Psalm 32:4

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

Psalm 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) .

Psalm 32:4 In-Context

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

6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to You at a time that You may be found. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him.

Footnotes

• [a] Hb obscure