the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible
American Standard Version
Psalms 39:4
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- DailyParallel Translations
“Lord, make me aware of my endand the number of my daysso that I will know how short-lived I am.
"LORD, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
Lord , make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
"O Lord , make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
" Lord , tell me when the end will come and how long I will live. Let me know how long I have.
"O Lord , help me understand my mortality and the brevity of life! Let me realize how quickly my life will pass!
"LORD, let me know my [life's] end And [to appreciate] the extent of my days; Let me know how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].
"LORD, let me know my end, And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
"Yahweh, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
Lord, let me know mine ende, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: let mee knowe howe long I haue to liue.
"Yahweh, cause me to know my endAnd what is the extent of my days;Let me know how transient I am.
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
"Please, Lord , show me my future. Will I soon be gone?
My heart grew hot within me; whenever I thought of it, the fire burned. Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:
Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.
Lord , tell me, what will happen to me now? Tell me, how long will I live? Let me know how short my life really is.
LORD, show me mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know my destiny.
" Lord , how long will I live? When will I die? Tell me how soon my life will end."
"Let me know, O Yahweh, my end, and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how transient I am."
O Jehovah, make me to know my end and the limit of my days, what it is . Let me know how lacking I am .
My hert was hote within me, & whyle I was thus musynge, the fyre kyndled: so that I spake with my tonge.
Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am.
My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing, the fire kindled; then spoke I with my tongue:
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: that I may know how fraile I am.
O God make me to knowe mine ende, and the number of my dayes: that I may be certified howe long I haue to lyue.
O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.
LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how frail I am.
I spak in my tunge; Lord, make thou myn eende knowun to me. And the noumbre of my daies what it is; that Y wite, what failith to me.
Yahweh, make me to know my end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it [is]; [that] I may know how frail I [am].
"LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
" Lord , remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.
"O Lord, let me know my end and how many days I have to live. Let me know that I do not have long to stay here.
" Lord , let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
Let me know, O Yahweh, mine end, And the measure of my days - what it is, I would know how short-lived I am.
(38-5) I spoke with my tongue: O Lord, make me know my end. And what is the number of my days: that I may know what is wanting to me.
"LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is!
`Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days -- what it [is],' I know how frail I [am].
"Tell me, what's going on, God ? How long do I have to live? Give me the bad news! You've kept me on pretty short rations; my life is string too short to be saved. Oh! we're all puffs of air. Oh! we're all shadows in a campfire. Oh! we're just spit in the wind. We make our pile, and then we leave it.
" Lord , make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
Contextual Overview
For the Chief Musician, for 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. 2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; And my sorrow was stirred. 3 My heart was hot within me; While I was musing the fire burned; Then spake I with my tongue: 4 Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am. 5 Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths; And my life-time is as nothing before thee: Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. Selah 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain show; Surely they are disquieted in vain: He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
make: Psalms 90:12, Psalms 119:84, Job 14:13
how frail I am: or, what time I have here
Reciprocal: Job 7:1 - Is there Job 14:5 - his days 1 Corinthians 7:29 - the time
Cross-References
And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?
and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
behold now, thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy lovingkindness, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die:
And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
and I have oxen, and asses, and flocks, and men-servants, and maid-servants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in thy sight.
And he said, What meanest thou by all this company which I met? And he said, To find favor in the sight of my lord.
And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found favor in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand; forasmuch as I have seen thy face, as one seeth the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.
And Joseph found favor in his sight, and he ministered unto him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
And it came to pass from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that Jehovah blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of Jehovah was upon all that he had, in the house and in the field.
But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master knoweth not what is with me in the house, and he hath put all that he hath into my hand:
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Lord, make me to know mine end,.... Not Christ, the end of the law for righteousness, as Jerom interprets it; nor how long he should live, how many days, months, and years more; for though they are known of God, they are not to be known by men; but either the end of his afflictions, or his, latter end, his mortal state, that he might be more thoughtful of that, and so less concerned about worldly things, his own external happiness, or that of others; or rather his death; see Job 6:11; and his sense is, that he might know death experimentally; or that he might die: this he said in a sinful passionate way, as impatient of his afflictions and exercises; and in the same way the following expressions are to be understood;
and the measure of my days, what it [is]; being desirous to come to the end of it; otherwise he knew it was but as an hand's breadth, as he says in Psalms 39:5;
[that] I may know how frail I [am]; or "what time I have here"; or "when I shall cease to be" u; or, as the Targum is, "when I shall cease from the world"; so common it is for the saints themselves, in an angry or impatient fit, to desire death; see Job 7:15; and a very rare and difficult thing it is to wish for it from right principles, and with right views, as the Apostle Paul did, Philippians 1:23.
u מה חדל אני "quanti aevi ego", Montanus; "quamdiu roundanus ero", Vatablus; "quam brevis temporis sim", Musculus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Lord, make me to know mine end - This expresses evidently the substance of those anxious and troubled thoughts Psalms 39:1-2 to which he had been unwilling to give utterance. His thoughts turned on the shortness of life; on the mystery of the divine arrangement by which it had been made so short; and on the fact that so many troubles and sorrows had been crowded into a life so frail and so soon to terminate. With some impatience, and with a consciousness that he had been indulging feelings on this subject which were not proper, and which would do injury if they were expressed “before men,” he now pours out these feelings before God, and asks what is to be the end of this; how long this is to continue; when his own sorrows will cease. It was an impatient desire to know when the end would be, with a spirit of insubmission to the arrangements of Providence by which his life had been made so brief, and by which so much suffering had been appointed.
And the measure of my days, what it is - How long I am to live; how long I am to bear these accumulated sorrows.
That I may know how frail I am - Margin: “What time I have here.” Prof. Alexander renders this: “when I shall cease.” So DeWette. The Hebrew word used here - חדל châdêl - means “ceasing to be;” hence, “frail;” then, destitute, left, forsaken. An exact translation would be, “that I may know at what (time) or (point) I am ceasing, or about to cease.” It is equivalent to a prayer that he might know when these sufferings - when a life so full of sorrow - would come to an end. The language is an expression of impatience; the utterance of a feeling which the psalmist knew was not right in itself, and which would do injury if expressed before men, but which the intensity of his feelings would not permit him to restrain, and to which he, therefore, gives utterance before God. Similar expressions of impatience in view of the sufferings of a life so short as this, and with so little to alleviate its sorrows, may be seen much amplified in Job 3:1-26; Job 6:4-12; Job 7:7; Job 14:1-13. Before we blame the sacred writers for the indulgence of these feelings, let us carefully examine our own hearts, and recall what has passed through our own minds in view of the mysteries of the divine administration; and let us remember that one great object of the Bible is to record the actual feelings of men - not to vindicate them, but to show what human nature is even in the best circumstances, and what the human heart is when as yet but partially sanctified.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 39:4. Lord, make me to know mine end — I am weary of life; I wish to know the measure of my days, that I may see how long I have to suffer, and how frail I am. I wish to know what is wanting to make up the number of the days I have to live.
