Psalm 32:3 Komentář

This psalm, though it speaks not of Christ, as many of the psalms we have hitherto met with have done, has yet a great deal of gospel in it. The apostle tells us that David, in this psalm, describes "the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without words," Rom 4:6. We have here a summary, I. Of gospel grace in the pardon of sin (Psa 32:1, Psa 32:2), in divine protection (Psa 32:7), and divine guidance (Psa 32:8). II. Of gospel duty. To confess sin (Psa 32:3-5), to pray (Psa 32:6), to govern ourselves well (Psa 32:9, Psa 32:10), and to rejoice in God (Psa 32:11). The way to obtain these privileges is to make conscience of these duties, which we ought to think of - of the former for our comfort, of the latter for our quickening, when we sing this psalm. Grotius thinks it was designed to be sung on the day of atonement. A psalm of David, Maschil.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 32 A Psalm, of David, Maschil. This is the first of the psalms that bears this title: some think it is the name of a musical instrument, on which this psalm was sung; others the first word of a song, to the tune of which it was sung, as Aben Ezra; some say it is so called, because it was explained by an interpreter, as Jarchi; and the Rabbins (k) say, that every psalm that is called "Maschil" was dictated by an interpreter: the Targum renders it "a good understanding"; and the word properly signifies "instruction", or "causing to understand" (l); and it may be the apostle has some reference to this title in Co1 14:15; It is an instructive psalm; a didascalic ode, as Junius renders it: it gives an account how the psalmist was instructed under a dispensation of Providence; and was brought to a sense of sin, and acknowledgment of it; and was favoured with a discovery of pardoning grace; and in it he takes upon him to instruct others, Psa 32:8, and does instruct in the doctrine of the pardon of sin by the grace of God. (k) Elias Levita in Tishbi, p. 271. (l) "erudiens", Musculus, Munster, Vatablus, Montanus; "informans", Gejerus; "an instructing psalm", Ainsworth.

When I kept silence,.... Was unthoughtful of sin, unconcerned about it, and made no acknowledgment and confession of it to God, being quite senseless and stupid; the Targum adds, "from the words of the law"; which seems to point at sin as the cause of what follows; my bones waxed old; through my roaring all the day long; not under a sense of sin, but under some severe affliction, and through impatience in it; not considering that sin lay at the bottom, and was the occasion of it; and such was the violence of the disorder, and his uneasiness under it, that his strength was dried up by it, and his bones stuck out as they do in aged persons, whose flesh is wasted away from them; see Psa 102:3.

"Because I kept silence, my bones waxed old:" because I made not with my mouth "confession unto salvation," [Romans 10:10] all firmness in me has grown old in infirmity. "Through my roaring all the day long" [Psalm 32:3]: when I was ungodly and a blasphemer, crying against God, as though defending and excusing my sins.

Strong spirits do not wax old from continual shouting to God, but they are renewed from day to day. From silence they wax old, entangling people who are corrupted through false desires.

Let no one think that something that he hides away in the innermost parts of his conscience can be hidden from the Lord.

"Because I was silent." This is the second part, where the way of arriving at the remission of sins is set forth. And concerning this he does three things. First, he sets forth the state of sin. Second, the conversion that is the cause of the remission of sin, at "I have made known my offense." He says therefore, "Because I was silent," etc. There seems to be a contradiction here. For while he cries out all day, he says he is silent. I respond: he was silent about what ought to have been said, but he was crying out what ought not to have been said, much less cried out. And in both there is sin. Concerning the first, Is. 6: "Woe to me, because I was silent." For the sinner ought to declare his sins: Job 16: "If I am silent, it does not depart from me; but now," etc. Therefore, "Because I was silent about my sins, my bones grew old," that is, my interior strength failed. Often in Sacred Scripture, interior virtues are understood through bodily members. Hence by "bones," in which there is strength, interior virtue is understood. And because what fails (that is, is diminished) grows old, he therefore says, "My bones grew old": Bar. 3: "What is it, O Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? You have grown old," etc. Concerning the second, Is. 5: "I waited for him to do judgment, and behold, iniquity; justice, and behold, a cry." And this is what he says: "While I cried out all day long." For he was crying out that he was just, he was crying out about punishment, and he was silent about guilt. But what did the Lord do? He converted him by making the hand of the Lord heavy, inflicting a burden: "For day and night." Second, with the resulting conversion, "I was turned," etc. He says therefore, "Day and night," that is, continually, "your hand was heavy," etc. The hand of the Lord sometimes consoles: Ezek. 3: "The hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me." Sometimes it makes heavy, as here: 1 Sam. 5: "The hand of the Lord was very heavy." Is. 26: "In tribulation," etc. And therefore he says, "I was turned in my wretchedness," that is, in the misery I suffer for my sins. "While the thorn is fixed" -- while the thorn, that is, the remorse of conscience, is driven into my heart. Or, as the backbone, which holds the whole person upright, "while it is fixed." And it signifies pride; when this is constrained, the person is corrected. Or, why were you crying out? On account of the heaviness, he says, of your hand. And this is because I was not turned to you, but to sin. And this while the thorn of sins is fixed, that is, is established in me; and so "thorn," that is, sin, is understood. Or while reason, which is like the spine directing the back, is pressed down. Or according to the Hebrews, "My moisture was turned into the dryness of summer," that is, from the pressing of your hand, whatever was carnal and moist in me was turned into the dryness of summer. Jerome has, "I was tossed about in my misery while the heat of harvest burns," that is, like the harvest, I dried up.

Maschil--literally, "giving instruction." The Psalmist describes the blessings of His forgiveness, succeeding the pains of conviction, and deduces from his own experience instruction and exhortation to others. (Psa 32:1-11) (Compare Rom 4:6). forgiven--literally, "taken away," opposed to retain (Joh 20:23). covered--so that God no longer regards the sin (Psa 85:3).

A vivid description of felt, but unacknowledged, sin. When--literally, "for," as in Psa 32:4.

For, as his own experience has taught the poet, he who does not in confession pour out all his corruption before God, only tortures himself until he unburdens himself of his secret curse. Since Psa 32:3 by itself cannot be regarded as the reason for the proposition just laid down, כּי signifies either "because, quod" (e.g., Pro 22:22) or "when, quum" (Jdg 16:16; Hos 11:10. The שׁאגה was an outburst of the tortures which his accusing conscience prepared for him. The more he strove against confessing, the louder did conscience speak; and while it was not in his power to silence this inward voice, in which the wrath of God found utterance, he cried the whole day, viz., for help; but while his heart was still unbroken, he cried yet received no answer. He cried all day long, for God's punishing right hand (Psa 38:3; Psa 39:11) lay heavey upon him day and night; the feeling of divine wrath left him no rest, cf. Job 33:14. A fire burned within him which threatened completely to devour him. The expression is בּחרבני (like בעשׂן in Psa 37:20; Psa 102:4), without כ, inasmuch as the fears which burn fiercely within him even to his heart and, as it were, scorch him up, he directly calls the droughts of summer. The בּ is the Beth of the state or condition, in connection with which the change, i.e., degeneration (Job 20:14), took place; for mutare in aliquid is expressed by הפך ל. The ל (which Saadia and others have mistaken) in לשׁדּי is part of the root; לשׁד (from לשׁד, Arab. lsd, to suck), inflected after the analogy of גּמל and the like, signifies succus. In the summer-heat of anxiety his vital moisture underwent a change: it burned and dried up. Here the music becomes louder and does its part in depicting these torments of the awakened conscience in connection with a heart that still remains unbroken. In spite of this διάψαλμα, however, the historical connection still retains sufficient influence to give אודיעך the force of the imperfect (cf. Psa 30:9): "I made known my sin and my guilt did I not cover up (כּסּה used here as in Pro 27:13; Job 31:33); I made the resolve: I will confess my transgressions to the Lord (הודה = חתודּה, Neh 1:6; Neh 9:2; elsewhere construed with the accusative, vid., Pro 28:13) - then Thou forgavest," etc. Hupfeld is inclined to place אמרתי before חטאתי אודיעך, by which אודיעך and אודה would become futures; but ועוני לא כסיתי sounds like an assertion of a fact, not the statement of an intention, and ואתה נשׂאת is the natural continuation of the אמרתי which immediately precedes. The form ואתה נשׂאת is designedly used instead of ותּשּׂא. Simultaneously with his confession of sin, made fide supplice, came also the absolution: then Thou forgavest the guilt (עון, misdeed, as a deed and also as a matter of fact, i.e., guilt contracted, and penance or punishment, cf. Lam 4:6; Zac 14:19) of my sin. Vox nondum est in ore, says Augustine, et vulnus sanatur in corde. The סלה here is the antithesis of the former one. There we have a shrill lament over the sinner who tortures himself in vain, here the clear tones of joy at the blessed experience of one who pours forth his soul to God - a musical Yea and Amen to the great truth of justifying grace.