TITLE. A Psalm of David, Maschil. That
David wrote this gloriously evangelic Psalm is proved not only
by this heading, but by the words of the apostle Paul, in Ro
4:6-8. "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
"&c. Probably his deep repentance over his great sin
was followed by such blissful peace, that he was led to pour out
his spirit in the soft music of this choice song. In the order
of history it seems to follow the fifty-first. Maschil is
a new title to us, and indicates that this is an instructive or
didactic Psalm. The experience of one believer affords rich
instruction to others, it reveals the footsteps of the flock,
and so comforts and directs the weak. Perhaps it was important
in this case to prefix the word, that doubting saints might not
imagine the Psalm to be the peculiar utterance of a singular
individual, but might appropriate it to themselves as a lesson
from the Spirit of God. David promised in the fifty-first Psalm
to teach transgressors the Lord's ways, and here he does it most
effectually. Grotius thinks that this Psalm was meant to be sung
on the annual day of the Jewish expiation, when a general
confession of their sins was made.
DIVISION. In our reading we have found
it convenient to note the benediction of the pardoned, Ps
32:1-2; David's personal confession, Ps 32:3-5; and the
application of the case to others, Ps 32:6-7. The voice of God
is heard by the forgiven one in Ps 32:8-9; and the Psalm then
concludes with a portion for each of the two great classes of
men, Ps 32:10-11.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Blessed. Like the sermon on the mount
on the mount, this Psalm begins with beatitudes. This is the
second Psalm of benediction. The first Psalm describes the
result of holy blessedness, the thirty-second details the cause
of it. The first pictures the tree in full growth, this depicts
it in its first planting and watering. He who in the first Psalm
is a reader of God's book, is here a suppliant at God's throne
accepted and heard. Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven. He is now blessed and ever shall be. Be he ever so
poor, or sick, or sorrowful, he is blessed in very deed.
Pardoning mercy is of all things in the world most to be prized,
for it is the only and sure way to happiness. To hear from God's
own Spirit the words, "absolvo te" is joy
unspeakable. Blessedness is not in this case ascribed to the man
who has been a diligent law keeper, for then it would never come
to us, but rather to a lawbreaker, who by grace most rich and
free has been forgiven. Self righteous Pharisees have no portion
in this blessedness. Over the returning prodigal, the word of
welcome is here pronounced, and the music and dancing begin. A
full, instantaneous, irreversible pardon of transgression turns
the poor sinner's hell into heaven, and makes the heir of wrath
a partaker in blessing. The word rendered forgiven is in the
original taken off or taken away, as a burden is
lifted or a barrier removed. What a lift is here! It cost our
Saviour a sweat of blood to bear our load, yea, it cost him his
life to bear it quite away. Samson carried the gates of Gaza,
but what was that to the weight which Jesus bore on our behalf? Whose
sin is covered. Covered by God, as the ark was covered by
the mercyseat, as Noah was covered from the flood, as the
Egyptians were covered by the depths of the sea. What a cover
must that be which hides away for ever from the sight of the all
seeing God all the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit! He
who has once seen sin in its horrible deformity, will appreciate
the happiness of seeing it no more for ever. Christ's atonement
is the propitiation, the covering, the making an end of sin;
where this is seen and trusted in, the soul knows itself to be
now accepted in the Beloved, and therefore enjoys a conscious
blessedness which is the antepast of heaven. It is clear from
the text that a man may know that he is pardoned: where
would be the blessedness of an unknown forgiveness? Clearly it
is a matter of knowledge, for it is the ground of comfort.
Verse 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity. The word blessed is in the plural, oh,
the blessednesses! the double joys, the bundles of
happiness, the mountains of delight! Note the three words so
often used to denote our disobedience: transgression, sin, and
iniquity, are the three headed dog at the gates of hell, but our
glorious Lord has silenced his barkings for ever against his own
believing ones. The trinity of sin is overcome by the Trinity of
heaven. Non imputation is of the very essence of pardon: the
believer sins, but his sin is not reckoned, not accounted to
him. Certain divines froth at the mouth with rage against
imputed righteousness, be it ours to see our sin not imputed,
and to us may there be as Paul words it, "Righteousness
imputed without works." He is blessed indeed who has a
substitute to stand for him to whose account all his debts may
be set down. And in whose spirit there is no guile. He
who is pardoned, has in every case been taught to deal honestly
with himself, his sin, and his God. Forgiveness is no sham, and
the peace which it brings is not caused by playing tricks with
conscience. Self deception and hypocrisy bring no blessedness,
they may drug the soul into hell with pleasant dreams, but into
the heaven of true peace they cannot conduct their victim. Free
from guilt, free from guile. Those who are justified from fault
are sanctified from falsehood. A liar is not a forgiven soul.
Treachery, double dealing, chicanery, dissimulation, are
lineaments of the devil's children, but he who is washed from
sin is truthful, honest, simple, and childlike. There can be no
blessedness to tricksters with their plans, and tricks, and
shuffling, and pretending: they are too much afraid of discovery
to be at ease; their house is built on the volcano's brink, and
eternal destruction must be their portion. Observe the three
words to describe sin, and the three words to represent pardon,
weigh them well, and note their meaning. (See note at the end.)
Verses 3-5. David now gives us his own experience: no
instructor is so efficient as one who testifies to what he has
personally known and felt. He writes well who like the spider
spins his matter out of his own bowels.
Verse 3. When I kept silence. When through
neglect I failed to confess, or through despair dared not do so,
my bones, those solid pillars of my frame, the stronger
portions of my bodily constitution, waxed old, began to
decay with weakness, for my grief was so intense as to sap my
health and destroy my vital energy. What a killing thing is sin!
It is a pestilent disease! A fire in the bones! While we smother
our sin it rages within, and like a gathering wound swells
horribly and torments terribly. Through my roaring all the
day long. He was silent as to confession, but not as to
sorrow. Horror at his great guilt, drove David to incessant
laments, until his voice was no longer like the articulate
speech of man, but so full of sighing and groaning, that it
resembled to hoarse roaring of a wounded beast. None knows the
pangs of conviction but those who have endured them. The rack,
the wheel, the flaming fagot are ease compared with the Tophet
which a guilty conscience kindles within the breast: better
suffer all the diseases which flesh is heir to, than lie under
the crushing sense of the wrath of almighty God. The Spanish
inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest
which conscience holds within the heart.
Verse 4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon
me. God's finger can crush us—what must his hand be, and
that pressing heavily and continuously! Under terrors of
conscience, men have little rest by night, for the grim thoughts
of the day dog them to their chambers and haunt their dreams, or
else they lie awake in a cold sweat of dread. God's hand is very
helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down:
better a world on the shoulder, like Atlas, than God's hand on
the heart, like David. My moisture is turned into the drought
of summer. The sap of his soul was dried, and the body
through sympathy appeared to be bereft of its needful fluids.
The oil was almost gone from the lamp of life, and the flame
flickered as though it would soon expire. Unconfessed
transgression, like a fierce poison, dried up the fountain of
the man's strength and made him like a tree blasted by the
lightning, or a plant withered by the scorching heat of a
tropical sun. Alas! for a poor soul when it has learned its sin
but forgets its Saviour, it goes hard with it indeed. Selah.
It was time to change the tune, for the notes are very low in
the scale, and with such hard usage, the strings of the harp are
out of order: the next verse will surely be set to another key,
or will rehearse a more joyful subject.
Verse 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee. After
long lingering, the broken heart bethought itself of what it
ought to have done at the first, and laid bare its bosom before
the Lord. The lancet must be let into the gathering ulcer before
relief can be afforded. The least thing we can do, if we would
be pardoned, is to acknowledge our fault; if we are too proud
for this we double deserve punishment. And mine iniquity have
I not hid. We must confess the guilt as well as the fact of
sin. It is useless to conceal it, for it is well known to God;
it is beneficial to us to own it, for a full confession softens
and humbles the heart. We must as far as possible unveil the
secrets of the soul, dig up the hidden treasure of Achan, and by
weight and measure bring out our sins. I said. This was
his fixed resolution. I will confess my transgressions unto
the Lord. Not to my fellow men or to the high priest, but
unto Jehovah; even in those days of symbol the faithful looked
to God alone for deliverance from sin's intolerable load, much
more now, when types and shadows have vanished at the appearance
of the dawn. When the soul determines to lay low and plead
guilty, absolution is near at hand; hence we read, And thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Not only was the sin
itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it; the virus of its guilt
was put away, and that at once, so soon as the acknowledgment
was made. God's pardons are deep and thorough: the knife of
mercy cuts at the roots of the ill weed of sin. Selah.
Another pause is needed, for the matter is not such as may be
hurried over.
"Pause, my soul, adore and wonder,
Ask, O why such love to me?
Grace has put me in the number
Of the Saviour's family.
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks, to thee."
Verse 6. For this shall every one that is godly
pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. If the
psalmist means that on account of God's mercy others
would become hopeful, his witness is true. Remarkable answers to
prayer very much quicken the prayerfulness of other godly
persons. Where one man finds a golden nugget others feel
inclined to dig. The benefit of our experience to others should
reconcile us to it. No doubt the case of David has led thousands
to seek the Lord with hopeful courage who, without such an
instance to cheer them, might have died in despair. Perhaps the
psalmist meant for this favour or the like all godly
souls would seek, and here, again, we can confirm his testimony,
for all will draw near to God in the same manner as he did when
godliness rules their heart. The mercy seat is the way to heaven
for all who shall ever come there. There is, however, a set time
for prayer, beyond which it will be unavailing; between the time
of sin and the day of punishment mercy rules the hour, and God
may be found, but when once the sentence has gone forth pleading
will be useless, for the Lord will not be found by the condemned
soul. O dear reader, slight not the accepted time, waste not the
day of salvation. The godly pray while the Lord has promised to
answer, the ungodly postpone their petitions till the Master of
the house has risen up and shut to the door, and then their
knocking is too late. What a blessing to be led to seek the Lord
before the great devouring floods leap forth from their lairs,
for then when they do appear we shall be safe. Surely in the
floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
The floods shall come, and the waves shall rage, and toss
themselves like Atlantic billows; whirlpools and waterspouts
shall be on every hand, but the praying man shall be at a safe
distance, most surely secured from every ill. David was probably
most familiar with those great land floods which fill up, with
rushing torrents, the beds of rivers which at other times are
almost dry: these overflowing waters often did great damage,
and, as in the case of the Kishon, were sufficient to sweep away
whole armies. From sudden and overwhelming disasters thus set
forth in metaphor the true suppliant will certainly be held
secure. He who is saved from sin has no need to fear anything
else.
Verse 7. Thou art my hiding place. Terse, short
sentences make up this verse, but they contain a world of
meaning. Personal claims upon our God are the joy of spiritual
life. To lay our hand upon the Lord with the clasp of a personal
"my" is delight at its full. Observe that the same man
who in the fourth verse was oppressed by the presence of God,
here finds a shelter in him. See what honest confession and full
forgiveness will do! The gospel of substitution makes him to be
our refuge who otherwise would have been our judge. Thou
shalt preserve me from trouble. Trouble shall do me no real
harm when the Lord is with me, rather it shall bring me much
benefit, like the file which clears away the rust, but does not
destroy the metal. Observe the three tenses, we have noticed the
sorrowful past, the last sentence was a joyful present, this is
a cheerful future. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of
deliverance. What a golden sentence! The man is encircled in
song, surrounded by dancing mercies, all of them proclaiming the
triumphs of grace. There is no breach in the circle, it
completely rings him round; on all sides he hears music. Before
him hope sounds the cymbals, and behind him gratitude beats the
timbrel. Right and left, above and beneath, the air resounds
with joy, and all this for the very man who, a few weeks ago,
was roaring all the day long. How great a change! What wonders
grace has done and still can do! Selah. There was a need
of a pause, for love so amazing needs to be pondered, and joy so
great demands quiet contemplation, since language fails to
express it.
Verse 8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the
way which thou shalt go. Here the Lord is the speaker, and
gives the psalmist an answer to his prayer. Our Saviour is our
instructor. The Lord himself deigns to teach his children to
walk in the way of integrity, his holy word and the monitions of
the Holy Spirit are the directors of the believer's daily
conversation. We are not pardoned that we may henceforth live
after our own lusts, but that we may be educated in holiness and
trained for perfection. A heavenly training is one of the
covenant blessings which adoption seals to us: "All thy
children shall be taught by the Lord." Practical teaching
is the very best of instruction, and they are thrice happy who,
although they never sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and are
ignorant of Aristotle, and the ethics of the schools, have
nevertheless learned to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. I
will guide thee with mine eye. As servants take their cue
from the master's eye, and a nod or a wink is all that they
require, so should we obey the slightest hints of our Master,
not needing thunderbolts to startle our incorrigible
sluggishness, but being controlled by whispers and love touches.
The Lord is the great overseer, whose eye in providence
overlooks everything. It is well for us to be the sheep of his
pasture, following the guidance of his wisdom.
Verse 9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,
which have no understanding. Understanding separates man
from a brute—let us not act as if we were devoid of it. Men
should take counsel and advice, and be ready to run where wisdom
points them the way. Alas! we need to be cautioned against
stupidity of heart, for we are very apt to fall into it. We who
ought to be as the angels, readily become as the beasts. Whose
mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near
unto thee. It is much to be deplored that we so often need
to be severely chastened before we will obey. We ought to be as
a feather in the wind, wafted readily in the breath of the Holy
Spirit, but alas! we lie like motionless logs, and stir not with
heaven itself in view. Those cutting bits of affliction show how
hard mouthed we are, those bridles of infirmity manifest our
headstrong and wilful manners. We should not be treated like
mules if there was not so much of the ass about us. If we will
be fractious, we must expect to be kept in with a tight rein.
Oh, for grace to obey the Lord willingly, lest like the wilful
servant, we are beaten with many stripes. Calvin renders the
last words, "Lest they kick against thee, "a version
more probable and more natural, but the passage is confessedly
obscure—not however, in its general sense.
Verse 10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.
Like refractory horses and mules, they have many cuts and
bruises. Here and hereafter the portion of the wicked is
undesirable. Their joys are evanescent, their sorrows are
multiplying and ripening. He who sows sin will reap sorrow in
heavy sheaves. Sorrows of conscience, of disappointment, of
terror, are the sinner's sure heritage in time, and then for
ever sorrows of remorse and despair. Let those who boast of
present sinful joys, remember the shall be of the future
and take warning. But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy
shall compass him about. Faith is here placed as the
opposite of wickedness, since it is the source of virtue. Faith
in God is the great charmer of life's cares, and he who
possesses it, dwells in an atmosphere of grace, surrounded with
the bodyguard of mercies. May it be given to us of the Lord at
all times to believe in the mercy of God, even when we cannot
see traces of its working, for to the believer, mercy is as all
surrounding as omniscience, and every thought and act of God is
perfumed with it. The wicked have a hive of wasps around them, many
sorrows; but we have a swarm of bees storing honey for us.
Verse 11. Be glad. Happiness is not only our
privilege, but our duty. Truly we serve a generous God, since he
makes it a part of our obedience to be joyful. How sinful are
our rebellious murmurings! How natural does it seem that a man
blest with forgiveness should be glad! We read of one who died
at the foot of the scaffold of overjoy at the receipt of his
monarch's pardon; and shall we receive the free pardon of the
King of kings, and yet pine in inexcusable sorrow? "In
the Lord." Here is the directory by which gladness is
preserved from levity. We are not to be glad in sin, or to find
comfort in corn, and wine, and oil, but in our God is to be the
garden of our soul's delight. That there is a God and such a
God, and that he is ours, ours for ever, our Father and our
reconciled Lord, is matter enough for a never ending psalm of
rapturous joy. And rejoice, ye righteous, redouble your
rejoicing, peal upon peal. Since God has clothed his choristers
in the white garments of holiness, let them not restrain their
joyful voices, but sing aloud and shout as those who find great
spoil. And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Our happiness should be demonstrative; chill penury of love
often represses the noble flame of joy, and men whisper their
praises decorously where a hearty outburst of song would be far
more natural. It is to be feared that the church of the present
day, through a craving for excessive propriety, is growing too
artificial; so that enquirers' cries and believers' shouts would
be silenced if they were heard in our assemblies. This may be
better than boisterous fanaticism, but there is as much danger
in the one direction as the other. For our part, we are touched
to the heart by a little sacred excess, and when godly men in
their joy over leap the narrow bounds of decorum, we do not,
like Michal, Saul's daughter, eye them with a sneering heart.
Note how the pardoned are represented as upright, righteous, and
without guile; a man may have many faults and yet be saved, but
a false heart is everywhere the damning mark. A man of twisting,
shifty ways, of a crooked, crafty nature, is not saved, and in
all probability never will be; for the ground which brings forth
a harvest when grace is sown in it, may be weedy and waste, but
our Lord tells us it is honest and good ground. Our
observation has been that men of double tongues and tricky ways
are the least likely of all men to be saved: certainly where
grace comes it restores man's mind to its perpendicular, and
delivers him from being doubled up with vice, twisted with
craft, or bent with dishonesty. Reader, what a delightful Psalm!
Have you, in perusing it, been able to claim a lot in the goodly
land? If so, publish to others the way of salvation.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Title. The term Maschil is prefixed to thirteen
Psalms. Our translators have not ventured to do more, in the text,
than simply print the word in English characters; in the margin
however they render it, as the Geneva version had done before
them, "to give instruction." It would be going too far
to affirm that this interpretation is subject to no doubt. Some
good Hebraists take exception to it; so that, perhaps, our
venerable translators did well to leave it untranslated. Still
the interpretation they have set down in the margin, as it is in
the most ancient, so it is sustained by the great preponderance
of authority. It agrees remarkably with the contents of the
thirty-second Psalm, which affords the earliest instance of its
use, for that Psalm is preeminently didactic. Its scope is to
instruct the convicted soul how to obtain peace with God, and be
compassed about with songs of deliverance. William Binnie,
D.D., in "The Psalms: Their History, Teachings, and Use,
"1870.
Whole Psalm. This is a Didactic Psalm, wherein David
teacheth sinners to repent by his doctrine, who taught them to
sin by his example. This science is universal and pertaineth to
all men, and which necessarily we must all learn; princes,
priests, people, men, women, children, tradesmen; all, I say,
must be put to this school, without which lesson all others are
unprofitable. But to the point. This is a mark of a true
penitent, when he hath been a stumbling block to others, to be
as careful to raise them up by his repentance as he was hurtful
to them by his sin; and I never think that man truly penitent
who is ashamed to teach sinners repentance by his own particular
proof. The Samaritan woman, when she was converted, left her
bucket at the well, entered the city, and said, "Come
forth, yonder is a man who hath told me all that I have
done." And our Saviour saith to St. Peter, "When thou
art converted, strength thy brethren." Joh 4:29 Lu 22:32.
St. Paul also after his conversion is not ashamed to call
himself chiefest of all sinners, and to teach others to repent
of their sins by repenting for his own. Happy, and thrice happy,
is the man who can build so much as he hath cast down. Archibald
Symson.
Whole Psalm. It is told of Luther that one day being
asked which of all the Psalms were the best, he made answer, "Psalmi
Paulini, " and when his friends pressed to know which
these might be, he said, "The 32nd, the 51st, the 130th,
and the 143rd. For they all teach that the forgiveness of our
sins comes, without the law and without works, to the man who
believes, and therefore I call them Pauline Psalms; and David
sings, `There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared, 'this is just what Paul says, `God hath concluded them
all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.' Ro 11:32.
Thus no man may boast of his own righteousness. That word, `That
thou mayest be feared, 'dusts away all merit, and teaches us to
uncover our heads before God, and confess gratia est, non
meritum: remissio, non satisfactio; it is mere forgiveness,
not merit at all." Luther's Table Talk.
Whole Psalm. Some assert that this Psalm used to be
sung on the day of expiation. Robert Leighton.
The Penitential Psalms. When Galileo was imprisoned by
the Inquisition at Rome, for asserting the Copernican System, he
was enjoined, as a penance, to repeat the Seven Penitential
Psalms every week for three years. This must have been intended
as extorting a sort of confession from him of his guilt, and
acknowledgment of the justice of his sentence; and in which
there certainly was some cleverness and, indeed, humour, however
adding to the iniquity (or foolishness) of the proceeding.
Otherwise it is not easy to understand what idea of painfulness
or punishment the good fathers could attach to a devotional
exercise such as this, which, in whatever way, could only have
been agreeable and consoling to their prisoner. M. Montague,
in "The Seven Penitential Psalms in Verse...with an
Appendix and Notes," 1844.
Verse 1. Blessed. Or, O blessed man; or, Oh,
the felicities of that man! to denote the most supreme and
perfect blessedness. As the elephant, to denote its vast bulk,
is spoken of in the plural number, Behemoth. Robert Leighton.
Verse 1. Notice, this is the first Psalm, except the
first of all, which begins with Blessedness. In the first Psalm
we have the blessing of innocence, or rather, of him who only
was innocent: here we have the blessing of repentance, as the
next happiest state to that of sinlessness. Lorinus, in
Neale's Commentary.
Verse 1. Blessed is the man, saith David, whose
sins are pardoned, where he maketh remission of sins to be
true felicity. Now there is no true felicity but that which is
enjoyed, and felicity cannot be enjoyed unless it be felt; and
it cannot be felt unless a man know himself to be in possession
of it; and a man cannot know himself to be in possession of it,
if he doubt whether he hath it or not; and therefore this
doubting of the remission of sins is contrary to true felicity,
and is nothing else but a torment of the conscience. For a man
cannot doubt whether his sins be pardoned or not, but
straightway, if his conscience be not seared with a hot iron,
the very thought of his sin will strike a great fear into him;
for the fear of eternal death, and the horror of God's judgment
will come to his remembrance, the consideration of which is most
terrible. William Perkins.
Verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered. Get your sins hid. There is
a covering of sin which proves a curse. Pr 28:13.
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; "there
is a covering it, by not confessing it, or which is
worse, by denying it—Gehazi's covering—a covering of sin by
a lie; and there is also a covering of sin by justifying
ourselves in it. I have not done this thing; or, I did no evil
in it. All these are evil coverings: he that thus covereth his
sin shall not prosper. But there is a blessed covering of
sin: forgiveness of sin is the hiding it out of sight, and
that's the blessedness. Richard Alleine.
Verse 1. Whose transgression is forgiven. We
may lull the soul asleep with carnal delights, but the virtue of
that opium will be soon spent. All those joys are but stolen
waters, and bread eaten in secret—a poor sorry peace that
dares not come to the light and endure the trial; a sorry peace
that is soon disturbed by a few serious and sober thoughts of
God and the world to come; but when once sin is pardoned, then
you have true joy indeed. "Be of good cheer; thy sins be
forgiven thee." Mt 9:2. Thomas Manton.
Verse 1. Forgiven. Holy David, in the front of
this Psalm shows us wherein true happiness consists: not in
beauty, honour, riches (the world's trinity), but in the
forgiveness of sin. The Hebrew word to forgive, signifies
to carry out of sight; which well agrees with that Jer 50:20.
"In those days, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found." This is an
incomprehensible blessing, and such as lays a foundation for all
other mercies. I shall but glance at it, and lay down these five
assertions about it. 1. Forgiveness is an act of God's free
grace. The Greek word to forgive, deciphers the original
of pardon; it ariseth not from anything inherent in us, but is
the pure result of free grace. Isa 43:25. "I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake."
When a creditor forgives a debtor, he doeth it freely. Paul
cries out, "I obtained mercy." 1Ti 1:13. The Greek
signifies, "I was be-mercied; "he who is pardoned, is
all bestrewed with mercy. When the Lord pardons a sinner, he
doth not pay a debt, but gives a legacy.
2. God in forgiving sin, remits the guilt and penalty. Guilt
cries for justice: no sooner had Adam eaten the apple, but he
saw the flaming sword, and heard the curse; but in remission God
doth indulge the sinner; he seems to say thus to him: Though
thou art fallen into the hands of my justice, and deserve to
die, yet I will absolve thee, and whatever is charged upon thee
shall be discharged.
3. Forgiveness of sin is through the blood of Christ. Free
grace is the impulsive cause; Christ's blood is the meritorious.
"Without shedding of blood is no remission." Heb 9:22.
Justice would be revenged either on the sinner or the surety.
Every pardon is the price of blood.
4. Before sin is forgiven, it must be repented of. Therefore
repentance and remission are linked together. "That
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
name." Lu 24:47. Not that repentance doth in a Popish sense
merit forgiveness; Christ's blood must wash our tears; but
repentance is a qualification, though not a cause. He who is
humbled for sin will the more value pardoning mercy.
5. God having forgiven sin, he will call it no more into
remembrance. Jer 31:34. The Lord will make an act of indemnity,
he will not upbraid us with former unkindnesses, or sue us with
a cancelled bond. "He will cast all our sins into the
depths of the sea." Mic 7:19. Sin shall not be cast in as a
cork which riseth up again, but as lead which sinks to the
bottom. How should we all labour for this covenant blessing! Thomas
Watson.
Verse 1. Sin is covered. Every man that must be
happy, must have something to hide and cover his sins from God's
eyes; and nothing in the world can do it, but Christ and his
righteousness, typified in the ark of the covenant, whose cover
was of gold, and called a propitiatory, that as it covered the
tables that were within the ark, so God covers our sins against
those tables. So the cloud covering the Israelites in the
wilderness, signified God's covering us from the danger of our
sins. Thomas Taylor's "David's Learning: or the Way to
True Happiness." 1617.
Verse 1. Sin covered. This covering hath
relation to some nakedness and filthiness which should be
covered, even sin, which defileth us and maketh us naked. Why,
saith Moses to Aaron, hast thou made the people naked? Ex 32:25.
The garments of our merits are too short and cannot cover us, we
have need therefore to borrow of Christ Jesus his merits and the
mantle of his righteousness, that it may be unto us as a
garment, and as those breeches of leather which God made unto
Adam and Eve after their fall. Garments are ordained to cover
our nakedness, defend us from the injury of the weather, and to
adorn us. So the mediation of our Saviour serveth to cover our
nakedness, that the wrath of God seize not upon us—he is that
"white raiment" wherewith we should be clothed, that
our filthy nakedness may not appear—to defend us against
Satan—he is "mighty to save, "etc.—and to be an
ornament to decorate us, for he is that "wedding
garment:" "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ."
Re 3:18 Isa 63:1 Mt 22:11 Ro 13:14. Archibald Symson.
Verse 1. The object of pardon—about which it is
conversant, is set forth under diverse expressions—iniquity,
transgression, and sin. As in law many words of like
import and signification are heaped up and put together, to make
the deed and legal instrument more comprehensive and effectual.
I observe it the rather, because when God proclaims his name the
same words are used, Ex 34:7, "Taking away iniquity,
transgressions, and sin." Well, we have seen the meaning of
the expression. Why doth the holy man of God use such vigour and
vehemency of inculcation. "Blessed is the man!"
and again, "Blessed is the man!" Partly with
respect to his own case. David knew how sweet it was to have sin
pardoned; he had felt the bitterness of sin in his own soul, to
the drying up of his blood, and therefore he doth express his
sense of pardon in the most lively terms. And then, partly, too,
with respect to those for whose use this instruction was
written, that they might not look upon it as a light and trivial
thing, but be thoroughly apprehensive of the worth of so great a
privilege. Blessed, happy, thrice happy they who have obtained
pardon of their sins, and justification by Jesus Christ. Thomas
Manton.
Verses 1-2. In these verses four evils are
mentioned; 1.—Transgression, (evp) pesha. 2. Sin,
(hajx) chataah. 3.—Iniquity, (Nwe) avon.
4.—Guile, (hymd) remiyah. The first
signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is
prohibited. The second signifies the missing of a
mark, not doing what was commanded; but it is often taken to
express sinfulness, or sin in the nature, producing
transgression in the life. The third signifies what is
turned out of its proper course or situation; anything morally
distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to
equity or justice. The fourth signifies fraud,
deceit, guile, etc. To remove these evils, three acts
are mentioned: forgiving, covering, and not imputing.
1. TRANSGRESSION, (evp) pesha, must be forgiven, (ywsn)
nesui, borne away, i.e., by a vicarious sacrifice;
for bearing sin, or bearing away sin, always
implies this.
2. SIN, (hajx) chataah, must be covered, (ywob)
kesui, hidden from the sight. It is odious and
abominable, and must be put out of sight.
3. INIQUITY, (Nwe) avon, what is perverse or distorted,
must not be imputed, (bsxyal) lo yachshobh, must not
be reckoned to his account.
4. GUILE, (hymd) remiyah, must be annihilated from the
soul. In whose spirit there is no GUILE. The man whose transgression
is forgiven; whose sin is hidden, God having cast it as a
millstone into the depths of the sea; whose iniquity and
perversion is not reckoned to his account; and whose guile,
the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, is annihilated,
being emptied of sin, and filled with righteousness, is
necessarily a happy man. Adam Clarke.
Verses 1-2. Transgression. Prevarication. Some
understand by it sins of omission and commission.
Sin. Some understand those inward inclinations, lusts,
and motions, whereby the soul swerves from the law of God, and
which are the immediate cause of external sins.
Iniquity. Notes original sin, the root of all.
Levatus, forgiven, eased, signifies to take away, to
bear, to carry away. Two words in Scripture are chiefly used to
denote remission, to expiate, to bear or carry away: the one
signifies the manner whereby it is done, namely, atonement, the
other the effect of this expiation, carrying away; one notes the
meritorious cause, the other the consequent.
Covered. Alluding to the covering of the Egyptians in
the Red Sea. Menochius thinks it alludes to the manner of
writing among the Hebrews, which he thinks to be the same with
that of the Romans; as writing with a pencil upon wax spread
upon tables, which when they would blot out they made the wax
plain, and drawing it over the writing, covered the former
letters. And so it is equivalent with that expression of
"blotting out sin, "as in the other allusion it is
with "casting sin into the depths of the sea."
Impute. Not charging upon account. As sin is a
defection from the law, so it is forgiven; as it is offensive to
God's holiness, so it is covered; as it is a debt involving man
in a debt of punishment, so it is not imputed; they all note the
certainty, and extent, and perfection of pardon: the three words
expressing sin here, being the same that are used by God in the
declaration of his name. Stephen Charnock.
Verses 1-2, 6-7. Who is blessed? Not he who cloaks,
conceals, confesses not his sin. As long as David was in this
state he was miserable. There was guile in his spirit Ps 32:2
misery in his heart, his very bones waxed old, his moisture was
dried up as the drought in summer Ps 32:3-4. Who is blessed? He
that is without sin, he who sins not, he who grieves no more by
his sin the bosom on which he reclines. This is superlative
blessedness, its highest element the happiness of heaven. To be
like God, to yield implicit, ready, full, perfect obedience, the
obedience of the heart, of our entire being; this is to be
blessed above all blessedness. But among those who live in a
world of sin, who are surrounded by sin, who are themselves
sinners, who is blessed? He whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered, to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity;
and especially does he feel it to be so, who can, in some
degree, enter into the previous state of David's soul Ps 32:3-4.
Ah, in what a wretched state was the psalmist previously to this
blessedness! How must sin have darkened and deadened his
spiritual faculties, to have guile in the spirit of one who
could elsewhere exclaim, "Search me, O God, and know my
heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any
wicked way in me, " any way of pain or grief, any way of
sin which most surely leads to these. Ps 139:23-34. What a
mournful condition of soul was his, who while he roared all the
day long, yet kept silence before God, had no heart to open his
heart unto God, was dumb before him, not in submission to his
will, not in accepting the punishment of his iniquity Le 26:46,
not in real confession, and honest, upright, and sincere
acknowledgment of his iniquity to him against whom he had
committed it. "I kept silence, "not merely I
was silent, "I kept silence, "resolutely,
perseveringly; I kept it notwithstanding all the remembrance of
my past mercies, notwithstanding my reproaches of conscience,
and my anguish of heart. I kept it notwithstanding "thy
hand was heavy upon me day and night, "notwithstanding "my
moisture, "all that was spiritual in me, my vital
spirit, all that was indicative of spiritual life in my soul,
seemed dried up and gone. Yes, Lord, notwithstanding all this, I
kept it. But Nathan came, thou didst send him. He was to
me a messenger full of reproof, full of faithfulness, but full
of love. He came with thy word, and with the word of a King
there was power. I acknowledged my sin unto him, and my iniquity
did I not hide, but this was little. Against thee, thee only,
did I sin, and to thee was my confession made. I acknowledged my
sin unto thee, O Lord. I solemnly said that I would do so, and I
did it. I confessed my transgression unto the Lord, "and
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Behold the man
who is blessed; blessed in the state of his mind, his guileless
spirit, his contrite heart, the fruit of the spirit of grace;
blessed in the forgiveness of a forgiving God; a forgiveness,
perfect, entire, lacking nothing, signified by sin
"covered, ""iniquity not imputed" of the
Lord; blessed in the blessings which followed it. Thou art my
hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt
compass me about with songs of deliverance. Beneath the
hollow of that hand which was once so heavy upon me, I can now
repose. Thou art my hiding place, I dread thee no more; nay, I
dwell in thee as my habitation, and my high tower, my covert, my
safety, my house. Safe in thy love, whatever trouble may be my
portion, and by the mouth of Nathan thy servant thou hast
declared that trouble shall be my portion, I shall yet be
preserved; yea, more, so fully wilt thou deliver me that I
believe thou wilt encompass me so with the arms of thy mercy, as
to call forth songs of grateful praise for thy gracious
interposition.
Behold, the blessedness of him whom God forgives! No wonder,
then, that the psalmist adds, for this shall every one that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found:
surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh
unto him. As much as if he had said, Surely after this thy
gracious conduct towards me, all that truly love and fear
thee, every one that is godly, when he hears of thy
dealings with me, "will pray unto thee."
Encouraged by my example, he will not keep silence as I
foolishly and sinfully did, but will confess and supplicate
before thee, since thou art to be "found, "and
hast so wondrously shown that thou art, of all that truly seek
thee, since there is the place of finding, as I lay my
hand upon the victim, and look through that victim to him the
promised Seed; since there is the time of finding,
declared in thy word, and manifested by the secret drawing of my
heart to thee by thy grace; since the unwillingness is not in
thee, but in thy sinning creature to come to thee; for this
shall every one that is godly pray unto thee, then, however
deep the water floods may be, however fierce the torrent, and
headlong the stream, they shall not even come nigh unto him,
much less shall they overwhelm him. James Harrington Evans,
M.A., 1785-1849.
Verse 2. Unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
Aben Ezra paraphrases it, of whose sins God does not think,
does not regard them, so as to bring them into judgment,
reckoning them as if they were not; ou me logizetai does not
count or calculate them; does not require for them the debt
of punishment. To us the remission is entirely free, our Sponsor
having taken upon him the whole business of paying the ransom.
His suffering is our impunity, his bond our freedom, and his
chastisement our peace; and therefore the prophet says,
"The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his
stripes we are healed." Robert Leighton.
Verse 2. In whose spirit there is no guile. In
the saint's trouble, conscience is full of Scripture sometimes,
on which it grounds its verdict, but very ill interpreted. Oh,
saith the poor soul, this place is against me! Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no guile. Here, saith he, is a description
of a sincere soul, to be one in whose spirit there is no guile;
but I find much guile in me, therefore I am not the sincere one.
Now this is a very weak, yea, false inference. By a spirit
without guile, is not meant a person that hath not the least
deceitfulness and hypocrisy remaining in his heart. To be
without sin, and to be without guile, in this strict sense are
the same—a prerogative here on earth peculiar to the Lord
Christ 1Pe 2:22, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found
in his mouth." And therefore when we meet with the same
phrase attributed to the saints, as to Levi, Mal 2:6;
"Iniquity was not found in his lips; "and to Nathanael,
Joh 1:47: "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no
guile!" we must sense it in an inferior way, that may suit
with their imperfect state here below, and not put that which
was only Christ's crown on earth, and is the glorified saint's
robe in heaven, on the weak Christian while militant here on
earth, not only with a devil without, but with a body of sin
within him. Wipe thine eyes again, poor soul, and then if thou
readest such places, wherein the Spirit of God speaks so highly
and hyperbolically of his saint's grace, thou shalt find he doth
not assert the perfection of their grace, free from all mixture
of sin, but rather to comfort poor drooping souls, and cross
their misgiving hearts, which, from the presence of hypocrisy,
are ready to overlook their sincerity as none at all, he
expresses his high esteem of their little grace, by speaking of
it as if it were perfect, and their hypocrisy none at all. William
Gurnall.
Verse 2. In whose spirit there is no guile.
When once pardon is realized, the believer has courage to be
truthful before God: he can afford to have done with guile
in the spirit. Who would not declare all his debts when they are
certain to be discharged by another? Who would not declare his
malady when he was sure of a cure? True faith knows not only
that guile before God is impossible, but also that it is
no longer necessary. The believer has nothing to conceal: he
sees himself as before God, stripped, and laid open, and bare;
and if he has learned to see himself as he is, so also has he
learned to see God as he reveals himself. There is no guile in
the spirit of one who is justified by faith; because in the act
of justification truth has been established in his inward parts.
There is no guile in the spirit of him who sees the truth of
himself in the light of the truth of God. For the truth of God
shows him at once that in Christ he is perfectly righteous
before God, and in himself he is the chief of sinners. Such a
one knows he is not his own, for he is bought with a price, and
therefore he is to glorify God. There is no guile in the spirit
of him whose real object is to glorify Christ and not himself.
But when a man is not quite true to Christ, and has not quite
ceased to magnify self, there may be guile, for he will be more
occupied with thoughts about himself than with the honour of
Christ. But if the truth, and honour, and glory of Christ be his
supreme care, he may leave himself out of the question, and,
like Christ, "O commit himself to him that judgeth
righteously." J. W. Reeve, M.A., in "Lectures on
the Thirty-second Psalm," 1860.
Verse 2. No guile. Sincerity is that property
to which pardoning mercy is annexed. True, indeed, it is that
Christ covers all our sins and failings; but it is only the
sincere soul over which he will cast his skirt. Blessed is he
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity. None will doubt this; but which is
the man? The next words tell us his name; And in whose spirit
there is no guile. Christ's righteousness is the garment
which covers the nakedness and shame of our unrighteousness;
faith the grace that puts this garment on; but what faith? None
but the faith unfeigned, as Paul calls it. 2Ti 1:5. "Here
is water, "said the eunuch, "what doth hinder me to be
baptized?" Ac 8:36. Now mark Philip's answer, Ac 8:37,
"If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest;
"as if he had said, Nothing but an hypocritical heart can
hinder thee. It is the false heart only that finds the door of
mercy shut. William Gurnall.
Verse 2. Guile. The guile of the spirit is an
inward corruption in the soul of man, whereby he dealeth
deceitfully with himself before God in the matter of salvation. Thomas
Taylor.
Verse 3. My bones waxed old. God sports not at
the sins of his elect, but outwardly doth deal with them more
hardly, and chastise them more rigorously than he doth the
reprobate. David's troubles and pains were partly external,
partly internal: external I call those that were cast on his
body; internal upon his conscience. And in the body were
torments and vexations, seizing sometimes on his flesh—which
was less painful—sometimes on his bones, which was more
grievous, yea, almost intolerable, as experience teacheth. And
this is God's just recompense; when we bestow our strength on
sin, God abates it, and so weakens us. Samson spent his strength
on Delilah, but to what weakness was he brought! Let us,
therefore, learn, that God hath given us bones and the strength
thereof for another use, that is, to serve him, and not waste or
be prodigal of them in the devil's service. Archibald Symson.
Verse 3. My bones waxed old. By bones, the
strength of the body, the inward strength and vigour of the soul
is meant. The conscience of sin, and the terror of judgment doth
break the heart of a true penitent, so long as he beholdeth his
sin deserving death, his judge ready to pronounce the sentence
of it, hell open to receive him for it, and the evil angels,
God's executioners, at hand to hurry him to it. Samuel Page,
in "David's Broken Heart, "1646.
Verse 3. My bones waxed old through my roaring all
the day long. David here not only mourns for sin as a man,
but he roars, as it were, like a pained beast. He seems fitter
for a wilderness to cry out, than for a secret chamber to weep
in; at other times he can "water his couch" in the
night, now he "roars" all the day long; at
other times, "his moisture is dried, "now his "bones,
"the pillars of his house shake and wax old. Alexander
Carmichael, 1677.
Verse 4. Thy hand. A correcting hand,
whereby God scourges and buffets his own children. Now the sense
of God's power punishing or correcting, is called God's hand, as
1Sa 5:11. The hand of God was sore at Ekron, because of the ark;
and a heavy hand in resemblance, because when men smite
they lay their hand heavier than ordinary. Hence, we may note
three points of doctrine: first, that all afflictions are God's
hand; secondly, that God lays his hand heavily often upon his
dear children; thirdly, that God often continues his heavy hand
night and day on them. Thomas Taylor.
Verse 4. My moisture is turned into the drought of
summer. Another meaning may be attributed to these words. We
may suppose the psalmist to be referring to spiritual
drought. Charles H. Bingham, B.A., in "Lectures on the
Thirty-second Psalm," 1836.
Verse 4. My moisture is turned into the drought of
summer. The summer is from the middle of August to the
middle of November. The intensity of the heat is great, and
almost intolerable...Up to the beginning or middle of September
there are no showers, rain being as scarce in summer as
snow...The dry grass of the fields sometimes takes fire, and
produces desolating conflagrations, and the parched earth is
cleft and broken into chasms. John Eadie, D.D., LL.D., in
Biblical Cyclopaedia, 1868.
Verse 4. The drought of summer. Dr. Russell, in
his account of the weather at Aleppo, which very much resembles
that of Judea, says that the verdure of the spring fades before
the middle of May, and before the end of that month the whole
country puts on so parched and barren an aspect that one would
scarce think it capable of producing anything, there being but
very few plants that have vigour enough to resist the extreme
heat. Thomas Harmer's "Observations," 1775.
Verse 4. The drought of summer. During the
twelve years from 1846 to 1859 only two slight showers fell in
Jerusalem between the months of May and October. One fell in
July, 1858, another in June 1859. Dr. Whitty's "Water
Supply of Jerusalem," quoted in Kitto's Cyclopaedia.
Verse 4. If God striketh those so sore whom he
favoureth, how sharply and sore will he strike them whom he
favoureth not. Gregory.
Verses 4-5. If our offences have been not gnats, but
camels, our sorrow must be not a drop, but an ocean. Scarlet
sins call for bloody tears; and if Peter sin heinously he must
weep bitterly. If, then, thy former life hath been a cord of
iniquity, twisted with many threads, a writing full of great
blots, a course spotted with various and grievous sins, multiply
thy confessions and enlarge thy humiliation; double thy fastings
and treble thy prayers; pour out thy tears, and fetch deep
sighs; in a word, iterate and aggravate thy acknowledgments,
though yet, as the apostle saith in another case, I say in this,
"Grieve not as without hope, "that upon thy sincere
and suitable repentance divine goodness will forgive thee thy
sins. Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine
iniquity have I not hid. The godly man is ingenuous in
laying open his sins. The hypocrite doth vail and smother his
sin; he doth not abscindere peccatum, but abscondere;
like a patient that hath some loathsome disease in his body, he
will rather die than confess his disease; but a godly man's
sincerity is seen in this—he will confess and shame himself
for sin. "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done
wickedly." 2Sa 24:17. Nay, a child of God will confess sin
in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by
wholesale; he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general,
whereas David doth, as it were, point with his finger to the
sore: "I have done this evil" Ps 51:4; he doth not say
I have done evil, but this evil. He points at his blood
guiltiness. Thomas Watson.
Verse 5. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Be
thine own accuser in the free confession of thy sins. Peccavi
pater (as the prodigal child), "Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and in thy sight." For it fares not in the
court of heaven as it doth in our earthly tribunals. With men a
free confession makes way for a condemnation; but with God, the
more a sinner bemoans his offence, the more he extenuates the
anger of his Judge. Sin cannot but call for justice, as it is an
offence against God; yet, when once it is a wound to the soul it
moveth him to mercy and clemency. Wherefore as David having but
resolved to confess his sins, was accosted eftsoon with an
absolution: so, Tu agnosce, et Dominus ignoscet
(Augustine.) Be thou unfeigned in confessing, and God will be
faithful in forgiving. 1Jo 1:9. Only let confessio peccati
be professo desinendi (Hilary.)—the acknowledgment of
thy sin an obligation to leave it; and then thou mayest build
upon it. "He that confesseth and forsaketh shall have
mercy." Pr 28:13. Isaac Craven's Sermon at Paul's Cross,
1630
Verse 5. I said, I will confess, etc. Justified
persons, who have their sins forgiven, are yet bound to confess
sin to God...There are many queries to be dispatched in the
handling of this point. The first query is, what are the reasons
why persons justified and pardoned are yet bound to make
confession of sin unto God in private? The reasons are six.
First, they are to confess sin unto God because holy confession
gives a great deal of ease and holy quiet unto the mind of a
sinner: concealed and indulged guilt contracts horror and dread
on the conscience. Secondly, because God loves to hear the
complaints and the confessions of his own people. Lying on the
face is the best gesture, and the mourning weed the best garment
that God is well pleased with. A third reason is, because
confession of sin doth help to quicken the heart to strong and
earnest supplication to God (see Ps 32:6). Confession is to the
soul as the whetstone is to the knife, that sharpens it and puts
an edge on it; so doth confession of sin. Confessing thy evils
to God doth sharpen and put an edge on thy supplication; that
man will pray but faintly that doth confess sin but slightly. A
fourth reason is, because confession of sin will work a holy
contrition and a godly sorrow in the heart. Ps 38:18.
Declaration doth work compunction. Confession of sin is but the
causing of sin to recoil on the conscience, which causeth
blushing and shame of face, and grief of heart. A fifth reason
is, because secret confession of sin doth give a great deal of
glory to God. It gives glory to God's justice. I do confess sin,
and do confess God in justice may damn me for my sin. It gives
glory to God's mercy. I confess sin, yet mercy may save me. It
gives glory to God's omniscience. In confessing sin I do
acknowledge that God knoweth my sin. A sixth reason why
justified persons must confess sin unto God is, because holy
confession of sin will embitter sin, and endear Christ to them,
when a man shall let sin recoil on his conscience, by a
confession. Condensed from Christopher Love's "Soul's
Cordial," 1683.
Verse 5. I said, I will confess...and thou
forgavest. It remaineth as a truth, remission is undoubtedly
annexed to confession. Tantum valent tres syllabae PEC-CA-VI,
saith St. Austin, of so great force are those three syllables in
the Latin, three words in the English, when uttered with a
contrite heart, "I have sinned." Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 5. Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.
This sin seems very probably to have been his adultery with
Bathsheba, and murder of Uriah. Now David, to make the pardoning
mercy of God more illustrious, saith he did not only forgive his
sin, but the iniquity of his sin; and what was
that? Surely the worst that can be said of that, his complicated
sin, is that there was so much hypocrisy in it, he woefully
juggled with God and man in it; this, I do not doubt to say, was
the iniquity of his sin, and put a colour deeper on it
than the blood which he shed. And the rather—I lay the accent
there—because God himself, when he would set out the
heinousness of this sin, seems to do it rather from the
hypocrisy in the fact than the fact itself, as appears by the
testimony given this holy man 1Ki 15:5: "David did that
which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside
from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life,
save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." Were there
not other false steps which David took beside this? Doth the
Spirit of God, by excepting this, declare his approbation of all
that else he ever did? No, sure the Spirit of God records other
sins that escaped this eminent servant of the Lord; but all
those are drowned here, and this mentioned is the only stain of
his life. But why? Surely because there appeared less sincerity,
yea, more hypocrisy in this one sin than in all his others put
together; though David in them was wrong as to the matter of his
actions, yet his heart was more right in the manner of
committing them. But here his sincerity was sadly wounded,
though not to the total destruction of the habit, yet to lay it
in a long swoon, as to any actings thereof. And truly the wound
went very deep when that grace was stabbed in which did run the
life blood of all the rest. We see, then, God hath reason,
though his mercy prompted him, yea, his covenant obliged him,
not to let his child die of this wound, yet so to heal it that a
scar might remain upon the place, a mark upon the sin, whereby
others might know how odious hypocrisy is to God. William
Gurnall.
Verse 5. Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.
We must observe the matter forgiven, and the manner of
forgiving. The matter forgiven is the iniquity of his
sin. It is disputed what is here meant by iniquity,
whether culpa or paena. Some understand paenam,
and think that an allusion is made in this word unto the message
of Nathan, wherein God doth remit the heaviest stroke of his
wrath, but yet retains some part in punishing the child, and
permitting Absalom to rebel and abuse king David's concubines:
so Theodoret, Deus non condigna paena Davidem punivit.
Some understand culpam, and will have this phrase to be
an amplification of that, as if superbia defendens, or taciturnitas
celans, or impietas contra Deum assurgens, or some
such great guilt were meant by this phrase. But as I do not
censure these opinions, which may well stand, so I think the
phrase looks back into that word which was in the confession.
The sin confessed was (evp) and this is but an analysis of this
word; for (ytajx Nwe), what is it, word for word, but the perverseness
of my aberration? (hajx) is an aberration from the scope or
mark whereat we aim; all men aim at felicity, but most men stray
from it, because they are not led by the law that guides unto
it, the violating whereof is called (hajx) But some do stray out
of mere ignorance, and they only break the law; some out of
stubbornness, which will not submit themselves to the Lawgiver;
these men's sin is called perverseness, which God is said
here to forgive. So that David did not confess more against
himself than God includes in his pardon. Well may God exceed our
desire; he never doth come short thereof if it do concern our
spiritual, our eternal good. As he doth exclude no sinner that
doth confess, so doth he except against no sin that is
confessed. Arthur Lake.
Verse 6. For this shall every one that is godly
pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found, etc.
Seeing he is such a God, who should refuse or delay his return!
Surely every rational and pious mind will, without delay, invoke
so gentle and mild a Lord; will pray to him while he is
exorable, or, as the Hebrew expresses it, in a time of
finding. For he who promises pardon, does not promise
tomorrow. There are tempora fandi—certain times in
which he may be spoken with, and a certain appointed day of
pardon and of grace, which if a man by stupid perverseness
despise, or by sloth neglect, surely he is justly overwhelmed
with eternal might and misery, and must necessarily perish by
the deluge of divine wrath; since he has contemned and derided
that Ark of salvation which was prepared, and in which whoever
enters into it shall be safe, while the world is perishing. Robert
Leighton.
Verse 6. For this shall every one that is godly
pray to thee, saith David. For this! What? Because of
his sins. And who? Not the most wicked, but the godly, in
this respect, have cause to pray. And for what should he pray?
Surely, for renewed pardon, for increase of grace, and for the
perfection of glory. We cannot say we have no sin. Oh, then let
us pray with David, "Enter not into judgment with thy
servant, O Lord!" Where there is a double emphasis
observable, it is not ab hoste, but a servo.
Though God's servant, yet he would not have God to enter into
judgment with him. And again, ne intres, it is the very
entrance into judgment that he dreads, and prayeth against; not
only do not proceed, but do not so much as enter.
Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 6. For this shall every one that is godly.
We are here furnished with a fact which does not appear in the
history of David. It is commonly supposed that after his
grievous fall, till Nathan reproved him, he had been careless
and stupefied; and this has often been adduced as a proof of the
hardening nature of sin. But the thing was far otherwise. He was
all the while tortured in his mind, yet unwilling to humble
himself before God, and condemn himself before men, as he ought
to have done. He kept silence and endeavoured to pass off the
distress by time, palliation, and excuse. But the repression and
concealment of his anguish preyed not only upon his peace, but
his health, and endangered life itself. At length he was reduced
to the deepest penitence, and threw himself, by an unqualified
confession, on the compassion of God. For this shall every
one that is godly pray unto thee. Here we see not only that
all the godly pray, but every one of them prays for pardon. This
is the very thing which our Saviour teaches his disciples:
"When ye pray, say, Forgive us our trespasses." And
this praying does not only regard the manifestation of forgiving
mercy, as some would have it, but the exercise of it. William
Jay.
Verse 6. Godly. A godly man is like God, he
hath the same judgment with God! he thinks of things as God
doth; he hath a God like disposition; he partakes of the divine
nature. 2Pe 1:4. A godly man doth bear God's name and image:
godliness is God likeness. Thomas Watson.
Verse 6. A time. There be seasons, which, if
taken, sweeten actions, and open the door for their better
entertainment: Pr 25:11, "A word fitly spoken is like
apples of gold in pictures of silver; "the Hebrew is, A
word spoken upon its wheels: fit times and seasons are wheels to
carry words with great advantage. And so for actions; when
things are done in due time they are beautiful, acceptable. When
God gives rain to a land in season, how acceptable is it! when a
tree bears fruit in its season, it is grateful: so when angels
or men do things seasonably, it is pleasing to the Lord Christ:
there are fit times, which, if we miss, actions are unlovely,
and miss of their aims. For this shall every one that is
godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.
There are times, if we have the wisdom to discern them, when
prayer will be seasonable, acceptable, effectual. William
Greenhill.
Verse 6. Surely in the floods of great waters they
shall not come nigh unto him. The effects of prayer
heretofore have been wonderful. Prayer hath sent down hailstones
from heaven to overcome five kings with their armies. Prayer
hath shut up the windows of heaven that it should not rain, and
again hath opened them that the earth might give her increase.
Prayer hath stayed the swift course of the sun and caused it to
go backward fifteen degrees. Prayer hath held God's hands that
he could not strike when he was ready to plague his people.
Prayer without any other help or means hath thrown down the
strong walls of Jericho. Prayer hath divided the sea that the
floods thereof could not come near the Israelites. In this place
it delivereth the faithful man from all the dangers of this
world. Surely in the floods of many waters they shall not
come nigh unto him. The sum is this, That no calamity of
this world, no troubles of this life, no terrors of death, no
guiltiness of sin, can be so great, but that a godly man
by means of his faith and felicity in Christ shall wade out of
them well enough. For howsoever other things go, still he shall
have such a solace in his soul, such a comfort in his
conscience, such a heaven in his heart, knowing himself
reconciled to God and justified by faith, that, Surely in the
floods of many waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
Which, that it may better appear, I shall desire you to observe
two things, the danger, the deliverance. The danger is in these
words, In the floods of many waters; where the
tribulations that the godly man is subject to in this life are
likened, first, to waters; then to many waters;
thirdly, to a flood of many waters. The deliverance is in
these words, Surely they shall not come near him; where
the deliverance of the godly man hath three degrees also. First,
"they shall not come near; "secondly, him,
"they shall not come near him; "then, surely—"surely
they shall not come near him." Thomas Playfere.
Verse 6. The floods of great waters. The
afflictions of the faithful are likened to waters. Fire
and water have no mercy, we say. But of the two water is the
worst. For any fire may be quenched with water; but the force of
water, if it begins to be violent, cannot by any power of man,
be resisted. But these our tribulations which are waters
are "many waters." Our common proverb is,
"Seldom comes sorrow alone:" but as waters come
rolling and waving many together, so the miseries of this life. Thomas
Playfere.
Verse 6. Floods of great waters. Unfamiliar
with the sudden flooding of thirsty water courses, we seldom
comprehend the full force of the most striking images in the Old
and New Testaments. W.J. Conybeare, and J.S. Howson, in
"Life and Epistles of St. Paul."
Verse 6. In the floods, etc. Washed he may be,
as Paul was in the shipwreck, but not drowned with those floods
of great waters: be they never so great they are bounded. Joseph
Trapp.
Verse 6. Him. This word must in no case be
omitted; it helpeth us to answer a very strong objection. For it
may be said, Many holy men have lost their goods, have suffered
great torments in their body, have been troubled also in mind;
how then did not the "floods of many waters" come near
them? The word him helps us to answer. The very
philosophers themselves reckoned their goods pertained no more
to them, than, be it spoken with reverence and regard, the
parings of their nails. Zenon hearing news he had lost all he
had by sea, said only thus, Thou hast done very well, Fortune,
to leave me nothing but my cloak. Another, called Anaxarchus,
when as Nicocreon the tyrant commanded he should be beaten to
death in a mortar, spake thus to the executioner, Beat and bray
as long as thou wilt Anaxarchus his bag or satchel (so he called
his own body), but Anaxarchus thou canst not touch. Yet these,
making so small reckoning of their goods and body, set their
minds notwithstanding at a high rate. The mind of a man is
himself, say they. Hence it is that Julius Caesar, when Amyclas
the pilot was greatly afraid of the tempest, spake to him thus:
What meanest thou to fear, base fellow? dost thou not know thou
carriest Caesar with thee? As if he should say, Caesar's body
may well be drowned, as any other man's may; but his mind, his
magnanimity, his valour, his fortitude, can never be drowned.
Thus far went philosophy; but divinity goeth a degree further.
For philosophy defines him, that is, a man, by his
reason, and the moral virtues of the mind; but divinity defines
a Christian man by his faith, and his conjunction thereby with
Christ. Excellently saith Saint Austin: Whence comes it that the
soul dieth? Because faith is not in it. Whence that the body
dieth? Because a soul is not in it. Therefore the soul of thy
soul is faith. So that if we would know what is a faithful man,
we must define him, not by his natural soul, as he is
reasonable, but by the soul of his soul, which is his faith. And
then we easily answer the objection, that a flood may come near
a faithful man's goods, near his body, near his reasonable soul;
but to his faith, that is, to HIM, it can never come near. Thomas
Playfere.
Verse 6. Few verses in the Psalms are harder to be
understood than this: and none has given rise to more varied
expositions among the commentators. For this. Some will
have it: encouraged by this example, that after so foul a fall
God so readily forgave. Others again: for this, namely,
warned by this example, they who are holy shall make their
prayers that they may not be permitted to fall as David did.
Whichever be the sense, they well argue from this passage, that
the state of absolute and enduring perfection is impossible to a
Christian in this life. Lorinus, and Cajetan (1469-1534),
quoted by Neale.
Verse 7. Thou art my hiding place. David does
not say, "Thou art a hiding place" merely, as one
among many; or the "hiding place, "as the only
one; but, "Thou art my hiding place." There
lies all the excellency of the text. "He is mine; I
have embraced the offer of his salvation, "says David;
"I have applied to him in my own person: I have, as a
sinner, taken shelter in his love and compassion; I have placed
myself under his wings; I have covered myself with the robe of
his righteousness; and now, therefore, I am safe."
"Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered." This is having a part and a lot in the
matter, having the personal and individual benefit of the
Saviour's work of atonement. How different is an appropriating
from a speculative faith! Men tell us that they believe
the doctrine, that they acknowledge the truth, that they assent
to our creed; and they say, that to declare to them the
character of Christ as the sinner's only help and safety, is
merely putting before them what they already know. Now, follow
up the idea suggested by the figure in our text, and see the
folly and danger of acting thus. Suppose a traveller upon a
bleak and exposed heath to be alarmed by the approach of a
storm. He looks out for shelter. But if his eye discern a place
to hide him from the storm, does he stand still and say, "I
see there is a shelter, and therefore I may remain where
I am"? Does he not betake himself to it? Does he not run,
in order to escape the stormy wind and tempest? It was a
"hiding place" before; but it was his hiding
place only when he ran into it, and was safe. Had he not gone
into it, though it might have been a protection to a thousand
other travellers who resorted there, to him it would have been
as if no such place existed. Who does not see at once, from this
simple illustration, that the blessings of the gospel are such
only in their being appropriated to the soul? The
physician can cure only by being applied to; the medicine
can heal only by being taken; money can enrich only by
being possessed; and the merchantman in the parable would
have been none the wealthier for discovering that there was a
"pearl of great price, "had he not made it his.
So with the salvation of the gospel: if Christ is the "Balm
in Gilead, "apply the remedy; if he is the
"physician there, "go to him; if he is the "pearl
of great price, "sell all that you have and buy it;
and if he is the "hiding place, "run into it
and be safe; there will be no solid joy and peace in the mind
until he is your "hiding place." Fountain
Elwin, 1842.
Verse 7. Thou art my hiding place. An allusion,
probably, to the city of refuge. Adam Clarke.
Verse 7. Hiding place. Kirke White has a
beautiful hymn upon this word, beginning, "Awake, sweet
harp of Judah, wake." We have no room to quote it, but it
will be found in "Our Own Hymn Book, "No. 381.
Verse 7. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
If we content ourselves with that word which our translators
have chosen here, trouble, we must rest in one of these
two senses; either that God shall arm, and indue those that are
his with such a constancy, as those things that trouble others
shall not trouble them; but, "As the sufferings of Christ
abound in them, so their consolation also aboundeth by
Christ:" "As unknown, and yet well known; as dying,
and behold we live; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor,
yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all
things" 2Co 1:5 6:9; for God uses both these ways in the
behalf of his servants—sometimes to suspend the working of
that that should work their torment, as he suspended the rage of
the lions for Daniel, and the heat of the fire in the furnace
for the others; sometimes by imprinting a holy stupefaction and
insensibleness in the person that suffers; so St. Lawrence was
not only patient, but merry and facetious when he lay broiling
upon the fire, and so we read of many other martyrs that have
been less moved, less affected with their torments than their
executioners or their persecutors have been. That which troubled
others never troubled them; or else the phrase must have this
sense, that though they be troubled with their troubles, though
God submit them so far to the common condition of men, that they
be sensible of them, yet he shall preserve them from that
trouble so as that it shall never overthrow them, never sink
them into a dejection of spirit, or diffidence in his mercy!
they shall find storms, but a stout and strong ship under foot;
they shall feel thunder and lightning, but garlands of
triumphant bays shall preserve them; they shall be trodden into
earth with scorns and contempt, but yet as seed is buried, to
multiply to more. So far this word of our translators assists
our devotion, Thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou
shalt make me insensible of it, or thou shalt make me victorious
in it. John Donne.
Verse 7. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of
deliverance. In these words the prophet David riseth up by a
gradation, and goeth beyond that which he had formerly said
concerning his confidence in God. First, he had said that God
was his hiding place; secondly, that he would preserve
him in trouble; and now, thirdly, that the Lord would make
him joyful, and to triumph over his troubles and enemies,
by compassing him, instead of troubles, with mercies... Learn to
acknowledge God's goodness to thyself with particular
application, as David saith here, "Thou shalt compass me
about with songs of deliverance." Not only confess his
goodness to others, as to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; nor only his
deliverance of Noah, Daniel, Lot; but also his mercies to and
deliverance of thyself, as Paul did: "Christ gave himself
for me, and died for me." Ga 2:20. This will
exceedingly whet up thankfulness; whereas only to acknowledge
God good in himself, or to others, and not to thyself, will make
thee murmur and repine. Thomas Taylor.
Verse 7. Thou shalt compass me about. This word
imports, that as we are besieged on every side with troubles, so
we are compassed with as many comforts and deliverances; as our
crosses grow daily, so our consolations are augmented day by
day. We are on every side offended and on every side defended;
therefore we ought on every side to sound God's praise, as David
saith, "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within
me." Ps 103:1. Archibald Symson.
Verse 7. Songs of deliverance. In that he will
not be content only with thanks, but also will have them
conjoined with songs, he letteth us see how high all the
strings of his heart are bent that he cannot contain himself for
the mercies of God to his church, and for his manifold
deliverances for the same. Many sing praises to God with an half
open mouth; and, albeit, they can sing aloud any filthy ballad
in their house, they make the mean, I warrant you, in the
church, that scarce can they hear the sound of their own voice.
I think they be ashamed to proclaim and show forth God's
praises, or they fear to deafen God by their loud singing; but
David bent all his forces within and without to praise his God. Archibald
Symson.
Verse 8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the
way which thou shalt go. No other than God himself can
undertake so much as is promised in the text. For here is faith,
a rectifying of the understanding, I will instruct thee,
and in the original there is somewhat more than our translation
reaches to; it is there, Intelligere faciam te, I will make
thee understand. Man can instruct, God only can make us
understand. And then it is Faciam te, I will make thee, thee
understand; the work is the Lord's, the understanding is the
man's: for God does not work in man as the devil did in idols
and in pythonissis, and in ventriloquis, in
possessed persons, who had no voluntary concurrence with the
action of the devil, but were merely passive; God works so in
man as that he makes man work too, faciam te, I will make
thee understand; that that shall be done by me, but in thee; the
power that rectifies the act is God's, the act is man's; Faciam
te, says God, I will make thee, thee, every particular
person (for that arises out of this singular and distributive
word, thee, which threatens no exception, no exclusion),
I will make every person to whom I present instruction, capable
of that instruction; and if he receive it not, it is only his,
and not my fault. And so this first part is an instruction de
credendis, of such things, as by God's rectifying of our
understanding we are bound to believe. And then, in a second
part, there follows a more particular instructing, Docebo,
"I will teach thee, "and that in via, "in
the way; "it is not only de via, to teach thee
which is the way, that thou mayest find it, but in via,
how to keep the way when thou art in it; he will teach thee, not
only ut gradiaris, that you may walk in it and not sleep,
but quomodo gradieris, that you may walk in it and not
stray; and so this second part is an institution de agendis,
of those things which, thine understanding being formerly
rectified, and deduced into a belief, thou art bound to do. And
then in the last words of the text, I will guide thee with
mine eye, there is a third part, and establishment, a
confirmation by an incessant watchfulness in God; he will
consider, consult upon us (for so much the original word
imports), he will not leave us to contingencies, to fortune; no,
nor to his own general providence, by which all creatures are
universally in his protection and administration, but he will
ponder us, consider us, study us; and that with his eye, which
is the sharpest and most sensible organ and instrument, soonest
feels if anything be amiss, and so inclines him quickly to
rectify us; and so this third part is an instruction de
sperandis, it hath evermore a relation to the future, to the
constancy and perseverance of God's goodness towards us; to the
end, and in the end he will guide us with his eye: except the
eye of God can be put out we cannot be put out of his sight and
his care. So that, both our freight which we are to take in,
that is, what we are to believe concerning God; and the voyage
which we are to make, how we are to steer and govern our course,
that is, our behaviour and conversation in the household of the
faithful; and then the haven to which we must go, that is, our
assurance of arriving at the heavenly Jerusalem, are expressed
in this chart, in this map, in this instruction, in this text. John
Donne.
Verse 8. This threefold repetition, I will instruct
thee, I will teach thee, I will guide thee, teaches us three
properties of a good teacher. First, to make the people
understand the way of salvation; secondly, to go before them;
thirdly, to watch over them and their ways. Archibald Symson.
Verse 8. The way. If we compare this way with
all other ways, it will whet our care to enter into and continue
in it; for, first, this is the King's highway, in which
we have promise of protection. Ps 91:11. Secondly, God's ways
are the cleanest of all. 2Sa 22:31. Thirdly, God's ways
are the rightest ways; and, being rightest, they be also
the shortest ways. Ho 14:9. Fourthly, God's ways are most
lightsome and cheerful. Pr 3:17. Therefore, God's ways
being the safest, cleanest, rightest, shortest, and lightsomest
ways, we must be careful to walk in them. Condensed from
Thomas Taylor.
Verse 8. I will guide thee with mine eye. We
read in natural story (A reviewer remarks upon the bad natural
history which we quote. We reply that to alter it would be to
spoil the allusions, and we are making a book for men, not for
babes. No person in his senses is likely at this day to believe
the fables which in former ages passed current for facts.), of
some creatures, Qui solo oculorum aspectu fovent ova
(Pliny), which hatch their eggs only by looking upon them. What
cannot the eye of God produce and hatch in us? Plus est quod
probatur aspectu, quam quod sermone (Ambrose.) A man may
seem to commend in words, and yet his countenance shall
dispraise. His word infuses good purposes into us; but if God
continue his eye upon us it is a further approbation, for he is
a God of pure eyes, and will not look upon the wicked.
"This land doth the Lord thy God care for, and the eyes of
the Lord are always upon it from beginning of the year, even to
the end thereof." De 11:12. What a cheerful spring, what a
fruitful autumn hath that soul, that hath the eye of the Lord
always upon her! The eye of the Lord upon me makes midnight
noon; it makes Capricorn Cancer, and the winter's the summer's
solstice; the eye of the Lord sanctifies, nay, more than
sanctifies, glorifies all the eclipses of dishonour, makes
melancholy cheerfulness, diffidence assurance, and turns the
jealousy of the sad soul into infallibility...This guiding us
with his eye manifests itself in these two great effects;
conversion to him, and union with him. First, his eye works upon
ours; his eye turns ours to look upon him. Still it is so
expressed with an Ecce; "Behold, the eye of the Lord
is upon all them that fear him; "his eye calls ours to
behold that; and then our eye calls upon his, to observe our
cheerful readiness...When, as a well made picture doth always
look upon him that looks upon it, this image of God in our soul
is turned to him, by his turning to it, it is impossible we
should do any foul, any uncomely thing in his presence...The
other great effect of his guiding us with his eye, is, that it
unites us to himself; when he fixes his eye upon us, and accepts
the return of ours to him, then he "keeps" us as the
"apple" of his "eye." Zec 2:8 ...These are
the two great effects of his guiding us by his eye, that first,
his eye turns us to himself, and then turns us into himself;
first, his eye turns ours to him, and then, that makes us all
one with himself, so as that our afflictions shall be put upon
his patience, and our dishonours shall be injurious to him; we
cannot be safer than by being his; but thus we are not only his,
but he; to every persecutor, in every one of our behalf, he
shall say, Cur me? Why persecutest thou me? And as he is
all power, and can defend us, so here he makes himself all eye,
which is the most tender part, and most sensible of our
pressures. Condensed from John Donne.
Verse 8. I will guide thee with mine eye.
Margin, I will counsel thee, mine eye shall be upon
thee. The margin expresses the sense of the Hebrew. The
literal meaning is, "I will counsel thee; mine eyes
shall be upon thee." De Wette: "my eye shall be
directed towards thee." The idea is that of one who
is telling another what way he is to take in order that he may
reach a certain place; and he says he will watch him, or will
keep an eye upon him; he will not let him go wrong. Albert
Barnes.
Verse 8. Mine eye. We may consider mercies as
the beamings of the Almighty's eye, when the light of his
countenance is lifted up upon us; and that man as guided by the
eye, whom mercies attract and attach to his Maker. But oh! let
us refuse to be guided by the eye, and it will become needful
that we be curbed with the hand. If we abuse our mercies, if we
forget their Author, and yield him not gratefully the homage of
our affections, we do but oblige him, by his love for our souls,
to apportion us disaster and trouble. Complain not, then, that
there is so much of sorrow in your lot; but consider rather how
much of it you may have wilfully brought upon yourselves. Listen
to the voice of God. I will instruct thee and teach thee in
the way in which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye—mine
eye, whose glance gilds all that is beautiful, whose light
disperses all darkness, prevents all danger, diffuses all
happiness. And why, then, is it that ye are sorely disquieted?
why is it that "fear and the pit" are so often upon
you; that one blessing after another disappears from your
circle; and that God seems to deal with you as with the wayward
and unruly, on whom any thing of gentleness would be altogether
lost? Ah! if you would account for many mercies that have
departed, if you would insure permanence to those that are yet
left, examine how deficient you may hitherto have been, and
strive to be more diligent for the future, in obeying an
admonition which implies that we should be guided by the soft
lusters of the eye, if our obduracy did not render indispensable
the harsh constraints of the rein. Henry Melvill.
Verse 9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,
etc. How many run mad of this cause, inordinate and furious
lusts! The prophet Jeremiah, Jer 2:24, compares Israel to
"a swift dromedary, traversing her ways, "and to
"a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the
wind at her pleasure." Be ye not, said the
psalmographer, "as the horse, or as the mule, which have no
understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and
bridle." Men have understanding, not beasts; yet when the
frenzy of lust overwhelms their senses, we may take up the word
of the prophet and pour it on them: "Every man is a beast
by his own knowledge." And therefore "man that is in
honour and understandeth not, is like unto beasts that
perish" Ps 49:20. Did not the bridle of God's overruling
providence restrain their madness, they would cast off the
saddle of reason, and kick nature itself in the face. Thomas
Adams.
Verse 9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,
etc. According to the several natures of these two beasts, the
fathers and other expositors have made several interpretations;
at least, several allusions. They consider the horse and the
mule to admit any rider, any burden, without discretion or
difference, without debate or consideration; they never ask
whether their rider be noble or base, nor whether their load be
gold for the treasure, or roots for the market. And those
expositors find the same indifference in an habitual sinner to
any kind of sin; whether he sin for pleasure, or sin for profit,
or sin but for company, still he sins. They consider in the
mule, that one of his parents being more ignoble than the other,
he is like the worst, he hath more of the ass than of the horse
in him; and they find in us, that all our actions and thoughts
taste more of the more ignoble part of the earth than of heaven.
St. Hierome thinks fierceness and rashness to be presented in
the horse, and sloth in the mule. And St. Augustine carries
these two qualities far; he thinks that in this fierceness of
the horse the Gentiles are represented, which ran far from the
knowledge of Christianity; and by the laziness of the mule the
Jews, who came nothing so fast, as they were invited by their
former helps to the embracing thereof. They have gone far in
these allusions and applications; and they might have gone as
far further as it had pleased them; they have sea room enough,
that will compare a beast and a sinner together; and they shall
find many times, in the way, the beast the better man. John
Donne.
Verse 9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,
etc. Consider the causes why a broken leg is incurable in a
horse, and easily curable in a man. The horse is incapable of
counsel to submit himself to the farrier; and therefore in case
his leg be set he flings, flounces, and flies out, unjointing it
again by his misemployed mettle, counting all binding to be
shackles and fetters unto him: whereas a man willingly resigns
himself to be ordered by the surgeon, preferring rather
to be a prisoner for some days, than a cripple all his life. Be
ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no
understanding; but "let patience have its perfect work
in thee." Jas 1:4. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 9. Bit and bridle (Norw-ntk) The LXX
render the first of these two words by calinw, the second by
kemw. The word calinos signifies the iron of the common bridle,
which is put into the horse's mouth, the bit, or curb. But kemoz
was something like a muzzle, which was put upon mischievous
horses or mules to keep them from biting. Xenephon says, that it
allowed them to breathe, but kept the mouth shut, so that they
could not bite. Not knowing the term of art for this
contrivance, I call it a muzzle. The verb (brq) is a military
term, and signifies to advance, as an enemy, to attack. The
"coming near, "therefore, intended here, is a coming
near to do mischief. The admonition given by the psalmist to his
companions, is to submit to the instruction and guidance
graciously promised from heaven, and not to resemble, in a
refractory disposition, those ill conditioned colts which are
not to be governed by a simple bridle; but, unless their jaws
are confined by a muzzle, will attack the rider as he attempts
to mount, or the groom as he leads them to the pasture and the
stable. Samuel Horsley.
Verse 9. Lest they come near unto thee. The
common version of this clause would be suitable enough in
speaking of a wild beast, but in reference to a mule or a horse
the words can only mean, because they will not follow or obey
thee of their own accord; they must be constantly coerced, in
the way both of compulsion and restraint. J. A. Alexander.
Verse 9. "Be ye not like a horse or mule, which
have no understanding, and whose ornament is a bridle and bit,
to hold them: they do not come unto thee of themselves."
Charles Carter, in "The Book of Psalms." 1869. A
new Translation.
Verse 10. He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall
compass him about. Even as in the midst of the sphere is the
centre, from which all lines being drawn do tend towards their
circumference: so a good Christian man hath God for his
circumference; for whatever he thinketh, speaketh, or doth, it
tendeth to Christ, of whom he is compassed round about. Robert
Cawdray.
Verse 10. Mercy shall compass him about. He
shall be surrounded with mercy—as one is surrounded by
the air, or by the sunlight. He shall find mercy and favour
everywhere—at home, abroad; by day, by night; in society, in
solitude; in sickness, in health; in life, in death; in time, in
eternity. He shall walk amidst mercies; he shall die amidst
mercies; he shall live in a better world in the midst of eternal
mercies. Albert Barnes.
Verse 10. "Mark that text, "said Richard
Adkins to his grandson Abel, who was reading to him the
thirty-second Psalm. "Mark that text, `He that trusteth in
the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.' I read it in my youth
and believed it; and now I read it in my old age, thank God, I
know it to be true. Oh! it is a blessed thing in the midst of
the joys and sorrows of the world, Abel, to trust in the
Lord." The Christian Treasury, 1848.
Verse 11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye
righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
This exhortation containeth three parts. First, what he doth
exhort unto, to rejoice. Secondly, whom, the righteous,
and upright men. Thirdly, the limitation, in the Lord.
He exhorteth them three times—be glad, rejoice, and be joyful;
and as he made mention of a threefold blessing, so doth he of a
threefold joy. Wherein we have two things necessary to be
observed. First the dulness of our natures, who as slow horses
need many spurs and provocations to spiritual things, whereas we
are naturally overmuch bent to carnal things, that we need no
incitations thereunto. But by the contrary in spiritual things,
we are cast into a deep sleep, who cannot be awakened at the
first cry; but as men after drink have need to be roused often,
that they may behold the light; so men drunken with the
pleasures of sin, as Nazianzen saith, must be wakened by divers
exhortations; as this same prophet in the subsequent Psalm
redoubles his exhortations for the same effect. And the apostle
to the Philippians saith: "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and
again I say, rejoice, "Php 4:4. Next, perceive that this
exhortation grows: for the word be glad, properly in the
original signifieth an inward and hearty joy, by the presence or
hope at least of a thing desirable or good. The word rejoice,
to express our joy by some outward gesture, sometimes used for
dancing, as, "The hills skip for gladness." Ps 65:12.
The word be joyful, to cry for gladness, as the dumb
man's tongue shall sing. This gradation teacheth us, that this
is the nature of spiritual joy—that it still increaseth in us
by certain degrees, until it come to the perfection of all joy,
which is signified by the last word, importing, as it were, a
triumph and shouting after victory. So that they are truly
penitent who have overcome sin and Satan in their spiritual
combat, and have triumphed over them as vanquished enemies. Archibald
Symson.
Verse 11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye
righteous. There's never a joyful man alive but a believer.
Will you say that men take pleasure in their sins? Why, that is
the Devil's joy; or that they rejoice in full barns and
bags? That is the fool's joy; or that they rejoice in
wine, that is, all dainties that gratify the palate? That is a Bedlam
joy. Read and believe Ec 2:3; indeed, from the first verse to
the eleventh, the whole book, but especially that chapter, is
the most divine philosophy that ever was or will be. Christopher
Fowler (1610-1678), in "Morning Exercises."
Verse 11. Shout for joy, all ye that are upright in
heart. When the poet Carpani enquired of his friend Haydn,
how it happened that his church music was so cheerful, the great
composer made a most beautiful reply. "I cannot, "he
said, "make it otherwise, I write according to the thoughts
I feel: when I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that
the notes dance, and leap, as it were, from my pen: and, since
God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I
serve him with a cheerful spirit." John Whitecross's
Anecdotes.
Verse 11. Here the sensual man, that haply would catch
hold when it is said, Rejoice, by and by, when it is
added, in the Lord, will let his hold go. But they that,
by reason of the billows and waves of the troublesome sea of
this world, cannot brook the speech when it is said, Rejoice,
are to lay sure hold fast upon it when it is added, Rejoice
in the Lord. Henry Airay.
Verse 11.
O sing unto this glittering glorious King.
O praise his name let every living thing;
Let heart and voice, like bells of silver, ring
The comfort that this day doth bring.
—Kinwellmersh, quoted by A. Moody Stuart.
Verse 11. It is storied by the famous Tully concerning
Syracuse, that there is no day throughout the whole year so
stormy and tempestuous in which the inhabitants have not some
glimpse and sight of the sun. The like observation may be truly
made on all those Psalms of David in which his complaints are
most multiplied, his fears and pressures most insisted on; that
there is not any of them so totally overcast with the black
darkness of despair, but that we may easily discern them to be
here and there intervened and streaked with some comfortable
expressions of his faith and hope in God. If in the beginning of
a Psalm we find him restless in his motions, like Noah's dove
upon the overspreading waters; yet in the close we shall see him
like the same dove returning with an olive branch in its mouth,
and fixing upon the ark. If we find him in another Psalm
staggering in the midst of his distresses, through the
prevalence of carnal fears, we may also in it behold him
recovering himself again, by fetching arguments from faith,
whose topics are of a higher elevation than to be shaken by the
timorous suggestions that arise from the flesh. If at another
time we behold him like to a boat on drift, that is, tossed and
beaten by the inconstant winds and fierce waves; yet we shall
still find all his rollings and agitations to be such as carry
him towards the standing shore, where he rides at last both in
peace and safety. William Spurstowe.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Gospel benedictions. Take the first Psalm
with thirty-second, show the doctrinal and practical
harmoniously blended. Or, take the first, the thirty-second, and
the forty-first, and show how we go from reading the word, to
feeling its power, and thence to living charitably towards men.
Verse 1. Evangelical Blessedness. 1. The
original condition of its possessor.
2. The nature of the benefit received.
3. The channel by which it came.
4. The means by which it may be obtained by us.
Verses 1-2. The nature of sin and the modes of pardon.
Verse 2. Non imputation, a remarkable
doctrine.—Prove, explain, and improve it.
Verse 2. No guile. The honesty of heart of the
pardoned man.
Verse 3. Retention of our griefs to ourselves.
Natural tendency of timidity and despair; danger of it; means of
divulging grief; encouragements to do so; the blessed person who
is ready to hear confession. The silent mourner the greatest
sufferer.
Verses 3-4. "Terrible Conviction and Gentle
Drawings." See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 313.
Verse 4. The sorrows of a convinced soul. Daily,
nightly, from God, heavy, weakening, destroying.
Verse 4. (last clause) Spiritual drought.
Verse 5. The gracious results of a full confession;
or, confession and absolution scripturally explained.
Verse 6. The godly man's picture, drawn with a
Scripture pencil. Thomas Watson.
Verse 6. The experience of one, the encouragement of
all.
Verse 6. (first clause).—The day of grace,
how to improve it.
Verse 6. (whole verse).—Pardon of sin the
guarantee that other mercies shall be given.
Verse 6. (last clause).—Imminent troubles,
eminent deliverances.
Verse 6. (last clause).—The felicity of the
faithful. Thomas Playfere.
Verse 7. Danger felt, refuge known, possession
claimed, joy experienced.
Verse 7. (first sentence).—Christ, a hiding
place from sin, Satan, and sorrow, in death and at judgment.
Verse 7. (second sentence).—Troubles from
which saints shall be preserved.
Verse 7. (last sentence).—The circle of
song—who draws the circle, what is the circumference, who is
in the centre.
Verse 7. Songs of deliverance. From guilt,
hell, death, enemies, doubts, temptations, accidents, plots,
etc. The divine schoolmaster, his pupils, their lessons, their
chastisements and their rewards.
Verse 8. The power of the eye. Henry Melvill.
In which he vainly tries to prove infant baptism and episcopacy,
which he admits are not expressly taught in Scripture, but
declares them to be hinted at as with the divine eye.
Verse 9. God's bits and bridles, the mules who need
them, and reasons why we ought not to be of the number.
Verse 9. How far in our actions we are better, and how
far worse than horses and mules.
Verse 10. The many sorrows which result from sin. The
encompassing mercy of the believer's life even in his most
troublesome times. The portion of the wicked, and the lot of the
faithful.
Verse 11. A believer's gladness. Its spring,
"in the Lord; " its vivacity, "shout;
"its propriety, it is commanded; its beautiful
results and its abundant reasons.
Verse 11. Upright in heart, an instructive
description. Not horizontal or grovelling, nor bent, nor
inclined, but vertical in heart.
WORKS UPON THE THIRTY-SECOND PSALM
This treatyse concernynge the fruytful sonnges of David the
Kynge & prophete in the seuen penytencyall psalmes. Deuyded
in seuen sermons was made and compyled by the ryght reuerent
fader In god Juhau fyssher doctore of dyuynyte & bysshop of
Rochester at the exortacyo and sterynge of the most excellet
princesse Margarete contesse of Rychemont and Derby & moder
to our souerayne lorde Kynge henry the VII.
(No date, but marked in the B.M. Cat. 1509. An 8 volume
edition has on Title Page, An. M.D.J.A.)
David's Learning, or Way to True Happiness: in a Commentarie
upon the 32 Psalme. Preached and now published by THOMAS
TAYLOR, late fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge. London:
1617.
David's Teares. By SIR JOHN HAYWARD, Knight, Doctor of
Lawe. London. Printed by John Bell. 1623. On Psalms VI, XXXII,
and CXXX.
Meditations on Psalm XXXII. in Archbishop Leighton's
Works.
In the Works of JOHN DONNE: Sermons on Psalm XXXII.
Vols. II., III. Alford's Edition.
A Godly and Fruitful Exposition on the Thirty-second Psalme,
the Third of the Penitentials; in A Sacred Septenarie;
or, a Godly and Fruitful Exposition on the Seven Psalmes of
Repentance. By Mr. ARCHIBALD SYMSON, late Pastor of the
Church at Dalkeeth in Scotland. 1638.
Meditations and Disquisitions upon the 32 Psalme, in Meditations
and Disquisitions upon the Seven Psalmes of David, commonly
called the Penitential Psalmes. By SIR RICHARD BAKER,
Knight. 1639.
Lectures on the Thirty-second Psalm. By CHARLES H.
BINGHAM, B.A., Curate of Hale Magna. 1836.
Lectures on the Thirty-second Psalm, preached in
Portman Chapel, Baker Street, during Lent, 1859. By the Rev. J.
W. REEVE, M.A., Minister of the Chapel. 1859.