John Calvin Commentary Psalms 32:3

"When I kept silence, my bones wasted away Through my groaning all the day long." — Psalms 32:3 (ASV)

When I kept silence, my bones wasted away. Here David confirms by his own experience the doctrine he had set forth: namely, that when humbled under the hand of God, he felt that nothing was so miserable as to be deprived of his favor. Through this, he intimates that this truth cannot be rightly understood until God has tested us with a sense of his anger.

Nor does he speak of a mere ordinary trial, but declares that he was entirely subdued with utmost severity. And certainly, the sluggishness of our flesh in this matter is no less remarkable than its stubbornness. If we are not drawn by forceful means, we will never hasten to seek reconciliation with God as earnestly as we should.

In short, the inspired writer teaches us by his own example that we never perceive how great a happiness it is to enjoy the favor of God until we have thoroughly felt, through grievous conflicts with inward temptations, how terrible the anger of God is. He adds that whether he was silent or attempted to heighten his grief by crying and roaring, his bones grew old; in other words, his whole strength withered away.

From this it follows that wherever the sinner may turn, or however he may be mentally affected, his affliction is in no way lightened, nor his well-being advanced, until he is restored to the favor of God. It often happens that those are tortured with the sharpest grief who chafe inwardly, devouring their sorrow and keeping it enclosed and shut up within themselves, without revealing it. Afterwards, however, they may be seized as with sudden madness, and the force of their grief bursts forth with greater impetus the longer it has been restrained.

By the term silence, David means neither insensibility nor stupidity, but that feeling which lies between patience and obstinacy, and which is as much allied with vice as it is with virtue. For his bones were not consumed by age, but by the dreadful torments of his mind. His silence, however, was not the silence of hope or obedience, for it brought no alleviation of his misery.