Singing Psalm 39 when you are left speechless
- Karen Wallace
- Apr 22, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 26, 2025
You have no words – no good ones, anyway. You have been left speechless by a turn of events, unexpected obstacles to plans you were counting on, distance in relationships you thought would be close. You are without words. You are thrown for a loop, saddened by a loved one’s betrayal, sickened that you are tempted to pull back your love. Words can’t do justice to express your sorrow. At least this time, you are careful to restrain uttering words of resentment.
Where do you run to? The fridge? The medicine cabinet? The gym? The doctor? The bar?
Singing Psalm 39 to wait when you are left speechless
This singer waits when he is left speechless. He somehow knows his troubles are lighter and more brief than they seem. His hope in what lies ahead lifts him above his current circumstances.
He waits with expectation that he will ultimately meet the Lord not with the angry gaze he deserves, but with merciful, gracious deliverance from his sin and from the scorn of those whose hope is only in what they can get out of this fleeting world.
Singing Psalm 39 to worship when you are left speechless
This singer runs to worship the one he waits for to bring him through all his troubles. The hard times, he knows, are merely good abrasive scrubbing brushes that reveal that there is a depth of stain so deep, they drive us to worship the only one who can remove it without a trace.
Once you meet Jesus who removes the plagues of your heart, your tongue once left speechless, now loosens with words of praise overflowing out from your heart through your lips. Your mouth can’t help but worship the one true, triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He continually works good from evil.
Singing Psalm 39 to wonder when you are left speechless
Once he reveals it and you see his truth and endurance next to your deceptions and life that is likened to a breath or mist, rather than being left speechless, you cannot help but sing his praises. You are continually in awe of him who, though so great and beyond you, chooses to make his home with you and teach you his gentle, humble ways.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
Hold not your peace at my tears!” ~ Psalm 39:12
April 22, 2022
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Heart ♥️ reflection
January 11, 2025
And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.~ Mark 8:29-30
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ~ Mark 10:48
Question: How do I know when it’s time to be quiet and when it’s time to speak about Jesus?
Heart reflection: As Jesus prepared his disciples to trust him, he will be patient with you. Speak to him, cry out to him. As he answered the man who cried out to him trusting his care for him, he will answer you. Once you trust God’s care for you, it’s uncanny how opportunities arise for you to listen for the needs of others. The Holy Spirit places the words in your mouth to speak about how it’s Jesus alone who can meet those needs. Jesus has both the ability and the compassion to make the blind see.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
Hold not your peace at my tears!” ~ Psalm 39:12
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The Psalms—Q&A
“And now, O Lord, what am I waiting for? My expectation You have surely been.” ~ Psalm 39:7
How can singing Psalm 39 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
What do you make of it when the best entertainment you can find to engage in does nothing but afflict you with boredom?
“I held my tongue; I opened not my mouth,
For this affliction came at your command.” ~ Psalm 39:9
You turn your attention from the world to fix your eyes on Jesus and his unfailing love, and as you do, you begin to perceive your afflictions as they actually are—light and momentary—achieving for you an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all. Joy replaces malaise in your heart. Rather than seeking thrills that come up empty, you come to expect that what you’ve been waiting for all along is the resolve to unapologetically find purpose in following Jesus because that’s what you were made to do.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” ~ Romans 8:35
“O night divine!” O day divine brought forth by the Bright Morning Star! “Fall on your knees!” Can you keep the wonder going past December, making much of your King, the Lord and Savior Jesus, each day through every sun and moon rise, every sun and moon set, all year long? Not hype but pure affection and adoration?
“I played my best for him.”
“Then he smiled at me.”
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
December 26, 2025
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