Psalms 32

Psalms 32:1-11

The soul cleansed and God its sanctuary. [A psalm] of David, Maskil.
The psalm to which we now come is a bright testimony to the terms upon which, even under the shadow of the legal covenant, the souls of His true people were with God. It is striking also as the first of the Maskil psalms, of which there are thirteen altogether, a title which means, according to the margin of our common Bibles, “giving instruction.” The Revised Version omits this, and the meaning is disputed.* Delitzsch objects that “there are only two (32 and 78) which can be regarded as didactic poems;” but it is not necessary, as we shall see, that they should be, in any formal way, didactic. There are many lessons to be learned apart from the professional schoolmaster.
It is, I have no doubt, to prophecy, and to prophecy of the times we are considering so often in the Psalms, the prophecy of the days of Israel’s final tribulation which God uses to bring her to Himself, that we must look for light as to the proper significance of the title. From the prophet Daniel, to whom the Lord refers in His own picture of the times preceding His coming (Matthew 24:15; Matthew 24:21), we learn much of this time (cp. 12: 1) and he speaks of “those that understand” the same word, maskilim -“among the people” (11: 33, 35), who “shall instruct many,” the “wise” (margin, “teachers”) -still the same word -who “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,” and who, according to the parallelism, and what is said of them before, are the same “that turn many to righteousness” (12: 3). Of these it is further said (ver. 10), that while “none of the wicked shall understand,” “the wise shall understand.” The word maskilim means either “those who understand” or who “make (others) to understand” and thus we realize the connection between the way it occurs in Daniel and in the titles of the psalms. Thus we see -what, indeed, is simple enough in itself, when we realize the mercy of God to His people -that, in the midst of the darkness and confusion of the terrible troubles of which we are speaking, God raises up helpers for them, men gifted with special wisdom for the times, realizing what the word of prophecy predicts, and seeking to turn the people to their God. They must get for themselves the instruction they impart to others, and (however God may come in to give direct oracular testimony) this, one would say, according to His regular methods of dealing with His people, through His precious -to those in such straits, how precious -Word. Now, apart from the direct prophecy such as we find in Daniel, where should we expect such help to be provided, rather than in these very psalms? And why should not these Maskil psalms be marked thus as special instruction for these Maskil men so linked together by the inspired word for each, -whether instruction for themselves, or for others through them? If we take up the Lord’s prophecy of this very period already referred to (Matthew 24:1-51) we find clearly directions given by Him, which, of course, are to be recognized and acted on by the remnant of those days: “when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Notice the special, Daniel-like, reference, -nay, the appeal to be “men of understanding,” maskilim, -certain to arouse the attention of those exercised in that time of trial, and acquainted with Daniel. This involves, of course, the recognition of Christ, and the use of the New Testament among the Jews of that day; and this is most natural, and what, one would say, would be certainly the case. How could the taking away of the multitudes of Christians to be with their Lord have transpired,* and they be ignorant altogether of Him and the Christian Revelation? And yet the light they have may be very partial and uncertain; and we have full reason to expect this. With all God’s word open to us today, -open for nearly two millennia, -and with the gift of the Spirit bestowed upon us in a manner and with a Pleasure they will not have -how contradictory are the thoughts of Christians, even on well-nigh fundamental points, in spite of this! In the day we speak of, those whose case we are considering will be permitted to go through thorough exercise of heart as to all the questions of the past, and learn of Him who meets their need as the need itself is realized. Amid all this individual exercise of heart so necessary for them we may be able to give little account to ourselves of their progress in divine truth -different, as it will naturally be, in different persons -until they look upon Him whom they have pierced, and one repentant wave of sorrow prostrates the whole people before God.
But when we turn to the book of Revelation, which* from Revelation 6:1-17; Revelation 7:1-17; Revelation 8:1-13; Revelation 9:1-21; Revelation 10:1-11; Revelation 11:1-19; Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20; Revelation 15:1-8; Revelation 16:1-21; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-24; Revelation 19:1-21 occupies itself with the same scenes as those in Daniel and in the prophecy of the Lord, we find another significant connection with Daniel, and another sign of the use of the New Testament by these Jewish saints. The picture of the “beast” in Revelation 13:1-18 must inevitably attract the students of Daniel’s prophecy, and there, at the close of the chapter, they will find this special note for the maskilim: “Here is the mind which has wisdom: let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast.” No plainer address could there be to those specially marked out in this way by the Old Testament prophet; no inquiry more significant for such as to the signs of the times, than this as to the great enemy and oppressor of the people. Hence the reference is too plain to need any further insistence on it.
All this surely, then, prepares us to understand the maskil psalms; and when we take up these individually, we shall find the view that they contain special “instruction” for the last days abundantly sustained. Thus the present psalm is, as such, of the most vital importance, speaking of God’s way of forgiveness and a hiding-place with Him, before the forty-second, the second of these, gives the comfort of those cast away from the earthly sanctuary. Next, the forty-fifth celebrates Messiah and His victory, and Israel’s blessing under Him. Then a series of four (52 -55) describe the wicked one and his followers; the seventy-fourth pleads for the violated sanctuary itself; the seventy-eighth recounts the cause of it, the many wanderings of the people from their God; the seventy-ninth mourns again over the desolation of Jerusalem; the eighty-eighth expresses the terror of the broken law; the eighty-ninth reveals “the sure mercies of David;” while the 142d closes the list with the thankful acknowledgment that when other refuge failed and none cared for their souls, Jehovah Himself had known and cared. Thus, though we may not be able to recognize the distinctive value of each psalm in this way, as a whole they certainly give us what is needed wisdom for the day of Israel’s trial. The other psalms link readily with these, for complete “instruction.” The eleven verses of the psalm divide into five parts, in which we learn how God can be with man; not, however, atonement, which we have had before, but the consequences of it. Of these fifteen remnant psalms which come together in the three series, it is the middle one, and the hinge upon which all turns.

1. It is the doctrine of “righteousness without works” that David, as the apostle says (Romans 4:6), here declares. There is no such text as “happy is the man that keepeth the law,” because such a man cannot be found, and the law cannot be satisfied with fragmentary obedience. On the contrary, it proclaims, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” (Galatians 3:10.) Nor is this altered when it is given the second time; for the returning sinner, though met with forgiveness, must still “do that which is lawful and right” to “save his soul alive.” (Ezekiel 18:27.) Thus faith it is that establishes the law (Romans 3:31), when it owns the impossibility of being righteous by it, and flees for refuge to the hope set before men in the gospel. And after all the happiness of the sinner saved by grace is far beyond that that could have been known by any one standing in his own righteousness, though this were stainless and flawless in its perfection. For if, in the one, man were exalted and honored, in the other all the heart of God has been poured out upon him. Christ’s work it is that has opened heaven to us, and given us blessedness beyond possibility of creature claim. How much is lost by speculations as to the future of an unfallen Adam, going quite beyond the record, and to the constant belittling of the “fifth part more” of the trespass-offering, the exceeding glory of Christ and of His blessed work! Happy then, indeed, is he whose revolt* is forgiven, whose sin is covered! First, we have that which God’s heart would feel first, and which sin is, in its essence, a “revolt” from Him. It is this, therefore, which specially needs, and is met with, forgiveness; then the outcome, the full sad issue of it all, is “covered,” -put out of sight. We know how God has provided for this in that precious “blood that maketh atonement for” -covereth -“the soul.” But the word used here is not the same as this, for our attention here is fixed, not upon what covers, but upon the fact itself, what leads to it, and what follows from it. The heart is appealed to in the forgiveness; the shame and occasion for charge are removed by the covering. Happy then, again, the man to whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, -or perversity," as the word literally is, and surely in direct connection with what follows, that in his spirit there is now no longer “guile,” which is perversity.

The latter is the effect of the former: the non-imputation is the moral remedy; grace is that which sets the soul right, enabling it for the honest judgment of sin, and winning it to God, so as to divorce it from this. Such is the power of the gospel! Such is its sweet ministry of salvation, certified in the experience of the saved soul. Verse 5, A plural in the original; but I take it that “my revolting” has the force of a plural.
2. But the psalmist is not satisfied with declaring the blessedness of grace: he goes on to tell us how he attained this blessedness, -just where grace met him and conquered him, after stubborn resistance to it. He tells us of the conviction that pressed on him to confession, and he would not confess. He kept silence, yet with the deep in his soul roaring for the tumult, till the very bones, the most solid parts of the body, wasted under the strife. It was with God, too, as he knew; God’s hand lay heavy upon him, and his sap was dried up as by a drought in summer. Truth in the inward parts was wrought at last: “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and my perversity have I not covered: I said, I will confess my revolting to Jehovah: and Thou forgavest the perversity of my sin.” How the promptness of this mercy reminds us of the Lord’s illustration of His Father’s love to the returning prodigal!

Not even, “I did confess, and Thou forgavest,” but the forgiveness anticipating the confession itself. Just as when he who, far off indeed from his father, turned in his need to him with words prepared, seeking but a servant’s place, -to find his father’s kiss anticipating in like manner the confession, and forbidding the thought of that which denied him a father’s heart. 3. Thus the sanctuary is found: for God, as we know, will give full way to His grace, and justify it against all cavils of those who will dispute it. What another reminiscence is it of the Lord’s parable, “Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance”! Wherever we find God really, be it in the Old Testament or the New, we find Him the same. And so here at once is it declared that this is no exceptional mercy to a David, but a way common to all the “godly,” who by grace alone are won and rendered such. “For this shall every godly one pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found.” A time may come, it is implied, when He may not be found, and thus “the floods of many waters” which we are now warned of remind us of the ark and of those alone saved when the Lord shut them in. To these no flood could reach; while no others could escape them.

Between those inside and the flood,by this that Jehovah had done for them, there stood pledged for their security all the power of Jehovah’s arm, all the glory of Jehovah’s Name. Thus He was really their hiding-place. Could any flood of waters break through such a barrier? And now that we know Christ as the Antitype of this ark, the glorious Refuge upon whom the storms beat and the floods raged, but who has borne His full freight of blessing safely to the shore, -the soul in Christ can triumphantly say this. In Christ, as Christ: living because He lives; accepted in His acceptance; privileged to turn away even from ourselves, to rejoice in His perfection and delight ourselves in unchanging love. Here all that God is is indeed pledged to us, and with what songs of deliverance are not they encompassed, whom the Ark of their salvation has thus already brought to shore! But still there comes a flood of waters for the earth, a day of tribulation such as never was, -a day of doom for the rebellious, such as these Psalms continually warn us of, when (the saints of the present already safely sheltered with their Lord above) it will be said to Israel: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." And the rescued nation will sing, after the manner of this thirty-second psalm, of the Lord their hiding-place: For Thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." (Isaiah 26:20; Isaiah 25:4.) Whatever the day of need may be, there is one way of blessing only, -One only in whom refuge is ever found. 4. According to the constant order in Scripture, which is the moral order also, after the lesson of the sanctuary comes the lesson for the way. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way thou goest: I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee.” The last part of the verse is variously rendered and understood by commentators; and even as to the former part, according to Moll, “almost all recent interpreters, with Calvin and Geier, regard these verses as the words of David, which point all sinners to the God who has pardoned him.” But this reduces “mine eye upon thee” to a mean and paltry pleonasm. David’ s eye upon the person he is instructing is of very small account God’s, of immense significance. Here, too, the numerical structure gives decisive help in favor of the fuller meaning. Even when God is rightly taken as the instructor, all commentators breaking the last part into two -“I will counsel thee; mine eye shall be upon thee” -while unnaturally affecting the structure of the verse, impoverishes the meaning; while the fuller is also the simpler rendering of the words. How blessed, as well as inevitable, is it, that He in whom the soul has found its rest and shelter, must now concern Himself with all its future course.

He to whom it is come is now its Lord, but also its most tender Counsellor. It is to act in freedom, but yet in subjection, -two things which go most perfectly together. God’s eye is upon the blest and happy object of His favor; and this implies His perfect interest, true; but if the last clause reads, as naturally it should, as a connected whole, this Eye that occupies itself continually with us -with all that concerns us -becomes at the same time a positive guidance for us, which sheds light upon all the intimacy and responsibility of the new relationship. It implies not only on His side the interest of love, which is holy and purposeful; but, on ours, nearness to Him, intelligence of His mind, and prompt responsive activity: things which are full of comfort for us, and as full of earnest admonition. His interest is the first thing to consider: “He never withdraweth His eyes from the righteous.” And this even a Job might find, in the time of his strait, a sore trial rather than a gain: “What is man,” he cries in his anguish, “that Thou shouldst magnify him? and that Thou shouldst set Thy heart upon him? and that Thou shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every moment? How long wilt Thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?” (Job 7:17-19.) But Job, with all his outward perfection, had not yet seen God as he was to see Him; and the whole process by which we are won to delight in His constant occupation with us, the 139th psalm will by and by reveal. How blessed, then, when we have seen Him indeed, to know that every step we take in the way is a matter of concern to Him! -that there is not an hour of the day but He has some thought as to how we should spend it! This is not legality, though it is true we may turn it into this. But he who knows best the folly and misery of his own ways will be most profoundly thankful for the love that has shown itself in this constant care, for a wisdom of which we are free ever to avail ourselves, and which is as perfect and far-seeing as the heart can crave to know. In the wilderness “there is no way,” except as it is marked out for us by the Living Guide Himself. Our path, therefore, must not be merely one of “righteousness,” but one of “faith,” all through. (2 Timothy 2:22.) We can see, therefore, how unceasing prayer must be with us, and how God would nurture in us a constant dependence, most helpful to our whole development in the new life that is ours. That “we had turned every one to his own way” is the scripture account of sin. (Isaiah 53:6.) Alas, naturally we prize this, and count it freedom; but that “in Him we live and move and have our being” is the necessary creature condition, violated by every act of independency, and conformity to which is rest and blessedness. But this dependency must be free and intelligent, as well as in the intimacy to which He has called us with Himself; and all this is implied in guidance with the eye. Nearness: for the glance of the eye is not intended for those far off, and cannot be read by them. Intelligence: for such guidance supposes that already we have a knowledge of His mind, or we shall not be able to interpret a look. With all this, a constant promptness of attention, as of those waiting to anticipate His will, or we shall not be ready for, or catch it. All this is plain: but how it speaks of our need of acquaintance with Scripture, that we may be “filled with the knowledge of His will”; and of our greater need even of a devotedness which shall make God the real object of our life continually, and fill it with and sanctify it wholly to Himself. And this gives force to the exhortation following, in which is contrasted the unintelligent intractability of horse or mule who need the restraint of bit and bridle, or you cannot make them approach or yield themselves to your guidance. And how many of the people of God have lives as little yielded up to Him, who must be governed by circumstances, rather than by the eye of God. His desire for us is not the drudgery of a stopped will, but the freedom of a changed one. 5. The next verse speaks plainly of God’s governmental dealings with the wicked and the man of faith; which put a song of praise into the mouth of the righteous, exultation and a shout of joy into that of the upright in heart.