Psalms 39:13

"“Hear my prayer, LORD, 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."

Key Reflection

In Psalms 39:13, the psalmist cries out to God for attention and relief in his distress, saying, "Hear my prayer, LORD, and give ear to my cry; don’t be silent at my tears." This plea reflects a deep sense of vulnerability and longing for divine intervention. The statement that he is "a stranger with you, a foreigner" (as all his fathers were) highlights the psalmist's temporary nature in God’s presence, paralleling his ancestors who also experienced this transient existence. This cultural context underscores the human condition of impermanence and the universal need for divine compassion and understanding.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

O spare me -The word used here - fromשׁעהshâ‛âh- means “to look;” and then, in connection with the preposition, “to look away from;” and it here means, “Look away from me;” that is, Do not come to inflict death on me. Preserve me. The idea is this: God seemed to have fixed his eyes on him, and to be pursuing him with the expressions of his displeasure (compareJob 16:9); and the psalmist now prays that he would “turn away his eyes,” and leave him. That I may recover strength -The word used here -בלגbâlag- means, in Arabic, to be bright; to shine forth; and then, to make cheerful, to enliven one’s countenance, or to be joyful, glad.

More from Psalms 39

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