This is a great psalm of grace, a psalm in which a sinner, cleansed by sovereign grace, adores and blesses the mercy of God.
Psalms 32:1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
This is not a blessing for the man who says he has no sin; this is not a benediction for the innocent, who talk about their own good works; but blessed is the man who, having sinned, is pardoned, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered: in a word, it is a gospel blessing, it is the blessing of free grace.
Psalms 32:2. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
He had a thousand iniquities; he transgressed in all sorts of ways. The Lord does not impute these things to him. He has set them down to the account of another, who has ventured to stand in the sinner's stead, and be made sin in the sinner's place, but to this man, this blessed man, God doth not impute iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guile he confesses his sin with honesty, he is pardoned with certainty, and in his spirit there is no cunning concealment.
Psalms 32:3-4. 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 drought of summer. Selah.
This is the experience of those men whom God saves. Till they confess sin, that sin rankles in them like venom; it boils their blood, it eats into their bones, it makes life worse than death, it makes them dread the wrath to come; their days are nights, and their nights are hells; they cannot bear themselves. This was David's experience, and it has been the way by which God has led thousands of his redeemed ones that he might bring them to himself. As long as we cloak our sin and conceal it, and pretend that we are innocent, the fire burns within us; but when we just confess the sin, then it is that we are dealing with God aright, and God deals with us in grace.
Psalms 32:5. 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.
All gone, gone for ever, gone at a stroke. Oh! what a mercy this is, that, when once we will take the place of sinners and plead guilty, then it is that we are absolved at once. We have but to own that we deserve the punishment, and straightway that punishment is remitted. This is the way of grace, the plan of infinite condescending love.
Psalms 32:6. For this shall everyone 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.
The man that has so prayed as to find complete forgiveness, he is the man that will never leave off praying as long as he lives. The one gain which covers everything, the gain of conscious forgiveness, inspires a man to pray about anything, and about everything, as long as ever he lives. «For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee.» «Thou art my hiding-place.» You see God was his hiding-place when he was in a storm of sin, and now he takes God to be his hiding-place in every time of trouble, from all the afflictions of his life, all the sorrows of the way. «Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble.» Shall he not, since he has blotted out our sins? Oh! if God has preserved us from the wrath to come, what is there to be afraid of? «Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.» I shall live in a ring of music. I shall march onward to heaven as in the center of song. Why, it may well be so, when once God has freely blotted out our sins «Thou shalt compass me about with sings of deliverance.» Ay, saith God, that I will, and I will do more.
Psalms 32:8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
I have not blotted out thy sins to leave thee to wander back into them again I will be thy teacher, thy folly shalt not be thy ruin, thine ignorance shall not be thy destruction. I will guide thee look at me! «I will guide thee with mine eye.» A glance, a look, shall be enough for thee. I will give thee such a heart that thou shalt understand the least motion of my finger.
Nay, I will guide thee with mine eye.
Psalms 32:9. 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 near unto thee.
A pardoning God may well ask this of us, that we would be tender. Oh! let us be very willing to do the Lord's will, plastic in his hands like clay in the hand of the potter. It is a great pity, brothers and sisters, when we won't be guided by the gentle leadings of God, and must be whipped and spurred, and tugged at. For God will govern us if we are his people. If one bit will not do it, he will get a tougher bit that shall cut us and hurt us, but he will rule us, and so he ought to do, blessed be his name.
Psalms 32:10-11. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.