Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 65:3
Iniquities prevail against me: [as for] our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
3. Iniquities ] Lit., words, or, matters of iniquities: many various items of iniquity. Cp. for the same idiom Psa 105:27, Psa 145:5. Virtually the clause is a protasis to the second line:
Though manifold iniquities are too strong for me,
As for our transgressions, Thou wilt purge them away.
In the singular ‘me’ we may hear the voice of the Psalmist himself, or of some representative of the nation, the king or high-priest, who, like Daniel or Nehemiah, confesses his own sin as well as the sin of his people (Dan 9:20; Neh 1:6: cp. Heb 5:3; Heb 7:27): but more probably it is the assembled congregation which speaks of itself first as an individual (‘against me ’), then as an aggregate of individuals (‘ our transgressions’). For a similar change from sing. to plur. cp. Num 21:22, and many other passages. Its sins are an enemy which it cannot defeat (Gen 4:7; cp. Psa 38:4; Psa 130:3; Psa 143:2); yet God who “forgives iniquity and transgression and sin” will purge away their transgressions. thou is emphatic. He, and He alone, can do it. The word for purge away is that commonly rendered ‘make atonement for’ (whether its primary meaning is ‘to blot out’ or ‘to cover’ is disputed), and it would be natural to see in it an allusion to the Day of Atonement which immediately preceded the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:27; Lev 23:34), and to suppose that the Ps. was intended for use at that Festival, did not Psa 65:13 speak of the corn as still standing in the fields.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Iniquities prevail against me – Margin, as in Hebrew, Words, or matters of iniquities. The literal meaning is words; and the idea may be that words spoken in iniquity, or slanderous words spoken by others, prevailed against him. The phrase, however, is susceptible of the interpretation which refers it to iniquity itself; meaning the matter of iniquity – the thing – iniquity itself – as if that overcame him, or got the mastery of him. The psalmist here, in his own name, seems to represent the people who thus approached God, for the psalm refers to the worship of an assembly or a congregation. The idea is, that when they thus came before God; when they had prepared all things for his praise Psa 65:1; when they approached him in an attitude of prayer, they were so bowed down under a load of transgression – a weight of sin – as to hinder their easy access to his throne. They were so conscious of unworthiness; their sin had such an effect on their minds; it rendered them so dull, cold, and stupid, that they could not find access to the throne of God. How often do the people of God find this to be the case!
As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away – That is, In reference to these very transgressions or iniquities that now press us down, thou wilt remove them. The language expresses the rising confidence and hope of the worshippers that God would not allow those transgressions so to prevail as to prevent their worshipping God acceptably. Heavy as was the burden of sin, and much as the consciousness of guilt tended to impede their worship, yet they felt assured that God would so remove their transgressions that they might have access to his mercy-seat. The word rendered purge away – kaphar – is the word which is commonly rendered to atone for, or which is used to represent the idea of atonement. See the notes at Isa 43:3. The word has here the sense of cleansing or purifying, but it always carries with it, in the Scriptures, a reference to that through which the heart is cleansed – the atonement, or the expiatory offering made for sin. The language here expresses the feeling which all may have, and should have, and which very many do have, when they approach God, that, although they are deeply conscious of sin, God will so graciously remove the guilt of sin, and lift off the burden, cleansing the soul by his grace, as to make it not improper that we should approach him, and that he will enable us to do it with peace, and joy, and hope. Compare the notes at Psa 51:2.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 65:3
Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.
Sin overcoming and overcome
There is an intended contrast in these two clauses, between mans impotence and Gods power in the face of the fact of sin. The first clause might be translated, iniquities are too strong for me; and the Thou of the next clause is emphatically expressed in the original, as for our transgressions (which we cannot touch), Thou shalt purge them away. Despair of self is the mother of confidence in God; and no man has learned the blessedness and the sweetness of Gods power to cleanse who has not learnt the impotence of his own feeble attempts to overcome his transgression. The very heart of Christianity is redemption. Only he who knows the cruel bondage of sin understands and appreciates the meaning and the brightness of the Gospel of Christ. He was called Jesus because He should save His people from their sins. So here we have our own hopelessness and misery, but also our confidence in the Divine help.
I. The cry of despair. Too strong for me, and yet they are me. Me, and not me; mine, and yet, somehow or other, my enemies, although my children–too strong for me. The picture suggested by the words is that of some usurping power that has mastered a man, laid its grip upon him so that all efforts to get away from the grasp are hopeless. But some of you say, We were never in bondage to any man. You do not know or feel that anything has got hold of you which is stronger than you. Well, let us see. Consider for a moment. You are powerless to master your evil, considered as habits. You do not know the tyranny of the usurper until a rebellion is got up against him. As long as you are gliding with the stream you have no notion of its force. Turn your boat and try to pull against it, and when the sweat-drops come on your brow, and you are sliding backwards, in spite of all your struggles, you will then know the force of the stream. Did you over try to cure some trivial bad habit, some trick of your fingers, for instance? You know what infinite pains and patience and time it took you to do that, and do you think that you would find it easier if you once set yourself to cure that lust, say, or that petulance, pride, passion, dishonesty? Any honest attempt at mending character drives a man to this–Iniquities are too strong for me. And so also it is with sin regarded as guilt, you cannot rid yourself of it. What is done is done. What I have written I have written. Nothing will ever wash that little lily hand white again, as the magnificent murderess in Shakespeares great creation found out. You can forget your guilt; you can ignore it. You do not take away the rock because you blow out the lamps of the lighthouse. And you do not alter an ugly fact by ignoring it. I beseech you, as reasonable men and women, to open your eyes to these plain facts about yourselves, that you have an element of demerit and liability to consequent evil and suffering which you are perfectly powerless to touch or to lighten in the slightest degree.
II. The ringing cry of confident hope. Jesus Christ, when trusted, will do for sin, as habit, what cannot be done without Him. He will give the motiye to resist, which is lacking in the majority of cases. He will give the power to resist, which is lacking in all cases. He will put a new life and spirit into our nature which shall strengthen and transform our feeble wills. The only way to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, is to let Christ clothe you with His armour. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Iniquities
I. The language of complaint–Imquities prevail, etc. They may do so–
1. In the growing sense of our guilt. As light increases, we see them more and more.
2. In the power of their acting. This prevalence cannot be entire, for sin shall not have dominion over the believer in Christ. He may be bruised, but he is not enslaved.
II. Of triumph. The Lord purges away our transgressions.
1. By His pardoning mercy.
2. By His sanctifying grace. And that He will do this the Christian is confidently persuaded. (W. Jay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Iniquities prevail against me] This is no just rendering of the original, dibrey avonoth gaberu menni; “iniquitous words have prevailed against me,” or, “The words of iniquity are strong against me.” All kinds of calumnies, lies, and slanders have been propagated, to shake my confidence, and ruin my credit.
Our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.] Whatsoever offences we have committed against thee, thou wilt pardon; tecapperem, thou wilt make atonement for them, when with hearty repentance and true faith we turn unto thee. This verse has been abused to favour Antinomian licentiousness. The true and correct translation of the former clause will prevent this.
The old Scottish Version of this verse, in their singing Psalms, is most execrable: –
“Iniquities, I must confess,
Prevail against me do:
And as for our trans-gres-si-ons
Them purge away wilt thou.”
O David, if thou art capable of hearing such abominable doggerel substituted for the nervous words thou didst compose by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, what must thou feel, if chagrin can affect the inhabitants of heaven!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Iniquities prevail against me; they are a burden too heavy for me, as he complains, Psa 38:4. They are so many and great, that for them thou mightest justly reject my prayers, and destroy my person. But this is another glorious privilege granted to thy people, and that, in answer to their prayers, thou dost graciously pardon and purge away their sins.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. God’s mercy alone delivers usfrom the burden of iniquities, by purging or expiating by anatonement the transgressions with which we are charged, and which aredenoted by
Iniquitiesor,literally, “Words of iniquities.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Iniquities prevail against me,…. Or, “are mightier than I” h; this may be understood either of the iniquities of others, his enemies; their “words of iniquities” i or iniquitous words, as in the Hebrew text; their calumnies, reproaches, false charges, and accusations, which prevailed against David in Saul’s court; or rather his own iniquities, inward lusts, indwelling sins, as well as open transgressions, which he considers as his enemies, as numerous and powerful, too mighty for him, which warred against him, and sometimes got the better of him, and threatened him with utter ruin and destruction; but amidst all this he spies atonement and pardon through the blood and sacrifice of Christ, as follows;
[as for] our transgressions, thou shall purge them away; not only his own, but others, which Christ has done by the sacrifice of himself; and when his blood is applied to the conscience of a sensible sinner, it purges it from all his sins, Heb 1:3; it may be rendered, “thou shall expiate them”, or “make atonement for them” k; which Christ, our propitiation, has done: this was the work appointed him, which he undertook, came into the world to do, and has performed, Da 9:24 Heb 2:17; or “thou shalt cover them”; with the blood and righteousness of Christ; or forgive them for the sake of them,
Ps 32:1.
h “prae me”, Muis, Michaelis. i “verba iniquitatum”, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth. k “propitiaberis”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; “expiabis”, Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 Words of iniquity have prevailed against me (447) He does not complain of the people being assailed with calumny, but is to be understood as confessing that their sins were the cause of any interruption which had taken place in the communication of the divine favor to the Jews. The passage is parallel with that,
“
The ear of the Lord is not heavy that it cannot hear, but our iniquities have separated betwixt us and him.” — Isa 59:1
David imputes it to his own sins and those of the people, that God, who was wont to be liberal in his help, and so gracious and kind in inviting their dependence upon him, had withdrawn for a time his divine countenance. First, he acknowledges his own personal guilt; afterwards, like Dan 9:5, he joins the whole nation with himself. And this truth is introduced by the Psalmist with no design to damp confidence in prayer, but rather to remove an obstacle standing in the way of it, as none could draw near to God unless convinced that he would hear the unworthy. It is probable that the Lord’s people were at theft time suffering under some token of the divine displeasure, since David seems here to struggle with some temptation of this kind. He evidently felt that there was a sure remedy at hand, for no sooner has he referred to the subject of guilt, than he recognises the prerogative of God to pardon and expiate it. The verse before us must be viewed in connection with the preceding, and as meaning, that though their iniquities merited their being cast out of God’s sight, yet they would continue to pray, encouraged by his readiness to be reconciled to them. We learn from the passage that God will not be entreated of us, unless we humbly supplicate the pardon of our sins. On the other hand, we are to believe firmly in reconciliation with God being procured through gratuitous remission. Should he at any time withdraw his favor, and frown upon us, we must learn by David’s example to rise to the hope of the expiation of our sins. The reason of his using the singular number, in the confession which he makes of sin, may be, that as king he represented the whole people, or that he intended, like Daniel, to exhort them each to an individual and particular examination and confession of his own guilt. We know how apt hypocrites are to hide their personal sin, under a formal acknowledgement of their share in the general transgression. But David, from no affectation of humility, but from deep inward conviction, begins with himself, and afterwards includes others in the same charge.
(447) In our English Bible it is, “Iniquities prevail against me;” and on the margin, “Words or matters of iniquity,” etc. Calvin gives the same meaning which is naturally suggested by our English version, although from his translating the Hebrew text by words of iniquity, we would at first view be apt, to suppose that he would explain them as referring to the evil reports, the calumnies and slanders, which David’s enemies propagated against him to ruin his reputation. Dr Adam Clarke understands the words in this sense, and gives a translation equivalent to Calvin’s “Iniquitous words have prevailed against me,” or, “The words of iniquity are strong against me.” — He thinks the reading of our English Bible “Is no just rendering of the original;” observing, that “this verse has been abused to favor Antinomian licentiousness;” and that “the true and correct translation of the former clause will prevent this.” But we cannot see how the verse, as it stands in our English Bible, can with justice be viewed as tending to give encouragement to sin, it being no more than the confession of a repentant sinner, accompanied with hope in the mercy of God, founded on the glad tidings announced in the Gospel, that God is willing to pardon the most guilty who believe in his Son, and repent of their sins. The old Scottish, version of this verse —
“
Iniquities, I must confess, Prevail against me do: And as for our transgressions. Them purge away wilt thou,”
which this learned author terms “most execrable” and “abominable doggerel” — and at hearing which he supposes David would feel chagrin, if such a feeling could affect the inhabitants of heaven — is, it must be admitted, ill expressed, feeble, and easily susceptible of an Antinomian sense. But not so, we think, the revised version, now in very general use in Scotland, which, by the alteration of a single word in the beginning of the third line, has made the verse at the same time more correct and more nervous: —
“
But as for our transgressions, Them purge away shalt thou:”
thus implying at once a deep sense of the evil of sin, and a confident reliance on the forgiving mercy of God — two subjects on which it is of the highest importance for us to entertain just views in drawing near to God in prayer.
Dr Morrison gives the following rendering: —
“
Our iniquities prevail against us; But thou art he who blotteth out our transgressions.”
Horsley’s version is: —
“
The account of iniquities is too great for me: Thou shalt expiate our crimes.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Iniquities.Literally, Words (or, things) of iniquities, i.e., details of crime, or instances of wickedness. (Comp. Psa. 35:20; Psa. 105:27; Psa. 145:5.)
Prevail.Better, have prevailed, have overcome me, been too much for me. No doubt, though the pronoun is singular, we are to think of Israel at large here, confessing, by the mouth of the poet, its unworthiness of that Divine communion for which still (see next verse) God had chosen them. This is more in keeping with the general tone of the psalm than to refer the confession to an individual. The LXX. and Vulg. give the pronoun in the plural.
There appears in this verse an antithesis between iniquity and transgression. The latter certainly sometimes seems to be applied in distinction to the violation of the covenant, and possibly the distinction is present here. The frailty and sin common to all flesh has not exempted Israel; but the chosen people have to mourn besides transgressions of their own law. These, however, will be by sacrifice purged away, and then, brought back into full covenant privilege, the offenders will approach the earthly dwelling-place of the Divine, and dwell there.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Iniquities prevail Hebrew, words or matters of iniquities have prevailed. They have been too strong. Psa 38:4; Psa 40:12. The preterit of the verb refers to sins, or matters of public wrong, the consequences of which they had not been able to endure nor their guilt atone, till now God had interfered and directed the atonement, and delivered them.
Against me The sudden transition from the third to the first person singular is a poetic freedom often used, the psalmist representing the people.
Purge them , ( kaphar,) atone, expiate, cover. The standing word in the Old Testament for the expiatory act.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 65:3. Iniquities prevail, &c. Our iniquities prevail against us; but thou art he who blottest out our transgressions. This was an encouragement for all men to address their prayers to God, who was so ready to hear them. Green and Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 602
CONSOLATION IN GOD
Psa 65:3. Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
FROM reading the experience of the saints, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, we derive not only comfort and encouragement, but the most refined instruction that can be conveyed to the mind of man. As in light there is a combination of widely different rays, and it is that combination, together with their simultaneous action, which gives to light its peculiar sweetness; so it is a combination of widely different views and feelings that gives to the Christian his divinely-tempered experience in the things of God. In the passage before us, we behold the man after Gods own heart bewailing his sinfulness, yet not discouraged; and sweetly comforted in his soul, without any abatement of his contrition. It is this mixture of feeling which so greatly elevates the Christian character. His graces, by means of it, shine with a subdued lustre; and being thus tempered, they are pleasing to the eyes both of God and man [Note: Ecc 11:7.]. Let us notice,
I.
His complaint
What are we to understand by this expression, Iniquities prevail against me?
[It cannot be meant that he indulged in sin of any kind; for one who is born of God doth not commit sin; nor indeed can he commit sin (willingly and habitually), because he is born of God. Whoso committeth sin in this way, is of the devil [Note: 1Jn 3:8-9.]. Indeed the very terms here used suppose a conflict. David hated and resisted sin in the daily habit of his mind: but he had within him a principle of evil as well as of good; the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that he could not do the things that he would [Note: Gal 5:17.]. He was in the same predicament with the Apostle Paul; who, though he delighted in the Law of God after the inward man, found a law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members. And under a painful sense of his infirmities he cried, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death, which I am constrained thus to drag along with me, as a putrid carcase, even to my dying hour [Note: Rom 7:22-24. Alluding to a punishment which some tyrants have inflicted on the objects of their displeasure.]? We understand, therefore, David as saying precisely what St. Paul also says: To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not: for the good that I would, I do not; and the evil which I would not, that I do [Note: Rom 7:18-19.].]
And who is there amongst us that has not reason to adopt this language in reference to his own soul?
[If we look at the workings of actual corruption, we shall all find occasion to confess, Iniquities prevail against me. All, it is true, are not guilty of gross sin: but who is free from indwelling corruption? Who can say, I have made my heart clean [Note: Pro 20:9.]? There is an abundance both of spiritual and fleshly filthiness in every child of man [Note: 2Co 7:1.]: the most eminent saint on earth is renewed but in part [Note: 1Co 13:9-10.]: it is in heaven alone that absolute perfection exists. He can know but little of himself who does not see occasion to mourn over many evil thoughts, and many corrupt propensities. Not to mention those which pertain to man in common with the beast, let us take a view of the workings of our hearts in relation to pride, envy, malice, and revenge: let us call to mind the motions of anger, fretfulness, impatience, of which our consciences must convict us: let us trace the influence of uncharitableness towards those who stand in competition with us, or have made themselves in any way obnoxious to our displeasure. We may soon discover how far any of us are from being perfect, and what need we all have to cry, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified [Note: Psa 143:2.].
But let us look at our short-comings and defects, and then we shall find no difficulty in adopting the complaint of David in our text. The true way to discover our real state before God, is to take his holy Law as the standard whereby to try our habits and attainments. How far are any of us from loving God with all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul, and all our strength; and our neighbour as ourselves! Only let us notice the frame of our souls through the day, yea even in the exercises of devotion, and we shall have no need for any one to tell us how far we are still alienated from God, and how little we have attained of habitual communion with him. And though we may, on the whole, be kind towards our neighbour, let us only be brought by any circumstances into actual collision with him, and we shall discover to others at least, if not discern in ourselves, how very far short of the divine standard our love to him is, and how unlike we are to Christ, who laid down his life for his enemies. Let us go on to examine the state of our souls in reference to our blessed Lord and Saviour, who died for us. What admiring and adoring thoughts of him should we entertain from day to day, from hour to hour! What floods of tears should run down our cheeks from a sense of love and gratitude to him for all the wonders of his love; and what an influence should they produce on the whole of our life and conversation.
I need go no further to confirm the truth which I am inculcating, namely, that iniquities do indeed prevail against us to a fearful extent; and that all of us have need to walk softly before God in the remembrance of them [Note: Isa 38:15.].]
But, if we partake of Davids sorrows, we may also be partakers of,
II.
His consolation
As the Apostle, after his lamentation, found comfort in Christ, so David also found consolation in God through Christ. He derives comfort,
1.
From the free grace and mercy of God
[It is evident that he regards God as a gracious and merciful Being, who would not be extreme to mark what was done amiss [Note: Psa 130:3.] but would in judgment remember mercy. And this ground of hope is open to us all: for mercy is the darling attribute of the Deity, if I may so speak, the attribute in which he delights [Note: Mic 7:18.]; whilst judgment is that strange work to which he is utterly averse [Note: Isa 28:21.]. See the description which Jehovah gives of his own character: I am the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin [Note: Exo 34:6-7.]. See also his marvellous displays of this attribute towards the children of men: to what an extent it could reach [Note: 2Ch 33:19.], and with what rapidity it could fly to the discharge of its delightful office [Note: 2Sa 12:13.]. Hear the language in which God reasons with sinners: (O, blessed reasoning! I pray God it may convince us all, and not leave so much as a shadow of doubt upon our minds!) Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool [Note: Isa 1:18.]. Yes, Brethren, however discouraging your inward conflicts may be, ye may well encourage yourselves in the Lord your God [Note: 1Sa 30:6.].]
2.
From the sufficiency of the means ordained by God
[God had appointed sacrifices as an atonement for sin: and, though they could never take away sin, or make a man perfect as pertaining to the conscience [Note: Heb 9:9; Heb 9:14; Heb 10:4; Heb 10:14.], they directed the offerers to that one great sacrifice which was in due time to be offered on the cross, and which was a sufficient propitiation for the sins of the whole world [Note: 1Jn 2:2.]. And, in the view of that sacrifice, David, with all his enormous guilt upon him, could say, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow [Note: Psa 51:7.]. Who then amongst us shall despair of mercy, if only we seek it in the Saviours name? Indeed it is not mercy only, but justice also, that shall plead for us, if we approach our God in the name of Christ: for we are told that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [Note: 1Jn 1:9.]. Here, then, let the drooping sinner take courage; and to his complaints, that iniquities prevail against him, add the consolatory truth, As for my transgressions, O Lord, thou shalt purge them away. Thou hast opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness [Note: Zec 13:1.]; and I believe that it shall be sufficient even for me; and that the blood of Jesus Christ, thy Son, shall cleanse me from all sin [Note: 1Jn 1:7.].]
To all of you, then, I would SAY,
1.
Acquaint yourselves with your own ways, that you may be truly humbled
[There can be no humility without self-knowledge: nor must any one be satisfied with an examination of his outward conduct: (that, like St. Pauls in his unconverted state, may be blameless [Note: Php 3:6.]). We must search our hearts, if we would know ourselves aright; yea, and beg of God also to search and try us, if we would attain that kind of self-knowledge which alone will be sufficient to humble our proud spirits [Note: Psa 139:23-24.]. Mark, then, I pray you, your thoughts, your desires, your motives, your principles, and the entire habit of your minds before God. Mark all your tempers under the various circumstances that arise from day to day: and compare yourselves with the requirements of the Law, and with that great exemplar, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this, and you will find no temptation to pride yourselves on your attainments, or to exalt yourselves above your less favoured brethren. You will find your place, where the Apostle found his, amongst the chief of sinners, and will vie with him in magnifying and adoring the grace of God ]
2.
Acquaint yourselves with God, that you may be at peace
[This was the advice which Eliphaz gave to Job [Note: Job 22:21.], and which I would give to every one of you. It is self-knowledge which alone can humble us: but it is the knowledge of God alone that can afford us any comfort. Indeed, the more we know of our indwelling corruptions, the more shall we despair, if we do not proportionably grow in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. But if we bear in mind what we have already stated respecting the character of God, and the sufficiency of that sacrifice which Christ has offered for us, we shall attain that precise frame of mind, that just admixture of hope and fear, of joy and sorrow, of confidence and abasement, which constitutes the perfection of Christian experience, and leads to the highest possible attainments in the divine life. Go then, every one of you, my Brethren, to God in Christ Jesus. Carry nothing with you but your sins. Think not of purging them away by any thing that you yourselves can do; but cast yourselves upon the mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and expect from him the mercy which you need for the pardon of your sins, and the grace which you need for the maintenance of your future conflicts. Only go with Paul, crying, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? and you shall be enabled to add with him, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord [Note: Rom 7:25.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Here we arrive at the chief subject of this praise, which waited for God in Christ’s church at Zion, namely, redemption by Christ’s blood. For what shall purge or wash away iniquities, but the blood of the Lamb? Reader! do not fail to remark the blessedness here expressed, that when iniquities prevail, when sin cries for vengeance, the blood of the Lamb cries for mercy. Oh Lord! let praise forever wait in Zion for thee, thou sin-pardoning God, who hast cast away the sins of thy redeemed in the depths of the sea! Well may we cry out under the sense of it, Who is a God like unto thee? Mic 7:18-19 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 65:3 Iniquities prevail against me: [as for] our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
Ver. 3. Iniquities prevail against me ] And seek to choke my prayers; they prick me in the foot, as it were, that I cannot come to thee in prayer; or not with that confidence; but that is more than needs, since
As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
SIN OVERCOMING AND OVERCOME
Psa 65:3
There is an intended contrast in these two clauses more pointed and emphatic in the original than in our Bible, between man’s impotence and God’s power in the face of the fact of sin. The words of the first clause might be translated, with perhaps a little increase of vividness, ‘iniquities are too strong for me’; and the ‘Thou’ of the next clause is emphatically expressed in the original, ‘as for our transgressions’ which we cannot touch, ‘ Thou shalt purge them away.’ Despair of self is the mother of confidence in God; and no man has learned the blessedness and the sweetness of God’s power to cleanse, who has not learned the impotence of his own feeble attempts to overcome his transgression. The very heart of Christianity is redemption. There are a great many ways of looking at Christ’s mission and Christ’s work, but I venture to say that they are all inadequate unless they start with this as the fundamental thought, and that only he who has learned by serious reflection and bitter personal experience the gravity and the hopelessness of the fact of the bondage of sin, rightly understands the meaning and the brightness of the Gospel of Christ. The angel voice that told us His name, and based His name upon His characteristic work, went deeper into the ‘philosophy’ of Christianity than many a modern thinker, when it said, ‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sins.’ So here we have the hopelessness and misery of man’s vain struggles, and side by side with these the joyful confidence in the divine victory. We have the problem and the solution, the barrier and the overleaping of it; man’s impotence and the omnipotence of God’s mercy. My iniquities are too strong for me, but Thou art too strong for them. As for our transgressions, of which I cannot purge the stain, with all my tears and with all my work, ‘Thou shalt purge them away.’ Note, then, these two-first, the cry of despair; second, the ringing note of confidence.
I. The cry of despair.
The picture suggested by the words is that of some usurping power that has mastered a man, and laid its grip upon him so that all efforts to get away from the grasp are hopeless. Now, I dare say, that some of you are half consciously thinking that this is a piece of ordinary pulpit exaggeration, and has no kind of application to the respectable and decent lives that most of you live, and that you are ready to say, with as much promptitude and as much falsehood as the old Jews did, even whilst the Roman eagles, lifted above the walls of the castle, were giving them the lie: ‘We were never in bondage to any man.’ You do not know or feel that anything has got hold of you which is stronger than you. Well, let us see.
Consider for a moment. You are powerless to master your evil, considered as habits. You do not know the tyranny of the usurper until a rebellion is got up against him. As long as you are gliding with the stream you have no notion of its force. Turn your boat and try to pull against it, and when the sweat-drops come on your brow, and you are sliding backwards, in spite of all your effort, you will begin to find out what a tremendous down-sucking energy there is in that quiet, silent flow. So the ready compliance of the worst part of my nature masks for me the tremendous force with which my evil tyrannises over me, and it is only when I face round and try to go the other way, that I find out what a power there is in its invisible grasp.
Did you ever try to cure some trivial bad habit, some trick of your fingers, for instance? You know what infinite pains and patience and time it took you to do that, and do you think that you would find it easier if you once set yourself to cure that lust, say, or that petulance, pride, passion, dishonesty, or whatsoever form of selfish living in forgetfulness of God may be your besetting sin? If you will try to pull the poison fang up, you will find how deep its roots are. It is like the yellow charlock in a field, which seems only to spread in consequence of attempts to get rid of it-as the rough rhyme says; ‘One year’s seeding, seven years’ weeding’-and more at the end of the time than at the beginning. Any honest attempt at mending character drives a man to this-’My iniquities are too strong for me.’
I do not for a moment deny that there may be, and occasionally is, a magnificent force of will and persistency of purpose in efforts at self-improvement on the part of perfectly irreligious men. But, if by the occasional success of such effort, a man conquers one form of evil, that does not deliver him from evil. You have the usurping dominion deep in your nature, and what does it matter in essence which part of your being is most conspicuously under its control? It may be some animal passion, and you may conquer that. A man, for instance, when he is young, lives in the sphere of sensuous excitement; and when he gets old he turns a miser, and laughs at the pleasures that he used to get from the flesh, and thinks himself ever so much wiser. Is he any better? He has changed, so to speak, the kind of sin. That is all. The devil has put a new viceroy in authority, but it is the old government, though with fresh officials. The house which is cleared of the seven devils without getting into it the all-filling and sanctifying grace of God and love of Jesus Christ will stand empty. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does Satan, and the empty house invites the seven ill-tenants, and back they come in their diabolical completeness.
So, dear friends! though you may do a great deal-thank God!-in subduing evil habits and inclinations, you cannot touch, so as to master, the central fact of sin unless you get God to help you to do it, and you have to go down on your knees before you can do that work. ‘Iniquities are too strong for me.’
Then, again, consider our utter impotence in dealing with our own evil regarded as guilt. When we do wrong, the judge within, which we call conscience, says to us two things, or perhaps three. It says first, ‘That is wrong’; it says secondly, ‘You have got to answer for it’; and I think it says thirdly, ‘And you will be punished for it.’ That is to say, there is a sense of demerit that goes side by side with our evil, as certainly as the shadow travels with the substance. And though, sometimes, when the sun goes behind a cloud, there is no shadow, and sometimes, when the light within us is darkened, conscience does not cast the black shade of demerit across the mind; yet conscience is there, though silent. When it does speak it says, ‘You have done wrong, and you are answerable.’ Answerable to whom? To it? No! To society? No! To law? No! You can only be answerable to a person, and that is God. Against Him we have sinned. We do wrong; and if wrong were all that we had to charge ourselves with, it would be because there was nothing but law that we were answerable to. We do unkind things, and if unkindness and inhumanity were all that we had to charge ourselves with, it would be because we were only answerable to one another. We do suicidal things, and if self-inflicted injury were all our definition of evil, it would be because we were only answerable to our conscience and ourselves. But we sin , and that means that every wrong thing, big or little, which we do, whether we think about God in the doing of it or no, is, in its deepest essence, an offence against Him.
The judgment of conscience carries with it the solemn looking for of future judgment. It says, ‘I am only a herald: He is coming.’ No man feels the burden of guilt without an anticipation of judgment. What are you going to do with these two feelings? Do you think that you can deal with them? It is no use saying, ‘I am not responsible for what I did; I inherited such-and-such tendencies; circumstances are so-and-so. I could not help it; environment, and evolution, and all the rest of it diminish, if they do not destroy, responsibility.’ Be it so! And yet, after all, this is left-the certainty in my own convictions that I had the power to do or not to do. That is a fundamental part of a man’s consciousness. If it is a delusion, what is to be trusted, and how can we be sure of anything? So that we are responsible for our action, and can no more elude the guilt that follows sin than we can jump off our own shadow. And I want you to consider what you are going to do about your guilt.
One thing you cannot do-you cannot remove it. Men have tried to do so by sacrifices, and false religions. They have swung in the air by means of hooks fastened into their bodies, and I do not know what besides, and they have not managed it. You can no more get rid of your guilt by being sorry for your sin than you could bring a dead man to life again by being sorry for his murder. What is done is done. ‘What I have written I have written!’ Nothing will ever ‘wash that little lily hand white again,’ as the magnificent murderess in Shakespeare’s great creation found out. You can forget your guilt; you can ignore it. You can adopt some of the easily-learned-by-rote and fashionable theories that will enable you to minimise it, and to laugh at us old-fashioned believers in guilt and punishment. You do not take away the rock because you blow out the lamps of the lighthouse, and you do not alter an ugly fact by ignoring it. I beseech you, as reasonable men and women, to open your eyes to these plain facts about yourselves, that you have an element of demerit and of liability to consequent evil and suffering which you are perfectly powerless to touch or to lighten in the slightest degree.
Consider, again, our utter impotence in regard to our evil, looked upon as a barrier between us and God. That is the force of the context here. The Psalmist has just been saying, ‘O Thou that hearest prayer! unto Thee shall all flesh come.’ And then he bethinks himself how flesh compassed with infirmities can come. And he staggers back bewildered. There can be no question but that the plain dictate of common sense is, ‘We know that God heareth not sinners.’ My evil not only lies like a great black weight of guilt and of habit on my consciousness and on my activity, but it actually stands like a frowning cliff, barring my path and making a barrier between me and God. ‘Your hands are full of blood; I hate your vain oblations,’ says the solemn Voice through the prophet. And this stands for ever true-’The prayer of the wicked is an abomination.’ There frowns the barrier. Thank God! mercies come through it, howsoever close-knit and impenetrable it may seem. Thank God! no sin can shut Him out from us, but it can shut us out from Him. And though we cannot separate God from ourselves, and He is nearer us than our consciousness and the very basis of our being, yet by a mysterious power we can separate ourselves from Him. We may build up, of the black blocks of our sins flung up from the inner fires, and cemented with the bituminous mortar of our lusts and passions, a black wall between us and our Father. You and I have done it. We can build it-we cannot throw it down; we can rear it-we cannot tunnel it. Our iniquities are too strong for us.
Now notice that this great cry of despair in my text is the cry of a single soul. This is the only place in the psalm in which the singular person is used. ‘Iniquities are too strong for us,’ is not sufficient. Each man must take guilt to himself. The recognition and confession of evil must be an intensely personal and individual act. My question to you, dear friend! is, Did you ever know it by experience? Going apart by yourself, away from everybody else, with no companions or confederates to lighten the load of your felt evil, forgetting tempters and associates and all other people, did you ever stand, you and God, face to face, with nobody to listen to the conference? And did you ever feel in that awful presence that whether the world was full of men, or deserted and you the only survivor, would make no difference to the personal responsibility and weight and guilt of your individual sin? Have you ever felt, ‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I’-solitary- ‘sinned,’ and confessed that iniquities are ‘too strong for me’?
II. Now, let me say a word or two about the second clause of this great verse, the ringing cry of confident hope.
Then, do not forget that what was confidence on the Psalmist’s part is knowledge on ours. ‘As for our transgressions, Thou wilt purge them away.’ You and I know why, and know how. Jesus Christ in His great work for us has vindicated the Psalmist’s confidence, and has laid bare for the world’s faith the grounds upon which that divine power proceeds in its cleansing mercy. ‘Thou wilt purge them away,’ said he. ‘Christ hath borne our sins in His own body on the tree,’ says the New Testament. I have spoken about our impotence in regard to our own evil, considered under three aspects. I meant to have said more about Christ’s work upon our sins, considered under the same three aspects. But let me just, very briefly, touch upon them.
Jesus Christ, when trusted, will do for sin, as habit, what cannot be done without Him. He will give the motive to resist, which is lacking in the majority of cases. He will give the power to resist, which is lacking in all cases. He will put a new life and spirit into our nature which will strengthen and transform our feeble wills, will elevate and glorify our earthward trailing affections, will make us love that which He loves, and aspire to that which He is, until we become, in the change from glory to glory, reflections of the image of the Lord. As habit and as dominant power within us, nothing will cast out the evil that we have entertained in our hearts except the power of the life of Christ Jesus, in His Spirit dwelling within us and making us clean. When ‘a strong man keeps his house, his goods are in peace, but when a stronger than he cometh he taketh from him all his implements in which he trusteth, and divideth his spoil.’ And so Christ has bound the strong man, in that one great sacrifice on the Cross. And now He comes to each of us, if we will trust Him, and gives motives, power, pattern, hopes, which enable us to cast out the tyrant that has held dominion over us. ‘If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’
And I tell all of you, especially you young men and women, who presumably have noble aspirations and desires, that the only way to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil, is to let Christ clothe you with His armour; and let Him lay His hand on your feeble hands whilst you aim the arrows and draw the bow, as the prophet did in the old story, and then you will shoot, and not miss. Christ, and Christ alone, within us will make us powerful to cast out the evil.
In like manner, He, and He only, deals with sin, considered as guilt. Here is the living secret and centre of all Christ’s preciousness and power-that He died on the Cross; and in His spirit, which knew the drear desolation of being forsaken by God, and in His flesh, which bore the outward consequences of sin, in death as a sinful world knows it, ‘bare our sins and carried our sorrows,’ so that ‘by His stripes we are healed.’
If you will trust yourselves to the mighty Sacrifice, and with no reservation, as if you could do anything, will cast your whole weight and burden upon Him, then the guilt will pass away, and the power of sin will be broken. Transgressions will be buried-’covered,’ as the original of my text has it-as with a great mound piled upon them, so that they shall never offend or smell rank to heaven any more, but be lost to sight for ever.
Christ can take away the barrier reared by sin between God and the human spirit. Solid and black as it stands, His blood dropped upon it melts away. Then it disappears like the black bastions of the aerial structures in the clouds before the sunshine. He hath opened for us a new and living way, that we might ‘have access and confidence,’ and, sinners as we are, that we might dwell for ever more at the side of our Lord.
So, dear brother! whilst humanity cries-and I pray that all of us may cry like the Apostle, ‘Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’-Faith lifts up, swift and clear, her ringing note of triumph, which I pray God or rather, which I beseech you that you will make your own, ‘I thank God! I through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Iniquities = iniquitous words. Hebrew. ‘avah. App-44.
transgressions. Hebrew. pasha’. App-44.
purge them away = cover them by atonement.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Iniquities: Heb. Words, or Matters, of Iniquities
prevail: Psa 38:4, Psa 40:12, 2Sa 12:7-13, Mic 7:8, Mic 7:9, Rom 7:23-25, Gal 5:17
transgressions: Psa 51:2, Psa 51:3, Psa 51:7, Psa 79:9, Isa 1:18, Isa 1:19, Isa 6:7, Zec 13:1, Joh 1:29, Heb 9:14, 1Jo 1:7-9, Rev 1:5
Reciprocal: Psa 19:12 – cleanse Psa 39:8 – Deliver Jer 33:8 – General Jer 42:20 – For ye Mic 7:18 – that Rom 7:15 – what Rom 7:21 – evil Heb 8:12 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
65:3 Iniquities {c} prevail against me: [as for] our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
(c) He imputes it to his sins and to the sins of the people that God who was accustomed to afflict them withdraws his help from them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
A great national sin seems to have been the psalmist’s concern, and he was grateful for the Lord’s forgiveness (cf. Rom 5:1). Those whom God forgives can approach Him and experience His blessing-even in His earthly habitation (cf. Rom 5:2; 2Co 9:8). The Hebrew word hekal (temple) is a synonym for tabernacle. It means a magnificent house and does not describe Solomon’s temple necessarily (cf. Psa 5:7).