Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 32
The Thirty Second Psalm.
A Psalm of David,a. Maschil.
Paraphrase. The thirty second Psalm is principally spent in declaration of the nature of true blessedness, consisting in Gods pardon, and justification, and was set to the tune known by the title of Maschil.
1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
All the felicity that can be attained to in this life, or in another, depends wholly not on the merit of any mans performances, but only in Gods free and favourable acceptance, his gracious pardon to our many frailties, and fouler sins, (purchased for us by the merit of the sufferings of the Messias, given to the world in Gods free promise to Adam, immediately after his fall.)
2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, andb. in whose spirit there is no guile.
Happy therefore, O thrice happy is he, who is thus accepted by God; whose state is such, as that God approveth him (in Christ;) who though he have sinned, yet upon his sincerity of humiliation, confessing, and forsaking all known sin, and his impartial obedience to the whole will of God, (the condition without which Gods reconciliation cannot be regained) is by God received again into favour and justified. See Rom. iv. 7.8.
3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long;
Time was, when my condition was very sad and miserable; whilst with horror reflecting on the soul sins whereof I had been guilty, but not addressing my selfe, as I ought to have done, to thee in confession and contrition, and begging of thy gracious pardon, the weight of the sorrow consumed me, my grief was violent and continual.
4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, andc. my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer. Selah.
Thy wrath and displeasure, under which I lay, was a most unsupportable weight and pressure; the burthen of it consumed and wearied me out, scorcht and dryed me up, like the earth when 'tis parcht by the scorching heat of the sun about the summer solstice.
5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess‖against me my— foreign my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou†or, tockest away foreign forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
But at length, when I better bethought my selfe, I repaired to, and cast my selfe down before God, in true sorrow and humiliation, confessing and bewailing my soul transgressions, laid all open and bare before him, without any disguise, concealment, or extenuation: instead of excusing, I aggravated my sin against my self: And then immediately upon the sincerity of my confession (and forsaking) I obtained free and full pardon from God.
6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee ind. a time when thou mayest be found;*but as f…r the inu…d… tion of grea… waters. surely in the flouds of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
All this being duely considered, 1. how blessed a thing it is to have God reconciled unto us, 2. what a sad weight, to lye under the guilt of sin unpardoned, 3. how ready God is to be reconciled upon our confessing and forsaking, is abundantly sufficient to stir up every man, that hath but any the least care of piety, or his own good, to make all possible speed to return to God, and implore his favour, lest by delay such pretious opportunities be lost; For as for wicked ungodly men, their prayers shall never be heeded by God.
7. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalte. preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
In the list of the former sort I hope to be found, and so to have thee my refuge, to which I may humbly, but cheerfully resort for relief; and approving my selfe to thee, rest securely confident, that thou wilt continue to preserve me, and again, as heretofore, bless me with victory, and gratulatory songs at my return.
8. I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt goe: If. will‖counsel thee; mine eye upon thee, or, mine eye shall be upon thee. guide thee with mine eye.
Let me therefore instruct thee, thou proud obdurate sinner, teach thee a more regular course, than that which thou art in: I will for once take upon me the severer office of a tutor or guide (so Psal 34.11.) and this shall be the summe of my admonition;
9. Be ye not as the horse or as the mule,†or, in not understanding. which have no understanding; whose mouth*shall be, or, is held with bit and bridles yet they come not to thee. must be held in with bit and bridle,g. lest they come neer unto thee.
That at length timely you begin to relent, shew your selves docile and tractable, to follow his guidance obediently, and not to imitate the unmanaged horse and mule, that notwithstanding bitt and bridle, all means of reducing or subduing them, will not be drawn that way that the owner directs; and such are ye, if when ye are out of the way, departed from God by your sins, ye refuse to obey those divine methods of his, which he useth to reduce you. Those that are tractable he will draw and bring home to him; but as for the obstinate and imperswasible, their condition is very sad.
10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.
But if ye be thus obstinate, ye shall dearly rue it. Wicked men shall gain little by their course; many an heavy stroke is their portion (as it is of the undocile mule v. 9.) but the obedient and docible, that relyes and waits on God, and in humility and confidence adheres to him, and observes his directions, all the felicities of all sorts are his inheritance.
11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce, ye righteous; and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart.
This therefore, to conclude, is abundant matter of joy, and delight, and exultation, to all sincere, faithful, and obedient servants of his (though of horror to all others.) Which was the thing undertaken to be proved at the beginning v. 1. and being so fully deduced, may now conclude, as it began the Psalm.
Annotations on Psalm XXXII.
Tit. Maschil] From foreign to understand, is foreign foreigna wise, prudent, intelligent person. It is here, and twelve times more, used as the title of a Psalm, to denote the sort of melody, the tune to which it was set, (so saith Kimchi on Psal. iii.) known among the Hebrews by that name, from some famous song first set to that tune; either from the wisdome conteined in it, as when it is styled Maschil of Heman and Ethan, Psalm Lxxxviii. and Lxxxix. (those being two eminent wise men, 1 Kin. iv. 31.) or else, as beginning with that word. The Chaldee render it foreign a good understanding, the LXXII. foreign, of knowledge, or understanding. More literally it signifies the concrete, the wise or intelligent; but being added to foreign to or of David, it undoubtedly signifies a Psalm of his, set to that tune, and nothing else; and so in all the other Psalms, where it is prefixt in the title. See note on Psalm Lxxxviii. b.
V. 1. In whose spirit] Where the Hebrew hath foreign foreignin his spirit, (which the Syriack, Latine and Aethiopick follow, some reading, in his spirit, some, in his heart, which is all one) the Lxxii. as now we have their translation, have foreign, in their mouth, and so the Arabick also. This 'tis possible, from the double notion of foreign foreign; either for the spirit and soul, or else for the breath, which is the instrument of speech. But 'tis more probable that some scribe may have thus mistaken, by reason of the affinity of the words, and set foreign for foreign, mouth for spirit. S. Hierome in Ep. ad Suniam & Fretill. affirms the LXXII. to have read foreign, and that foreign was inserted from Symmachus.
V. 4. My moisture] The last part of this v. 4. is so rendred by the LXXII. and Latine &c. as hath no affinity with the Hebrew, as now we have it, and as it is understood by the Chaldee. The Hebrew hath foreign. The chief difficulty is in foreign. Yet that is well cleared by the Chaldee, rendring it foreign my freshness or moisture; and so foreign is best rendred from foreign or foreign a dugge or brest, (the ל, saith Abu-Walid, being pleonastical) and that from an old word foreign to moisten (in which sense the Arabs use foreign) So Num. xi. 8. foreign the freshness, or juice, or fatness, or moisture of oyle. This, saith the Psalmist,foreign was converted (from foreign to turne) into the droughts (from foreign exaruit) of summer. So foreign signifies from foreign taedet, molestum est, because of the wearisomeness of summers heat. But the Lxxii. seem to have misread at least three of these words. For foreign is turned, they read foreign, I was turned, as if it had been foreign in the first person. For foreign my moisture or freshness, they read, foreign, into misery, (in which sense also the Jewish-Arab takes it) as if it were foreign in angustiam (foreign grief or calamity, from foreign proscidit, vastavit.) For foreign into droughts, they read foreign, in being fixt or strucken into, from that old notion of foreign in which foreign a sword comes from it, the instrument of transfixion; from whence this other notion seems to have been derived, because when an arrow or the like is entred into the flesh, it causeth a burning in it. Lastly, for foreign summer, they read foreign a prick or thorn, from the same theme. And by thus varying the sense in every word, they have yet given us but another expression of the same matter, fit enough for a paraphrase of the Psalmists great sorrow for sin, thus; I was turned into great misery, when the thorn entred into me, i. e. to signifie the sharp sense of his transgression. The Syriack paraphrase it in a plainer manner, grief turned in my brest to the killing of me; and the Arabick, thou hast reflected on me cares or troubles warring in my heart. But the Jewish-Arab followeth another construction; day and night thy plague is heavy upon me, foreign turneth, or is turned upon me, foreign to the grieving me, or, and grieveth me, foreign as the heats or hot winds of summer.
V. 6. In a time when thou mayest be found] In this v. 6. the weight seems to be laid on foreign foreigna time of finding, a time when God will hear and grant their prayers: and that suggests another rendring of the latter part of the verse, than the antient Interpreters have taken notice of, thus;foreign foreign but as for the inundation of many or great waters (hereby signifying the wicked man, that like a torrent breaks over the banks, transgresses the laws, and sweeps and carries all before him) foreign they will not come nigh, foreignor at all approach unto him, i. e. to God; they run on obstinate in their course, they care not, nor ever look after God. Thus the opposition seems to exact: and the change of the person from thee to him is no objection against it, being frequent in other places of this poetick writing. On this it regularly follows, thou art my hiding place, I desire to be in the number of the humbly pious, that make a seasonable and successeful address to thee, and so to have my part in thy protection, &c. And then for all other, the obstinate, &c. I will instruct them, v. 8.
V. 7. Preserve me] The Lxxii. their reading here is very farre from the Hebrew. For foreign foreignthou shalt keep, from foreign, they seem to have read foreign thou hast besieged, from foreign, and so render it, foreign, besieging me. For foreign foreignacclamations or songs, from foreign to sing for joy, they render foreign, my rejoycing, as if it were foreign my exultation. Then foreign foreignthe infinitive in the notion of the gerund in di, they read as in the Imperative, foreign, deliver me. Lastly, foreign foreignthou shalt incompass me, they render foreign, from them that incompass me, as if it were foreign. Thus also the Latine, à tribulatione quae circundedit me, exaltatio mea, erue me à circundantibus me, from the tribulation which incompast me, my exaltation, deliver me from them that incompass me. And so the Arabick and Aethiopick. But the Syriack are nearest the Hebrew, foreign &c. preserve or free me, and imbrace or incompass me with glory and deliverance; and the Chaldee exactly according to the Original, thou shalt preserve me from tribulation, with songs of redemption shalt thou incompass me, i. e. with foreign or gratulatory songs for victory, such as the joyful matrons meeting him at his return from conquest, incompassing him, or casting themselves into a ring, chanted out unto him, 1 Sam. xviii. 6. one side answering the other.
V. 8. Guide thee] From foreign consuluit, is foreign foreignhere, I will counsel thee, i. e. direct, instruct, or guide thee, meaning the proud and haughty sinner, v. 6. exprest by the irregular overflowings of many waters, I will teach thee in what channel thou shalt pass, and so guide thy course. To which is added foreign foreignmine eye upon thee, by way of explication of the former, I will counsel or guide thee, so as the eye of the rider doth the horse, of the Tutor the Scholar, but especially the guide of an unknown way, who is instead of eyes, Num. x. 31. The Chaldee read, I will counsel thee, and set my eye upon thee for good: but the LXXII. foreign I will confirme, or strongly set my eye upon thee, most probably reading it foreign from foreign to be firme or strong.
V. 9. Lest they come neer unto thee] The difficulty of this v. 9. will, I conceive, be best explicated by observing the phrase foreign:foreign which is literally [not to understand,] being in the infinitive mood; but may best be rendered in the notion of a gerund, thus, Be not like the horse and mule, in not understanding, i. e. which understand not; their [not understanding] being the thing, wherein the parallel betwixt such beasts, and obstinate men, exprest by inundation of many waters, v. 6. consists. This being observed, foreign foreignin the end of the verse, being another infinitive mood, must in reason agree with that, and in like manner be rendered, in not coming neer, (so foreign signifies, accessit, appropinquavit) or they come not neer, foreign to thee: and then that which is between,foreign foreign with bit or bridle his jaw or mouth to be held, or must be held (as ל with an infinitive mood oft signifies, Hos. ix. 13. Ephraim foreign literally, ad educendum to bring forth, but in sense as we render it, shall bring forth,) must be understood, not as the means to keep the beast from coming to or nigh, but as the means designed to make the beast come to, but, when used to an obstinate, unnurtured, unruly beast, uneffectual to that end. For it must be observed what is the use of the bit and bridle, when applyed to an horse, &c. viz. to direct and guide which way the rider or leader will have him goe. So Isa. xxx. 28. the bridle in their jaws causing them to erre, is a bridle to lead them into a wrong path; as here to lead them into a right way, v. 8. so Isa. xxxvii. 29. a bridle in thy lips to turn thee back, &c. And so Jam. iii. 3. the bit in the horses mouth is to turn about their whole body. But then a sturdy, untamed, stiff-necked or head-strong horse, will not be thus turned, or lead, or perswaded to doe what you would have him; but like the undisciplinable torrent, the fury of the great waters, v. 6. that would not come nigh him, so these here, they will not come neer to the owner or master. And so this is the meaning of the whole verse: some unmanaged horses and mules there are, which will not be taught or instructed, will not goe or follow the way that you would teach or lead them, (and so this connects with v. 8. which had tendered them instruction and teaching in the way that they should goe, and guiding—) are so far from being guided with the Masters eye, v. 8. that his bit and bridle together, the most forcible means that are ordinarily used, for subduing or reducing them, will not work upon them, when they are a turning away and going from thee, are not sufficient to compel them to come to thee: But saith the Psalmist, be not ye like to such stiff-neckt cattel. Our English, that renders, lest they come neer unto thee] supposeth, without reason, that the use of the bridle is to keep the horse and mule from doing violence to thee, as if they were Bears and Tigers, and the like ravenous beasts. The true use is quite contrary, to make them come to thee, or goe, or turn, the way that thou wouldst have them; and their not doing so (meant by foreign not come neer thee) is the effect of their obstinacy and want of managery, and that is it wherein we are here forbidden to be like them. Thus I suppose the Chaldees foreign is to be rendred; not, ne accedant, but, non accedent, they will not come to thee. So the Syriack expresly, Be not like the horse and mule which are not wise, (or docile) which they tame with a bridle from their youth, and they come not to him. And the Lxxii. to the same effect, foreign, binde their jaws with bit and bridle which come not neer to thee; and so the Latine, and Aethiopick. But the Arabick more loosely, by way of paraphrase, Be not like horse and mule, which have not understanding, and are not drawn with the bridles that are in their mouths; so doe thou repress the jaws of those that come not to thee.