I cannot make any changes to my configure.php files or change my sql password.
If doing this correctly, you should be installing fresh 1.3.9h with a new Database to start with then apply your old DB backup(import) into this new DB and re-run zc_install to upgrade the DB

Any thoughts on how I can get the configure file to let me make changes again? What should I try?
Probably file permissions are set to 444
Use your host provideded tools to change permissions to 644 make edits and reset to 444 when done