Psalms 39:4

"Jehovah, make me to know mine end,

And the measure of my days, what it is;

Let me know how frail I am."

Barnes and many other scholars have labeled this request of David, "As an expression of impatience ... which the psalmist knew was not right";[13] but it is possible that something else is intended here. Addis points out that, according to Duhm, "In this Psalm, the psalmist has the idea of personal and conscious immortality before him. He longs to know whether his life, or at least his full conscious life, is to cease with death; and he here asks God to teach him this mystery."[14]

Only a very slight emendation to the text led to Duhm's translation of this clause in Psalms 39:4, "Let me know whether I shall cease to be." This more properly fits the great prophet David than does the other supposition. Hengstenberg, as quoted by Rawlinson, also insisted that the only possible translation of this clause is, "That I may know when I shall cease to be."[15]

As Yates pointed out, "This prayer is essentially a prayer for knowledge,"[16] and, of course, there can be no criticism of any such prayer.