to tie fast · verb, niphal perfect, 1st person common singular
opened
אֶפְתַּח'ef.tach-
H6605
to open wide (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
mouth
פִּ֑יPi
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
didst
עָשִֽׂיתָ'a.Si.ta
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not r…
1 Samuel 3:18 And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good.
2 Samuel 16:10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who s…
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be th…
Job 40:4-5 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit…
Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the peopl…
Psalms 38:13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 39:7–end
The psalmist, having meditated on the shortness and uncertainty of life, and the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend all the comforts of life, here, in these verses, turns his eyes and heart heaven-ward. When there is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature it is to be found in God, and in communion with him; and to him we should be driven by our disappointments in the world. David here expresses,
I. His dependence on God, Psa 39:7. Seeing all is vanity, and man himself is so, 1. He despairs of a happiness in the things of the world, and disclaims all expectations from it: "Now, Lord, what wait I for? Even nothing from the things of sense and time; I have nothing to wish for, n…
Patiently submissive, he prays for the removal of his chastisement, and that he may not be a reproach.
John Gill on Psalms 39:9
I was dumb, I opened not my mouth,.... This refers either to his former silence, before he broke it, Psalm 39:1, or to what he after that came into again, when he had seen the folly of his impatience, the frailty of his life, the vanity of man, and all human affairs, and had been directed to place his hope and confidence in the Lord, Psalm 39:5; or to the present frame of his mind, and his future conduct, he had resolved upon; and may be rendered, "I am dumb"; or "will be dumb, and will not open my mouth" (e); that is, not in a complaining and murmuring way against the Lord, but be still, and know or own that he is God;
because thou didst it; not "because thou hast made me", as Austin reads…
Psalm 39:7-9
7. And now, O Lord! [72] what do I wait for? my hope is towards thee. 8. Deliver me from all my sin; do not make me the reproach of the foolish. [73] 9. I was dumb; I will not open my mouth, because thou hast done it.
7. And now, O Lord! what do I wait for? David, having acknowledged that his heart had been too much under the influence of ardent and impetuous emotion, from which he had experienced great disquietude, now returns to a calm and settled state of mind; and from this what I have before stated is rendered still more obvious, namely, that this psalm consists partly of appropriate prayers and partly of inconsiderate complaints. I have said that David here begins to pra…
The Church Fathers
For my part, I realized that this happens to me with your permission, and I waited longer in the knowledge that I would receive help from the same quarter from which comes also the allowance of my suffering.
"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"? That is strange; for did not God make your mouth, that you should speak? "He that planted the ear, does He not hear? He that formed the eye, does He not see?" God has given you a mouth to speak with; and do you say, "I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because You made me"? Or does the clause, "Because You made me," belong to the verse that follows?
Whosoever feareth sleepeth not, and if he sleepeth, he seeth in his dream the cause of his fear; he eateth not, and he drinketh not, and if the force of natural craving compel him, fear is mingled with his meat and drink. Everything which attacketh the man who is filled with the fear of God abideth outside him, for fear keepeth fast hold upon the place of his understanding, and upon all the places of ingoing and outgoing of the city of his soul. Like the watchmen who stand by the gates of the city, even so doth fear keep fast hold upon the places of ingoing and outgoing of the soul, and it permitteth no act or thought to enter in or to go forth which it examineth not; for it neither permitteth any internal thought whatsoever to go forth, nor any external act that is not seemly to go in. And moreover this Prophet maketh known in other places the fear of God; "My flesh contracteth through fear of Thee, and I am afraid of Thy judgments." And again he saith, "I am like a wine skin in ice, but I have not forgotten Thy commandments." And again he saith, "Sorrow is in my heart all the day long. How long, O Lord, wilt thou turn Thy face from me? How long wilt Thou forget me, for ever? How long wilt Thou set trouble in my soul?" And again he saith, "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones tremble, and my soul is greatly moved. I am weary with my groaning; every night make I my bed to swim; and I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye hath become sick because of Thine anger"; now it is evident that all these things arose from [his] fear of God. And again he saith, "I roared by reason of the groaning of my heart"; and again he saith, "Lead me, O Lord, in Thy fear and righteousness"; and again he saith, "There is no soundness in my flesh before the fear of Thee, and there is no health in my bones in the presence of my sins. For my iniquities have gone over my head; and [they are] as a heavy burden heavy upon me. My wounds stink and are corrupt, and in the presence of my iniquities I tremble greatly. All the day long I walk in sadness. For my ankles are filled with trembling. I am much moved, and I am brought to great misery." And again he saith, "My heart is turned back, and my strength hath forsaken me; and the light of my eyes is no longer with me." And again he saith, "I kept silent, and I was sorrowful, and I was afflicted even from good; And my sickness was stirred. My…
Dictionary and topics
Dumb — From natural infirmity (Ex. 4:11); not knowing what to say (Prov. 31:8); unwillingness to speak (Ps. 39:9; Lev. 10:3). Christ repeatedly restored the dumb (Matt. 9:32, 33; Luke 11:14; Matt. 12:22) to…
Jeduthun — Lauder; praising, a Levite of the family of Merari, and one of the three masters of music appointed by David (1 Chr. 16:41, 42; 25:1-6). He is called in 2 Chr. 35:15 “the king’s seer.” His…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
Afflicted Saints · Should be resigned — Should be resigned
Resignation · EXEMPLIFIED — EXEMPLIFIED
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
(Heb.: 39:8-12) It is customary to begin a distinct turning-point of a discourse with ועתּה: and now, i.e., in connection with this nothingness of vanity of a life which is so full of suffering and unrest, what am I to hope, quid sperem (concerning the perfect, vid., on Psa 11:3)? The answer to this question which he himself throws out is, that Jahve is the goal of his waiting or hoping. It might appear strange that the poet is willing to make the brevity of human life a reason for being calm, and a ground of comfort. But here we have the explanation. Although not expressly assured of a future life of blessedness, his faith, even in the midst of death, lays hold on Jahve as the Living One an…
The psalmist links suffering with God’s discipline, assuming that it is punishment for his sin.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 39:9
I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. This had been far clearer if it had been rendered, "I am silenced, I will not open my mouth." Here we have a nobler silence, purged of all sullenness, and sweetened with submission. Nature failed to muzzle the mouth, but grace achieved the work in the worthiest manner. How like in appearance may two very different things appear! silence is ever silence, but it may be sinful in one case and saintly in another. What a reason for hushing every murmuring thought is the reflection, "because thou didst it."! It is his right to do as he wills, and he always wills to do that which is…
