There’s good and bad silence. Good silence: the quietude of an evening alone after a busy day doing errands. Bad silence: the avoidant tendency to shut one another out when we are angry. Good silence: recognizing when your voice doesn’t need to be the center of attention. Bad silence: ignoring the fact that others are left out of the conversation.

You may have heard “Silence is violence”. Or perhaps “silence is golden”. In the season after Pentecost, we spent 8 weeks reading Interrupting Silence, exploring the theme of silence. Take a moment for good silence, allow yourself to draw your thoughts from the business of your day to focus on God and read Psalm 39. How does silence have power in your life today?

Psalm 39

I said, “I will watch my ways

so that I will not sin with my tongue;

I will guard my mouth with a muzzle

as long as the wicked are present.”

I was speechless and still;

I remained silent, even from speaking good,

and my sorrow was stirred.

My heart grew hot within me;

as I mused, the fire burned.

Then I spoke with my tongue:

“Show me, O LORD, my end

and the measure of my days.

Let me know how fleeting my life is.

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths,

and my lifetime as nothing before You.

Truly each man at his best

exists as but a breath.

Selah

Surely every man goes about like a phantom;

surely he bustles in vain;

he heaps up riches

not knowing who will haul them away.

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?

My hope is in You.

Deliver me from all my transgressions;

do not make me the reproach of fools.

I have become mute;

I do not open my mouth

because of what You have done.

Remove Your scourge from me;

I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity,

consuming like a moth what he holds dear;

surely each man is but a vapor.

Selah

Hear my prayer, O LORD,

and give ear to my cry for help;

do not be deaf to my weeping.

For I am a foreigner dwelling with You,

a stranger like all my fathers.

Turn Your gaze away from me,

that I may again be cheered

before I depart and am no more.”