Sometimes when you meditate on the Word of God that you're studying, the Holy Spirit will show you something unique to your situation that you can put into practice. Sometimes you may see some things in the Word that you haven't heard taught before. When that happens, you have the opportunity to do further study and see how it plays out with the rest of the Word! Remember that Truths in the Word are established by 2 or 3 witnesses. That means that a particular principle found in the Word of God will be able to be found in at least another place or two in the Word. That's why I like to share other Scripture that you can check out to see that what's being shared here is actually Scriptural! Psalm 39 for today seemed a little cloudy and negative to me until the Holy Spirit pointed something out. Verses 1-2:
1I 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.
2I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
We see here that David had good intentions. He wanted to keep a hedge of protection around his life by watching his tongue. In fact to "take heed to" his ways and to "keep" his mouth is the same Hebrew word, "shamar", which means: to keep, to guard, to protect, to restrain, to preserve, to put a hedge around. That's a very good thing to do! But notice that verse 2 says that he was "dumb with silence" and "held his peace" EVEN from GOOD! That was the problem! He thought that by just not speaking anything, he would protect himself. The Word tells us to be SLOW to speak (James 1:19), but it doesn't say to be silent! In fact we are told in many places exactly WHAT to speak! THE WORD! Not SAYING anything doesn't CHANGE anything! Notice that when David tried to just not talk, the results were that his "sorrow was stirred"! "Sorrow" is the Hebrew word, "ke'eb", which means: physical or mental suffering, adversity, grief, pain and sorrow. "Was stirred" is the Hebrew word, "'akar", which means: to trouble, disturb, afflict or calamity. Keeping silent wasn't the answer! In order to protect our hearts from fear, worry, guilt, shame, anxiety and other "evil" thoughts, we need to reject those thoughts that are contrary to God's Word, and then REPLACE them with good, positive thoughts from the Word of God. Remind yourself of the promises! If you don't, then what happened to David will happen to you! Verse 3 from the Message translation is especially good here:
But the longer I kept silence - The worse it got — my insides got hotter and hotter. My thoughts boiled over; I spilled my guts.
He kept thinking the wrong things and not speaking out good things and he finally "spilled his guts". He should have meditated on the promises of the Word, declared the Word to himself and then when he did speak, it would have been Words of power and authority! We have been given instructions on how to deal with negative thoughts in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5:
5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Then we have been told how we are to think in Philippians 4:8:
8For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].
Do this and continue to speak good and Godly things with your mouth and you WILL have good and Godly things manifesting in your life! God is so good and His Word is so powerful! Let's USE it!
Shalom in Him!
