The Thirty-Second Psalm.
By JOS. CLARKE
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Verses 1 and 2. David, in the beginning of this psalm, joyously describes the state of that mind which has the assurance of God's favor, and the joys of pardoned sin; the mind illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Next he gives us his experience, and how he had arrived at this blessed state. “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drouth of summer. Selah.” Verses 3 and 4. “I 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.” Verse 5. In this brief account, we have his sickness, with its accompanying pains and sorrows, and its remedy. He does not have recourse to medical skill and human aid, but with childlike faith, he has recourse to the Great Physician, who understands every case. And notice the result: “Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin;” as if sin lay at the foundation of his sufferings. This agrees with James 5:15. Here is the great mystery of the Christian life and experience, in this brief account: “I acknowledged my sin unto thee; and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.” Confession unto God, humble childlike confession; no hiding of sin here, no long ingenious pleadings of innocence and self-justification, as though some one else was to blame; no excuse that some one tempted or provoked him, nothing of this; all the blame is his own; his confession is free; it is voluntary; it is not pressed out by long persuasion, or by being driven into a corner of difficulty; but it is the result of self-examination and humiliation, the work of the Spirit of God upon his heart. He makes this confession to God, not at first to man. But after peace and joy fill his heart, God is honored and glorified by this public account of it. Some would feel degraded to confess their sins to God, and then to relate the mortifying fact to man. But here was a powerful king, in the height of power, upon his knees confessing to God, then publicly relating it all to man. And all was done from choice; all voluntarily; not because he was obtuse and had no sense of shame, but the contrary; and his public exposure of his own weakness, was to magnify the grace of God, and encourage others to apply for healing to the same fountain. It is a pleasing theme. But let us look at the moral he finds, the honey he extracts from this rich experience. “For 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.” Verse 6. “For this:” that is, on account of such an experience, others shall be induced to take the same course; that is, every one that is godly, all who love and fear and obey Him. When? “In a time when thou mayest be found” (an important item), before repentance is too late. All will repent; but with many, that repentance will come when the prayer will be for rocks and mountains to cover them. (See Rev. 6:15–17.) But the godly do this kind of work, before any other. They have their minds fixed upon God, and are striving continually to know the worst of their cases. They make self-examination a common work of the mind; and repentance and confession are made to God before sin culminates in crime, before it matures and develops into acts of sin. They are constantly striving not only for this, but they stifle and cast out the first rising of the carnal heart, and their agonizing cry is to God to help them to exterminate even the carnal nature within. And they labor not in vain. Such was Enoch, and Abraham, and Moses; such were the apostles, and a host of worthies. But we cannot linger upon this delightful theme. Follow good king David still further in his psalm of praise. “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.” Verse 7. Yes, how often had David hid in caves and in secret retreats from the venom of Saul. And others have done the same. All the way along, they have hid from the Sauls, the Ahabs, the Herods, the Cæsars, and the Popes; and perhaps there will have to be more of it yet. God can hide his people yet; he can preserve them from trouble; he can compass them about with songs of deliverance, yes, with songs of deliverance. Ah! there is power in music, when it is backed by the energy of God's Spirit; and when the saint is delivered from great trouble, how sweet is the song of gratitude. It is even now transporting to view by faith that time when the saints will be ranged in order in Heaven, and sing, as we sometimes have done with rapture, “From deserts waste, and cities full,
And dungeons dark, they've come,
And now they claim their mansion fair,
They've found their long-sought home.
Cho.—They looked like men in uniform,
They looked like men of war;
They all were clad in armor bright,
And conquering palms they bore.” And if it is so sweet to sing such songs now, and by faith to see the reality, how will it be when the real scene bursts upon the view? David understood the power of music. His talent was a consecrated one; and it was devoted to sacred melody. But he goes on with a word of promise from the Spirit of God, to such as would follow him in confession and pardon; “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye.” Verse 8. Sweet promise from God! Oh! what an instructor! What a teacher! How have we been charmed by the skill and devotion of men of learning, as they, with kindness and experience, and devotion to their business,179opened to their classes the depths of human learning. How much more when God-sent men opened to us the Scriptures. How much more lovely the Spirit of God, in its influence upon the heart. But here is a warning, an “if.” “Be 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 nigh unto thee.” Verse 9. That is, David would here say to us, If you would have all these blessings here spoken of, conviction, penitence, pardon, assurance of faith, and fullness of joy, instruction and guidance, you must not be self-confident, self-wise, self-opinionated, conceited, stubborn, wayward, skeptical, unbelieving, headstrong, careless, reckless, blind or combative. But if you do thus, as he warns you not to do, you cannot expect any of the above-mentioned blessings; but on the contrary, as in the next verse, “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” Verse 10. Sorrows here, and sorrows hereafter. The sinner does not walk in a pleasant path. Broad as the road may be, it is full of snares, pitfalls, and nets; and fatal and terrible mishaps befall them; and finally it ends in an ocean of fire. Not so the righteous; but as the sacred penman adds, “But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.” Verse 10. Glorious promise! How different his final reward from that of the wicked. And even now his path, though a narrow and thorny one, is safe, if he only walk firmly in it. As light is to darkness, as pleasure is to pain, as wealth is to poverty, as life is to death, so is the Christian's way to the way of the sinner; and it is only blindness of mind, and hardness of heart, which hinders men from seeing the contrast. Oh! for the eyesalve, that we may clearly view the heights of salvation, the glorious and not-far-distant realities of the Christian's hope. But David cannot close his beautiful psalm, without an ascription of praise, ecstatic, and joyous. “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart.” Verse 11. Cause for rejoicing here! It is no idle flourish of trumpets, merely for effect. The promise made by Jehovah long ages ago, is about to be fulfilled. The righteous are to be remembered in the resurrection, and will have the promise fulfilled to them. The recompense of reward for which Moses laid down a crown, for which many have endured untold horrors of persecution, is about to be realized, by all the household of faith. A glorious union is about to take place upon the heavenly hills. The mansions which Jesus went to prepare, are nearly ready. And good king David, who loved so well to praise God with the sound of harp and voice, will participate in that happy meeting. But we cannot dwell too long upon the joy. Terrible realities are before us. Yet often we can nerve ourselves to duty, by following the sentiments expressed by the holy writers of old. JOS. CLARKE.