Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 25:18
Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
18. Look upon &c.] Behold my affliction and my travail. Cp. Psa 9:13. and forgive ] Lit. take away, sin being regarded as a burden. Cp. Psa 32:1. This verse ought to begin with the letter Qph, and various emendations have been proposed with the object of restoring it. The simplest change is to add arise (Psa 3:7) at the beginning of the verse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Look upon mine affliction and my pain – See Psa 25:16. This is a repetition of earnest pleading – as if God still turned away from him, and did not deign to regard him. In trouble and distress piety thus pleads with God, and repeats the earnest supplication for His help. Though God seems not to regard the prayer, faith does not fail, but renews the supplication, confident that He will still hear and save.
And forgive all my sins – The mind, as above remarked, connects trouble and sin together. When we are afflicted, we naturally inquire whether the affliction is not on account of some particular transgressions of which we have been guilty; and even when we cannot trace any direct connection with sin, affliction suggests the general fact that we are sinners, and that all our troubles are originated by that fact. One of the benefits of affliction, therefore, is to call to our remembrance our sins, and to keep before the mind the fact that we are violators of the law of God. This connection between suffering and sin, in the sense that the one naturally suggests the other, was more than once illustrated in the miracles performed by the Saviour. See Mat 9:2.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 25:18
Look upon mine affliction and my pain.
A troubled prayer
I. It is well for us when our prayers about our sorrows are linked with prayers about our sins. Our sorrows profit us when they bring our sins to mind.
1. They give us time for thought. A sick bed has often been a place of repentance.
2. Our sorrows are often the direct result of our sins. Then we cannot but remember them. Not to have sorrow when we sin is a mark of the reprobate.
3. When our sorrows are so like our sins. Jacob was a crafty deceiver, and he in his turn was, once and again, craftily deceived. He was a great bargain maker, and he in his turn was once and again craftily deceived. He cheated his father, and so everybody cheated him, of course. How often we have to eat the fruit of our own ways!
4. They drive us out of an atmosphere of worldliness. There is our nest, and a very pretty, snug nest it is; and we have been very busy picking up all the softest feathers that we could find, and all the prettiest bits of moss that earth could yield, and we have been engaged night and day making that nest soft and warm. There we intended to remain. We meant for ourselves a long indulgence, sheltered from inclement winds, never to put our feet among the cold dewdrops, nor to weary our pinions by mounting up into the clouds. But suddenly a thorn pierced our breast; we tried to remove it, but the more we struggled the more deeply it fixed itself into us. Then we began to spread our wings, and as we mounted we began to sing the song which, in the nest, we never should have sung, the song of those who have communion with the skies.
5. Sometimes they remind us of our ingratitude. How sad a blemish upon the character of Hezekiah it was that he rendered not again unto the Lord according to the benefits done unto him.
6. Sometimes sorrows remind us of want of sympathy with those who have like sorrows.
7. Sorrow is also sent to admonish us of our neglect of Divine teaching. Why that rod? Why that whip and bridle? Because I have been like the horse and the mule which had no understanding. Let us humble ourselves before God, and ask with Job, Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.
II. It is well when we are as earnest about our sins as we are about our sorrows. The chaplain of Newgate says many of the prisoners will pretend very great repentance when he is talking to them about spiritual things, but he can always tell whether their repentance is genuine or not, by their trying to bring him round to tell them something about their punishment. Before their tidal they frequently ask to know what term of imprisonment they are likely to get. Then, when they are undergoing punishment, they frequently try to get some trifling favour through his means. They think much more of the punishment than they do of the crime. If I go to God and only ask to have my sorrows taken off me, what is that? I am no true penitent. It is the pain and not the sin that troubles me.
III. It is well to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. David took both to God.
1. Take our sorrows to him, not to any neighbour or friend.
2. But let us take our sins also.
3. The most mournful and the most sinful are welcome to the Lord Jesus.
4. He can with equal ease remove both.
IV. Go to Him in the right spirit. David says, Look upon, that is all. But when he speaks of his sins he is much more definite as to what he would have done with them, Forgive all my sins. I must have them forgiven, I cannot bear them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Comfort under affliction
We know not the nature of the sufferings under which David laboured, whether of body or of mind, or both; but this we know, that in all of them his first refuge and his principal relief was prayer. Suffering times are times both of searching and discovery. It is a fire that tries a mans work, a mans temper, and a mans state whether he be really a child of God. If he be not, when suffering comes, his angry almost blasphemous speeches will reveal that. But the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, will bring forth good things. God being pleased with him, he is pleased with every thing. Hence in affliction, knowing that it is laid on in love, and that he deserves much more, he prays, Look upon mine affliction, etc. Two things are taught us here–
I. That a kind look from God is very desirable in affliction; for it is–
1. A look of special observation. As to the kind, the degree, and the duration of our affliction.
2. Of tender compassion.
3. Of support and assistance (Exo 3:7; 2Ch 16:9). Now here we generally stop; if the Lord will but grant us this, it is all we ask, we will not trouble Him for more. We forget our sin.
II. That the sweetest cordial under affliction is the assurance of Divine forgiveness (Psa 32:1; Rom 4:7).
1. Because trouble is very apt to bring our sins to remembrance (Jer 22:21; Gen 42:21; 1Ki 17:18; Psa 40:12).
2. Because a sense of pardon will largely remove all distressing fears of death and judgment. When we feel our flesh wasting and this earthly house of our tabernacle ready to tumble about us, we cannot help inquiring, with a trembling anxiety, When I am turned out of this house where shall I live next? And if we have no evidence and no hope of an interest in the Saviour, how terrible the prospect. But if we are forgiven, how all is changed.
So then, let us–
1. Praise God that He should condescend so graciously as to look favourably upon us.
2. From former mercies of the Lord, if the Lord is looking upon us, let us hope for future ones.
3. If a kind look from God be so comfortable, what must heaven be? (Samuel Lavington.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. Look upon mine affliction] See my distressed condition, and thy eye will affect thy heart.
Forgive all my sins.] My sins are the cause of all my sufferings; forgive these.
This is the verse which should begin with the letter koph; but, instead of it, we have resh both here, where it should not be, and in the next verse where it should be. Dr. Kennicott reads kumah, “arise,” and Houbigant, ketsar, “cut short..” The word which began with koph has been long lost out of the verse, as every version seems to have read that which now stands in the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Look upon with compassion, as Exo 3:7,8; Psa 31:7; 106:44.
My sins; the procuring and continuing causes of my trouble.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Look upon mine affliction and my pain,…. The “affliction” was the rebellion of his subjects against him, at the head of which was his own son; and the “pain” was the uneasiness of mind it gave him; or the “labour” k, as the word may be rendered; the toil and fatigue of body he was exercised with, he flying from place to place; and he desires that God would look upon all this with an eye of pity and compassion to him, and arise to his help and deliverance; as he looked upon the affliction of the children of Israel in Egypt, and delivered them, Ex 3:7;
and forgive all my sins; or “lift up”, “bear”, or “take away” l, as the word signifies; sins are burdens, and they lay heavy at this time on David’s conscience, being brought to mind by the affliction he laboured under, not only his sin with Bathsheba, but all others; and these were on him as a heavy burden, too heavy to bear; wherefore he entreats that the Lord would lift them off, and take them away from him, by the fresh discoveries of pardoning grace to him. The sins of God’s people are removed from them to Christ, by his Father, on whom they have been laid by his act of imputation; and he has bore them, and all the punishment due unto them, and, has taken them away, and made an end of them; and through the application of his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, they are caused to pass from the consciences of the saints, and are removed as far from them as the east is from the west; and this is what the psalmist here desires, and this he requests with respect to all his sins, knowing well that, if one was left upon him, it would be an insupportable burden to him.
k “laborem meum”, Pagninus, Mortanus, Junius Tremellius, &c. l Heb. “tolle”, Piscator “aufer”, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The falling away of the is made up for by a double strophe. Even the lxx has twice over. The seeing that is prayed for, is in both instances a seeing into his condition, with which is conjoined the notion of interposing on his behalf, though the way and manner thereof is left to God. , with the object in the dative instead of the accusative ( tollere peccata ), signifies to bestow a taking away, i.e., forgiveness, upon any one (synon. ). It is pleasing to the New Testament consciousness that God’s vengeance is not expressly invoked upon his enemies. is an expansive quod as in Gen 1:4. with an attributive genitive is hatred, which springs from injustice and ends in injustice.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
18. Look upon mine affliction. By repeating these complaints so frequently, he plainly shows that the calamities with which he was assailed were not some slight and trivial evils. And this ought to be carefully marked by us, so that when trials and afflictions shall have been measured out to us after the same manner, we may be enabled to lift up our souls to God in prayer; for the Holy Spirit has set before our view this representation, that our minds may not fail us under the multitude or weight of afflictions. But in order to obtain an alleviation of these miseries, David again prays that his sins may be pardoned, recalling to his recollection what he had already stated, that he could not expect to enjoy the divine favor, unless he were first reconciled to God by receiving a free pardon. And, indeed, they are very insensible who, contented with deliverance from bodily affliction, do not search out the evils of their own hearts, that is to say, their sins, but as much as in them lies rather desire to have them buried in oblivion. To find a remedy, therefore, to his cares and sorrows, David begins by imploring the remission of his sins, because, so long as God is angry with us, it must necessarily follow, that all our affairs shall come to an unhappy termination; and he has always just ground of displeasure against us so long as our sins continue, that is to say, until he pardons them. (565) And although the Lord has various ends in view in bringing his people under the cross, yet we ought to hold fast the principle, that as often as God afflicts us, we are called to examine our own hearts, and humbly to seek reconciliation with him.
(565) “ Cependant que nos pechez demeurent c’est a dire iusaues a ce qu’il les pardonne.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Psa 25:18. Forgive all my sins David joins this petition to the foregoing one, because he considered that, whatever afflictions and crosses were brought upon him, how unjust soever they might be with respect to his enemies, who were the apparent causes of them; yet, according to God’s appointment or permission, they might be the effects and punishment of his sins.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 25:18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
Ver. 18. Look upon mine affliction and my pain ] My griefs, under which I groan and labour, My concupiscence, saith Aben Ezra, against which I strive, but prevail not.
And forgive all my sin
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Look upon. See note on “lift up”, Psa 25:1.
affliction = humiliation.
forgive = bear away. First occurrence in the Psalms.
sins. Hebrew. chata. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Look: Psa 119:132, Psa 119:153, 1Sa 1:11, 2Sa 16:12, Lam 5:1, Luk 1:25
forgive: Psa 32:1-5, Psa 51:8, Psa 51:9, Mat 9:2
Reciprocal: Gen 29:32 – looked 1Sa 9:16 – looked upon 2Ch 6:39 – forgive Job 10:9 – Remember Job 10:15 – see Psa 31:7 – for Psa 39:8 – Deliver Psa 40:13 – Be Psa 69:14 – let me Lam 1:9 – behold Luk 11:4 – forgive us