Please read Psalm 39 (13 verses)

The psalmist seeks the silence of lack of commitment to avoid the onslaught of any spoken sin. He refuses to speak even to rejoice in the Lord. The longer he is silent the hotter the fire in his heart burns. He does not commit to anything either good or bad, but he finds no peace in his being. Finally the tension is too much and he speaks to the Lord and asks the Lord to show him the sum of his life and the measure of his days. Even though he is a child of God, his days on earth are a mere breath to the Lord. The writer recognises that people are only phantoms that inhabit life for a short while and then disappear and are forgotten, just like vapour.

We rush about the try to make a life for ourselves, but it is folly for we leave everything we accumulate to another person. The psalmist acknowledges the hand of the Lord in all his situations and that the silence is the effect of the lord’s dealings in his life. The writer is beholden to the Lord and recognises his complete dependence on Him who made him. He recognises the work of God in rebuke and comes to the Lord in repentance and contrition.

The psalmist recognise that he has no hold on the Lord and no rights before him, like a foreigner in a strange land, he is a stranger to the Lord. He asks the Lord to hear him and not to remain deaf to his calls for help. He asks God to turn away from him so that he can rejoice again and enjoy life like he used to. He knows this is only possible through repentance and faith and the confession of that faith in the spoken word.