4). He Expresses His Confidence That Anyone Who is Godly Can Similarly Come to Him in Times of Trouble, Emphasising that God is His Hiding Place, The One Who Surrounds Him with Songs of Deliverance (Psalms 32:6-7).
‘For this let every one who is godly pray to you,
In a time when you may be found.
Surely when the great waters overflow,
They will not reach to him.'
The Psalmist now turns his thoughts outwards and asks that all the godly might similarly seek God for the forgiveness of their iniquities. He does not want them to suffer as he has. Nor does he want them to face unnecessary trouble, or final judgment.
‘In a time when you may be found.' Literally ‘in a time of finding'. This may mean:
· In a time when they find out their sins, or sin finds them out.
· In a time when God can be found (see Proverbs 1:28).
· In a time when men are seeking to find the answer to life.
· In a time when God ‘finds out' men in judgment.
‘Surely when the great waters overflow, they will not reach to him.' Here he may have in mind Noah's flood when only Noah and his family were in a place where they could not be reached by the great waters. Or we might compare Isaiah 43:2, ‘when you pass through the waters I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you'. In Psalms 144:7 deliverance from great waters involved being delivered from deceitful ‘strangers' (compare Jeremiah 51:55). It is sinners who will be overwhelmed by the great waters (Isaiah 28:2; Isaiah 28:17; Isaiah 30:28; Nahum 1:8).
‘You are my hiding-place,
You will preserve me from trouble,
You will compass me about,
With songs of deliverance.' Selah.
The thought of Psalms 32:6 leads him to apply the idea to himself. YHWH is his refuge and hiding place, He will preserve him from trouble, He will surround him with songs of deliverance. The latter indicates that he is not alone in being delivered. He will be surrounded by a multitude which no man can number (Revelation 7:9; Revelation 14:3). For YHWH as a hiding place see Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:20; Psalms 91:1-2.