Psalm 32
“A Psalm of David, Maschil.” Maschil is a hiphil participle. The hiphil stem is causative. The verb is sachal, and it means to know, to be wise. So a Maschil is a psalm which takes doctrine residing in the human spirit and applies it to the various facets of the soul. This is said to be a psalm of David, and while he does not date it we are able to do so. This is one of three psalms that David wrote retrospectively after operation Bathsheba.
The maschil-type psalm occurs elsewhere: Psalms 42, 44, 45, 74, 78, 88, 89, 142. All maschil psalms have doctrine. They also have the application of doctrine and they show within the framework of the passage how to apply the doctrine to the situation. The maschil concept is found in other passages of scripture other than the psalms: 2 Chronicles 30:22 has a phrase, “He taught good knowledge.” The word for teaching in that verse is the Hebrew verb sachal. The “good words of the Lord” is maschil in the plural. Hezekiah, during the feast, encouraged them to teach the Word, which they did. In Proverbs 16:20—“He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” The first line is not what the Hebrew says at all. It says, “A maschil from the Word” or “Doctrine [applied] from the Word.” Doctrine from the Word applied causes the individual to find the good.
Verses 1 & 2, happiness in the plan of God.
Verse 1 – the word happiness in this case is the plural word “Blessed,” ashere. It really means happinesses. The exact counterpart in the New Testament is makarioi, also a plural word. Happinesses is in the plural because God has designed operation phase two so that the believer can have both inner happiness [sometimes called joy] and overt happiness.
“is he who” is not found in the original.
“transgressions forgiven” – no verb here at all, therefore great emphasis on the words that we have. Transgression is a word which means rebellion or trespass. The noun itself encompasses the whole realm of sins which emanate from the old sin nature. The word forgiven is not the word forgiven at all. The Hebrew word nasa doesn’t means to forgive, it means to lift up something, to carry something, or to carry something away. The only connotation of forgiveness is in the idea of carrying it away. It actually means to be lifted up and carried away so that it is no longer assigned to you as a point of guilt. This describes perfectly what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
“sin” is a different word entirely, it means missing the mark; “is covered” – the word for cover means to be concealed.
In a sense we have a relationship here. Transgressions—lifted up. That refers to our sins on the cross being judged by God the Father. Sins—concealed. That refers to the rebound technique. When we as believers confess sins in time we simply name sins that have already been judged. Since these sins have already been judged He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Therefore we are back in fellowship, the place of inner happiness, the place of overt happiness, the two happinesses which are translated by one the word, blessed.
This verse tells us that the basic orientation to grace in phase two is the rebound technique. This is what separates believers.
Verse 2 – “Blessed,” same word as verse 1; “the man” – reference to the believer who appropriates salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” – the word impute here means to think, to intend to do something about it, to communicate, to reckon. Here it probably means to compute. He does not compute iniquity to him. This has to do with the holiness bypass. God’s love is constant and static, regardless of our failure or success as believers.
The second line here is very important: literally, “in whose spirit no negligence.” The spirit refers to that part which absorbs Bible doctrine. The human spirit has capacity for fellowship with God. It is also where all Bible doctrine is located. In the spirit there must be no negligence. The human spirit has the ability not only to have fellowship with God but to absorb doctrine categorically for application to the soul.[1]
“in whose spirit is no …” The word is remjah. This does not mean guile; it means remissiveness. It means to be slothful. It comes to means here negligence or carelessness: “in whose spirit is no carelessness.” This word carelessness almost means apathy, indifference. But these do not cover it as much as the word negligence. What is a negligent spirit? No negligence means inner happiness, overt happiness. When the believer has been indifferent toward Bible doctrine the human spirit is empty of doctrine. This tends to cause a vacuum. Into this vacuum comes all sorts of things—mental attitude sins, legalism, apostasy, emphasis on the details of life. When this fills up it backs up and makes one negligent or indifferent to Bible doctrine.
Verses 3-5, discipline in the plan of God. Remember that the background to this psalm is operation Bathsheba. This is one of the rebound psalms and it covered a period of about a year and a half in David’s life when he did not rebound even once.
Verse 3 – “When I kept silence.” This is a reference to the fact that he failed to rebound throughout this entire period and that he came almost to the point of the sin unto death. Perpetual carnality results in maximum divine discipline.
“my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long” – there are two things that are outstanding here. He “roared.” Though he didn’t roar, the Hebrew actually says he screamed and groaned. He did this day in and day out because of the tremendous pressure under which he found himself. The real key here as to how tremendous this pressure was is found in the fact that he says, “my bones waxed old.” David was still a fairly young man at the time of operation Bathsheba and certainly in the prime of his life. This idiom is based upon the fact that the older people become the more brittle their bones become. Not only do they break very easily but they do not heal very rapidly. This means a lot of misery. It becomes an idiom, then, for the tremendous pressures of discipline which David underwent simply because he refused to rebound. There was a period in his life when he absolutely refused to avail himself of the grace of God. When an older person fracture a bone the factory is slowing down and the bones do not heal as well. The ingredients for healing those bones are not there.
The point: David refused to rebound and because of it the pressure continued to build. There was no recovery in his spiritual life until he almost reached the point where he was removed, and the pressure was do great that he roared or screamed all the day long. Psalm 38 gives a description of what is going on here. And there was no rebound, therefore there was no break, no change in pace, he was under perpetual carnality.
Verse 4 – the accumulation of discipline. “For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.” This means maximum divine pressure.
“my moisture is turned into the drought of summer” – the moisture is simply perspiration or sweat, and it comes from fear.
“Selah” – a musical rest. In other words, you stop and think about this. David is under more and more discipline and there is no break in it because there is no rebound. Whenever Selah is found it means: the orchestra—God and God’s plan; the choir—the believers. The believer rests in God’s plan. In this case David has to think about his discipline which is going on and on.
Now there is a turning of the tide. We know this from 2 Samuel 12:13.
Verse 5 – “I acknowledge my sin.” Every part of his body is affected, his soul is affected, his whole being is affected by the pressure he has been under. The pressure built up until there was nothing left except grace. The word translated acknowledge here is jada, and it does not mean to acknowledge as such, it means to know. But it is in the hiphil stem and this simply means that he confessed or acknowledge his sin. It does not mean or say he felt sorry for his sin. The hiphil means to cause to make known or to name it. This is comparable to confess in 1 John 1:9.
“unto thee” – God the Father is the recipient of rebound because God the Father is the only one who has the right to forgive.
“mine iniquity have I not hid” – this doesn’t mean quite that. This is the piel stem of kasah. Kasah means to hide in the qal stem, but this is the piel stem and it means “my iniquity I have opened up to you.” In other words, he has spelled out the whole thing to the father. He listed the sins.
“I will confess” – in the Hebrew this means to confess in the sense of citing something, it has no emotional content whatever.
“thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” – the word for forgiving here in the Hebrew is a qal perfect; it is permanent; it is the Hebrew word nasa, which means to lift it up and carry it away. This is perfect tense and it should be translated “thou hast forgiven.” They were picked up and carried away on the cross. So the word to forgive means to take them off of David and put them right over the cross, and wait for it to happen historically. When Christ came these sins would be poured out upon Him and He would be judged for them. The comparable word in the Greek is a)feirew [a = a)po, preposition of ultimate source; e)irw = to lift up] which means to lift it up from the ultimate source and remove it.
“Selah” – now David, you can rest again.
Verse 6 – “For this.” The word this means the rebound technique, the concept of the grace of God.
“shall every one that is godly pray” – incorrect. The words shall pray is the word for prayer in the Hebrew, it is the word talal. This is not an ordinary word for prayer, it means to mention your own problems to the Lord. In the hithpael stem (reflexive) it means you pray for yourself. So this portion says, “For this [everyone that gets in fellowship] prays for himself.” In other words, if you are going to be in fellowship you have to do it for yourself. Rebound is always accomplished in prayer, so when you name your sins it is the beginning of a prayer. You actually say this to the Lord and you do it for yourself. Every one that is godly is everyone that is in fellowship. This means that a believer cannot maintain fellowship unless he is using rebound. It also means that rebound in the provision for many other things—for service, orientation to suffering, etc.
“in a time when thou mayest be found” – incorrect: thou mayest be found is it may be found. It is the subject, and it refers to grace—the grace principle in rebound. Grace is lost when you sin. When you get out of fellowship you have turned your back on grace and walked away from the grace of God and the plan of God.
“surely [or truth, point of doctrine] in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” The last part of the sentence is incorrect. It should read, “in the floods of great waters they [believers who use God’s grace] shall not be shaken.” There is the preparation for catastrophe.
Verse 7 – “Thou [God the Father] art my hiding place” – the place of protection, the place of orientation to grace, the place of inner happiness in the midst of disaster.
“thou shalt preserve me from trouble” – this does not mean deliverance from trouble, it means to be preserved in the midst of troubles. The word preserve means to be guarded and protected.
“thou shalt compass [surround] me about with songs of deliverance” – Songs of deliverance:
1. Refers to that part of scripture which was originally sung, i.e. the Psalms, the deliverance psalms. The promises ands doctrines of the Psalms are referred to here.
2. It is not the music but the lyrics of the Psalms that God has preserved. It refers to the words, the lyrics. God did not preserve the music, the tunes, but He did preserve the words.
3. The lyrics contain God’s promises and God’s doctrines pertinent to deliverance.
4. There is no pressure or disaster or problem of life too great for the Word of God. The Word of God is contained in the lyrics.
5. The plan of God is greater than any problem of life, or any failure on the part of the believer.
6. God’s plan is greater than David’s failure.
“Selah” – the orchestra keeps playing while the singers rest their voices. Singing represents the believer; the orchestration represents the plan of God. David has
now come to the place where he is going to rest in the plan of God.
Verses 8 & 9, divine provision through Bible doctrine. Provision for inner happiness and peace and blessing comes through Bible doctrine.
Verse 8 – “I will instruct” is a hiphil imperfect of the verb sakal: hiphil = causative; imperfect tense: the action is not complete. The verb sakal means more than just to instruct, it means to learn something so that you can’t forget it, and once you have learned it to apply it at every possible time. In other words, it is something that you are ready to apply at all times. Actually this verb describes the whole process of the operation of the human soul of the believer under doctrine—Bible doctrine in the human spirit so that it can be piped into the various facets of the soul. “I will instruct” is the process whereby we learn doctrine, store it in the various shelves of the human spirit, and from the human spirit pipe it into the soul from where it can be applied to the various situations of life. This is the whole system of learning Bible doctrine, storing it, and using it. It really means to cause to be wise. Wisdom is the application of doctrine.
“and teach thee in the way” – again, the hiphil imperfect but this time the word is teach: yarah. It first meant to shoot a lot of arrows at a target, but it actually means to teach something over and over again so that you can’t forget it. If you can’t forget it you can’t help but remember it. And if you can’t help but remember it you can’t help but apply it.
“the way that thou shalt go” – this is what is to be taught here. The way is operation phase two; thou shalt go means modus operandi in phase two; the word to go here is simply the ordinary Hebrew word for walking. God has a way for us to go, and that is perfect. This way for us to go is divine good—knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. There is no place for human good in the plan of God. Ignorance of doctrine plus carnality produces human good. The great issue is human versus divine good and this issue is clarified to the believer by Bible doctrine.
“I will guide thee with mine eye” – I will guide is in the qal stem, and this means that God has made it possible for us to know His plan.[2] Knowledge of Bible doctrine is the basis for divine guidance.
Verse 9 – “Be not [qal imperfect] as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding [is stupid].” That means you have to learn the hard way, and it means a lot of suffering, a lot of discipline, and so on.
“whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle” – the horse always goes where his head is. If you turn his head he follows his head. The bridle is to make his head go where you want him to go. The bit is to finalise the direction.
“lest” is literally, otherwise; “they will not come near you.” So the bit and the bridle are used to control the horse. The bit and the bridle means learning through discipline to the believer. The principle of verses 8 & 9 together is, use doctrine to find blessing in suffering rather than using suffering to find blessing in time. Are we going learn doctrine by studying the Word of God? Or are you going to have to learn the hard way through divine discipline, through constant suffering?
Verses 10 & 11, the results of learning doctrine.
Verse 10 – “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” The wicked is the Hebrew word rashah and it means the believer controlled by the old sin nature. He is anti-doctrine, he resists doctrine. He gets special discipline and he learns with the bit and the bridle.
“but he that trusteth” – the qal active participle of the verb batach which is a wrestler’s term for slamming your problems on the Lord. Many understand the principle but they are helpless because they do not have enough doctrine. No growth means no faith-rest. You cannot be consistent in the faith-rest life, you cannot use the techniques unless you have some growth to back it up and stabilise you. You have to have strength in your faith and that depends on doctrine.
“mercy shall compass him about” – the Hebrew says literally, grace shall surround him. To operate on the faith-rest technique you: a) Learn doctrine; b) You develop your faith; c) You use your faith-rest technique. And what happens? Grace shall surround him! The word translated “mercy” here is actually grace—chesedh.[3]
Verse 11 – “Be glad” doesn’t mean to be glad, it means to rejoice. The Hebrew word is samach which is rejoicing, inner happiness. It is a qal imperative.
“and rejoice” is not rejoice, it is the word gil which means to celebrate. It originally meant to dance in a circle. It is overt happiness. This is also a qal imperative. So: “Have inner happiness, and have overt happiness.” These two words, samach plus gil is “blessed” in verses 1 & 2—ashere, which should not be translated blessed, it should be translated happinesses. Notice that the passage begins with hapinesses and the passage ends with happinesses.
“ye righteous” – a believer in fellowship, oriented to the grace of God and using verse 5—the rebound technique.
“and shout for joy” – the celebration. This is a hiphil imperative which means if you have inner happiness and overt happiness you are forced into a celebration.
“ye upright of heart” – the heart is the mentality of the soul. Sometimes it is the entire soul. Upright of soul means a believer who is spiritually self-sustaining because he has Bible doctrine in the human spirit and the doctrine is flowing into every facet of the soul. As a result the soul operates on all systems go, we have an upright soul.