1. Blessed.
Like the Sermon 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. 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! Whose sin
is covered. Covered by God, as the ark was covered by the mercy-seat, 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 forever from the sight of
the all-seeing God all the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit!
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 that 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 its barkings forever against
his own believing ones. The trinity of sin is ovecome 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.
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.
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, 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! 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 the hoarse roaring of a wounded beast. None know the pangs of
conviction but those who have endured them. The Spanish Inquisition with all
its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds in the heart.
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! God’s hand is very helpful when it uplifts,
but 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. 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; the next verse will surely be set to another
key, or will rehearse a more vital subject.
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 heart before the
Lord. 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. I said. This was his fixed resolution. I will
confess my trangressions 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 as
soon as the acknowledgment was made. Selah. Another pause is needed, for
the matter is not to be hurried over.
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. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. The floods will come, and the
waves will rage, and toss themselves like Ariantic billows. 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.
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 our refuge who
otherwise would have been our judge. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.
Trouble will do me no real harm when the Lord is with me; rather it will 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, and 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. The circle completely rings him round; on
all sides he hears music. Before him hope sounds the cymbals, and behind him
gratitude beats the timbrel. 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 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.
8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way whcih
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 warnings of the Holy Spirit are the directors of the
believer’s daily conversation. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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 a bodyguard of mercies. The wicked have
a hive of wasps around them, many sorrows; but we have a swarm of bees
storing honey for us.
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. 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. 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 people whisper praises decorously where a
hearty outburst of song would be far more natural.
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.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
