Psalm 39 is similar to Psalm 38 in that in both, the godly man is under the chastening hand of God. Here the thoughts of the godly are turned inward to consider his ways. At length he asks to know his end, and the measure of his days, thus to know how frail he is. How short life is, short indeed to man, and how little to God! Man heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them. But the godly are not so (verse 7):
"What wait I for, Lord? My hope is in Thee."
To be delivered from all his transgressions; to be not the reproach of the foolish; this is the prayer of Psalm 39 which is the last of the series of experience psalms for the "remnant" (the Jews to be turned to God at the end of the present dispensation of grace) while still mingling with the ungodly in and near Jerusalem. Psalms 40 and 41, which complete Book 1 of the psalms as arranged in the Hebrew Scriptures, have a special character.
Psalm 42 and following relate to the period when the believing repentant Jews have been forced to leave Jerusalem, and their sufferings grow more intense.