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HOW TO HAVE QUIET TIME (Psalm 39)

We are living in a world that has become so noisy and so accustomed to noise, I am afraid that we are losing our silence. We are losing our ability to be still and be quiet. Maybe we are afraid of what we will think about in the silence or what God will say to us.

Look at the first two verses of Psalm 39. “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.”

The psalmist realized that the best thing he could do was put his hand over his mouth and say nothing.

I remember my pastor saying years ago, “Discouraged people usually overstate their problems.” That is very true. We get so consumed with something and we just want to speak constantly and be heard. At times we will excuse our comments by saying, “I’m just going to vent for a moment.” Be careful when you are doing that because you might say something you will later regret or that could hurt someone else.

Be cautious.

Know that there is a time to be silent.

The wisest man who ever lived, aside from the Lord Jesus, was Solomon. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:7 that there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” There is a time for both, but notice which one he listed first. I think we would do better when speaking if we first took time to be silent. Perhaps what we said would be more fruitful and productive if we first took time to think, pray, and meditate. We need to make sure that what comes out of our mouths gives life and not death.

That is in essence the principle of Psalm 39. I find it almost amusing that the inscription for the psalm reads, “To the chief musician, even to Jeduthun, a psalm of David.” We don’t know when David wrote it, but Jeduthun was a man who, throughout the book of Psalms, was connected to public worship.

Think about it. This psalm is about public worship, and the idea expressed throughout is to keep quiet. The congregation is encouraged that there is a time to be still and quiet, considering what God is telling them. With that in mind, I would submit that there are two things we must do if we are to be silent.

Think. Verse 3: “My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue.” Notice the divine order here. First he mused, then he spoke. He used his brain, then his tongue. He had quiet time, then spoke about what he learned during quiet time.

I think there is great instruction here. The word “muse” is not one we use very much anymore, and perhaps it is because we are much more familiar with the word “amuse.” We must learn to be still and quiet before the Lord. That is why the Bible says in Psalm 141:3, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” In other words, “Lord, guard what comes out of my mouth and help me learn to take the time to think about what I am going to say.”

What should we muse on? Verse 4 tells us: “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.” Maybe we like the noise because we do not want to think about the end. But each one of us is weak and frail with the promise of eventual death, and we should all muse on these things from time to time. That is not morbid; it is a dose of reality that will put things in perspective. You will make God big when you realize how truly small and insignificant you are.

Verse 5: “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.” That last word is a signal to think about what we just read. The distance from your thumb to your little finger is about the same as the span of your life. Age is nothing to the eternal God. Time is insignificant.

Verse 6: “Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.” We all put on a good show. But think about your wealth and possessions, which really amount to very little. It is all so temporary.

Verse 7: “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.” This brings it all to a head. Thinking about the brevity of life, the surety of death, the fragility of the body, and the temporal nature of material things — it all drives you to the eternal One, who is the Lord.

Verses 8-11: “Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.”

What else should we think about? Sin and its effects. There is so much frivolity and laughter today. The world is laughing its way to Hell. I think that sometimes believers are laughing about things they should be weeping over. It is time to get serious about some things, like sin and its consequences for us as well as the next generation.

A fantastic word picture is displayed in verse 11. Have you ever seen a moth catch fire and be consumed? It is gone in an instant. That is what happens to a life that is marred by sin. We need to think on these things.

In Luke 24:32 we read about the men traveling to Emmaus who met with Jesus on the road. “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” This is similar to David’s comment in Psalm 39:3 about how “my heart was hot within me.” Thinking about serious things like this will help us know what to say and when to say it.

Pray. Verses 12-13: “Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.”

When the psalmist finished thinking and began to speak, the first One he talked to was the Lord. The best thing you can do with your tongue is talk to God about it.

How interesting that the book of James, which contains the classic passages about the tongue, is filled with prayer. It begins with a prayer for wisdom, and one of the final verses James 5:16, which contains these words: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

The greatest conversation you can ever have is with Heaven, with the Lord Himself. Let me challenge you to find a quiet place today to do just that. Think about scripture by meditating on Psalm 39. After musing on the eternal truth of the Word of God, talk to Him in prayer.

You will find, after you come out of that quiet place and time, you will have much more to say. And when you speak, God will use you to help someone else.