Psalm 32 Bible study: Whose sin is covered

"Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (32:1). Covered is kasah (tap covered). Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the form used here as "covered in respect of sin (by God, which he thus puts out of sight)". Then the psalmist tells his own story. First, silence: "When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long" (32:3). Then: "I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity" (32:5). Here is what almost everyone misses. In Hebrew hide in 32:5 is kasah, the verb of covered in 32:1. The psalm opens by calling blessed the one whose sin is covered, and the psalmist says the turn came when he stopped covering his own: "I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin" (32:5). A proverb has the same verbs together: "He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). There conceals is kasah, confesses is yadah, the verb of Psalm 32:5's confess (tap confess), and sins is pesha, Psalm 32:1's disobedience. Leviticus 5's notes set Psalm 32:5 beside that proverb; these notes add the Hebrew they share.

Psalms 32:1→leads toRomans 5:1

The psalm opens, "Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn’t impute iniquity" (Psalm 32:1-2). Paul (Romans 1:1) quotes it: "Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works" (Romans 4:6), "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin" (Romans 4:7-8). The WEB words the psalm and Romans a little differently. Paul asks whom "this blessing" is for (Romans 4:9), and his argument goes on: what was written of Abraham was written "for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:24), and then, "Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). Romans doesn't say the psalm speaks of Jesus; it is Paul's argument that goes on from the psalm's blessing to peace with God through Jesus Christ.

כָּסָהkasahsay ka-SAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "cover", and for the form in 32:1, "covered in respect of sin (by God, which he thus puts out of sight)". Strong's: "by implication, to cover (for clothing or secrecy)". The psalm has it twice: "whose sin is covered" (32:1), and "I didn’t hide my iniquity" (32:5), where the WEB gives it as hide. The psalm calls blessed the one whose sin is covered, and the psalmist tells of when he stopped covering his own. A proverb has it the same way: "He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper" (Proverbs 28:13). And Psalm 85 has it beside 32:1's forgiven: "You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin" (Psalm 85:2).