Psalms 39:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

I was dumb with silence; I was so long and so obstinately silent, that I seemed to myself and to others to be dumb. Two words put together expressing the same thing, to aggravate or increase it. Or, I was dumb with quietness, i.e. not out of sullenness, but with submissiveness to God's dispensations, which is oft noted by silence. I held my peace, even from good; I forbore to speak what I justly might upon that occasion, lest the flood-gates of speech being once opened, and speech stirring up my passion, I should by degrees break forth into some indecent and sinful expressions, to the dishonour of God, the wounding of mine own conscience, and the offence of others. or this may be a proverbial speech, signifying strict silence; like that Genesis 31:29, speak to him neither good nor bad, i.e. nothing at all, to wit, about that matter, to persuade him to return. My sorrow was stirred; my silence did not assuage my grief, but increase it, as it naturally and commonly doth.