Fathers

Psalms 39

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I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.” I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue: “Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather. Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish. I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 39:3

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"And while I was musing, the fire burned" [Psalm 39:3]....I reflected on the words of my Lord, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, you ought to have put My money to the exchangers, and I at My coming should receive it again with usury." [Matthew 25:26-27] And that which follows may God avert from those who are His stewards! Bind him hand and foot, and let him be cast into outer darkness; [Matthew 25:30] the servant, who was not a waster of his master's goods, so as to destroy them, but was slothful in laying them out to improve them. …

Exposition on Psalm 39 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

But the remedy of interior charity is applied; and therefore he says: "My heart grew hot within me," that is, the heat of charity was stirred up in my heart. Prov. 6: "Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn?" So it is impossible that a man should hide the words of God when his heart is inflamed with charity. Ps. 119: "Your word is a fire," etc. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗

Bernard of Clairvaux

A soul entangled in many sins can prepare for itself a certain ointment once it begins to reflect on its behavior, and collects its many and manifold sins, hems them together and crushes them in the mortar of its conscience. It cooks them, as it were, within a breast that boils up like a pot over the fire of repentance and sorrow, so that it can exclaim with the Prophet: "My heart became hot within me. …

Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 10 ↗