And the experience of silence issued in the experience of sorrow, the third strand through the psalm. The sorrow is described in figurative language and mainly by inference. In verse 6 we read of 'floods of great waters', in verse 7 of God as a hiding place, preserving from trouble, and compassing about with songs of deliverance. If you draw the inferences from these, you discover what this man was like before he found the blessings that God gave along with forgiveness. Floods of water, sweeping storms, torrid circumstances, chains of bondage, every one of them an occasion of sorrow.
Sin inevitably brings sorrow with it.
All of these are intimately related, one issues from the other. But all are woven into this psalm so that over against them the psalmist can place the amazing grace of God that transformed and changed these circumstances. He is talking of his sin and his silence and his sorrow in order to demonstrate the truth that God forgives sin and that God blesses in forgiving. If this man knew sin, and he did, he had come to know the most important thing that a sinner can know - he had come to know the pardon of God. If this man knew silence and if his mouth had been closed in the presence of God, he also knew what it was to be instructed by God and given songs of deliverance. if this man knew sorrow, then the final verse tells us that he was given an experience of God that brought gladness and rejoicing.