Psalms 32:4

4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my green growth is turned into the drought 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).


FOOTNOTES:

F15 In voce (akanya) .

Psalms 32:4 In-Context

2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.
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 green growth is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and I have not hid my iniquity. I said, I will confess (against myself) my rebellions unto the LORD, and thou shalt forgive the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6 For this shall every one that is merciful pray unto thee in the time when thou may be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come near unto him.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010