Psalm 39:1-3a

I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue;
I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,
While the wicked are before me.”
2I was mute with silence,
I held my peace even from good;
And my sorrow was stirred up.
3My heart was hot within me;
While I was musing, the fire burned.
-Psalm 39:1-3a

The tongue can be a powerful evil if misused. Though the tongue is incredibly powerful, it is also incredibly difficult to control. James says that a man who can bridle his tongue is a perfect man. What I find really interesting about the start of this Psalm is that the solution to not sin with his tongue is to guard his ways. Having wickedness present and influencing us in our lives can leave us to walk in a wrong way. Walking in a wrong way can lead us to speak in a wrong way. Remember that it is from the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. Many of us would do well to enter such a practice of being silent.

All of that being said, there is a much greater lesson for us to learn from this passage. David was grieved by sin in his own life as this is being written. This practice of silence that he adopted did nothing to fix the grief deep in his heart. The works that we try to use to patch up something that we said or did wrong prove ineffective. As David does later in this Psalm, we must confess our sin before the Lord and repent from them. Continue to walk in wisdom and pursue the Lord with a whole heart.