ritual side of the law and replacing the latter with another type of service to God already indicated that the law itself does not have an immutable, eternal meaning, but a temporary one, which must be replaced by a higher type of worship than rituals. With the coming of the Messiah this happened: the law of Moses lost its binding meaning and was replaced by serving God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). As an indication of the abolition of the Old Testament law, this place is also clarified in the last. Ap. Paul to the Hebrews (Heb. 10:5–10). In the very content of the psalm there is a clear indication of its messianic meaning. In 8 tbsp. David says that “in the scroll of the book it is written about me.” If we mean only David here, then in no place in the Holy Place. there is no such prophecy in books about him. Meanwhile, back in the book. Genesis spoke of the Seed of the woman, so strong and pure that It would erase the head of the serpent, destroy his power over the world. In subsequent revelations this Seed of the woman was described even more fully: He is a prophet like Moses, a great Descendant of David, a God-man. And only to the latter can the words be applied with literal accuracy that he always carried the law “in his heart” and was always faithful to God. The personality of David in this case was prototypical: his sincere attraction to God, the thirst to devote himself to full service to Him and the constant desire to strictly follow His law, all of this found full and exact fulfillment in the service of the Messiah - Christ, the seed of David according to the flesh. Ps.39:10. I have proclaimed Your righteousness in the great assembly; I did not forbid my mouth: You, Lord, know. Ps.39:11. I did not hide Your righteousness in my heart, I proclaimed Your faithfulness and Your salvation, I did not hide Your mercy and Your truth before the great assembly. By “righteousness”, “mercy” and “truth” here one can understand both David’s glorification in the very songs that had church and public use of the Lord for the mercies shown to him during the unjust persecution of enemies, and the promise that he received from God about the origin of the promised Descendant from him, i.e., the Messiah. Ps.39:12. Do not withhold, O Lord, Thy compassions from me; May Thy mercy and Thy truth protect me unceasingly, Ps.39:13. for innumerable troubles surrounded me; My iniquities have come upon me, so that I cannot see them: they are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my heart has left me. Ps.39:14. Deign, O Lord, to deliver me; God! hurry to help me. Ps.39:15. May all who seek the destruction of my soul be ashamed and disgraced! May those who wish me harm be turned back and consigned to ridicule! Ps.39:16. Let those who say to me, “Good! Fine!" Ps.39:17. Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You, and let those who love Your salvation continually say: “Great is the Lord!” Ps.39:18. I am poor and needy, but the Lord cares for me. You are my help and my deliverer, my God! don't slow down. The rest of the psalm represents David’s prayer for salvation from the dangers he experienced during the persecution from Absalom. - “May Thy Mercy and Thy Truth protect me unceasingly.” As we indicated above, the persecution of Absalom and the sympathy of the people for him were fueled by the slander of David by his enemies, and therefore were undeserved by him, they were not “true”. God, as the bearer and defender of the truth, is the only defender to whom David can boldly turn with prayer, so that He would not allow his enemies to trample on the truth and triumph. - “Iniquities have overtaken me... than the hairs of my head.” – David here does not mean the number of various crimes committed by him, since then he could not be the divine chosen one, moreover, such crimes are not known and historical books do not indicate him, but the degree of awareness of the gravity of his sin with Bathsheba (see Ps. 37). The greater the misfortunes of David, the more hopeless his situation seemed, the greater the rejoicing caused by his enemies (v. 16). Therefore, David prays to God to protect him and not allow the untruth of his enemies to triumph over the truth, and with this protection to fill the righteous with joy, who, like David, will see that the only source of salvation, “helper... and protector” is the Lord. According to Art. 7–9 this psalm is of an educational and messianic nature. According to the translation of the 70: he has prepared a body for me. You might be interested in: