Psalms 32:3

3 When I kept silent,^[a] my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

Psalms 32:3 Meaning and Commentary

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 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 ( Psalms 102:3 Psalms 102:5 ) .

Psalms 32:3 In-Context

1 How happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

2 How happy is the man the Lord does not charge with sin, and in whose spirit is no deceit!

3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer's heat. Selah

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You took away the guilt of my sin. Selah

Footnotes

• [a]. Probably a reference to a refusal to confess sin