The Song of the Forgiven

Psalm 32 is a song of thanksgiving that tells a story of God’s deliverance, and it also incorporates elements from wisdom literature to teach us a lesson from that story. It’s the second of the traditional seven penitential psalms (Psalm 6 was the first). Because this psalm was written by David and is about an experience of forgiveness, some have connected it to Psalm 51 and David’s repentance after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. But this psalm seems more general on the theme of confession, which we find in the title, “A Maskil of David.” A maskil comes from a verb meaning “to instruct” or “to be skilled,” and while it might simply mean that you need to play this song with musical skill and artistry, some scholars see it as a teaching song with a moral lesson. Psalm 32 certainly has that tone, as it begins in verse 1: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” This is the first time since Psalm 1 that a psalm begins with the word “blessed,” which, you might remember, means a deep kind of happiness when we live the good life as defined by God. But while Psalm 1 defined blessedness as delighting in the law of the LORD, Psalm 32 takes a different approach: the happiness of forgiveness. There are three nouns describing our evil state and three verbs describing God’s mercy. First, the bad news. Transgression (pesha) means to rebel, betray, and violate trust. Sin (khata) means to fail or miss the mark. Iniquity (avon) means crookedness, disorder, dysfunction. These three words are all found in Exodus 34 where God declares his name and his character to Moses as well as in the Day of Atonement instructions, and they are a consistent summary throughout the Bible of the human condition. We have rebelled against our God and betrayed the trust of our neighbors, we have fallen short of the glory and holiness of God, and so our world is filled with distorted ways and crooked consequences. And yet, as David sings, God forgives, covers, and does not count our evil. Forgiveness has the idea of lifting away or removing, covering has the sense of concealing from sight (in a good way), and counting or imputing is the same word used of Abraham’s faith in Genesis 15:6: “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” So in response to human wickedness, God offers to carry our transgression away, to take our sin out of sight, and to cancel our debt of iniquity. According to Psalm 1, we find the good life in the law of the LORD, yet when we inevitably break the law, Psalm 32 tells us that we can also find the good life in the freedom of God’s grace.

Verse 2 ends with a qualification that the forgiven person has no deceit in their spirit, and David right away explains what he means by using himself as a negative example. Verse 3: “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” David confesses that there was a time when he didn’t confess, when he “kept silent” in stubborn resistance to God’s conviction, when he put off confession indefinitely. One scholar notes, “Paradoxically, even as his lips were full of groaning, he was yet silent when it came to the one thing he needed to say.” As a result, he experienced physical and mental anguish, which isn’t meant to imply that all suffering is due to unconfessed sin. Rather, David attributes this pain to God’s hand being heavy on him, a severe mercy to awaken David to the seriousness of his sin. Finally, David gives in, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” That last line is just four short words in Hebrew. It’s so simple and matter-of-fact. As soon as David confesses, forgiveness is there. The whole psalm changes after this moment as David turns to God in worship. Verse 6: “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.” [As a side note, you might have noticed that in many psalms, water is a symbol of distress and judgment, the rising tide and the crashing waves.] Verse 7: “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.” Selah. I haven’t said much about the word “selah” other than that it’s mysterious but likely indicates a place to pause and reflect. And in Psalm 32, there are three Selahs placed at powerful moments in the story. The first is when David is resisting confession, and so we are meant to ponder the effects of unrepentance in our own lives. The second is after David confesses and finds instant forgiveness, and so we pause to marvel at God’s mercy and grace. And finally, we pause to praise God’s deliverance and preservation, a hiding place when we are exposed, a solid rock when the flood threatens us.

In the final movement of the psalm, someone speaks to instruct us, the fellow worshipers. It could be God or David (scholars disagree), but in either instance it is the voice of a wise teacher urging us to learn from David’s story. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.” This is where the wisdom literature qualities come out with a vivid example of stubborn animals who won’t respond to reason. Derek Kidner writes, “Whatever else one can do with a horse, one can hardly counsel it.” Similarly, a fool won’t simply receive advice, but a wise person will accept a painful but helpful truth. Consider Proverbs 17:10: “A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” There’s an implied warning in Psalm 32: God wants to offer forgiveness quickly and gently, but if he needs to get our attention with a firmer hand and hard lessons, he will use whatever means are necessary! And so, in the last two verses, we come full circle to the state of blessed happiness: “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” Just as God surrounds the penitent person with shouts of deliverance, so his steadfast love surrounds the community of sinners who are made righteous in divine grace. This is an interesting penitential psalm in that it begins with blessing and ends with shouts of joy, all in the happy embrace of forgiveness. It’s a beautiful picture of the humble people of God who acknowledge their sin but then live freely and uprightly and joyfully in steadfast, gracious love.