MUSING HEARTS

“My HEART was hot within me; while I was MUSING, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue” – Psalm 39:3

Seeking Hearts are often MUSING HEARTS: “My HEART was hot within me; while I was MUSING, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue” (Psa.39:3). As seeking hearts are blessed, so musing hearts are rewarded. The muse is a source of creativity and artistic inspiration. A muse gives an artist ideas or a desire to create art, music, or poetry. To muse is to meditate, wonder, or marvel on a subject; to become engrossed in thought; or to ruminate or reflect over something carefully, deeply, thoughtfully, and thoroughly. Charles Spurgeon wrote: “There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech”! Men hardly muse in these days of busy-ness and hurried existence. Yet, God is the Greatest Muse! When He ignites musing hearts with His Living Fire, fountains of inspiration, Wisdom, and Strength, are unlocked!

Verses 1-3 of Psalm 39 describe David’s silent burdens and agony. The company of sinners was a grief to his soul. In this instance, silence was not golden to him, as his “heart was hot within” (v.3a). The metaphors “my heart was hot” and “the fire burned,” suggest anger or inner turmoil (Dt.19:6; Eze.36:5). The more he reflected on the situation, the more he became exasperated. He therefore began by recounting his prayer – asking God’s help to not speak foolishly or sinfully in the presence of the wicked. He knew how his words could be misunderstood and misused by such persons; they could even be labelled as a criticism of God and His ways. David was “mute with silence” in order not to utter his doubts and fears before an inappropriate audience (v.2).

In his patience, David soon felt the pressure that one feels when intense thoughts and feelings are held back from being expressed. His heart became gradually agitated and his feelings increasingly intense. The attempt to suppress his emotions only reawakened, rekindled and re-fired them. That “the fire burned” while he was musing could also infer: “in my meditation the fire burned.” That is, while he was dwelling on the subject, agitating it in his mind, the flame of inspiration was re-ignited and his thoughts found utterance. He could no longer suppress his feelings; and he gave vent to them in words.

David’s gloomy silence was broken in the best way – by humble prayer to God, and soon gave way to wise words: “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am” (v.4). He would not speak his fears and doubts before the wicked, but poured them out before His God. If our hot heart must speak, the better it speaks with God, and not man! Here, David asked God for wisdom to know the shortness and the frailty of his life. This was not a prayer inspired by a desire to know when life would end or a request to be told the date of death. Rather, it was a prayer for an accurate apprehension of the fact that life quantitatively – as to the number of its days – is as nothing. David compared his days to a “handbreadth,” one of the smallest units of measurement in ancient Israel (v.5). Humanity walks about vainly and like a shadow, without substance (v.6).

Although David was a champion, an accomplished warrior, leader, celebrity, skilled poet, musical genius, and king, his musing heart understood that he, like everyone – was at his best state – merely a vapour, a puff of steam or smoke. If anyone might have thought more highly of himself, David had the right to; but his musing heart taught him otherwise! Since life is short, the only real meaning of existence must be our relationship to God, the eternal One! That’s what David expressed next: his expectation, hope and trust in God, and not in himself or another (vv.7-11). He ended with a humble prayer for restored favour and renewed strength (vv.12:13). In right standing and friendship with the Living God, he received wisdom to understand and prepare for life beyond this life.