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Psalm 32 Of David. A Maskil
The Psalm as we have it advertises itself as a Psalm of David. David, of all men, has something to share with us about the joy of reconciliation to God. We think of the course of David’s life, of his great sin, of his confession in Psalm 51, and now of his experience of forgiveness.
The gospel is for sinners, like David, like me, and like you.
One of the worlds great sinners was Augustine of Hippo, known to us as Saint Augustine. For years Augustine was caught up in a life of total debauchery. After coming to Christ he claimed Psalm 32 as his favorite Psalm. He read it often, and had its words inscribed by his deathbed.
Psalm 32 conveys a fundamental wisdom of life. In Augustine’s words, “the beginning of life is to know oneself to be a sinner.”
Psalm one starts out with the same word as Psalm 32 – blessed! Psalm One spoke of the blessed state of the man who delighted in the law of the Lord, who meditated upon it day and night. The very same man who delights in the law of the Lord is a sinner who sins against God. The law of the Lord tells him how to get back into fellowship with God.
The one who reads God’s book will be found seeking mercy at his throne.
Psalm 32 assumes something which may seem obvious, but which needs to be noted right up front. Human beings were created to know God and find their happiness in God. Sin and guilt create a gulf and chasm between God and man which must be dealt with if man is to realize the purpose of his existence. Psalm 32 expresses the joy of a man for whom the chasm has been bridged, and who once again knows his maker. There is no greater joy and happiness than this.
Like Psalm One Psalm 32 also starts out with the word blessed. The word blessed means happy. O the happiness of….Blessed or happy or is the sinner who knows the forgiveness of God. True happiness is found in being in close relationship with God, and this only happens as one seeks and receives the pardon and forgiveness of God.
(1) Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
(2) Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
As we look at the first two verses we see again how Hebrew poetry often operates. The same general idea is stated in three similar but slightly different ways.
The first three phrases use the three most common Hebrew words for sin.
The first word for sin, found in the very first phrase of verse one, is “transgression.” This word speaks of sin as rebellion, of declaration of independence from another. Sin is always personal, is always rebellion.
The second word for sin, found in the second phrase of verse one, is simply the general word “sin.” This word speaks of sin as missing the mark, of not being what we were called and made to be, of falling short of expectation, of being a big disappointment.
The third word for sin, found in the first phrase of verse two, is “iniquity,” but is simply translated as “sin” in the NIV. This word speaks of sin as perversion, as twistedness, as not being true to form.
Together these three words for sin signify the full range of human sin and rebellion against a personal God with whom we have to deal whether we want to or not.
But in these two verses there are also three words used to describe what God does about this sin.
The first phrase of verse one speaks of transgressions being “lifted” or “taken away” or “removed.” Here we think of our sins as being removed from God’s sight, so far removed that they are as in the deepest past of the sea. But as we look to the fulfillment of this Psalm in Christ, we know and understand where these sins are cast – onto Christ who bears our iniquity and suffers God’s wrath in our place.
The second phrase of verse one speaks of sins being “covered” or “hidden” or put “out of sight.” Here we think of God placing upon us the perfect righteousness of Jesus which he chooses to see. We wear the garments of Christ’s righteousness.
The first phrase of verse two speaks of iniquities “not being counted against” the man, or “not imputed” or “not charged to his account.” This idea gets at the heart of the meaning of justification. In declaring us acquitted or right with Him, God as judge chooses not to count our sins against us, not to credit them to our account. He does this by crediting to us Christ’s sinlessness, and crediting to Christ our sinfulness.
Together these three words represent the fullness and completeness of God’s forgiveness of the sinner in Christ. God in Christ has dealt completely with the problem of our sin. We can rest knowing that full pardon is possible in Christ, that full restoration to God is the result, and that this is the way to real happiness.
Blessed be the man!
Finally, the second phrase of verse two shows the way to receive this benefit is by honestly laying all the dirty baggage out before God. He can take it. We can’t hide anything so why try.
(3) When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
(4) For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah
Verses three and four reveal David’s experience before reaching the state of blessing described in verses one and two. David had sinned, but then had stubbornly refused to confess his sins and seek the mercy of God.
This is what rebels against God do. They avoid and hide and rationalize. Confession means saying to God, “You are my God. You have authority over me. You direct me in the way I should go, and not me.” Pride and stubbornness keep us from admitting to and confessing our sin before a holy God.
But there is a cost. This cost is outlined in verses three and four. These verses show David suffering under the weight of unconfessed sin and unresolved moral guilt.
We are created accountable to a holy God. This is part of the basic data of who we are. God establishes the norms by which we must live. We are accountable to Him for all of our thoughts words and deeds. Sin creates a break or block between us and God. It creates enmity or a lack of peace between two parties. It creates guilt – real moral guilt. Since we are created such that we are complete and whole only in relation to Him, sin and guilt affects us at many levels, physically and physiologically and emotionally and intellectually.
Our present culture we have done about everything imaginable to erase the reality of real moral guilt before a holy God. But its all smoke and mirrors. It doesn’t’ work, and people are left with no way to deal with their biggest problem.
David here speaks of his bones wasting away and his strength sapped. He is paralyzed. He groans under the weight of God’s judgment. But you know, David is lucky. His God who loves him is disciplining him, making him so miserable under the weight of divine displeasure and guilt, that eventually by God’s mercy he relents.
But why did he go so long? Why was he so stubborn? Likely he tried various ways to write off or rationalize his problem. He runs through all the common tricks. He’s not so bad in balance. Look at what other people do.
Many people are not so lucky as David. God gives them over to their rebellion. They are like little toddlers who sneak back to some corner of a bedroom to do the thing they are not supposed to. People think that because they decide not to look at God that he decides not to look at them. They are like children who cover their eyes and think that you can’t see them because they can’t see you. Though they carry the burden of guilt in various ways, it is passed off or drugged away or rationalized. But unresolved guilt shows itself in agitation, a sense of burden, resentment, anger, impatience. The unease or lack of peace follows them to their grave, after which they must face the certain judgment of God.
(5) Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"
-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
David’ stubbornness is like a dam creating a huge reservoir of guilt. He sinks further into misery until one day, by God’s grace, he finally faces his God with his sin.
The only way back to God is through facing Him and acknowledging our sin and guilt to Him. There must be spoken release. There is no other way. Finally David stops running and faces God with his sin. Finally he brings it into the open, as if it could be hid from God in the first place.
We see this process more intimately in Psalm 51.
And what happened? The Lord forgave the guilt of his sin. The damn breaks, the barrier is smashed, and finally there is reconciliation between David and God.
To know the blessing of intimate fellowship with a God who forgives iniquities is the way to happiness. After the fact, David is so relieved, so overjoyed, so happy to be home again, that he wants everyone else to know what he now knows so well.
(6) Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found;
surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.
David knows the blessing of God, he wants to share and extend that blessing. That is the way of faith. It is never selfish of its benefits. It wants everyone to share in it.
There is a time when God can be found – that is, if you are alive, right now. Today when you hear His voice do not harden your heart. Today is the day of salvation.
Tomorrow disaster may come. Your heart may stop. A ten ton SUV may swerve into your lane. Arteries in your brain my hemorrhage. But right now there you are, alive and kicking. Seek the Lord while he may be found. The blessing of forgiveness and cleansing is there for you. The Lord is ready to save. The Lord of heaven loves to save big sinners. Tomorrow may be too late!
The second half of the verse gives a picture of total disaster about to overcome a man. A storm, a flash flood, a man walking in what was just before a dry eddy now engulfed by raging waters, climbing up, trying to escape.
Do these waters represent the troubles of life, or do they represent death and the judgment of God.
The Hebrew is somewhat unclear, and we are not exactly sure what the second part of verse six means either. Specifically, what is the “they” and who is the “him.”
Is the verse saying that we better seek God while he may be found because there is a time when disaster overcomes us and it’s then too late, that after death our prayers will not reach to God?
That is true enough.
Or is it saying that if we seek God while he may be found, when the waters of death do sweep over us we will be secure and kept in His care?
Well, since either are theologically true enough, I’ll just go with both!
(7) You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
David calls us to seek God in prayer; now he leads us in prayer to God.
You, O God, you are my hiding place. David had been running from God. Now he is running to God. Before he had sought refuge from God. Now he seeks refuge in God.
When I was a child I had places I would go to be alone, to hide out. The stormier life got at home, the more I would go to my hiding place. There was quiet, peace, and the beauty of creation.
Guilt creates fear and dread. The man groaning under the weight of true moral guilt lives with his neck stretched out on the guillotine. He faces total and utter disaster, and lives to fear all sorts of secondary disasters overtaking him. He works so hard to keep it all from breaking lose upon him. But the angst is always there. Why? Because every life disaster carries the potential of the very real and ultimate disaster of the second death, of being cast away from God’s presence.
When a man discovers the pearl of great price and knows the freedom of being reconciled to God, the deepest source of fear and dread is lifted. When the total disaster of God’s judgment is lifted, all other potential disasters take on a different tone. Not only that, the opinions of men, the judgments of men no longer carry the dread and terror as before.
When we struggle with the reality of our sin and guilt, there is only one place to go for help and comfort. God is our only possible, and He is a sure and certain refuge. And then, when we know God as our refuge, we know that he will protect and keep us in Him no matter what life brings our way.
The man who trusts in Christ and who is justified in Christ knows that all’s well that ends well, and that God will protect and keep him through the valley of death and bring him out on the other side.
(8) I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you.
(9) Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
But now God responds. Justification is followed by sanctification. Being declared righteous by being righteous.
David knows that he got into this mess in the first place by casting off the yoke of his God. He had broken fellowship with God by disobedience to the will of God. Not only that but after his sin he had avoided God altogether.
He had been indeed a stubborn mule both before his sin and after his sin. Granted, God had broken David’s rebellion, but only by force as it were, only through the terrible burden of guilt and judgment.
Now David passes along the simple word of YHWH. Don’t be a fool. Don’t be a mule. Listen to my instruction and allow me to teach you the way you should go.
We may think the commandments of God are a burden. They are a burden only to our flesh. In reality they lead us into wholeness, into being what we were made to be.
Jesus said,
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
(10) Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.
The contrast here in verse ten is between the one who trusts in the Lord and the one who does not. Many are the woes of the one who will not trust in the Lord. He lives under the burden of real moral guilt. He lives under the sentence of eternal death. He has no real refuge during the storms of life but hides himself in booze and money and power or whatever.
But the one who trusts in the Lord is surrounded by the Lord’s unfailing covenant love. His life is enveloped by the lovingkindness of His God. The Lord is committed to Him and will bring him into the total blessing of life.
(11) Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!
So, what is the appropriate response to all this? What is the response of those who have been declared righteous, whose sins are not credited to their account, whose sins are covered and lifted, who are right with their God?
Gladness and rejoicing are the right response! Gladness and rejoicing expressed in singing and praise!
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