NOTES for Psa 32

¹Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

²Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

³When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

⁴For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

⁵I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

⁶For 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.

⁷Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

⁹Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

¹⁰Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

¹¹Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

We can repeat the words of many psalms as our own. This is especially true of a psalm that recounts the experience of repentance. Everyone who has ever brought a confession of his deeds before the Lord can recognize his own experiences here.

The weight of sin pressing down upon the sinner and felt even physically is shown briefly but vividly in the psalm. But the person who confesses his transgressions is freed from this unbearable burden. A sigh of relief can be heard in the joyful acceptance of the forgiveness that comes from God.

It is no accident that the psalmist places sin and deceit side by side, both equally rejected by the repentant person. Just as genuine repentance is impossible when one deceitfully clings to habitual sins, deceit—the expression of one sin, falsehood—also leads to many other sins.

And so joy embraces the person who is freed from the power of sin. The Lord’s mercy will not forsake him.

Other notes

For Psa 32:9

⁹Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

First of all, this verse tells us about God's goodness, and this is perhaps the main thing. If God is good, then... Read more

First of all, this verse tells us about God's goodness, and this is perhaps the main thing. If God is good, then in the world He created there is a possibility for happiness, and this happiness is reached, more than happiness, blessedness, by trust in Him, by hope in Him. And it also says here that God's goodness is not an abstraction, but something known in real experience. The verbs describing this experience are remarkable: taste, because the experience of communion with God is always inward and one must let the Lord inside oneself for it, and notice the parallel passages, remember the Last Supper; see, because this is an experience of contemplation, and God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all.

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