God addresses men here by two designations, the one having reference to their remoteness and isolation, and the other to their unity. To the Hebrew all distant places were islands. They were afar, scattered and lonely. Keeping silence before God and renewing strength are duties prescribed to all men, as are also the coming near and the speaking. The series of injunctions begins with silence and ends in speech.
I. Silence before God. (1) Shall we not be silent in the endeavour to realise that God is, and what He is? Unless we can bear to be silent and brood, the thought of God will not rise before us in fulness and splendour. (2) God speaks and we must listen in silence. With what glad silence should we listen to the Divine voice! Every one that would be truly in heart and soul God's must have times when he is purely passive and recipient, letting the word of God, in small select portions, drop into his soul in silence, his only effort being to realise that God is speaking. (3) Our silence in the presence of God will often take the form of thinking of ourselves. Thinking of self becomes sincere and profitable when it goes on consciously in God's presence.
II. Speech to God, following upon the silence. Silence before God leads to a stirring of the soul, a forth-putting of endeavour and a drawing nearer to God. Silence before God heaps a load on the heart, which can only be thrown off by speaking to God. Words before God give a relief that nothing else can. The relief will be in proportion to the entireness of the outpouring and to the nearness to God. If a man does not come near to God in confidence and trust, the relief obtained even by thousands of words will be small. But coming near to God and speaking to Him will relieve any soul, however burdened. And much more than freedom from pressure will be experienced. The convictions that gather in silence will be strengthened by speech. If they did not find expression they would begin to decay. Light injures roots, but it is needed for branches. In silence there is the rooting of conviction, but in speaking to God its expansion and growth.
J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox,p. 81.
References: Isaiah 41:1. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1215; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 2.