| Scripture |
Expanded Comments | Additional Comments |
| 1 To the Overseer, to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. |
I will take heed – If our ways please the Lord our utterances will be right. R4804:3
With my tongue – The tongue is potent in its influence, beyond any other member of the body, for either good or evil. R4805:1, R4804:6
Thereby we may honor God, or blaspheme him. R4804:3
In the unregenerate the tongue is a fire, stimulating all the fallen passions. R4805:2
The perfect mastery of our words is to be sought by vigilant, faithful effort. R4805:2
To utter an injurious remark against another, and then to add, "I do not know whether it is true or not," is to show that the speaker is exercised by an evil spirit. R2444:6
Keep my mouth – To the end that, when we speak, our speech may be with grace, seasoned with salt, and that under all circumstances we may speak as the oracles of God. R1937:6
Satan and his angels are seeking to subvert the Lord's people and catch them in their words. R5518:2
With a bridle – A restraint, a controlling influence. R4804:3
While the wicked – The wicked one, who tempts and tries the righteous. R1937:4, R5518:2
The evilly inclined of the world, and those with a knowledge of the Lord who are in opposition to him. R4804:6
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I – Jesus.
I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me – So as not to give them any ammunition against me. Jesus followed this when he appeared before Pilate. |
| I have said, 'I observe my ways, Against sinning with my tongue, I keep for my mouth a curb, while the wicked [is] before me.' |
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| 2 I was dumb [with] silence, I kept silent from good, and my pain is excited. |
Dumb with silence – The safest attitude for a saint when being tried. R1937:5
Even from good – From doing or saying what seemed good in my own sight. R1937:5
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I was dumb with silence – So much so that Pilate was amazed. Matt. 27:13-14; Mark 15:5 |
| 3 Hot [is] my heart within me, In my meditating doth the fire burn, I have spoken with my tongue. |
The fire burned – A fiery trial. R1937:5
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| 4 'Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days what it [is],' I know how frail I [am]. |
Measure of my days – However vexing our experiences, they will soon be over. R1937:5
How frail I am – Realizing the vanity of all earthly things, and their inability to satisfy or comfort, and that our days are but as a handbreadth. R1937:5
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| 5 Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age [is] as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity [is] every man set up. Selah. |
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Thou has made my days as an handbreadth – A span. At the end of the 31/2 years of drout, Elijah sent his servant who saw a cloud "like a man's hand." Elijah immediately responded that his servant should tell king Ahab that it was going to rain. Thus it may be that this has reference to a period of 31/2 years (literal or symbolic). |
| 6 Only, in an image doth each walk habitually, Only, [in] vain, they are disquieted, He heapeth up and knoweth not who gathereth them. |
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| 7 And, now, what have I expected O Lord, my hope it [is] of Thee. |
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| 8 From all my transgressions deliver me, A reproach of the fool make me not. |
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From all my transgression – Having looked this up it may be that the various translations are implying the word "my" here. Rather it seems a better rendering would be "From all transgressions free me." Certainly our Lord had no transgressions to be freed from. For His body members this is not so. We have many transgressions (after the flesh) that we need to be freed from. But we should remember that the New Creature does not sin. - 1 John 3:9 |
| 9 I have been dumb, I open not my mouth, Because Thou Thou hast done [it]. |
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| 10 Turn aside from off me Thy stroke, From the striving of Thy hand I have been consumed. |
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| 11 With reproofs against iniquity, Thou hast corrected man, And dost waste as a moth his desirableness, Only, vanity [is] every man. Selah. |
Like a moth – When sin deprived humanity of the right to life, immediately the jewel began to lose its perfection of brilliancy and beauty. R279:1
"Yea, man giveth up the ghost (life) and where is he?" (Job 14:10) A209
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| 12 Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, And [to] my cry give ear, Unto my tear be not silent, For a sojourner I [am] with Thee, A settler like all my fathers. |
And a sojourner – A law-abiding, tax-paying alien, looking for protection under the laws, but not compelled to fight against the rightful king. F594
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| 13 Look from me, and I brighten up before I go and am not! |
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