Psalms 32:4

4 When by day and by night Thy hand is heavy upon me, My moisture hath been changed Into the droughts of summer. Selah.

Psalms 32:4 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 32:4

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me
Meaning the afflicting hand of God, which is not joyous, but grievous, and heavy to be borne; especially without his gracious presence, and the discoveries of his love: this continued night and day, without any intermission; and may design some violent distemper; perhaps a fever; since it follows,

my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.
That is, the radical moisture in him was almost dried up, as brooks in the summer season; his body was parched, as it were, with the burning heat of the disease; or with an apprehension of the wrath of God under it, or both: and so he continued until be was brought to a true sense of sin, and an acknowledgment of it, when he had the discoveries of pardoning love, as is expressed in ( Psalms 32:5 ) . The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions read, "I am turned into distress, through a thorn being fixed"; and so Apollinarius paraphrases the words,

``I am become miserable, because thorns are fixed in my skin;''

reading (Uwq) for (Uyq) ; and which Suidas ^F15 interprets "sin", that being like the thorn, unfruitful and pricking; see ( 2 Corinthians 12:7 ) .

Selah; on this word, (See Gill on Psalms 3:2).

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 In voce (akanya) .

Psalms 32:4 In-Context

2 O the happiness of a man, To whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3 When I have kept silence, become old have my bones, Through my roaring all the day.

4 When by day and by night Thy hand is heavy upon me, My moisture hath been changed Into the droughts of summer. Selah.

5 My sin I cause Thee to know, And mine iniquity I have not covered. I have said, `I confess concerning My transgressions to Jehovah,' And Thou -- Thou hast taken away, The iniquity of my sin. Selah.

6 For this doth every saintly one pray to Thee, As the time to find. Surely at an overflowing of many waters, Unto him they come not.