Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 39:2

"I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; And my sorrow was stirred." — Psalms 39:2 (ASV)

I was dumb with silence - . The addition of the words “with silence” means that he was entirely or absolutely mute; he said nothing at all. The idea is that he did not allow himself to give utterance to the thoughts that were passing in his mind regarding God's dealings. He kept his thoughts to himself and endeavored to suppress them within himself.

I held my peace, even from good - I said nothing. I did not even say what I might have said in vindication of God's ways. I did not even endeavor to defend the divine character, or to explain the reasons for God's dealings, or to suggest any considerations that would tend to calm the feelings of complaint and dissatisfaction that might be rising in the minds of other men as well as my own.

And my sorrow was stirred - The anguish of my mind; my trouble. The word “stirred” here, rendered in the margin as “troubled,” means that the very fact of attempting to suppress his feelings—the purpose to say nothing in the case—was the means of increased anguish. His trouble on the subject found no outlet for itself in words, and eventually it became so unbearable that he sought relief by giving utterance to his thoughts and by coming to God to obtain relief. The state of mind referred to here is one that often occurs when a person broods over their own troubled thoughts and dwells upon things that are in themselves improper and rebellious. We are under no necessity of endeavoring to vindicate the psalmist in what he did here; nor should we take his conduct in this respect as our example.

He evidently, on reflection, regarded this as wrong and recorded it not as a pattern for others, but as a faithful transcript of what was passing at the time through his own mind. Yet, wrong as it was, it was something that often occurs even in the minds of good people. Even they, as in the cases referred to above, often have thoughts about God and His dealings that they do not dare to express, and that it would do harm to express.

They, therefore, hide them in their own hearts and often experience just what the psalmist did—increased trouble and perplexity from the very purpose to suppress them. They should go immediately to God. They may say to Him what would not be proper to say to men. They may pour out all their feelings before Him in prayer, with the hope that in such acts of praying, and in the answers that they will receive to their prayers, they may find relief.