RRB notes on Psalm 32

Psalms 32 KJV

A Psalm of David, Maschil

1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

2. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. [1]

[1] Verses 1-2 are quoted by Paul in Romans 4:7-8 in reference to New Testament salvation. They are used by all the apostate Fundamentalists to prove that men in the Old Testament were saved by “looking forward to the cross” and in the New Testament by “looking back”; therefore, they’re identical “salvations.” Of course, this is just unscriptural rubbish. The Old Testament sins were “covered,” but they were not “redeemed” (Heb. 9:15). They were “forgiven,” but God did not “clear the guilty” (Exod. 34:7). Their iniquities and sins were not “taken away” (Heb. 10:4). The verse is a prophecy, although, of course, it would always apply to all minor children. God imputed enough iniquity to David to scare him into thinking he might lose the Holy Spirit (Psa. 51:11) and then made him pay four lives for the life of one man *(see note on 2 Sam. 12:6).

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

4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. [a] Selah.

[a] Psalm 51:1-3

6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods [b] of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

[b] “Floods” here is different from that of Psa. 29:10. This one is the “flood” of Dan. 9:26; Rev. 12:15-16.

7. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee [c] with mine eye.

[c] Eminently practical. God will “instruct,” “teach,” and “guide” a man.

9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: [2] whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

[2] Instead of having “horse sense,” the Lord says the horse hasn’t got any sense. He’ll charge into automatic weapon fire; he will not lie still long enough to heal a broken leg; he’ll kill his own master accidentally by kicking him; if he gets scared he’ll buck and throw any rider (and he can be scared by a butterfly or a rolling hat); and a runaway horse hitched to a buckwagon or stagecoach doesn’t have enough sense even to slow down. A mule has more sense than that – but not much more. On a grave north of Rome, you can find a stone slab set up by the United States Army in 1945, after World War II. It says, “Here lies Peggy, an Army mule, who, before she expired, kicked one General, two Colonels, one Major, three Captains, four Lieutenants, and one land mine.”

10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

11. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

_______

*Note on 2 Sam. 12:6

2 Samuel 12:6 KJV

And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, [1] because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

[1] Notice that David can quote half of one verse in the Old Testament, by memory, without looking it up (Exod. 22:1). Four lambs have to be paid back. The four lambs are people, just like Bathsheba was “people.” The first lamb to go is the baby (2 Sam. 12:18). The second lamb to go is “Amnon” (2 Sam. 13:29). The third lamb to go is “Absalom” (2 Sam. 18:15). And the fourth one is David’s nephew, “Amasa” (2 Sam. 20:10). 

By a wild coincidence, these four “lamb payments” match David’s sin. One had to deal with sex with a woman (the baby died), one had to do with murder by a pretended friend (Amasa), another one had to do with getting killed during combat (Absalom), and one had to do with abandoning a man so he would get killed (Amnon). “You reap what you sow.”