Psalms 32:3

When I kept silence,.... Was unthoughtful of sin, unconcerned about it, and made no acknowledgment and confession of it to God, being quite senseless and stupid; the Targum adds, "from the words of

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

When I kept silence, to wit, from a full and open confession of my sins, as appears from , and from pouring out my soul to God in serious and fervent prayers for pardon and peace. Whilst I concealed my sins, or smothered my fears, and, stifled the workings of my own conscience. My bones waxed old; my spirits failed, and the strength of my body decayed: Through my roaring all the day long; because of the continual horrors of my conscience, and sense of God’ s wrath, wherewith I was as yet rather oppressed and overwhelmed, than brought to thorough repentance.

Psalms 32:3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.Ver. 3. When I kept silence] i.e. While I, through guile of spirit (for this leaven of hypocrisy is more or less in the best hearts, though it sway not there), concealed my sin, and kept the devil’ s counsel, contenting myself with his false medicines and placiboes. That old manslayer knoweth well that as sin is the soul’ s sickness, so confession is the soul’ s vomit; and that there is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards. He, therefore, holdeth the lips close, that the heart may not disburden itself. David, by his persuasion, kept silence for a while, but that he found was to his ruth; and if he had held so it might have been to his ruin. Men, in pain of conscience, will shirk for ease rather than sue for pardon; as the prodigal first joined himself to a citizen, then ate husks, &c., before he would resolve to return. Satan had first seduced David, and then gagged him, as it were, that he might keep silence. But then God took him and set him upon the rack, where he roared till he resolved to confess. And the like befell Bilney, Bainham, Whittle, and many other of the martyrs, who, having first yielded, could never be at rest within themselves till they had publicly confessed their fault, and retracted their subscriptions to those Popish articles. My bones waxed old] i.e. My strength wasted and wore away, I was in a pitiful plight, per febrim forsan, saith an expositor, by a fever, possibly, the fruit of his inward affliction. So bitter and burdensome is sin cloaked and close kept. Through my roaring all the day long] Like a wild beast, belluinos potius quam humanos gemitus et querimonias fudi, I rather roared to the enfeebling of my body than repented to the easing of my conscience (Jun.). I cried out for pain, but prayed not for pardon. As a lion in a snare roareth, as a bird in a gin fluttereth, so it fareth with hypocrites under God’ s hand (and with better men too sometimes, and for a season); but especially in pangs of conscience, they bellow like bulls in a net, or swine when a sticking; they beat the air with many brutish roarings and ragings, which avail them no more than if an ox should break out of the slaughter house after the deadly blow given him; the sting of conscience still remaineth.

(3) When I kept.—He describes his state of mind before he could bring himself to confess his sin (the rendering of the particle ki by when, comp. Hosea 11:1, is quite correct). Like that knight of story, in whom “His mood was often like a fiend, and rose And drove him into wastes and solitudes For agony, who was yet a living soul,” this man could not live sleek and smiling in his sin, but was so tortured by “remorseful pain” that his body bore the marks of his mental anguish, which, no doubt, “had marr’d his face, and marked it ere his time.” My bones waxed old.—For this expression comp. Psalms 6:2.

Verse 3. When I kept silence] Before I humbled myself, and confessed my sin, my soul was under the deepest horror. "I roared all the day long;" and felt the hand of God heavy upon my soul.

3, 4. The illustration of this truth from the Psalmist’s own experience. He kept silence, refusing to acknowledge his sin to himself and to God; but meanwhile God did not leave him to himself (Job 33:16 ff.); His chastening hand was heavy upon him (Psalms 38:2; Psalms 39:10), making itself felt partly by the remorse of conscience, partly perhaps by actual sickness. He suffered and complained (Psalms 22:1; Psalms 38:8); but such complaint was no prayer (Hosea 7:14), and brought no relief, while he would not confess his sin. my bones] See note on Psalms 6:2. my moisture &c.] R.V. my moisture was changed as with (marg., into) the drought of summer: the vital sap and juices of his body were dried up by the burning fever within him. Cp. Psalms 22:15; Proverbs 17:22. Selah] The musical interlude here may have expressed the Psalmist’s distress of mind, and prepared the way for the change in the next verse.

When I kept silence - The psalmist now proceeds to state his condition of mind before he himself found this peace, or before he had this evidence of pardon; the state in which he felt deeply that he

3. When I kept silence—When I repressed confession of my sin. This David had done for about one whole year, while his grievous backsliding was hid from all but God, the partner of his guilt, and his own soul.