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Psalms 31:1

To David himself, understanding. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Ipsi David intellectus. Beati quorum remissæ sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt peccata.
Septuagint (Swete): Συνέσεως τῷ Δαυείδ. Μακάριοι ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι, καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι.
Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 32:1: לְדָוִ֗ד מַ֫שְׂכִּ֥יל אַשְׁרֵ֥י נְֽשׂוּי פֶּ֗שַׁע כְּס֣וּי חֲטָאָֽה

Haydock's commentary

Understanding; (Protestants mascil.; Haydock) shewing how he was brought to acknowledge his fault, and by penance to obtain pardon, (Worthington) justly giving the glory to God's grace. (St. Augustine)

Alexandrian Septuagint, ["A psalm] to David," of understanding; which is taken from some other copy. (Haydock)

Some suppose this word has been inserted from ver 8. (Abenezra)

But there are several other psalms which have this title, (Haydock) intimating either that they contain great mysteries, (Eusebius) or that they are easy to understand. (Agellius)

This is wholly of a moral nature. The Jews style it the heart of David, because it displays his sentiments of contrition. (Calmet)

He composed it most probably after Nathan had engaged him to confess his fault. [2 Kings xii.] (Bellarmine)

It might be used on the solemn feast of expiation. (Grotius, Numbers xxix. 7.)

The Fathers explain it of the grace which we receive in baptism and in penance. (St. Augustine; St. Gregory, &c.) (Calmet)

Are they. Hebrew, "The blessings of him whose iniquity." (Pagnin)

But the sense is the same, and St. Paul follows the Septuagint, which gives their version the highest authority, Romans iv. 7.

Sins; or, "who is screened from the punishment of sin." (Prin. disc.) Sin has often this signification; and the psalmist would otherwise seem to say less than he had already expressed. (Berthier)

Covered, by charity, (1 Peter iv.) as a physician covers a wound, to remove it entirely; and we must cover our former transgressions, by doing good works. (St. Gregory)

Read on

Then our sins will not appear at the day of judgment, (St. Jerome) nor be punished, as they are wholly destroyed. The Pelagians calumniated Catholics, as if they taught that sins were only shaven, as it were, the roots still remaining; which St. Augustine (contra 2 ep. Pelag. i. 13.) says, "None affirmeth but an infidel." Thus the doctrine of Calvin is condemned; who abuses these texts to prove that sins are only covered, and still remain even in the most just; which is contrary to innumerable passages of Scripture, (Isaias vi., John i., 1 Corinthians vi., &c.) and injurious to the perfections of God, and to the redemption of Christ, as well as to the saints in heaven, who are thus represented as still infected with all their sins. (Worthington)

This doctrine is now almost abandoned by Protestants, as it is contrary both to sound philosophy and divinity: for sin is nothing physical, but a want of moral rectitude. (Berthier)

God cannot fail to punish sin, wherever it really subsists. His spirit is surely free from guile. He cannot suppose that we are just by imputation of Christ's justice, unless we be really so. (Haydock)

By means of the sacraments the sinner becomes just, and God sees nothing in him deserving of punishment. (Calmet)

"If any one wishes his sins to be covered, let him manifest them to God, by the voice of confession." (St. Gregory)

But, replies a Lutheran commentator, "God does not forget sin." What is this to the purpose, as long as the sin does not subsist in the offender? He allows that "the pardon of sin is inseparable from sanctification." Renew a right spirit within my bowels, Psalm l. 12. (Berthier)

The man who has felt real compunction, will be able to form a true notion of the happiness of a reconciliation. (Calmet)

Covering may allude to the custom of writing on wax, which might easily be effaced. Our sins are recorded in the book of God's justice. (Menochius)

Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

St Clement of Rome First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter L. Let us pray to be thought

Ye see, beloved, how great and wonderful a thing is love, and that there is no declaring its perfection. Who is fit to be found in it, except such as God has vouchsafed to render so? Let us pray, therefore, and implore of His mercy, that we may live blameless in love, free from all human partialities for one above another. All the generations from Adam even unto this day have passed away; but those who, through the grace of God, have been made perfect in love, now possess a place among the godly, and shall be made manifest at the revelation of the kingdom of Christ. For it is written, “Enter into thy secret chambers for a little time, until my wrath and fury pass away; and I will remember a propitious day, and will raise you up out of your graves.” Blessed are we, beloved, if we keep the commandments of God in the harmony of love; that so through love our sins may be forgiven us. …

St Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book V, Chapter XVII. There is but one Lord

3. Therefore, by remitting sins, He did indeed heal man, while He also manifested Himself who He was. For if no one can forgive sins but God alone, while the Lord remitted them and healed men, it is plain that He was Himself the Word of God made the Son of man, receiving from the Father the power of remission of sins; since He was man, and since He was God, in order that since as man He suffered for us, so as God He might have compassion on us, and forgive us our debts, in which we were made debtors to God our Creator. And therefore David said beforehand, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. …

Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XV. On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding

Mistake is a sin contrary to calculation; and voluntary sin is crime ( ἀδικία ); and crime is voluntary wickedness. Sin, then, is on my part voluntary. Wherefore says the apostle, “Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Addressing those who have believed, he says, “For by His stripes we were healed.” Mistake is the involuntary action of another towards me, while a crime ( ἀδικία ) alone is voluntary, whether my act or another’s. These differences of sins are alluded to by the Psalmist, when he calls those blessed whose iniquities ( ἀνομίας ) God hath blotted out, and whose sins ( ἁμαρτίας ) He hath covered. Others He does not impute, and the rest He forgives. For it is written, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. …

Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus

“It was meet that we should be glad, and rejoice; for thy brother was dead, and is alive again.” Kind Father, who givest all things life, and raisest the dead. “And was lost, and is found.” And “blessed is the man whom Thou hast chosen and accepted,” and whom having sought, Thou dost find. “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” It is for man to repent of sins; but let this be accompanied with a change that will not be checked. For he who does not act so shall be put to shame, because he has acted not with his whole heart, but in haste.

St Clement of Rome The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapter L

St Augustine Book X, Chapter III

4. But yet do Thou, my most secret Physician, make clear to me what fruit I may reap by doing it. For the confessions of my past sins, which Thou hast “forgiven” and “covered,” that Thou mightest make me happy in Thee, changing my soul by faith and Thy sacrament, when they are read and heard, stir up the heart, that it sleep not in despair and say, “I cannot;” but that it may awake in the love of Thy mercy and the sweetness of Thy grace, by which he that is weak is strong, if by it he is made conscious of his own weakness. As for the good, they take delight in hearing of the past errors of such as are now freed from them; and they delight, not because they are errors, but because they have been and are so no longer. …

St Augustine City of God, Of David’s Reign and Merit; And of His Son Solomon, and that Prophecy Relating to Christ Which is Found Either in Those Books Which are Joined to Those Written by Him, or in Those Which are Indubitably His

David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, a son of the heavenly Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testimony; for even his faults are overcome by great piety, through the most salutary humility of his repentance, that he is altogether one of those of whom he himself says, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” After him Solomon his son reigned over the same whole people, who, as was said before, began to reign while his father was still alive. This man, after good beginnings, made a bad end. For indeed “prosperity, which wears out the minds of the wise,” hurt him more than that wisdom profited him, which even yet is and shall hereafter be renowned, and was then praised far and wide. He also is found to have prophesied in his books, of which three are received as of canonical authority, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. …

St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXII

2. “Blessed are they whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sins are covered” ( ver. 1 ): and whose sins are buried in oblivion. “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, nor is there guile in his mouth” ( ver. 2 ): nor has he in his mouth boastings of righteousness, when his conscience is full of sins.

St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XI on Rom. vi. 5

Let us then continue living this life; for many of those who seem to breathe and to walk about are in a more wretched plight than the dead. For there are different kinds of deadness; and one there is of the body, according to which Abraham was dead, and still was not dead. For “God,” He says, “is not a God of the dead, but of the living.” ( Matt. xxii. 32 .) Another is of the soul which Christ alludes to when He says, “Let the dead bury their dead.” ( ib. viii. 22 .) Another, which is even the subject of praise, which is brought about by religion ( φιλοσοφίας ), of which Paul saith, “Mortify your members which are upon the earth.” ( Col. iii. 5 .) Another, which is the cause even of this, the one which takes place in baptism. “For our old man,” he says, “has been crucified” ( ver. 6 ), that is, has been deadened. …

St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 3.6

Observe how He nowhere accuses the man of wickedness, but only of weakness and simplicity. “And what,” one may ask, “has this birth in common with Jewish matters?” Tell me rather what has it that is not in common with them? For the first-created man, and the woman formed from his side, and the barren women, and the things accomplished by water, I mean what relates to the fountain on which Elisha made the iron tool to swim, to the Red Sea which the Jews passed over, to the pool which the Angel troubled, to Naaman the Syrian who was cleansed in Jordan, all these proclaimed beforehand, as by a figure, the Birth and the purification which were to be. And the words of the Prophet allude to the manner of this Birth, as, “It shall be announced unto the Lord a generation which cometh, and they shall announce His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, whom the Lord hath made” ( Ps. …

St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Oceanus

7. How then can you say that all sins are drowned in the baptismal laver if a man’s wife is still to swim on the surface as evidence against him? The psalmist says: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” It would seem that we must add something to this song and say “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not a wife.” Let us hear also the declaration which Ezekiel the so called “son of man” makes concerning the virtue of him who is to be the true son of man, the Christian: “I will take you,” he says, “from among the heathen…then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness…a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit.” “From all your filthiness” he says, “will I cleanse you.” If all is taken away nothing can be left. …

St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Ctesiphon

9. But you will demur to this and say that I follow the teaching of the Manichæans and others who make war against the church’s doctrine in the interest of their belief that there are two natures diverse from one another and that there is an evil nature which can in no wise be changed. But it is not against me that you must make this imputation but against the apostle who knows well that God is one thing and man another, that the flesh is weak and the spirit strong. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” But from me you will never hear that any nature is essentially evil. Let us learn then from him who tells us so in what sense the flesh is weak. …

3 more passages of the Fathers cite this verse. The Motif Searcher in the palace lists them all.

The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).