"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. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred."
Psalm 39:1-2
Part 2
Yesterday:
“…I said.”
David was serious about his words.
“I will take heed to my ways.”
David was keeping himself in check.
“That I sin not with my tongue.”
David focused on what he said.
“I will keep my mouth with a bridle.”
David, at times, said he muzzled his mouth so that he would not speak.
Today:
This was especially true,
“While the wicked is before me.”
It seems David understood how easy it can be to get into an argument with those who have no use for the law and what is right.
In our verse, “the wicked = a lawless one” (Bullinger).
These kinds of “lawless” people have no worry about what comes out of their mouths. Nor did their actions give them cause to pause. But this phrase may mean more than that. This seems to be a time of temptation for David when “the wicked” are around.
“‘While the wicked is before me.’ This qualifies the silence, and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so sure to misuse even our holiest speech, that it is as well not to cast any of our pearls before such swine; but what if the Psalmist meant, ‘I was silent while I had the prosperity of the wicked in my thoughts,’ then we see the discontent and questioning of his mind, and the muzzled mouth indicates much that is not to be commended” (Spurgeon).
“While … before me — in beholding their prosperity”[1] (JFB).
“For the sight of their prosperity is a temptation…. This seems to be the sense, rather than that he was afraid of giving way to complaints in the hearing of the wicked, which might give occasion for ridicule or blasphemy.”[2]
David’s solution:
“I was dumb with silence; I held my peace.”
He did not say a word.
“Even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.”
Because David “held his peace,” he did not say anything wrong. But neither did he say anything good, right, or that praised God. His silence woke up his conscience, and his “sorrow was stirred.”
“My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue” (Psalm 39:3).
“The smoldering fire of passion within could no longer be restrained from bursting into a flame of words.”[3]
There are times when it is right for us not to publicly speak a word, but even in those times we need to be conversing with our Lord, we need His wisdom.
“The presence and prosperity of the wicked stirred him to the depths, but he carefully refrained from speech. There are hot moments in our lives when we do well, not to say what is in our hearts. But if our feelings demand a vent, let us get alone and speak out our hearts to God. A softer tone settles on heart and tongue when we reach His holy presence”[4] (Meyer).
Believers, when we are not sure whether to speak or not, let’s check in with the Lord and let Him help us control our words.
Quote: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29).
[1] Jamison, Fausset, and Brown. Jamison-Fausset-Brown’s Commentary, the electronic version in eSword.
[2] Cambridge Bible, the electronic version in eSword.
[3] Cambridge Bible, ibid.
[4] F.B. Meyer. Through the Bible Day by Day, the electronic version in eSword.