The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"blessed," Hebrew ashrei (אַשְׁרֵי), O the happinesses of. The psalm opens not with a measured statement but with an exclamation: O the happinesses of the man whose sin has been dealt with. The word is sounded twice over these two verses, a double "Blessed" that crowns the forgiven man.

"transgression," pesha (פֶּשַׁע), rebellion. The first of three words for sin in these verses. Pesha is not a slip but rebellion, the deliberate breaking away of a subject from his rightful king.

"forgiven," nasa (נָשָׂא), lifted and carried away. The first of three words for pardon, and it is matched to rebellion. The weight is lifted off the man and carried away from him, so that he no longer bears what he could never have borne.

"sin," chata'ah (חֲטָאָה), a falling short. The second word for sin, and a different picture from the first: not open defiance but missing the mark, falling short of what God required.

"covered," kasah (כָּסָה), hidden from sight. The second word for pardon. What was exposed and shameful is hidden from view -- and note that the covering is God's work, not the sinner's own attempt to hide, which verses 3-5 show only made him waste away.

"iniquity," avon (עָוֹן), crookedness. The third word for sin, naming what is bent and twisted in a man rather than any single act he has done.

"imputeth not," lo yachshov (לֹא יַחְשֹׁב), does not reckon to one's account. The third word for pardon, and its language is the language of the ledger: the crookedness is simply not entered against the man's name. "Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity."

"guile," remiyyah (רְמִיָּה), deceit. Three words for sin have been met by three words for pardon, and the blessing closes by describing the man himself: he is one "in whose spirit there is no guile." He has given up deceiving -- about God, about himself, and about his sin.

Explanation

The three verbs move forgiveness through three different arenas. "Lifted" is personal, a weight taken off the back; "covered" is visual, a stain hidden from sight; but "imputeth not" is a bookkeeper's word, drawn from the ledger, and it is the strongest of the three. A debt may be lifted from a man's shoulders or hidden from his neighbours and still be owed; but what is never entered in the account can never be charged. That same Hebrew verb, chashav ("reckon, count"), reappears in Genesis 15:6, of Abraham who believed God, "and he counted it to him for righteousness." Psalm 32 shows the other side of that same ledger: the page on which no sin is written. Blessedness, then, is not a clean past but a clean record.

Gospel Focus

"Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity", the Apostle Paul takes these very verses as the Old Testament proof of justification by faith. In Romans 4 he cites Psalm 32 to show that God "imputeth righteousness without works": "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Romans 4:6-8). This is the double miracle of the gospel: God does not impute our sin, and God does impute righteousness we did not earn, both accomplished in Jesus Christ. Our sin was lifted and laid on Him, "the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6); our sin was covered by His blood; and our sin is not counted, because it was counted to Him instead, "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The great exchange stands behind David's beatitude: Christ took our iniquity that it might not be imputed to us, and gives us His righteousness. O the blessedness of the forgiven! It is the blessedness of everyone hidden in Jesus, whose sin is lifted, covered, and never counted, because it was borne by the Lamb of God.

Word Study

"acknowledged," Hebrew odi'akha (אוֹדִיעֲךָ), made known. David stops covering his sin and brings it into the light: "I acknowledged my sin unto thee." The word is simply to make known, and it is addressed to God -- the one person from whom he had been hiding it.

"have I not hid," lo khissiti (לֹא כִסִּיתִי). The turn is put negatively as well as positively: "mine iniquity have I not hid." Under the same root that verse 1 used of God covering sin, David now refuses to do the covering himself. What God covers is pardoned; what we cover is not.

"confess," odeh (אוֹדֶה). "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD." This is the single move from silence to speech, and it is the whole turning point of the psalm.

"transgressions," pesha'ai (פְּשָׁעָי). He names his sin with the strongest of the psalm's words for it, the word for rebellion of verse 1. Real confession does not soften the charge against itself.

"forgavest," nasata (נָשָׂאתָ), didst lift away. The verb is the same one translated "forgiven" in verse 1: the burden lifted off and carried away. What was announced there as a blessing is here reported as an experience -- "and thou forgavest."

"iniquity of my sin," avon chattati (עֲוֹן חַטָּאתִי). Two of the psalm's three words for sin are joined in one phrase, as if to say that nothing was left uncovered by the pardon. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee... and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."

Explanation

Before the confession, David locates his guilt in his body. His "bones waxed old," his "moisture" turned "into the drought of summer" (vv3-4), guilt described not as a troubled conscience only but as a physical drying-out, a man wasting under a weight he will not name. What broke the drought was not a change in God but a change in David: the single move from silence to speech. And watch the grammar of verse 5, for it is quicker than we expect. David has only reached "I said, I will confess", the mere resolve, the words not yet fully out, and already the next clause is "and thou forgavest." Pardon interrupts the sentence, as the father ran while the prodigal was still rehearsing his speech. Then a "Selah" is set after it, a deliberate pause: forgiveness is a thing to stop and dwell on, not to hurry past.

Gospel Focus

"I acknowledged my sin unto thee... and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin", this is the gospel's open door, and it stands open through Jesus Christ. The New Testament makes the same promise David proved: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). God's readiness to forgive the moment we confess rests not on our worthiness but on the finished work of Christ, who is "faithful and just" to forgive because the penalty has already been paid at the cross. The misery of hidden sin and the relief of confession are pictured in the prodigal son, who rehearsed, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned," and while he was yet a great way off, the father ran and fell on his neck (Luke 15:18-20), forgiveness meeting confession halfway. Because Christ has borne our sin, we need not, and must not, hide it; we bring it into the light and find it already covered by His blood. The heavy hand of conviction is meant to drive us not to despair but to confession, and confession to the Saviour who forgives freely. Stop covering your sin; acknowledge it to God, and find in Jesus the pardon that lifts the whole burden away.

Word Study

"hiding place," Hebrew seter (סֵתֶר), a shelter, covert, secret place. The man who once tried to hide his sin from God now hides himself in God: "Thou art my hiding place." The shelter he refused to leave in verses 3-4 has been exchanged for the only shelter that saves.

"preserve," titzreni (תִּצְּרֵנִי), guard, keep. The hiding place is not passive cover but an active guard: God Himself keeps watch over the one who has taken refuge in Him.

"trouble," tzar (צַר). This is what he is preserved from -- the pressure and distress that hem a man in. The word stands in deliberate contrast to the shelter, narrowness set against refuge.

"compass me about," tesovveveni (תְּסוֹבְבֵנִי), surround, encircle. Preservation becomes encirclement. David is not merely sheltered on one side but ringed around, and the psalm uses the same verb again in verse 10, where "mercy shall compass him about that trusteth in the LORD."

"songs of deliverance," ronnei fallet (רָנֵּי פַלֵּט), ringing shouts of rescue. What encircles the forgiven man is music: ringing shouts of rescue on every side. The psalm that began with the blessedness of the pardoned man ends this section with him standing inside a circle of song.

Explanation

The verb "compass about" (savav) means to encircle, to ring around, and David uses it twice in this psalm to opposite effect. Here God compasses the forgiven man "with songs of deliverance" (v7); a few lines later, "many sorrows shall be to the wicked" (v10) while "mercy shall compass him about that trusteth in the LORD." Every soul is encircled by something; the question is only what. Grace does not leave the pardoned man un-surrounded; it changes what surrounds him, from a siege of sorrows to a ring of song. And whose songs are these? The prophet answers that God Himself is the singer: "he will joy over thee with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17). The forgiven soul stands inside a circle of God's own music.

Gospel Focus

"Thou art my hiding place... thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance", our hiding place is Jesus Christ, in whom the forgiven find refuge and a song. The believer's life is now "hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3), safe in the secret shelter of the Saviour, covered by His blood so that the storm of judgment cannot reach us, for "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Christ is the true hiding place foretold, "a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest" (Isaiah 32:2). And in Him the forgiven soul is surrounded with songs of deliverance, for the gospel turns mourning into music: the redeemed sing "a new song" (Revelation 5:9), and even now we are to be "singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16). The one who hides in Christ is encircled not by accusation but by the songs of the saved. So the psalm that begins with the blessedness of forgiveness ends where forgiveness always leads, in joy and singing. Flee from hiding your sin, and hide yourself in Jesus; there you will find shelter from every trouble and be compassed about with the songs of deliverance forever.