Psalm 32

A Maskil of David

⁰¹          Blessed is the one:

whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

⁰²             Blessed is the man:

against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

in whose spirit there is no deceit.

⁰³          When I kept silent [about my sin]:

 my bones wasted away

from groaning all day long.

⁰⁴          By day and by night,

Your hand was heavy upon me.

            My vitality was sapped,

                        [like moisture by] the heat of the summer.

Selah

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Forgiven

For the Lord’s Day:  the 16^th of October 2005

 

Introduction:  The word “Maskil” in the title is as my Translator’s Handbook defines it:  “a participle of a verb which means ‘be wise, prudent,” or even to be fit and capable.  From this form, most commentators come to the conclusion that the giving of instruction is in mind here.  A “Teaching Psalm” is the English rendition of the Greek understanding in this matter.  Calvin considers the word as a description of the “whole scope and subject” matter contained in the Psalm.  Years ago when weekly lesson plans were being crafted regularly, scope and sequence were buzz words for what teachers were supposed to be about.

 

And the lesson being passed on in this Psalm is simple indeed.  It is all about confession and forgiveness.  Calvin describes the spiritually sensitive soul in ordinary torment of worrying about sin:  “All men must necessarily be either in miserable torment, or, which is worse, forgetting themselves and God, must continue in deadly lethargy, until they are persuaded that God is reconciled towards them.”

 

Further he admonishes us that happiness can be found only in the forgiveness of sin.  But, so many choose the terrible misery of keeping God as their enemy instead of finding His graceful pardon through confession of sin.

 

The psalm begins with a celebration of the blessedness of being forgiven in the first two verses, and then in verses three and four David shares the terror of resisting the Lord’s favor.  A Selah at the end of verse four commends us to ponder and meditate upon not only David’s initial stubbornness, but also our own as well.  Then in the second portion of our Psalm, in verse five cuts to the chase and demonstrates David’s heartfelt confession and the forgiveness that the Father is so willing to give.  Again, we are asked to ponder the merciful goodness of our Lord and our God.  The third portion in verses six and seven commends to us the same habit as the balm of a wondrous transformation from belaboring our personal guilt to being in grace.

 

David closes with the admonition that the elect should not be stubbornly mulish in resisting the hand of the Lord.  In the last two verses he compares and contrasts the way of the wicked with the way of the saints in Christ.

 

Development:  Delitzsch tells us that this “Psalm begins with the celebration of the happiness of the man who experiences God’s justifying grace, when he gives himself up unreservedly to Him.”  Calvin waxes eloquent in descriptive prose concerning the absolute glories of our God and King who freely gives grace through mercy to those whom He has humbled.  The Apostle Paul uses our text to prove in Calvin’s description:  “Men are then only blessed when they are freely reconciled to God, and counted as righteous by him.”

 

Listen to the New Covenant recording of David’s words from the LXX translation in the Greek:  “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

 

In the lines of the blessed poetry before us, the threefold repetition is no vane thing, but consistent with the bull headed nature of sinful men, who must hear over and over the fact and cursedness of sin.  There is also in the threefold description of verse one, a broad sweep of instruction bound up in the three words used in David’s celebration.  My Translator’s Handbook outlines the three words used by David:

 

1.  “Transgression”:  which word indicates disobedience and rebellion against the divine will.

2.   The word for “Sin”: means any form of misconduct or faulty action.

3.  “Iniquity” is anything that which is patently wrong and even evil

 

In the second grouping of verse one, there is the further matter of David’s personal “deceit” wherein his whole persona is wrapped up in lies, hypocrisy and fraud.  Do we begin to appreciate the depths of human capabilities?  Over the last few years, the session has been given all manner of excuses by people who have left our fellowship.  As time has passed and more information has become available, we are profoundly disappointed in some of the lies that we have had to base our decisions upon. 

 

Certainly, we appreciate that people grow in different directions and take different views, so that like Paul and Barnabas, separate paths may providentially be ordained.  However, it would be so much easier to consider our calling and to admit our mistakes, as a session - if there were greater clarity and honesty all around.  But all that I have mentioned is forgivable in and through the grace and charity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

And it is this great grace and charity the David celebrates here, possibly in conjunction with the year after taking Bathsheba as his wife.  There is some speculation that Psalm 32 should follow Psalm 51 in the commonality of their related themes.

 

In verse three we read about the virtual physical and spiritual causes and effects of unconfessed sin.

 

“When I kept silent [about my sin]:

 my bones wasted away

from groaning all day long.

 

This verse and the next seem to need some emendation of understanding in our language and culture.  For that reason, I have inserted the words [about my sin] to the first line of verse three.  The New American Standard Bible, one noted for its linguistic preciseness, takes this approach as well.  After all, this is the full intent of David’s heartfelt suffering.  He has not confessed his sin, and so his whole life is affected.  Jay Adams, in his writings – once described a young man who spent many months in an insane asylum because he would not admit to himself or anyone else that he had cheated on a final exam at the end of his schooling.  His personal guilt, as well as the hand of God on him was so heavy that he had to be institutionalized.

 

Days and nights of weeping seem to be common throughout many periods of David’s life.  Did he know at all times how the Lord would manhandle him because of his elective calling?

 

Application:  In our last verse for today, the fourth, we get to the essential truth of God’s providential care and oversight for all of the elect.

 

“By day and by night,

Your hand was heavy upon me.

                My vitality was sapped,

                                [like moisture by] the heat of the summer.”

 

God has a purpose to history, both personal and societal.  Whole nations come under His discipline, and so too do individuals as well.  Those whom the Lord loves may count upon His interest in their behavior, especially as it limits their calling and salvation.  Military psychologists speak of being able to break any human completely within a short period of time.  By so doing, they can completely remake the person in an image of their own desire.  Our military, even while they understand the process and advise our troops of what to expect, are not allowed to pursue the most torturous aspects of that craft and science.

 

God of course is at the same time, gentler and patient in His dealings with those He calls His own.  And yet, who can long withstand the power of His anger and wrath, unless He has some good in mind.  David here speaks of a long hot summer for his soul.  His “vitality was sapped”, like so much sweat!  Do you get the picture here of the profound image of one who would resist the God of all creation?  The very most you can conjure up in opposition is no more than the sweat on our face!  David had to learn the lesson the hard way, he sweated in sin for a long period of time, and what good did it do for him, except to prolong his misery.

 

It is not my intention to inflict pain and suffering in so many words, if any who hear or read my words feel oppressed, it is not my work, but of the Lord.  Spurgeon ends this section of his commentary with the hope of the next verses in this truly beautiful Psalm.  It is “time to change the tune, for the notes are very low in the scale, and with such hard usage, the strings of the harp are out of order: the next verse will surely be set to another key, or will rehearse a more joyful subject.”

 

Let me give you an excerpt from the next portion:  “I acknowledge my sin.” David writes and therein his whole world and perspective within it changes for the better!   Today, we would more likely write “I have sinned.”  But those three little words are the hardest in all creation to draw out of the human soul, because everyone at bottom wants to keep the sin and only pretend that they have repented.  But the God of heaven and earth is not mocked, He neither slumbers nor sleeps – He knows our inward being and while He will not crush those He loves completely, many are the self-willed sufferings that unrepentant sinners bring upon themselves!  But, as the media delightfully show us day after day, too many people prefer the soap opera of sin and delusion to the blessings of repentance and forgiveness.  If, the opening words of our Psalm portion today rang a bell in the back of your minds, then the despair of David in his hour of turmoil should not be your common experience.  May all of we who belong to Christ sing songs of glad adoration for the redemption that is ours, all because the Lord first loved us, and then by placing His holy hands upon us, brought us to repentance and salvation.  Praise the Lord for His wonderful grace and mercy towards us.  May we be instructed by David today and always.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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