When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
Parallel Translations
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When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
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When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
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When I kept silence, my bones wore away through my groaning all the day long.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Psalms 32:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
- Psalms 38:3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
- Psalms 38:8 I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
- Psalms 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
- Lamentations 3:8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
- Job 30:30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
- Hosea 7:14 They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.
- Psalms 6:2 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
- Psalms 31:9-10 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief. For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
- Psalms 51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
- 2 Samuel 11:27–12:12 When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh. Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!” Nathan said to David, “You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’ “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ ”
- Isaiah 51:20 Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.
- Isaiah 57:17 I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
- Isaiah 59:11 We all roar like bears and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
- Jeremiah 31:18-19 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God. Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
- Lamentations 1:3 Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
- Lamentations 3:4 He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
- Genesis 3:8-19 They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
- Luke 15:15-16 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. When I kept silence, my bones wasted away.…
3. When I kept silence, my bones wasted away. Here David confirms, by his own experience, the doctrine which he had laid down; namely, that when humbled under the hand of God, he felt that nothing was so miserable as to be deprived of his favor: by which he intimates, that this truth cannot be rightly understood until God has tried us with a feeling of his anger. Nor does he speak of a mere ordinary trial, but declares that he was entirely subdued with the extremest rigour. And certainly, the sluggishness of our flesh, in this matter, is no less wonderful than its hardihood. If we are not drawn by forcible means, we will never hasten to seek reconciliation to God so earnestly as we ought. In fine, the inspired writer teaches us by his own example, that we never perceive how great a happiness it is to enjoy the favor of God, until we have thoroughly felt from grievous conflicts with inward temptations, how terrible the anger of God is. He adds, that whether he was silent, or whether he attempted to heighten his grief by his crying and roaring, The translation of this verse in our English Bible is, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long;” on which Street observes, “I must own I do not understand how a man can be said to keep silence who roars all the day long.” Accordingly, instead of When I kept silence, he reads, While I am lost in thought; observing that, the verb חרש, in the Hiphil conjugation, signifies to ponder, to consider, to be deep in thought.” But according to the translation and exposition of Calvin, there is no inconsistency between the first and the second clause of the verse. To avoid the apparent contradiction of being at once silent and yet roaring all the day long, Dr Boothroyd, instead of roaring, reads pangs.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Between hope and despair.
Between hope and despair.
Neither by silence nor crying found I ease, signifying that before the sinner be reconciled to God, he feeleth a perpetual torment.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 32:3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed…
Psa 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.
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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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain When I kept silence, to wit, from a full…
When I kept silence, to wit, from a full and open confession of my sins, as appears from Psa 32:5, 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:
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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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain When I kept silence,.... Was unthoughtful of sin, unconcerned…
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 the law"; which seems to point at sin as the cause of what follows;
my bones waxed old; through my roaring all the day long; not under a sense of sin, but under some severe affliction, and through impatience in it; not considering that sin lay at the bottom, and was the occasion of it; and such was the violence of the disorder, and his uneasiness under it, that his strength was dried up by it, and his bones stuck out as they do in aged persons, whose flesh is wasted away from them; see Psa 102:3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Silence - From a full and open confession of…
Silence - From a full and open confession of my sins. Old - My spirit failed, and the strength of my body decayed. Roaring - Because of the continual horrors of my conscience, and sense of God's wrath.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. When I kept silence] Before I humbled…
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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 32:3-5. When I kept silence — Namely, from…
Psa 32:3-5. When I kept silence — Namely, from a full and open confession of my sins, and from pouring out my soul to God in serious and fervent prayers for pardon and peace. 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 a thorough repentance. For thy hand was heavy upon me — Thy afflicting hand, bringing my sins to remembrance, and filling me with thy terrors for them. My moisture is turned, &c. — My very radical moisture is, in a manner, dried up and wasted through excessive fears and sorrows. I said, I will confess my transgressions, &c. — At last I took up a full resolution that I would no longer vainly seek to hide my sins from the all-seeing eye of God, but that I would openly and candidly confess and bewail all my sins, with all their aggravations, and humbly implore the pardon of them. Observe, reader, this is the true and only way to find peace of conscience. Those that would have the comfort of the pardon of their sins must, like David, take shame to themselves by a penitent confession of them. And we must be particular in our confessions, Thus and thus have I done; and, in so doing, I have done very wickedly. And we must confess the justice of the punishment, or correction, we have been under for sin, saying, The Lord is just in all that he hath brought upon us, and we deserve much severer chastisement. I am no more worthy to be called thy son. We must confess our sins with shame and holy blushing, with fear and holy trembling. And if we bring forth fruit worthy of this repentance, we shall surely, like David, obtain forgiveness. And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin — That is, the guilt of my sin, or my exceeding sinful sin; two words, signifying the same thing, (iniquity and sin,) being here put together by way of aggravation, according to the manner of the Hebrews. Observe again, reader: David speaks with confidence that the Lord had forgiven him. He received a sense of pardon, the knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of his sins, and so mayest thou: see Luk 1:77. O seek this blessing with all thy heart!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain When I kept silence - The psalmist now proceeds…
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 was a sinner, yet was unwilling to confess his sin, and attempted to conceal it in his own heart. This he refers to by the expression, “When I kept silence;” that is, before I confessed my sin, or before I made mention of it to God. The condition of mind was evidently this: he had committed sin, but he endeavored to hide it in his own mind; he was unwilling to make confession of it, and to implore pardon. He hoped, probably, that the conviction of sin would die away; or that his trouble would cease of itself; or that time would relieve him; or that employment - occupying himself in the affairs of the world - would soothe the anguish of his spirit, and render it unnecessary for him to make a humiliating confession of his guilt. He thus describes a state of mind which is very common in the case of sinners. They know that they are sinners, but they are unwilling to make confession of their guilt. They attempt to conceal it. They put off, or try to remove far away, the whole subject. They endeavor to divert their minds, and to turn their thoughts from a subject so painful as the idea of guilt - by occupation, or by amusement, or even by plunging into scenes of dissipation. Sometimes, often in fact, they are successful in this; but, sometimes, as in the case of the psalmist, the trouble at the remembrance of sins becomes deeper and deeper, destroying their rest, and wasting their strength, until they make humble confession, and “then” the mind finds rest.
My bones waxed old - My strength failed; my strength was exhausted; it seemed as if the decrepitude of age was coming upon me. The word here used, and rendered “waxed old,” would properly denote “decay,” or the wearing out of the strength by slow decay. All have witnessed the prostrating effect of excessive grief.
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Through my roaring - My cries of anguish and distress. See the notes at Psa 22:1. The meaning here is, that his sorrow was so great as to lead to loud and passionate cries; and this well describes the condition of a mind under deep trouble at the remembrance of sin and the apprehension of the wrath of God.
All the day long - Continually; without intermission.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain A vivid description of felt, but unacknowledged, sin.
A vivid description of felt, but unacknowledged, sin.
When--literally, "for," as in Psa 32:4.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. When I kept silence—When I repressed confession of…
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. Psa_32:3-4 describe David’s mental sufferings during all this time, while both the guilt and guile just mentioned held their dark dominion. See Pro_28:13. The particle “when” might be rendered because—Because “I kept silence,” etc., as in Psa_32:4, “For, because, day and night,” etc.; but the common version is preferable.
Roaring—The word is used for the roaring of lions, or any loud thundering or threatening sound; but here, as in Job_3:24; Psa_22:1; Psa_38:8, it means loud moaning, or groaning.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3, 4. The illustration of this truth from the…
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 (Psa_38:2; Psa_39:10), making itself felt partly by the remorse of conscience, partly perhaps by actual sickness. He suffered and complained (Psa_22:1; Psa_38:8); but such complaint was no prayer (Hos_7:14), and brought no relief, while he would not confess his sin.
my bones] See note on Psa_6:2.
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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. Psa_22:15; Pro_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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) When I kept.—He describes his state of mind…
(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. Hos_11:1, is quite correct). Like that knight of story, in whom
“His mood was often like a fiend, and rose
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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. Psa_6:2.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain When I kept silence; i.e. so long as I…
When I kept silence; i.e. so long as I did not acknowledge my sin while I remained silent about it, quite aware that I had sinned grievously, suffering in conscience, but not confessing it even to myself. The time spoken of is that which immediately followed the commission of the adultery, and which continued until Nathan uttered the words, "Thou art the man!". (2Sa_12:7) My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long; i.e. I suffered grievous pain, both bodily and mental. My bones ached; (comp. Psa_6:2 Psa_31:10) and I "roared," or groaned, in spirit, all the day long." Unconfessed sin rankles in the heart of a man who is not far gone in vice, but has been surprised into a wicked action, no sooner done than regretted. Such a one, in Archbishop Leighton"s words, "Vulnus alit venis et caeco carpitur igne.
Hindrances to confession of sin.
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"I kept silence.
I PRIDE. Men cannot bear to think themselves wrong to put themselves down on the common level; still less, below those who have sought and obtained pardon. This pride is itself a great sin, (Jam_4:6 1Ti_3:4)
II WANT OF HONESTY OF CONSCIENCE. Even proper self-respect should make one say, "Anything rather than self-deception! Let me know the truth of myself!
III INDOLENCE. Many are busy enough outwardly, but mentally indolent, spiritually stagnant.
IV SOME ARE TOO BUSY. Too much occupied with the appendages of life ever to know what it is truly to live I
V CARELESSNESS. Two kinds of hardness of heart noted in Scripture.
1. Stubborn self-will.
2. Want of feeling. ("fat," Isa_6:10)
VI INSENSIBILITY TO GOD"S CLAIMS. Their greatness, urgency, inevitableness, the blessedness of yielding to them. This lies deep at the root of all the rest. Were these felt, pride would bow, conscience wake, indolence and carelessness vanish; all worldly concerns and aims appear in comparison as "less than nothing, and vanity.
VII HENCE LOW VIEWS OF GOD"S LAW, of the absolute necessity of righteousness, and the infinite evil of sin.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3-5. David now gives us his own experience:…
Ver. 3-5. David now gives us his own experience: no instructor is so efficient as one who testifies to what he has personally known and felt. He writes well who like the spider spins his matter out of his own bowels.
Ver. 3. When I kept silence. When through neglect I failed to confess, or through despair dared not do so, my bones, those solid pillars of my frame, the stronger portions of my bodily constitution, waxed old, began to decay with weakness, for my grief was so intense as to sap my health and destroy my vital energy. What a killing thing is sin! It is a pestilent disease! A fire in the bones! While we smother our sin it rages within, and like a gathering wound swells horribly and torments terribly. Through my roaring all the day long. He was silent as to confession, but not as to sorrow. Horror at his great guilt, drove David to incessant laments, until his voice was no longer like the articulate speech of man, but so full of sighing and groaning, that it resembled to hoarse roaring of a wounded beast. None knows the pangs of conviction but those who have endured them. The rack, the wheel, the flaming fagot are ease compared with the Tophet which a guilty conscience kindles within the breast: better suffer all the diseases which flesh is heir to, than lie under the crushing sense of the wrath of almighty God. The Spanish inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds within the heart.
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Ver. 3. My bones waxed old. God sports not at the sins of his elect, but outwardly doth deal with them more hardly, and chastise them more rigorously than he doth the reprobate. David's troubles and pains were partly external, partly internal: external I call those that were cast on his body; internal upon his conscience. And in the body were torments and vexations, seizing sometimes on his flesh which was less painfulsometimes on his bones, which was more grievous, yea, almost intolerable, as experience teacheth. And this is God's just recompense; when we bestow our strength on sin, God abates it, and so weakens us. Samson spent his strength on Delilah, but to what weakness was he brought! Let us, therefore, learn, that God hath given us bones and the strength thereof for another use, that is, to serve him, and not waste or be prodigal of them in the devil's service. Archibald Symson.
Ver. 3. My bones waxed old. By bones, the strength of the body, the inward strength and vigour of the soul is meant. The conscience of sin, and the terror of judgment doth break the heart of a true penitent, so long as he beholdeth his sin deserving death, his judge ready to pronounce the sentence of it, hell open to receive him for it, and the evil angels, God's executioners, at hand to hurry him to it. Samuel Page, in "David's Broken Heart, "1646.
Ver. 3. My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. David here not only mourns for sin as a man, but he roars, as it were, like a pained beast. He seems fitter for a wilderness to cry out, than for a secret chamber to weep in; at other times he can "water his couch" in the night, now he "roars" all the day long; at other times, "his moisture is dried, "now his "bones, "the pillars of his house shake and wax old. Alexander Carmichael, 1677.
Ver. 3. Retention of our griefs to ourselves. Natural tendency of timidity and despair; danger of it; means of divulging grief; encouragements to do so; the blessed person who is ready to hear confession.
The silent mourner the greatest sufferer.
Ver. 3-4. "Terrible Conviction and Gentle Drawings." See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 313.
Psalms 32:4*
Ver. 3-5. David now gives us his own experience: no instructor is so efficient as one who testifies to what he has personally known and felt. He writes well who like the spider spins his matter out of his own bowels.
Ver. 3-4. "Terrible Conviction and Gentle Drawings." See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 313.
Ver. 3-5. David now gives us his own experience: no instructor is so efficient as one who testifies to what he has personally known and felt. He writes well who like the spider spins his matter out of his own bowels.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain When I kept silence, my bones waxed old.
Psa_32:3-4
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old.
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Unconfessed sin
On several grounds we may set forth the urgency of the duty of making immediate and penitent confession of our sins unto God.
I. every sin is manifest unto God whether we confess it or not. His scrutiny penetrates every disguise, and analyzes every motive. Every sin is not only naked unto Gods eye, but it is clearer unto Him than any confession of ours could make it. He sees its growth. He understandeth the thought afar off. All the aggravations of every sin are clearer unto the eye of God than any confession of ours could state them. Those that are brought to a sense of their sins are often filled with amazement when they think of the forbearance of God towards them in their state of guilt. Should not they that are Gods children, and have been enlightened in their understanding, chasten themselves before God because of their transgressions that they may walk in the light of His countenance? If it be true that unacknowledged sin separates the soul from God, that the regarding of iniquity in the heart makes prayer useless, and sacrifices an abomination, that the look of lust and the motion of causeless anger against a brother provoke Gods anger, an immediate and humble confession of sin from the heart unto God is both necessary and safe. Unto them who keep silence God gives sorrow. He maketh their bones to rot.
II. no sin is diminished by deferring the confession of it. If murder or malice or falsehood or any transgression be a crime because it is a violation of Gods holy raw, the mere lapse of time does not alter the fact that the law was violated. If one day is with the word as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, Gods view of sin will not be otherwise a thousand years hence than it is on the day that the sin is committed. God judges according to the principles from which an action springs, and His judgment cannot be nullified by lapse of time. Is sin represented as a burden on the conscience? The bearing of a burden is not alleviated by lapse of time, but rather becomes more oppressive. Some hearts seem callous, but even they get no actual relief from their burden of guilt by deferring confession of their sins unto God. They are treasuring up wrath unto themselves against the day of wrath. Is sin represented as pollution which makes us hateful unto God? Pollution does not liquify and evaporate, but extends and deepens. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. The canker of corruption increases to more ungodliness. Is sin represented as a debt? Deferring to pay never diminishes the extent of the indebtedness. In the natural world those substances that cannot resist destroying agents become weaker and weaker. Wood rots; iron rusts; and stones crumble. Lapse of time never makes good that loss of substance, nor does it even arrest the loss.
III. sin unconfessed corrodes the heart. There is an inner unrest. One who suppresses confession unto God nevertheless roars all the day long. Whoso will not pour out his corruptions before God tortures his own soul, wears himself out, and makes himself old before his time. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. The corroding effect of unconfessed sin arises from the necessity which is laid on the heart to reconcile itself to its condition. The sin must be explained in some way that will quiet the conscience. Not a few screen themselves behind those that act for them. Because an agent procures and pays a dividend, the investor thinks himself exonerated from all blame that may attach to the methods and means, by which a Limited Liability Company gets prosperity for its shareholders. David gave his command to Joab, and Joab doubtless acted through not a few subordinate officers, before Uriah could be set in the forefront of the hottest battle, and deserted at the critical moment, and it was really the sword of Ammon that shed the brave mans blood; but God joined David immediately with Uriahs death. It was David who was made to cry, Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Sometimes men extract a balm from the general course of Gods providence. Twas a soothing sophism unto David, The sword devoureth one as well as another. By many such shifts do men remove themselves from the actual sin which has gratified or profited them. But their heart suffers. Tolerating sin, it soon becomes insensible to the heinousness of sin and foregoes its own brotherhood. In many other ways also unconfessed sin corrodes the heart. It betrays us to other forms of sin, even as one virtue leads to another. Craft uses deceit. Violence seeks justification or concealment in lies. Sensuality loosens every fibre of virtue, and paves the way to every relative vice. Were the sin confessed, the heart would be renewed. Unconfessed sin indisposes us for duty. Sinful heart makes feeble hand. Duty is enforced by conscience, but when the conscience itself lies in a comatose state, because of the diffused poison of an unconfessed sin, its authority is paralyzed. Through confession of sin, a sinner is purged from an evil conscience to serve the Living God. Unconfessed sin makes all our services unacceptable unto God. If thou bring thy gift to the altar, etc. If service be unacceptable when a brother hath ought against us, much more must it seem vile when God Himself hath something against us! Unconfessed sin exerts an exasperating influence on the heart. There is a state of mind in which a man regards all things as out of joint. It sets him at variance with himself and his surroundings, and fills him with idle longings for change of scene. Gods hand lies heavy on him day and night, and makes duty burdensome. The want of inward peace deprives him of that element which sweetens lifes sorrows and smooths its roughness. Instead of the well-spring of joy, with which a good conscience cheers the mind, there is gloom and unrest and a dread of ill. How can a man with an evil conscience put his trust in the living God, and if he trust not in the living God, how can he be happy, or feel secure? The light that is in him is darkness. (H. Drysdale.)
Why men are unwilling to confess their sin
1. Because the devil stupefies and benumbs the soul, that it has little or no feeling of its sin; and then it lies, as it were, concealed in the soul; which makes it either thoughtless about it, or careless to acknowledge it.
2. Because the custom of sin takes away the sense of it; for, the longer any poisonous liquor stands in a vessel, so much the harder will it be to get it cleansed, and the poisonous quality eradicated.
3. Sometimes the soul has so great a sense of his sins, and is so apprehensive of the number and deformity of them, that it becomes thereby either ashamed or afraid to confess them to the Lord.
4. Satan sometimes prevails so far upon the soul as to persuade it that it can hide its sins by an act of oblivion of its own making; that is, he makes men foolishly flatter themselves that God will never remember those sins which they forget; and that what they themselves bury in silence shall be concealed from His all-seeing eyes. But see what God says to such as these (Psa_50:20-21). (J. Hayward, D. D.)
Confession and pardon
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; not, Blessed is that man who lives in a four-storey house; not, Blessed is that man who has a hundred thousand dollars to his credit in bank; not, Blessed is the man that owns the most railroad stock and government bonds. If you want to be happy, you must obtain the favour of God. And the way to obtain it is to seek Gods pardon. David declares that happy is the man who is pardoned, and unto whom the Lord umputeth not iniquity. My relations to God are determined by my loyalty to Him. In the sight of God you are a transparent man. He can see through you. I have a contempt for a man who has anything in him to hide. I believe in having no wrong side and no right side to a character. It should be all right. I like that. But poor old human nature is so made up that no man knows everything. Some will say in their hearts, If our pastor knew these things about me, what would he say? Oh, listen; God hath already found it out. Be what you are through and through. Some pieces of humanity are put up like some bales of cotton down South. They put The nice, white cotton outside, and in the centre they put the dog-tail cotton--the worst cotton there is. And some humanity is put up on the same principle exactly. Dealers have got a method of finding out what a bale of cotton is right through. And some of these days God will show you what you are through and through. David tells us that he sinned against God, and kept silence, and would not confess; and that by reason of his refusal to confess his sins, day and night the hand of God was heavy upon him, and his moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Oh, what striking figures he uses here! Listen to me now, you who have not had peace of mind for months. Days seem years when your mind is on yourself, because you are miserable. David told what his trouble was, what your trouble is; and he said because of it, My moisture was turned into the drought of summer. I have learned how a person feels by seeing how the fields are in a droughty season. Our garden is dried up, and every green thing droops, and the best land produces only about ten per cent of a crop. A drought of this kind may only last for weeks, but a drought in the human heart may be one that will last for ever. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Oh, to see the drought of summer upon the hearts and lives of professing Christians, and upon those out of the Church, and to see their spiritual nature droop, and wither, and die under a drought that is brought upon them by their own voluntary conduct and action! Where is there a man that wont confess? We come to him to-night asking him to seek the Lord, and he says, I dont want to come up. What he means is, I dont want to confess; that is the trouble. When a fellow gets willing to confess he will go and do it before anything else. The Lord says, He that confesseth shall find mercy. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sin is a debt: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, as sin is a debt, the best thing to do in the world is--dont sin at all. That is best, and thank God it is possible. Yes, you say, but I cant help sinning. You can help it just as well as you can keep from getting into debt? Am I obliged to get into debt to-day or to-morrow? Which sin am I obliged to commit to-day or to-morrow? You are not like me, you hear people say; I cannot live without sin. Whenever you hear a person say that, you may know he is falling into sin more deeply, and that he has made provision for it. Well, I say, the best thing in the world is, dont do wrong. But if you do happen to slip and do wrong the best thing is to fall down and repent. Dont let it get cold before you have repented of it. A man ought to be able to repent and to pray anywhere that he can afford to sin. Sin is a debt you have to meet at the mercy-seat of God with an honest, open confession, or you will have to meet it in the judgment with eternal bankruptcy of your soul. Now, which will you do? If you have sinned, the best time for you to repent is now. You cannot afford to put it off any longer. (S. P. Jones.)
Repentance the way to happiness
I. the silence which he kept. Its criminality is clear from the circumstances by which it has been occasioned, and from the perseverance with which it has been maintained against the mercy and the power of God. Your silence has been occasioned by--
1. Thoughtlessness and indifference.
2. Pride and enmity of heart against God.
3. Procrastination; notwithstanding the variety of His appeals.
II. the misery which he endured. What misery is occasioned by sin when--
1. It has to contend with keen and deep convictions.
2. It is accompanied by the dread of discovery.
3. The hatred to God which it produces in the heart is connected with a dread of His almighty power.
4. All these internal feelings are accompanied with eternal adversity and tribulation.
5. The sinner looks forward to the future and anticipates that eternity to which every moment brings him nearer.
III. the confession which he made.
1. It was minute and unreserved.
2. He confessed that his sin was ever present to his mind.
3. He confessed that his sin admitted of no apology or extenuation.
4. He confessed that his sins exposed him to the Divine rejection.
5. He confessed that his sin was a source of deep distress to his mind.
6. His confession was accompanied with prayer.
IV. the pardon which he received.
1. The source whence it was derived.
2. The promptness with which it was bestowed.
3. The gratuitousness with which it was granted.
4. The encouragement which it is calculated to afford to those who, like himself, have broken their impenitent silence, and begun to confess their transgressions to the Lord (Psa_32:6).
5. The blessedness of which it was productive.
(1) Pardon blessed his condition, saving from depravity as well as from condemnation.
(2) Pardon blessed his feelings, making him happy as well as safe and holy. Happy in his affections. Happy in the privilege of communion with God. Happy in the performance of holy duties. Happy in anticipation of the future. (J. Alexander.)
Terrible convictions and gentle drawings
David here describes a very common experience amongst convinced sinners. He was subjected to extreme terrors and pangs of conscience. The terrors he experienced were indescribable, filling his soul with horror and dismay. We would speak--
I. To the subjects of Gods rebuke and the terrors of Gods law. What are the causes of your terror? I shall borrow my divisions from quaint old Thomas Fuller, and, as I cannot say better things than he said, I shall borrow much.
1. Those wounds must be deep which are given by so strong a hand as that of God. Remember it is God that is dealing with you, the almighty God. Do you wonder, then, that when He smites, His blows fell you to the ground. Be not astonished at your terrors.
2. Then think of the place where God has wounded you. Not in hand, head, or foot, but in your heart, your inmost soul.
3. Satan is busy with you. Now, saith he, God is driving him to madness, I will drive him to despair.
4. The terrible nature of the weapon with which God has wounded you. The sword of the Spirit, so that it cannot be a little wound.
5. The foolishness of the patient. Some are much more quickly healed than others; serenity of mind and quietude of spirit help much, but fretfulness and anxiety hinder. It is even so with you: you are a foolish patient; you will not do that which would cure you, but you do that which aggravates your woe: you know that if you would cast yourselves upon Jesus you would have peace of conscience at once; but instead of that you are meddling with doctrines too high for you, trying to pry into mysteries which the angels have not known, and so you turn your dizzy brain, and thus help to make your heart yet more singularly sad. You seek to file your fetters, and you rivet them; you seek to unbind them yourself, and you thrust them the deeper into your flesh.
6. Yours is a disease in which nothing can ever help you but that one remedy. All the joys of nature will never give you relief. When Adam had sinned he became suddenly plunged in misery; he had unparadised paradise. And so it will be with you. If you could be put in paradise you would not be happier. There is only one cure for you.
7. Now why does God let you suffer so? He does not deal so with all His people. Why, then, with you? We cannot tell all the reasons, but it may be because you were such a stony-hearted sinner. You were so desperately set on mischief, so stolid, so indifferent, that, if saved, God must save you in such a way, or else not at all.
8. And there is that in your heart which would take you back to your old sins, and so He is making them bitter to you. He is burning you that you may be like the burnt child which dreads the fire.
9. And He would make you the more happy afterwards. The black days of dreary winter make the summer days all the fairer and the sweeter.
10. And, maybe, God means to make great use of you. The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction. These are His highlanders that carry everything before them. They know the rivers of sin, the glens of grief, and, now their sins are washed away, they know the heights of self-consecration, and of pure devotion. They can do all things through and for the Christ who has forgiven them.
II. To those who have never felt these terrors but strangely wish they had, It is not true that all who are saved suffer these terrors. The most, and they amongst the best, do not. And God has brought you in quieter ways to Himself--then be grateful to Him. You might not have been able to bear other means. And perhaps if you had much experience you would have grown self-righteous. There is a brother who has never known, to the extent some of us have to know, the plague of his own heart, lie has never gone through fire and through water, but, on the contrary, is a loving-hearted spirit: a man who spends and is spent in his Masters service; he knows more of the heights of communion than some of us. Do not, then, desire to be troubled, but trust to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The exercises of a soul seeking pardon
These verses give us the experience of a soul convinced of sin, and aware of the value and blessedness of pardon, without as yet possessing the power to assume that pardon as its own.
I. the individual is first exhibited to us in silent meditation or self-examination.
1. This is a most necessary but painful duty (Psa_4:4; 2Co_13:5; Psa_77:6).
2. It has for its subject the nature and amount of sin. The rule by which that sin is measured is readily supplied by the Holy Spirit, from all the works and dispensations of God.
II. This self-examination was supposed to be carried on in silence; but the sentence closes with a seeming contradiction, saying that his bones waxed old with his continual roaring. The work of self-examination may go on in silence and in secrecy; men without hear nothing of the sorrow, see nothing of the distress and agony within--The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. But God looks upon the sorrow within; God beholds the workings of this troubled conscience, its throes of grief, and hears its moans.
III. conscious impotence arrived at last. My bones waxed old, etc. Here it is not requisite to bring in the machinery of outward trial and experiment to convince the believer of his weakness; let him alone; let him lie there, while varied forms of evil pass over the thoroughfare of his memory or imagination, and while he detects the tendency of his affections to these forms, and battles hard, too, to turn it to good, and fails, the experiment is repeated, till he sinks under the shameful conviction, the sickening one, that he can do no good thing; hold his heart right, no, not one moment, with God; think no one good thought alone. And then he is in utter weakness cast on Divine compassion. And then impotent for ever? No, not for ever; impotent in self, but mighty through Christ (2Co_12:9).
IV. the stubbornness of the nature dealt with. Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me. Converted men, without a failure, may be passed or hurried on from trial to trial externally, in order to bring out and mature that faith which eventuates in holiness. Thus with Joseph; what a series, what a sea of calamities had he to wade through, after the treachery of his brethren; what repeated trials and temptations had he to encounter, without an instants breathing time, till he is placed in full peace upon the government of Egypt. This was heavy work upon the soul. Not temptation, merely, but distresses likewise; these, under a Divine Providence, sift and humble the soul, fix and form the faith, ere they flee before the sunshine of spiritual prosperity.
V. the soul now in its distress mourns over departed prosperity. Moisture--the word is figurative, but most significant. He was as a tree planted by the rivers of water, his fruit rich and ripe, his leaf fresh and verdant; all are now withered, and blasted, and scorched; what misery!
VI. can all this escape the cognizance of the fallen believer? No; he must hear it, and see it, and heed it, and repent. Aye, repent, not perish. God is still gracious, and though this subsequent repentance may be doubly bitter, yet through it he shall pass once more to peace. (C. M. Fleury, M. A.)
The danger of unconfessed sin
Grief kept within grows more and more intense. A festering wound is dangerous. Let thy soul flow forth in words as to thy common griefs, it is well for thee. And as to such as are spiritual the same rule applies. What a mercy that we have the Book of Psalms and the life of such a man as David. Biographies of most people are like the portraits of a past generation, when the art of flattery in oils was at its height. There is no greater cheat than a modern biography. We have no biographers now-a-days. Davids psalms are his best memorial. There you have not the mans exterior, but his inward soul. You see the mans heart. There is no man who has known the Lord in any age since David but has seen himself in Davids psalms as in a looking-glass, and has said to himself, This man knows all about me. David is one who seems to be, not one, but all mankinds epitome. Be thankful that David was permitted to try the experiment of silence after his great sin, for he will now tell us what came of it--When I kept silence, etc.
I. let us think of the child of God thus acting. Children of God sin, for they are still in the body. But when he sins the proper thing for him to do is at once to go and confess it to God. Sin will not come to any great head in any mans heart who does this continually. But sometimes they will not do this, especially when they have done very wrong. When confession is most needed it is often least forthcoming. It was so in Davids ease. How fully had he fallen! It is no good to try and excuse Davids sin he himself would protest against our attempting it. But why did he not confess it?
1. The sin prevented the confession--blinded the eye, stultified the conscience, and stupefied his entire spiritual nature. What wretched prayers and praises were those he offered while the foul sin was hidden in his bosom. Why was he silent when he knew he was wrong? Why did he not go to God at once? He was stupefied by his sin, fascinated, captivated, held in bondage by it. Beware of the basilisk eye of sin. It is dangerous even to look at, for looking leads to longing. No man ever thinks of sin without damage. I saw a magnificent photograph in Rome, one of the finest I had ever seen, and right across the middle there was the spectre mark of a cart and ten oxen, repeated many times. The artist had tried to get it out, but the trace remained. While his plate was exposed to take the view, the cart and the oxen had gone across the scene, and they were indelible. Upon our soul every sinful thought leaves a mark and a stain that calls for us to weep it out--nay, needs Christs blood to wash it out. We begin with thinking of sin, and then we somewhat desire the sin: next we enter into communion with the sin, and then we get into the sin, and the sin gets into us, and we lie asoak in it. So David did. He did not feel it at first, but then he was plunged into the evil deeps. A man with a pail of water on his head feels it to be heavy, but if he dives he does not feel the weight of water above him because he is actually in it and surrounded by it. So when a man plunges into sin he does not feel its weight. When he is out of the dreadful element, then he is burdened by it. Thus at first David did not feel his sin.
2. Next, there was much pride in his heart. A child who has done wrong, and knows it, often will not own it. You cannot bring him to say, I have done wrong.
3. Others have been silent because of fear. They could not believe that God would forgive them. They thought He would overwhelm them with His wrath. Do not think thus. Do not think that the Lords mercy is clean gone for ever. Did He not love thee when thou weft dead in trespasses and sins, and will He not love us more if we turn to Him again? But now let us use this subject in reference--
II. To the awakened sinner. There are such. But they are slow to make confession. They feel the burden, and will feel it more, but as yet they keep it to themselves. Remember John Bunyans picture of the man in the iron cage. There is not in his whole book an incident more terrible. And many full from despair into utter hardness of heart. They say there is no hope, and they may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. Oh, when God makes your heart soft as wax, mind who puts the seal upon it. If the Spirit of God do not, there is another that will put the seal of despair, and perhaps of atheism and of defiant sin upon it, and then woe is that day that you were born. Refusal to confess is a perilous thing for the soul. If a man is awakened to a sense of sin, if he tarries long in that condition Satan is sure to entangle him. He cares little for careless sinners. He has them safe enough: and hypocrites, he knows, are going his way certainly; but the moment that souls are aroused he is in fear lest he lose them, so he plies all his craft to keep them. So that now is the time for the soul to close in with Christ. There is no comfort else to a bruised heart. If you are willing to confess everything He will help you, and there is good reason for doing it at once. For there is a mine of sin in every little sin. Like a spiders nest. Open it, and you will find thousands. So in every sin there is a host of sins. Go before God as the citizens of Calais came before the English king, with ropes about their necks. Then make your appeal, and assuredly God will forgive. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Silent grief injurious
A dry sorrow is a terrible one, but clear sunshine often follows the rain of tears. Tears are hopeful things; they are the dewdrops of the morning foretelling the coming day There is something in telling your sorrow and letting it out, otherwise it is like a mountain turn which has no outlet, into which the rains descend and the torrents rush, and at last the banks are broken and a flood is caused. A festering wound is dangerous. Many have lost their reason because they had good reason to tell their sorrows, but had not reason enough to do so. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 my bones were wasting away
my bones were wasting away
Here "my bones" refers to the writer. AT: "I was wasting away" or "I was getting weaker" (See: Synecdoche)
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all day long
This idiom means "continually." AT: "all the time" (See: Idiom)
day and night
These extremes include everything in between. AT: "all the time" (See: Merism)
your hand was heavy upon me
Here "hand" refers to Yahweh. The entire phrase is an idiom that means "you afflicted me." AT: "you made me suffer greatly" (See: Synecdoche and Idiom)
My strength withered as in summer drought
David's strength is compared to a small, green plant that turns brown and crumbles in the dry season. (See: Simile)
Selah
This may be a musical term that tells people how to sing or play their instruments here. Some translations write the Hebrew word, and some translations do not include it. See how you translated this in Psalms 3:2. (See: Copy or Borrow Words)
translationWords
groan
hand
strength
selah
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 32:3-5 The psalmist acknowledges his own sin (see 19:12-13;…
32:3-5 The psalmist acknowledges his own sin (see 19:12-13; 25:7, 11, 15-22) and his resistance to confessing sin. The Lord pressed him hard until he confessed his guilt.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.