Bible Commentaries
Psalms 39

Verses 1-13

Again the circumstances are sorrow and affliction. The attitude of the sufferer is true dignity. If the psalm be taken in connection with the preceding one, it marks an advance, perhaps a gain out of that experience. Then we saw a man crying out for Jehovah and His help. Here is a man still undergoing trial and acutely conscious of it, but he has found the secret place of communion and this conditions his attitudes. Toward his foes he maintains a great silence, the secret of which he presently declares-"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it." Yet the things he sees strangely stir him and at last he breaks the silence.

Here again the result of his knowledge of Jehovah is seen in that he speaks to Jehovah and not to his enemies. Thus he sets the strange prosperity of the wicked in relation to God. All the apparent success is seen to be nothing worth and this sorrowful man makes his personal appeal to Jehovah.