I 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.
As Psalms 37:1-40 is the subsequent, calm meditation on the right demeanour of the believer when persecuted by flourishing sinners. Psalms 39:1-13 represents the agitation of spirit to which he is tempted in the heat of the conflict.
Psalms 39:1-13.-David had resolved to keep his tongue bridled while the wicked are before him; but the fire, compressed for a time, at last broke out in impatient complaints because God had made his life but an handbreadth (Psalms 39:1-6); return to believing hope (Psalms 39:7-13); he acknowledges that his sin is the cause of his suffering: as it is God's doing, he will be dumb as to murmuring, while he cries more than ever, begging, with tears, that God will comfort him during his short sojourn on earth.
Title. - To the chief Musician, (even) to Jeduthun. Here, and Psalms 77:1-20, and 1 Chronicles 16:38, Jedithun in the Hebrew [the letter yodh (y) for the letter waw (w)], but usually Jeduthun. The sons of Jeduthun had as their special office to "prophesy with the harp, to give thanks, and to praise the Lord" (1 Chronicles 25:1; 1 Chronicles 25:3). We must not, then, with (Gesenius, explain here and Psalms 62:1-12; Psalms 77:1-20, title, 'upon an instrument,' or 'according to a melody invented by Jeduthun.'
I said - I prescribed it to myself as a fixed law.
I will take heed to my ways - an expression of David, found also in his charge to Solomon (1 Kings 2:4). The "ways" are one's whole course of acting and speaking.
That I sin not with my tongue - by impatient murmuring against God, and by doubting as to His righteousness and goodness in respect to me. In spite of his resolution here, he fell into this sin subsequently (Psalms 39:4-5).
I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me - Hebrew, 'while STILL х bª`owd (H5750)] the wicked is before me;' while as yet the wicked are not cut off, as Saul ultimately was, and as all the ungodly hereafter shall be (Psalms 37:12; Psalms 37:35-36). The sense is not, 'I will keep my mouth from impatient speech, so as not to give my wicked enemies occasion to triumph over my misfortune, and over religion as an unreality, because of my inconsistency (Psalms 39:8; Psalms 38:16; Psalms 35:26). For he might have murmured, without doing so in their presence. But here 'still,' or 'as yet,' marks that what he fears is, lest while the wicked is yet flourishing continually 'before him' (Psalms 37:35), he be betrayed thereby into impatient murmurings against God.