Ver. 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven] The heavy burden of whose trespasses is taken off, as the word importeth, and he is loosed, eased, and lightened. Sin is an intolerable burden, Isaiah 1:3, such as presseth down, Hebrews 12:1; a burden it is to God, Amos 2:13; to Christ it was, when it made him sweat water and blood; to the angels, when it brake their backs, and sunk them into hell; to men, under whom the very earth groaneth, its axle tree is even ready to crack, &c.; it could not bear Korah and his company; it spewed out the Canaaanites, &c. Oh, then, the heaped-up happiness of a justified person, disburdened of his transgressions! The word here rendered transgression signifieth treachery, and wickedness with a witness. Aben Ezra saith, David hereby intends his sin with Bathsheba; and surely this psalm and the one and fiftieth may seem to have been made upon the same occasion, they are tuned so near together. Whose sin is covered] As excrements and ordure are covered, that they may not be an eyesore or annoyance to any. Sin is an odious thing, the devil’s drivel or vomit, the corruption of a dead soul, the filthiness of flesh and spirit. Get a cover for it, therefore (sc. Christ’s righteousness, called a propitiation, or coverture, and raiment, Revelation 3:18), Ut sic veletur, ne in iudicio reveletur, that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear.
Ver. 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity] Let no man think this triplication of the same thing needless or superfluous; since the poor soul, afflicted with sense of sin and fear of wrath, is not easily persuaded of pardon; but when faith would lay hold on the promise Satan rappeth her on the fingers, as it were, and seeks to beat her off. Besides, by such an emphatic repetition and heap of words to one purpose, the great grace of God in pardoning men’s sin, is plainly and plentifully declared and celebrated; it being a mercy that no words, how wide soever, can sufficiently set forth. By the word iniquity some understand original sin, that peccatum peccans, as the schools c all it, that πανσπερμια, common cause and impure seminary of all actual disobediences. Neither this, nor any of the fruits of it, doth the Lord impute, reckon, count, or think to the pardoned sinner, 2 Corinthians 5:19. Cui non cogitat peccatum, so some render it, To whom he thinketh no sin, that is, he reputeth or imputeth it not for a sin, he putteth it not into the reckoning, Isaiah 43:25 48:9,11; the bill or bond is cancelled, Colossians 2:14, and there remaineth no action. Christ is our surety, Hebrews 7:22. Now the surety and debtor are in law reputed as one person. Christ is made sin for us, that is, in our stead or place, that we might be “made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. And in whose spirit there is no guile] Sed sincere et sine dolo a suis peccatis resipiscit, et ad Dei misericordiam se recipit. The justified are also sanctified, 1 Corinthians 6:11; they hide not their sins, as Adam; they neither excuse nor extenuate what evils they have done, but think and speak the worst of their sins; they lay load upon themselves; they hate hypocrisy, and detest dissimulation; it is a question whether they do more desire to be good or abhor to seem only to be so. Basil, as he commendeth that sentence of Plato, that seeming sanctity is double iniquity; so he justly condemneth that saying of Euripides, I had rather seem to be good than be so indeed. That maxim of Machiavel is the same for sense, that virtue itself should not be sought after, but only the appearance; because the credit is a help, the use an encumberance. The pardoned sinner is sanctified throughout, washed not only from his sin (the guilt and filth of it), but his swinish nature also (the love and liking of it); he hath no mind to return to his vomit or wallowing in the mire, saith R. Solomon here; he saith not, Resipiscam et denuo peccabo, vel peccabo et resipiscam, as R. David senseth it, I will repent, and then sin again; or sin again, and then repent. This he knoweth to be incompatible with faith unfeigned, and hope unfailable, 1 Timothy 1:5 1Jo 3:3.
Ver. 3. When I kept silence] i.e. While I, through guile of spirit (for this leaven of hypocrisy is more or less in the best hearts, though it sway not there), concealed my sin, and kept the devil’s counsel, contenting myself with his false medicines and placiboes. That old manslayer knoweth well that as sin is the soul’s sickness, so confession is the soul’s vomit; and that there is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards. He, therefore, holdeth the lips close, that the heart may not disburden itself. David, by his persuasion, kept silence for a while, but that he found was to his ruth; and if he had held so it might have been to his ruin. Men, in pain of conscience, will shirk for ease rather than sue for pardon; as the prodigal first joined himself to a citizen, then ate husks, &c., before he would resolve to return. Satan had first seduced David, and then gagged him, as it were, that he might keep silence. But then God took him and set him upon the rack, where he roared till he resolved to confess. And the like befell Bilney, Bainham, Whittle, and many other of the martyrs, who, having first yielded, could never be at rest within themselves till they had publicly confessed their fault, and retracted their subscriptions to those Popish articles. My bones waxed old] i.e. My strength wasted and wore away, I was in a pitiful plight, per febrim forsan, saith an expositor, by a fever, possibly, the fruit of his inward affliction. So bitter and burdensome is sin cloaked and close kept. Through my roaring all the day long] Like a wild beast, belluinos potius quam humanos gemitus et querimonias fudi, I rather roared to the enfeebling of my body than repented to the easing of my conscience (Jun.). I cried out for pain, but prayed not for pardon. As a lion in a snare roareth, as a bird in a gin fluttereth, so it fareth with hypocrites under God’s hand (and with better men too sometimes, and for a season); but especially in pangs of conscience, they bellow like bulls in a net, or swine when a sticking; they beat the air with many brutish roarings and ragings, which avail them no more than if an ox should break out of the slaughter house after the deadly blow given him; the sting of conscience still remaineth.