Poetic License?
I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, and my sorrow grew worse; Psalm 39:2 NASB
Mute and silent– When YHVH uses more than one word to communicate a single idea, we pay very close attention. For example, Genesis 1:26 uses two words to describe the image of God in Man. They aren’t simply synonyms. The differences in shades of meaning help us realize that the image of God in Man is multifaceted and purposeful. In this psalm, David uses two words to describe the same general idea of deliberate vocal restraint. Is David just being poetic or is that something here that requires depth analysis?
The first Hebrew word is ʾālam. It means, “to bind, to be made dumb.” It is used in the Niphal tense, i.e., a kind of passive state where the subject is acted upon rather than the actor. In this verse, David indicates that he is made mute, as if someone else binds his voice so that he cannot speak.
The second word is dûmîyâ. A comment in TWOT is interesting: “David found that when he kept silent out of fear of his enemies, his distress grew worse (Ps 39:2).”[1] But there isn’t any indication in this psalm that David refrains from speaking due to fear. In fact, we will discover that his motivation is quite different. The NASB’s translation doesn’t help here. This word is not a verb, despite the translation’s implication. It is a noun. David says, “I was made speechless as if bound and the result was silence.” This word connects us to other derivatives associated with the silence of judgment, the silence of pagan false gods and the silence of death. There are times when withholding speech is a good thing, but context determines the ethical value, and often dûmîyâ indicates some terrible condition.
David wasn’t afraid to speak. In fact, everything in him desires to voice his condemnation of the wickedness he sees. But, as if bound by some alien force, he can’t determine how to say what he feels. And because he can’t find the proper way, he feels like a prisoner to his own conflict, so much so that (as we shall see) he is even unable to do what is right.
Isn’t this experience also ours? Haven’t you been in a situation where you know you want to say something, where you feel you need to say something, but you just can’t figure out how to say something without potentially making the situation worse? Did you feel as if you were tied down, your voice held captive by some conflicting source? You didn’t speak. You held it all in. And what happened? The internal battle got worse. But not because you were afraid to speak. Rather, you didn’t know howto speak. Mute and silent. Captive to your own confusion. Just like David.
Topical Index: mute, ʾālam, silent, dûmîyâ, Psalm 39:2
[1]Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. 1999 (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (186). Chicago: Moody Press.
I think everybody knows that they are disconnected and messing up; what they lack is a reference point: a true measuring stick: a straw for the drowning to grasp. I think we can lose our ability to feel connected and loved. Anybody that notices or cares or even attempts to tell you what they think you are doing wrong (which is a form of accusing you) will do so, I think, because it all feels like love – on both ends, but we have to look at fruit. At that point, I think they can run the risk of becoming the new center of gravity in your universe: the new center of love. Dangerous place! Have you ever made a move toward such a drowning person? Their tendency is to pull you down with them, and I think that happens because somewhere along the way we tend to attempt step into the place only God should be in with them. That’s a heavy place!
I think eventually this experience can exacerbate our instinct to avoid ALL people in ditches. Have you ever had something happen to you that was not your fault, but it seems that it brought out the worst in those around you towards you? Instead of comfort and support, they started in on you like Job’s ‘friends’? This is a real phenomenon I have observed over and over. We tend to judge, ‘fix’, distance ourselves from, pity (form of condescension); anything but identify! WHY? Indigenous societies justify this behavior by saying the person is “cursed” but I think that’s just another way to avoid getting involved (which MAY actually be the best lost folks can do).
If you set out to really walk with a person weighted down, either by ‘bad luck’, their own sin, or someone else’s, I think you have to be prepared for the peculiar temptations of the flesh in these places. The flesh in us can be tempted to ‘pile it on’ if it resonates with the sin in another, or it can subscribe to the “curse” label, or it can attempt to ‘fix’ the sufferer under the assumption that that will make the problem go away. If the flesh resonates with the pity aspect, I think we can end up finding ourselves co-depending the person or the situation. Or we can just go straight to judging. This can take the form, I think, of either acting as that person’s Holy Spirit and taking moral responsibility for the condition of their soul (or at least their choices, in which case we start manipulating and/or back seat driving) or we can think they need someone to divine the problem and tell them where they stand morally with it (this comes out as accusation most of the time, as I have experienced, anyway).
I think we do this with God, too; a lot! We think He just needs to understand His moral obligations better, so we proceed to define the problem for Him. I think depending on how or why we go about it, it can amount to accusing Him of failing to be God. And where do we learn all this? I suspect that we do it all with ourselves, first, as a knee jerk attempt to circumvent evil in the flesh: to ‘do’ God’s job of conviction and care for Him. (Why do we do this? I suspect it’s because of the way we got treated in the past and told that it was ‘love’!)
How do you cure a person of this frightful condition? In my case, I had to become convinced that NONE of the above worked. I ended up in a relationship where we both tried desperately to ‘fix’ each other; to be gods to each other – in the name of love, of course. Crash and burn. Time to start over. It all looked like righteousness – the rules of engagement – at one time, but as it all crumbled and we wore out, we got quieter and quieter. There came a time when I realized without a doubt that I did NOT KNOW what was ‘best’, or even what was ‘wrong’ for anybody: including myself! Astounding place! I had nothing left to say. May I stay in that place, is my prayer these days.
Such incredibly helpful words, thoughts and insights Laurita. I feel like I’m getting an overhaul from God and this is just one of the aspects of the overall. When I learn I need to keep my mouth shut, no one is asking for input and actually no one wants it at the time. I can see clearly but it does no good to try and clarify for anybody at that point. Set a watch….or a sentry on my mouth, oh Lord! Maybe what I’m experiencing is getting understanding in regards to situations, dynamics etc. a valuable gift but one that has to be used with great wisdom and impulse control ! I think, this is one of the things that is happening in my overhaul. He has not given us a spirit of timidity, but power, love and verbal self control ! (My translation! ) Me, who once was so inhibited am surprised that I am having to restrain myself from being “helpful “.
It did me good to go back and read the story of when Nathan confronted David concerning his sin and make some connections with this psalm. David’s judgment was unjust, as there is no liable cause for death in stealing sheep and although the other part was just, (4X restoration) it contained no mercy as the maximum sentence. What really struck me was that God didn’t apply the maximum to David in regards to the murder and adultery, but He left the sin unatoned for. (covered) Fourfold, (1) his child by Bathsheba, (2) Tamar and Amnon and the death of Amnon by Absolom, (3) Absolom, (4) last but certainly not least, Solomon who was given the wisdom of God but used it to divide and fracture everything David had sought to unify. Lesson learned. (?) I wonder what would have been written had David been willing to judge another in mercy rather than harshness. When I judge another, I liable myself to the same as none of us are without sin. That would make a guy want to shut up at least until I went to a closet to seek God’s face over a matter first. Perhaps that “binding muteness” is God’s mercy on us until we do so.
YHWH bless you and keep you…..
Life or death rides on the wings of our words. We live within a spirtual world one that has “the great cloud of witnesses ” all about us. Are we truley aware of this? Do we see through the dim glass and catch an occasionally glimpse of them? I know there are spiritual forces in the heavens . Life or death rides on the wings of our words and occasionally pull on the reins of tung. ..
I haven’t received any of today’s word since 11 December. What could the problem be?
According to my database, you received TW yesterday. Today’s edition went out late, so maybe this is now resolved.
Yes, I did find yesterday’s (12th). These are such important topics, so potentially transforming, I don’t wanna miss out on any of them. Thanks for your response and sorry for any impatience on my part!
I am not receiving TW since 11th too!?!
Yes, problems with the server. We are working on it. Please go to the web site to read until we get it fixed.
Join the I haven’t received any in the past several days either.
I can totally relate to the feeling of restraint in regards to speaking. It can be painful and frustrating. It must serve a greater good or purpose!?
Just a coupla more thoughts before we leave this thread, in lieu of, in my opinion, out of all the things that Skip has brought forward in the time I’ve been a participant here, this is, by far the most relevant issue to our days and where we live. The more subtle lesson and the deeper one concerning David and Bathsheba is, that God did not judge David. David did,by his judgement of another. David’s mistake seems to be that he transposed the worthlessness of the deed to the person. That however, isn’t the end of it, Perhaps. (?) David’s rage at the man who stole another’s sheep was really a transfer to another of his rage at himself, otherwise, why the death penalty for something that otherwise was a relatively minor issue. The question for us as believers is, are we engaged in the same activity? God, by His own mouth prefers restoration to destruction for those commiting evil. Who are we to oppose that and what are our consequences for doing so? I’ve found that the way to discern if repentance was real or if it was only about dousing the smoking tail feathers (in my life first) is to watch how we react to others. We can say we are sorry, but the tale is told when we judge another. What does it take to be a conduit of the living God in a world gone astray?
“What does it take to be a conduit of the living God in a world gone astray?” Yes, Shakespeare; I think, with you, that that is the REAL question! Yeshua said that He did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. How do we cooperate in heaven’s desire to save others from – primarily, I believe – themselves? All of us are our own worst enemy, after all. Our own poor choices, and acquiescence to the poor choices of others, must change, but what is the correct way to address that? Condemnation? All of us are already condemning/shaming/blaming/fearing ourselves! That already isn’t working!
Do please continue, Robert; this is a cliffhanger!
As a person who used to have much to say about a lot, I eventually found myself in a frustrated spare yourself the drama and don’t speak disposition. Something changed when I realized that people including myself are a work in progress. John 3:8 says … “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Who can judge that? What label can you paste on the wind? The best prescription for attempting to predict outcomes or controll is a heaping dose of “self-control” that comes with self awareness/connection. It’ll always start with the man in the mirror … the beam in one’s own eye. I learned to be patient with humans beginning with me. I love myself with patience, kindness, truth (the kind that hurts as well). I’m forgiving, compassionate and merciful with others because I apply these attributes of the Creator to myself. We love because he first loved us… as a result, I am able to give what I received.
What helped me here lately was “be anxious for nothing by prayer, petition with thanksgiving make your request known to God” (Phil 4) and “what causes fights and quarrels amongst you isn’t it your desires within … you do not ask God”(James 4). In other words I check my energy … am I anxious or angry about something? I pay attention as to whether a conversation that began in “faith” has now turned into “force.” Has some pet peeve of mine taken precedence over the way of the Spirit? Am I trying to finish in the flesh what I began in the spirit? As a leader David had to LEARN how to manage his emotions and the leading/timing of God in real time and so do we. Thank God there is sacrifice for unintentional sin.
Lovely gracious, and true.
In this situation for David, and similar such situations for us, is it really a matter of not KNOWING HOW to speak, or is it simply, as you say, realizing that not only will it do no good to speak, it will likely only make things worse to speak and that there is really nothing that can be said or done that will make any difference to correct the unacceptable situation?
For those who are seeking to be righteous, for the who are trying to operate by the spirit of wisdom from Elohim, it’s like you’re stuck in a state of powerlessness and helplessness, and especially with the knowledge that One who is greater than you as well as greater than those who are knowingly and purposefully perpetrating the senseless and unjust reprehensible acts seems to be aware and yet not intervening. It can be frustrating, exasperating, and even infuriating!
In my understanding of these kind of situations, it is a matter of “being made dumb” by the dumbness of those who are the cause of some wrongful, foolish, or wicked situations, and knowing that to speak, even with some otherwise possibly prophetic unction from the Ruach haKodesh, would not only fall to the ground, but more likely even fuel the wrongful, foolish, or wicked inclination in these selfishly ambition, arrogant morons!
The stubborn vanity of the unjust foolishness, irrationality, and insanity of such people, especially when there is the sense that they have the capacity of intelligence to know better, is, as I said, frustrating, exasperating, and even infuriating! And to be able to do nothing other than to stand by and continue to witness it is increasingly unbearable. Yet, to give in to the deep and justified emotions of the passion being felt in such a situation would be to give in to the flesh and, to some extent, make us no better than the one(s) we would be trying to reprove. For it is as scripture says, “A fool gives vent to his anger!” And so, we are made “dumb”, while the dumb prevail…..for a time. And then…..GOD will rule and execute His sovereign judgement with all His just vengeance and wrath…..and the righteous? Our tongues will finally be loosed. Our suffering and grieving in silent angry protest will finally come to an abrupt end, and we all burst forth with great joy and rejoicing! And we will all rejoice and give thanks! And we will all dance and sing!
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God,
In the mountain of His holiness.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.”
[Ps. 48:1-2]