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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 32:3 - 32:3
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For, as his own experience has taught the poet, he who does not in confession pour out all his corruption before God, only tortures himself until he unburdens himself of his secret curse. Since Psa 32:3 by itself cannot be regarded as the reason for the proposition just laid down, כִּי signifies either “because, quod” (e.g., Pro 22:22) or “when, quum” (Jdg 16:16; Hos 11:10. The שְׁאָגָה was an outburst of the tortures which his accusing conscience prepared for him. The more he strove against confessing, the louder did conscience speak; and while it was not in his power to silence this inward voice, in which the wrath of God found utterance, he cried the whole day, viz., for help; but while his heart was still unbroken, he cried yet received no answer. He cried all day long, for God's punishing right hand (Psa 38:3; Psa 39:11) lay heavey upon him day and night; the feeling of divine wrath left him no rest, cf. Job 33:14. A fire burned within him which threatened completely to devour him. The expression is בְּחַרְבֹנֵי (like בעשׂן in Psa 37:20; Psa 102:4), without כ, inasmuch as the fears which burn fiercely within him even to his heart and, as it were, scorch him up, he directly calls the droughts of summer. The בְּ is the Beth of the state or condition, in connection with which the change, i.e., degeneration (Job 20:14), took place; for mutare in aliquid is expressed by הָפַךְ לְ. The ל (which Saadia and others have mistaken) in לְשַׁדִּי is part of the root; לָשָׁד (from לָשַׁד, Arab. lsd, to suck), inflected after the analogy of גָּמָל and the like, signifies succus. In the summer-heat of anxiety his vital moisture underwent a change: it burned and dried up. Here the music becomes louder and does its part in depicting these torments of the awakened conscience in connection with a heart that still remains unbroken. In spite of this διάψαλμα, however, the historical connection still retains sufficient influence to give אֹודִיעֲךָ the force of the imperfect (cf. Psa 30:9): “I made known my sin and my guilt did I not cover up (כִּסָּה used here as in Pro 27:13; Job 31:33); I made the resolve: I will confess my transgressions to the Lord (הֹודָה = חִתְוַדָּה, Neh 1:6; Neh 9:2; elsewhere construed with the accusative, vid., Pro 28:13) - then Thou forgavest,” etc. Hupfeld is inclined to place אמרתי before חטאתי אודיעך, by which אודיעך and אודה would become futures; but ועוני לא כסיתי sounds like an assertion of a fact, not the statement of an intention, and ואתה נשׂאת is the natural continuation of the אמרתי which immediately precedes. The form ואתה נשׂאת is designedly used instead of וַתִּשָּׂא. Simultaneously with his confession of sin, made fide supplice, came also the absolution: then Thou forgavest the guilt (עָוֹן, misdeed, as a deed and also as a matter of fact, i.e., guilt contracted, and penance or punishment, cf. Lam 4:6; Zec 14:19) of my sin. Vox nondum est in ore, says Augustine, et vulnus sanatur in corde. The סלה here is the antithesis of the former one. There we have a shrill lament over the sinner who tortures himself in vain, here the clear tones of joy at the blessed experience of one who pours forth his soul to God - a musical Yea and Amen to the great truth of justifying grace.