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We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below. Read Psalm 39  Listen to Psalm 39 Verses 1-3. David says that he is not going to say anything. Even though godless people make him want to speak, he will not. He knew how his words would be misunderstood and misused by such persons, so it was better to be silent. To them his words would seem to be a criticism of God and his ways, but this makes him feel worse. So David decides that he will say something. Verses 4-6. He asks God how long his life will be. Our lives are so short they seem like the wind blowing for a short time, or a shadow that goes when the sun goes down. David’s silence was broken in the best way – by humble prayer to God. He would not speak his fears and doubts before the wicked, but he would pour them out before His God. Here David asked God for wisdom – specifically, the wisdom to know the shortness and the frailty of his life. Every person should know that their lives on this earth are short (Psalm 103:15-16) every man at his best state is but ‘a puff of wind’. David was a champion, a successful warrior, a leader, a celebrity, a skilled poet, a musician, a survivor, and a king. If anyone might have thought more highly of himself, David had the right to. Yet he understood that he, like every man is – merely, a puff of steam or smoke. Verses 7-10. Now David says what he really wants. He wants God to make him safe from the results of the bad things that he did. David thought that one of the results was his illness. Verses 10-13. The psalmist, having meditated on the shortness and uncertainty of life, and the vanity and confusion of spirit that attend all the comforts of life, here, in these verses, turns his eyes and heart heaven-ward. When there is no solid satisfaction to be had in humanity, it is to be found in God and in communion with him and to him we should be driven by our disappointments in the world. The last few words “before I depart and am no more” are perhaps revealing. We have the great joy of knowing our salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the assurance of life after death with Him. David, here gives no glimpse that he knew what lies beyond death for him. Lord, we thank you that we have the assurance of eternal life with you. Please keep reminding us when we go through difficulties and illness that our ultimate hope is in you alone.