Fourth Sunday of Lent | Psalm 32

We’ll be in Psalm 32 on our journey through the Word. Have you ever done something that you were so ashamed of, that you didn’t want to be around anyone? You felt vulnerable, and exposed, as if everyone knew what you did? The burden of guilt you carried, even made it hard to look at yourself in the mirror? No matter how hard we try to stuff feelings like those down, they keep coming up, like a bad case of heartburn. David had done something terrible; He’d taken advantage of a young married woman named Bathsheba, spying her bathing on her rooftop. He misused his power to take advantage of her, got her pregnant, and tried to cover it up by having her husband killed on the field of battle so he could take her as another one of his wives.It’s the stuff of soap operas, and tell-all tabloids, but that was the problem, David moved on like nothing ever happened…and for that entire time refused to speak about it, and he was miserable. Walking around with your guilt eating away at you from the inside is like carrying a curse everywhere you go. This is why David focuses, in verse 1, on feeling blessed, when he finally breaks, and breaks his silence … to confess God what he’s done. Verse 1,“Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven,
 whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1). David had covered up his heinous sins, but that didn’t help things. It made them worse. But there is a difference between covering up your own sins, and having them covered by God. Blessed are those whose sins are covered. To understand what David means here by having our sins covered, we have to go way back into the Old Testament when God told his people how they could be forgiven. You see they had to take an innocent animal into the temple, confess their sins over it, and allow the priest to slay it, in cold blood.  The sin was said to be transferred to the innocent animal; the innocent paying for the guilty.That’s what the word forgiven means, literally given away, given to someone else. Someone else has taken the blame. Someone else has paid the price. Someone innocent. The lamb of God would come to take away the sins of the world, but he had not yet appeared, so when the priest performed that sacrifice, he would take the blood of that lamb, and cover the person with it, hiding that person under the blood. Covering them. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions …. are covered” (Psalm 32:1). And the word transgression means a sin that you committed when you knew better. In self defense of our actions, we often plea, “But I didn’t know…”  But David knew better…that made it all the harder to accept that God might actually forgive him. Perhaps David couldn’t forgive himself, so he locked it away, moved on, like nothing had happened. But in verse 2 he continues, “Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2). The word “Blessed” what a contrast to the curse David had been carrying around. He pens this psalm after the pus of his sin has festered, and built up over time…but not that zit of his guilt has popped, and he finally feels relief. That’s the only good thing about a zit. But there’s nothing good about sin. God has intervened with his grace, and David is experiencing the blessedness of grace. And David goes on to say, “And in whose Spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2).  Even that feels good. If you’ve ever lived in deceit, or an elaborate cover up to hide what you’ve done, living a lie is no fun. Bathsheeba’s belly has been swelling, and with it, his shame, growing silently under the surface, becoming increasingly harder to hide. But now that he’s confessed, and he feels the deceit of his lies, leave his system like poison leaving his blood stream. And…it feels…good. Verse 3 “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
 as in the heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3-4). The title of this Psalm tells us that it’s a maskil. We don’t know what a maskil is, but it appears to be a word that involves teaching, telling, or talking… But telling or talking is exactly what David refused to do these last 9 months as his guilt internally gnaws at him, snapping him “day and night, your hand heavy on me”, he says. This is the difference, by the way,  between letting God bear your sin for you, or trying to bear it yourself. Bearing it yourself, leads to a tortured existence, staggering under the weight of what you’ve done…it’s a type of  hell on earth. Confession is the only thing that will make the difference. “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess
 my ansgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
 the guilt of my sin. SELAH “ (Psalm 32:5).  

Acknowledging that sin before God, is the first step to being right with God. It shows how much David has been trying to put it behind him, bury the evidence. Allowing God to take that sin, getting it out into the open is like vomiting when you’ve been nauseous for hours; not a pleasant experience admitally, but such a relief when it’s all out. David’s spiritual nausea is over…better out than in I always say. Twice in these verses, David outlines how his confession led to God forgiving him. “I confessed” you forgave the guilt of my sin. And even now, David pauses and pens the word, SELAH. A word that appears in the Psalm of David, which doesn’t exactly have an English translation, but a word that scholars believe means, “Pause. Meditate. Think about this.” Selah…as if David is still blown away by the graciousness of God. But why should David be forgiven for what he did. It was pretty terrible? Why should I? Why should you? David knows he’s no special case, verse 6: “Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
 will not reach them. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance. SELAH” (Psalm 32:6-7).  

There is that word again. Stop. Meditate. Ponder. David says, “Let all the faithful pray to you…” David had NOT been faithful, but he was faithful here to return to God…finally. David does not take for granted that God forgave him. Note the phrase “while you may be found”… as if there’s no guarantee that we can’t go beyond help,by stubbornly refusing to turn back. David feels that the rising waters of his guilt, and shame came close, as if he barely escaped the flood. David sings like a survivor, who has been rescued. But what a statement. YOU ARE MY HIDING PLACE. David had thought that he could hide what he’d done. Like Adam hiding in the bushes, but there was no refuge in running from his actions. Like Moses, trying to bury the Egyptian he murdered in the sand. How ironic, David finds that God is his hiding place…. The only safety he can find from what he’s done is in God, and there, confessing his sin, God surrounds him with songs of deliverance after 9 months of tortured silence. Stop. Pause. Meditate. And count your lucky stars? No. Thank your gracious God. In verse 8, in response to David finally spitting out what he’s done, God breaks the silence on his end “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 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” (Psalm 32:8-9). Nothing described David more during that period than a mule, or a beast. Have you ever rushed into sin, and afterwards thought, “How could I have been so stupid?” No understanding. Like a cow walking into the slaughter pen. Except God says, more than that he was rebellious, having to be controlled by a bit and bridle… “or they will not come to you”. You can almost hear the hurt in God’s voice, he wanted David to simply come to him in his shame, not run from him. But to trust him, to come to him for help,  Forgiveness, guidance. But David refused. He stubbornly kept going in the wrong direction, hurting himself and others even more…until Nathan the Prophet came and confronted him, like putting a bit and bridle in his mouth. Like David we can come to God the easy way or the hard way…and David had chosen the hard way for too long. But in verse 10, speaking from experience David says,“Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (Psalm 32:10).  

Thankfully, David knows from experience now, that like his woes multiplied the longer he was on the run from God, so God’s loving kindness, his unfailing love would surround the one who trusts in Him. Before this, David’s guilt slowly suffocated him like someone putting a pillow over his face. But now that’s replaced in an exchange that happens the minute that David turns back from God, that suffocation of guilt is replaced with being surrounded by God’s love. Remember, even if you’ve walked 100 steps away from God, it’s just one step back. All you need to do is turn around. And with the love of God surrounding David, he feels his strength returning, energizing him, causing a song to well up within him. “Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart! SELAH” (Psalm 32:11). And David ends with a final “Selah”. Perhaps because he knows that he’s not been “upright in heart”, but that for the moment, he is. No deception, no secret sin, nothing gnawing at the innards of his soul. Meditate on this…he tells himself. Remember this. 

And with that, he invites us to stop. Pause. Ponder this. My friends, stop and ponder this today, and let ponder turn to wonder. And let wonder turn to worship. Jesus bore your sins so that you don’t have to.