(Of David. Instruction.) Blessed is he [whose] transgression is forgiven, [whose] sin is covered!
Psalm 32 is David's own song after sin, and it opens not with a rule to keep but with a blessing pronounced over a guilty man. The verse raises three questions. What does "blessed" mean? What does it mean for sin to be "covered"? And how can a guilty man be called happy?
One writer traces the opening word back to its root idea and applies it to eternity as well as to now.
What do we understand by being "blessed"? The main idea of the word is "prosperous." A prosperous man before God knows his sins, and finds the answer to them in God. Happiness marks such a man. Look at man for eternity, and not only for this life: no man is so prosperous as the one who says, "I have nothing but sin in myself, but all my rest is in God." That man has something to sing about. Whichever way he turns, he finds some fresh note of gladness and joy in it.
One writer points out that David wrote about this blessing as a man who had tasted it himself:
David, the guilty sinner once, is now the object of mercy. He knows he is forgiven, and can write of "the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works" (Rom. 4:6). He tasted this blessedness. It was his own real experience.
Read carefully, the verse says nothing about a clean record. It describes a man whose record was bad and has been dealt with.
In the psalm before us (Ps. 32), we get the blessedness of, and God's dealings with, the sinner whose transgressions are removed. "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered [not the one who has not transgressed, who has not sinned]. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit" (that is, the restored soul).
The verse uses two different words, and they are not repetition. One describes what a person did; the other describes what a person is.
"Transgression forgiven" — "sin covered." Transgression is quite different from sin. Transgression is when a person has wandered from a marked path; sin is the principle of self-willed independence in the heart of man. David found both of these things in himself, and they did not suit the heart of a creature in the presence of God. As soon as he had them forgiven and covered, he could see what prosperity it was: he could sing of all his wanderings as tied to the God who had forgiven them.
The word "covered" carries a fixed Old Testament meaning, and its picture goes back to the first pages of the Bible.
Here we have the great Old Testament thought about God's dealing with sin in forgiving mercy. It first appears in Genesis 3:21. Adam and Eve tried to cover their sinful nakedness from God's presence with fig-leaf aprons of their own making, but it did not work. So God Himself covered them with coats of skins — and such coats meant the death of a victim… So the meaning of the word "atonement" is clear: the covering of sin by sacrifice.
When God covers sin, He settles it for good:
"Covered" points back to the covering on the mercy seat. God puts sins away and remembers them no more.
The blessing does not depend on a man's record. One writer presses this home with David himself:
No man in the Old Testament records fell lower than David in his sins against God and man. Yet we learn that his sins did not exclude him from the blessing… It is a blessing into which the works of the best man cannot bring him, and from which the sins of the worst man need not exclude him. It is all of God and from God. It binds the heart of the sinner who receives it in everlasting gratitude to the gracious Giver.
Paul also says more than David could say:
David stood in the dim light of pictures and prophecies. He could only take comfort from the negative side: the Lord will NOT impute sin to the believer. Paul stands in the full light of the redemptive work of Christ, and gives us the comfort of the positive side: "God imputes RIGHTEOUSNESS without works."
Forgiveness like this changes how a person comes to God:
Full absolute forgiveness, the not imputing sin at all, is what takes guile from the heart. Otherwise we run from God. We make excuses and play our sin down, even when we dare not call it right. Where full pardon is before us, we have courage to be true in heart. Who will not list all his debts when the only question is that someone else will pay them? Who will not tell his illness when the cure is certain?
- Blessed — the word means prosperous. The richest person alive is the one who has nothing but sin in himself, and all his rest in God.
- Forgiven — the blessing rests on a man who did transgress and did sin, not on one who never did.
- Covered — the word behind it is atonement: sin covered by sacrifice, put away and remembered no more.
- Not imputed — David could say that God does not charge sin to him. Paul adds the positive side: God credits righteousness without works.
- Guileless — full pardon ends pretending. Nobody hides a debt when someone else has agreed to pay it.
Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah reckoneth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile!
Psalm 32 does not describe the happiness of a man who never sinned. It describes a man whose sin God refuses to charge against him. Two things stand together in this verse: what God will not put on the account, and what is no longer in the man's spirit.
The blessing here is announced over a sinner. It describes how God deals with a man whose transgressions He has removed.
In this psalm (Ps. 32) we see the blessedness of the sinner whose transgressions are removed, and God's dealings with him — not the man who has not transgressed, who has not sinned, but the restored soul.
To impute is to charge something to a person's account. This verse settles how much God leaves off that account, and what that does to a man's heart.
The phrase is absolute and general — "to whom Jehovah imputes not iniquity." It is the whole condition of the person. It is not that his iniquity or some particular fault is forgiven, though certainly that is true as well. It is absolute non-imputation of any. The man exists before God as having no sin, according to the judgment of God. Then my heart is open and free before God. I know this, and I look up to God as owning no sin, sure that He sees none. So there is no cloud, nothing to hide.
The verse says God does not count the iniquity; it does not say where the iniquity went. Commentators point to the cross for the answer, and to what God counts instead.
There was no denying David's dreadful guilt, yet the Lord in marvellous grace did not impute iniquity to him (v. 2). The only way this could be true was by the Lord Jesus bearing that iniquity in His great sacrifice. Elsewhere we read that instead of imputing iniquity to believers, God imputes righteousness to all "who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 4:22-25).
If sin is not counted, the question naturally follows: what about the sins committed after a person is forgiven? One writer separates God's discipline from God's reckoning.
It is a wonderful thing for anyone to be able to say, "Thank God, there is one thing God will not do: He will not impute sin to me. I know I have sinned badly, even since I was converted... He may take me in hand and use the rod to correct me, but He will not impute sin to me." Our failure will never damage the relationship God has established between us and Himself, because He has established it in Christ. So until sin can be imputed to Christ, it cannot be imputed to the believer.
The second half of the verse names something else: deceit, which older translations call "guile." It is not the sin itself but the cover-up.
"In whose spirit there is no guile." (v. 2.) Guile has nothing to do with guilt. Guilt is the condition of a man who has sinned and has not found an answer to his sin. Guile is pretending. While David was trying to patch himself up, he was forgetting that his sin was out in the open before his people. Think of it: he tried to stand before God as a creature who was not ruined, when he, the man after God's own heart, had taken the place of a model sinner! It would not do. God says, "I know all the iniquity, but I do not impute it."
The two halves of the verse are linked, and the link runs in a direction most people would not expect: honesty is the fruit of grace, not its price.
Happy then, again, is the man to whom Jehovah imputes no iniquity — or "perversity," which is what the word means. This stands in direct connection with what follows: that in his spirit there is now no longer "guile," which is perversity. The second is the effect of the first. The non-imputation is the moral remedy. Grace sets the soul right. It enables the soul to judge sin honestly, and wins it to God, so parting it from that perversity.
Jesus once used almost these words of a man named Nathanael, when He saw him under a fig tree.
And Nathanael's "guilelessness" was the guilelessness of this Psalm, I believe, and not of mere natural disposition. (John 1:47) He had been under the fig tree in the spirit of this Psalm, as a convicted man pouring out his heart. That had freed his spirit from guile. Here we learn that a confessing spirit is a guileless spirit.
- Nothing denied. The blessing belongs to a sinner, not to a man with a clean record. The sin is real, and God covers it.
- Nothing charged. God does not pardon one fault at a time. He counts no iniquity at all, because Christ bore it.
- Nothing hidden. Guile is the cover-up, not the crime. Where a man owns his sin, the pretending stops.
- Nothing earned. Honesty is the effect of grace, not its price. God's refusal to count sin sets the soul right and wins it to Him.
- Nothing to fear. God may use the rod to correct His children, but He will never put sin to their account.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my groaning all the day long.
David looks back here at a time when he said nothing about his sin. The verse is his own report of what that silence cost him, in his body and in his soul.
This psalm has a name for hiding sin: guile. Older translations read "roaring" in verse 3 where the ESV has "groaning". One writer shows how the two are linked:
It is also a very miserable business. Guile only leads to groaning — for that is what the word "roaring" in verse 3 really means. In David's case the groaning came quickly. God laid His heavy hand of discipline on him by day and by night, and it withered him. It is a bad sign when guilt and guile bring no groaning. That means the sinner has stopped feeling, and perhaps that God is putting off His dealings until the coming day of reckoning. It is a happy thing when the groaning follows soon.
The same writer traces the habit of hiding back to the first man and woman:
Next comes guile. This means deceit, hypocrisy, lack of straightforwardness and honesty. It always follows guilt, always has done so from the beginning, as Genesis 3 bears witness. The moment the first man and woman became guilty, they tried to hide from God and to put the blame on someone else. Every soul of man does just the same. It is a deeply rooted instinct of our fallen race.
David does not describe a mood. He describes his skeleton aging. One writer sets the wasting bones against a struggle David would not end:
But the psalmist is not content just to declare how blessed grace is. He goes on to tell us how he reached this blessing — where grace met him and conquered him, after he had stubbornly resisted it. He tells us of the conviction that pressed on him to confession, and he would not confess. He kept silent. Yet deep in his soul he was roaring because of the turmoil, until his very bones, the most solid parts of the body, wasted away under the struggle.
David's crown gave him cover with people. It gave him none with God:
But David had been guilty of serious deceit, and refers to this in verse 3. He had kept silent, not confessing his sin to God; but God laid on his heart a virtually unbearable burden. How could his conscience rest when he had been guilty of adultery and murder? Being king, he could escape this disgrace before the people, but he could not avoid having to do with God. He felt his bones, the very framework of his body, growing old through his long, drawn-out groaning.
The pressure is God's own work, and it has an aim:
It is important to notice the work of the Spirit of God in what this soul goes through. God deals with a soul that will not submit itself fully. He brings it down into full subjection and confession. This is always the case, if the Lord's hand is on a man, until he owns the evil before God. Then comes forgiveness of the iniquity.
Meanwhile the silence brings no peace, only distance:
Oh, how true that is of a soul. Confession alone can remove this pressure. Under it there is a gnawing and a dissatisfaction, and a holding back and a distance too. You cannot help feeling it, and it is almost unbearable until confession clears away the dark cloud.
One writer argues that people tell the whole truth only when they know full pardon is on offer:
Full, absolute forgiveness — the not imputing sin at all — is what takes guile from the heart. Otherwise we run from God. We make excuses, or play the sin down, if we dare not defend it. Where full pardon is before us, we have courage to be true in heart. Who will not declare all his debts when their discharge by another is the only thing in question? Who will not tell his illness when a certain cure is available? Grace brings truth into the heart it has brought to confess its transgressions.
- Guilt breeds guile. Hiding is the oldest human reflex after sin, and silence before God is not neutral — it is deceit wearing a calm face.
- Guile breeds groaning. David's hidden sin aged his bones and drained his strength. A conscience that feels nothing is in worse danger than one that aches.
- Groaning is God's hand. The heavy hand is discipline, not abandonment. It lasts until the man owns the evil before God.
- No position exempts you. A king could manage his reputation before the people, but he could not avoid having to do with God.
- Grace ends the silence. Full forgiveness gives a person the courage to be honest. You declare your debts when someone else is paying them.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
Psalm 32 is David's own account of what happened inside him after he sinned and said nothing about it. Verse 4 describes that silence — a hand pressing down without pause, a man drying up under it, and one question: whose hand was it?
Hiding sin does not bring peace. It brings groaning, and a body worn down under God's discipline.
Hiding sin is also a miserable business. Guile only leads to groaning — that is what the word "roaring" in verse 3 really means. In David's case the groaning came quickly. God laid His heavy hand of discipline on him by day and by night, and he withered under it. He says it vividly: "my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer." It is a bad sign when guilt and guile are not followed by groaning. That means the sinner has gone numb, and perhaps that God is holding back His dealings until the coming day of reckoning. It is a good thing when the groaning comes quickly.
(An older translation reads "my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.")
David's rank let him manage the public story. It did nothing for him at night.
He had kept silent, not confessing his sin to God; but God laid on his heart a virtually unbearable burden. How could his conscience rest when he had been guilty of adultery and murder? Being king, he could slip out of this stigma before the people, but he could not escape dealing with God. His bones, the very framework of his body, felt like they were growing old through his long, drawn-out groaning. Both day and night he felt God's hand laid heavily on him (v. 4), so that his strength was dried up as "the drought of summer."
The pressure was not random misfortune. It was God working on a soul that would not yet bend.
It is important to notice the work of the Spirit of God in the process the soul is going through here. The verse says, "Your hand was heavy upon me." These are God's dealings with a soul that does not fully submit, bringing it down into full subjection and confession… This is always true. If the Lord's hand is on a man, it stays there until he recognises the evil before God. Then there is forgiveness of the iniquity.
Something inside David was still alive to God, even while his mouth stayed shut.
He takes the sentence of death in himself. Death inside was eating him away like a moth eating a garment. He had no strength of grace yet to confess the sin, but the life inside him still felt the wound it had received. His spirit felt the grief it had been put through. Yet David kept silent and did not tell out his shame, because guile was still in his spirit.
The pressing did not stop at a partial admission. It went on until everything was out in the open.
The moment a sinner is in his true place before God, the whole question is settled. As soon as his real character is fully out in the open, there is no further difficulty. He may have to pass through much painful exercise before he reaches that point This painful exercise comes from his refusal to take his true place — his refusal to bring out "all the truth" about what he is. But the moment he is brought to say, from his heart, "just as I am," the free grace of God flows down to him… How long did the exercise last? Until the whole truth came out — until everything working inside him came to the surface.
Read on its own, verse 4 sounds like abandonment. Read to the end of the psalm, the same hand that dried him up is the hand that brought him to speak.
"When I kept silence," said David, "my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me [wonderful, faithful love!]… I acknowledged my sin to You, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin." What matchless grace, that answers at once this open confession of the truth before God. No — it is the grace of God that brings the heart to confess the sins, and then that same grace forgives.
- Silence. Hiding sin breeds guile, and guile only leads to groaning — the "roaring" of verse 3 is the sound of a man in pain.
- Weight. The hand pressing day and night is God's own hand at work on a soul that will not yet submit. It presses until there is full subjection and confession.
- Dryness. A king could hide the scandal from his people, but not from God. His bones wasted away and his strength dried up like land in summer heat.
- Duration. The pressure lasts until the whole truth surfaces — not a partial admission, but "just as I am" said from the heart.
- Love. The heavy hand is faithful love at work. The grace that brings the heart to confess is the same grace that forgives.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity I covered not; I said, I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah, and *thou* forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
David had kept silent about his sin. Verse 5 is the moment the silence breaks. Everything turns on one exchange: David stops hiding, and God forgives.
David does not use one word for his wrong but three. One writer explains two of them.
"Transgression" (not sin) means breaking a law that is known and laid down. This is where the psalmist begins. It is the first thing that would touch the conscience of a Jew, and what a blessing to know it is "forgiven." … "Sin" is then the evil root. God brings it to light in the conscience so that He may "cover" it by the blood of atonement, as here.
This is not a general prayer. David had done something for which Israel's law provided no sacrifice.
David did not do this until God sent the prophet Nathan to him. Nathan told him a story about a rich man who had mistreated a poor man, and David pronounced the sentence of death on that man. Then Nathan said, "You are the man!" So David knew that justice demanded his death, and he broke down in sober confession before God. Israel had no sacrifice provided for such a sin, as David hints in Psalm 51:16. Cast only on the mercy of God, he says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." So he could say with full confidence, "You forgave the iniquity of my sin." The word "Selah" is added again, so that we will pause and consider the marvel of God's grace in His full and free forgiveness of a repentant sinner.
Verse 5 shows what confession actually costs — and where it has to be directed.
The iniquity that a man hid with the greatest care must be dragged into the light of God's presence. He must confess his transgressions not to man merely, or first of all, but "to the Lord." This, you see, is the exact opposite of deceit. It completely reverses the old attitude and gives up all deceit and hypocrisy. It is straightforwardness and honesty in the sight of God.
So which came first here — David's honesty, or God's grace?
Matchless grace this, that responds at once to this open confession of the truth before God. No — it is the grace of God that brings the heart to the confession of the sins, and then that same grace forgives.
Read the line carefully: David says he decided to confess, and God had already forgiven. One writer notices that the sentence never quite reaches the act.
How quick this mercy is! It reminds us of the Lord's picture of His Father's love to the son who came home after wasting everything. Not even, "I did confess, and You forgave," but the forgiveness comes before the confession itself. It is like that son. Far from his father, he turned to him in his need with his words ready, asking only for a servant's place — and found his father's kiss arriving ahead of the confession.
Full forgiveness did not mean nothing more would follow. One writer keeps the two things apart, and lets neither cancel the other.
How was David's confession met? By the clear and ready response of that free grace in which our God always delights: "The LORD also has put away your sin." This was absolute grace. God fully forgave David's sin. There can be no question about this. But even as the soothing words of grace fell on David's ears at his confession, the solemn wheels of God's government were already turning in the distance.
David could not have explained how God could forgive him and still be just. One writer points to where the answer lies.
With the sacrificial work of Christ in view, God was able to forgive sinners of an earlier age long before that work took place. This is taught in Romans 3:25 and in Psalm 32:5. When David confessed his sin to God, he made use of this great benefit. He could not yet know the glorious plan of redemption in the mind and heart of God.
- Cover — David had hidden his sin away with the greatest care.
- Uncover — He stopped hiding and named it to God: no excuse, no softening, no going first to men.
- Covered — What David refused to cover, God covered, by the blood of atonement.
- Ahead — Pardon met the decision to confess, like a father's kiss arriving before the son finished speaking.
- After — The forgiveness was complete. Yet the wheels of God's government still turned. Grace and God's governing hand are two different things.