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There are several prominent marks by which this Psalm is coupled with the preceding (vid., Symbolae §52). In both Psalms, with the word אמרתּי, the psalmist looks back upon some fact of his spiritual life; and both close with an exhortation to the godly, which stands in the relation of a general inference to the whole Psalm. But in other respects the two Psalms differ. For Ps 31 is a prayer under circumstances of outward distress, and Psa 32:1-11 is a didactic Psalm, concerning the way of penitence which leads to the forgiveness of sins; it is the second of the seven Psalmi paenitentiales of the church, and Augustine's favourite Psalm. We might take Augustine's words as its motto: intelligentia prima est ut te noris peccatorem. The poet bases it upon his own personal experience, and then applies the general teaching which he deduces from it, to each individual in the church of God. For a whole year after his adultery David was like one under sentence of condemnation. In the midst of this fearful anguish of soul he composed Ps 51, whereas Psa 32:1-11 was composed after his deliverance from this state of mind. The former was written in the very midst of the penitential struggle; the latter after he had recovered his inward peace. The theme of this Psalm is the precious treasure which he brought up out of that abyss of spiritual distress, viz., the doctrine of the blessedness of forgiveness, the sincere and unreserved confession of sin as the way to it, and the protection of God in every danger, together with joy in God, as its fruits.
In the signification psalmus didascalicus s. informatorius (Reuchlin: ut si liceret dicere intellectificum vel resipiscentificum), משׂכּי would after all be as appropriate a designation as we could have for this Psalm which teachers the way of salvation. This meaning, however, cannot be sustained. It is improbable that משׂכּיל, which, in all other instances,