This is a fervent prayer to God, in which David complains with wonderful groanings, that he is stricken and bruised with the sense of his sin; that he is distressed and straitened in spirit under the deepest sorrow; and that he can see nothing and feel nothing but wrath from heaven, and the terrible lightnings, arrows, and threatenings of God; and in a word, death, and hell itself; and that this great distress exhausts not only all the moisture, all the strength, all the blood, and all the marrow of his frame, but fills him with an unspeakable alarm and perturbation, and makes him pant and sweat with agony; so that the intenseness of his feelings, destroys the natural colour and appearance of his face, and affects his whole body. For to feel in reality the burthen of the conscience under a sense of sin, is a distress and terror exceeding all other distresses and terrors. And these deep temptations of the godly are greatly increased by those wicked ones without, who cease not to call them heretics, seditious persons, and murderers. For these hypocrites, while they boast in the teeth of the godly that they are the true saints, and the true church, and the real people of God, (and God in the meantime, which is often the case, not bringing in help and consolation) the godly are deeply grieved and afflicted, as if God was their enemy because of their sins. But this Psalm teaches us constantly to hope for, and expect the help and consolation of God, and still to fight against all such hypocrites by prayer. And the prophet, in the midst of the agonizing conflict of this temptation, sustains and lifts up himself by taking courage from the divine promise. And here he maintains his cause, (which is not the cause of men but of God,) as a strong fortress against Satan and his cause, and here again flows in the consolation of faith, &c. And so also we ought to pray always, and in no temptation yield to sorrow of mind, even though we are sinners, and though Satan shakes us with the horrible terrors of sin: for grace is stronger than sin! PSALM XXXIX. _David’s care of his thoughts.—The consideration of the brevity and vanity of life, the reverence of God’s judgments, and prayer, are his bridles of impatience._ To the chief Musician, _even_ to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence: I held my peace, _even_ from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me; while I was musing the fire burned: _then_ spake I with my tongue, LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it _is_; _that_ I may know how frail I _am_. Behold, thou hast made my days _as_ an handbreadth, and mine age _is_ as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state _is_ altogether vanity. Selah.