A psalm of David, a maskil
32:Title Maskil probably was a literary or musical term.⚜
32
📚Blessed is the one whosetransgression is forgiven 📖,
whose sin is covered 📖.
2 📚Blessed is the man to
whom the LORD does
not impute 📖 iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is
no guile 📖.
32:1-2 Three Hebrew words are used here to fully describe wrong doing. “Transgression” means breaking the law of God. “Sin” indicates missing the mark or going astray. “Iniquity” means the badness of a deed in itself, or the guilt that deserves punishment. In the Hebrew Bible the same three words are in Ex 34:7. Also David uses the same three words to describe the way God dealt with confessed sin in the Old Testament.⚜
3 📚When I kept silent 📖,
my bones grew old through
my roaring all the day long.
4 📚For day and night your hand was
heavy on me.
My moisture was turned
into the drought
of summer. Selah
5 📚I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my guilt.
I said, “I will confess my
transgressions to the LORD;
and you forgave the guilt
of my sin. Selah
32:5 2 Sam 12:13-14. Sincere confession of sin results in forgiveness. God loves to be merciful and gracious to the sincere and repentant person (Prov 28:13; Isa 55:7; Micah 7:18; 1 John 1:9).⚜
6 📚For this reason everyone
who is godly will pray to you
in a time
when you may be found.
Surely the floods 📖 of great waters
will not come near him.
7 📚You are my hiding place.
You will preserve me from trouble.
You will surround me with songs of
deliverance. Selah
32:7 Confession and forgiveness of sin bring restful confidence and deliverance. He who does not hide his sin can find a hiding place for himself in God.⚜
8 📚I will instruct you and teach you
in the way you should go.
I will guide you with my eye.
9 📚Do not be like the horse or
like the mule,
which have
no understanding,
whose mouth must be controlled
with bit and bridle,
or they will not come near you.
32:8-9 It is unclear who the speaker is in these verses. Is God speaking to David? Or is David speaking to the readers and hearers of the psalm instructing them as he says he will do in Ps 51:13? In either case the advice is the same. If we want to learn how to walk in God’s ways we must renounce all stubbornness and be humble and obedient toward the Word of God. The mule is famous for its stubbornness. The self-confident and disobedient are compared to horses in Jer 8:6.⚜
10 📚Many sorrows shall be
to the wicked,
but mercy will surround the one
who trusts in the LORD.
32:10 Everywhere in the Bible we see that eventually the wicked will have to pay for his wickedness – Ps 1:4-6; 16:4; 34:21; 68:2; 119:155; Prov 3:33; 5:22; 10:24; 11:5; 13:21; 16:4; Isa 3:11; 13:11; 57:20-21; Jer 23:19; Mal 4:3; Matt 25:46; Rom 2:8-9; Gal 6:8; 2 Thess 1:6; Rev 14:9-11; 21:8. Observe in this verse the contrast between the prospects of the wicked and righteous. See also Ps 5:12; 16:11; 23:6; Isa 35:10; Eph 2:7. Does God regard any of you reading this as wicked? If so, take warning.⚜
11 📚Be glad in the LORD,
and rejoice, you righteous;
and shout for joy,
all you who are
upright in heart.
32:11 No one on earth has more cause for rejoicing than the justified person, the true in heart (Ps 64:10; 68:3; 97:12; Phil 2:18; 3:1; 4:4). Repentance, confession, forgiveness, and victory over deceit in the heart take the gloom away and make true joy a possibility even in a dark, sorrowful, sinful world.⚜