Psalms 139:4

139:4 Certainly ¹  my tongue does not frame a word

without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it. ² 

Psalms 39:3

39:3 my anxiety intensified. ³ 

As I thought about it, I became impatient. ⁴ 

Finally I spoke these words: ⁵ 

Psalms 39:1

Psalm 39 ⁶ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ⁷  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ⁸ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ⁹ 

¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “look, O Lord, you know all of it.”

³ tn Heb “my heart was hot within me.”

⁴ tn Heb “In my reflection fire burned.” The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite (past tense) or an imperfect being used in a past progressive or customary sense (“fire was burning”).

⁵ tn Heb “I spoke with my tongue.” The phrase “these words” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

⁵ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

⁶ tn Heb “I said.”

⁷ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

⁸ sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.