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 39:9

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"I became dumb; and I opened not my mouth" [Psalm 39:9]. But it was to guard against "the foolish man," that "I became dumb, and opened not my mouth." For to whom should I tell what is going on within me? "For I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; for He will speak peace unto His people." But "There is no peace," says the Lord, "to the wicked." [Isaiah 48:22] "I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; because it is Thou that made me." Was this the reason that you opened not your mouth, "because God made you"? …

Exposition on Psalm 39 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

The patience he had, he shows when he says, "I was dumb." A sign of patience is that when words of reproach are brought against a man, he does not return evil for evil, as Christ, 1 Pet. 2: "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return." And therefore he says, "I was dumb and did not open my mouth." And this can be referred to two things. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗