Commonplace –
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Psalm 32:1-2)
What a beautiful meditation for this Sunday morning. Psalm 32 is a maschil of David, a psalm written to impart wisdom. David begins by pondering what a blessing it is to have one’s sin forgiven. It is no small thing when God chooses to “imputeth not iniquity” (v.2). As one thought leads to another, David considers what his life was like while living in sin, his bones grew old (v. 3), the hand of God was heavy on him, and his moisture “turned into the drought of summer” (v. 4), a dreary time to be sure. But when he chose to confess his sins to the Lord, the Lord forgave him. He notes, “[f]or this shall every one that is godly pray unto the Lord” (v.6). The reward of a contrite heart is relief, “mercy shall compass” the forgiven. The relief of the weight of sin is a blessing indeed.
Matthew Henry shares the following in his summary:
“This psalm, though it speaks not of Christ, as many of the psalms we have hitherto met with have done, has yet a great deal of gospel in it” (283).
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 32.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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