Gleanings in the Psalms

(Psalm 32)

It is told of Luther that one day being asked which of all the Psalms were the best, he said, "Psalmi Paulini," – the "Pauline Psalms." When his friends asked for an explanation, he pointed them to the 32nd, and the 51st, the 130th, and the 143rd. For, he said, they all teach that the forgiveness of our sin comes from without the Law and without works to the man who believes, and, therefore, he said, I call them "Pauline Psalms," for this was Paul's whole teaching, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

From Luther's Table Talk

Verse 1. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Get your sins hid! There is a covering for sin which proves a curse; Prov. 28:13: "he that covers his sins shall not prosper." There is also a "covering" of sin by not confessing it, (or, what is worse, by denying it); Gehazi covered his sin by a lie. And there is a covering of sin by endeavouring to justify ourselves in our sin. All these are evil coverings, and he that thus covers his sin "shall not prosper." But there is a blessed covering of sin, for forgiveness of sin is the hiding of it out of sight, and that's the blessedness.

Richard Alleine

Verse 2. "Blessed is that man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." When once pardon is realised the believer has courage to be truthful before God: he can afford to have done with "guile" in his spirit. Who would not declare all his debts when they are certain to be discharged by another? 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. 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.

J. Reeve

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 heavenly and continuously? 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.

C. H. Spurgeon

If God strikes those so sore who he favours, how sharply and sore will he strike those whom he favours not?

Gregory

Verse 5. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid …" The hypocrite doth veil and smother his sin; like a patient that has some loathsome disease in his body, he would rather die than confess his disease. But a Godly man's sincerity is seen in this – he will confess his sin and shame himself for his sin. David doth, as it were, point with his finger to the very sore – as in Psalm 51: "I have done this evil;" he does not say, "I have done evil," but "I have done this evil …"

Thomas Watson

Verse 7. "Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." Note how David ascents the ladder of confidence in His God. (1) God was his "hiding place;" (2) He would "preserve" him in trouble; (3) He would "compass" him about with the theme of deliverance in the midst of his enemies. As one has said, "We are on every side offended, but on every side "Defended." The armies of King Benhadad might surround Elisha the prophet, but around the armies of Benhadad "the mountain is full of horses and chariots of fire," and they sound forth the glorious "songs of deliverance" for the prophet and his servant: "Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance."

Verse 10. "… he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." "Mark that text," said Richard Adkins to his grandson Abel, who was reading the Thirty-second psalm to him. "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, and, thank God, I know it to be true."

The Christian Treasury