Discipleship in the Psalms: The Joy of Forgiveness
Author: Daniel Owens, PhD
August 29, 2024
Eighth in a series.
Psalm 32
A Maskil of David.
1Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
5I 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. Selah
6Therefore 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.
7You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
10Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
11Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
If you are a disciple, you will sin. And so if you are a disciple, at times you will find yourself wondering whether God still wants anything to do with you. You may feel the heavy weight of God’s displeasure or an uneasy feeling of God’s distance. At these moments, discipleship can deepen if you respond appropriately. A conflict addressed leads to a relationship strengthened. Forgiveness is a gift and a necessity for discipleship, and God offers it freely to those who come to him.
Psalm 32 describes David’s experience of sin, discipline, forgiveness, and instruction. Scholars classify it as a thanksgiving psalm, which means it is a testimony to God’s deliverance. In this psalm it is not deliverance from an enemy but from the suffering of unconfessed sin. We might say that the enemy, so it seems, is God, but in the end David is his own worst enemy.
What was the situation? While we do not know the details, we can recognize the experience. David sinned, and he kept quiet about it (v. 3). Like a child who has disobeyed but not been discovered, David furtively avoids revealing his sin to God (see also v. 5). But, though he tries to hide, he wastes away in torment. He cannot escape the weight of his sin, so he groans all day. He cannot share this burden with anyone. But though he would try to hide the ugly truth, God knows, and he presses down on David with discipline (v. 4).
Think about the broiling temperatures of summer we have been experiencing. If you step outside to work in your garden or go for a walk, the longer you stay out, the less energy you have. Maybe you begin to stoop, as though a hand is pushing down on your shoulders. What do you need? A cool drink of water. When it comes to sin, it is not a question of whether you will need this cool drink of water, but when.
Forgiveness is that cool drink of water. Refreshing from the heat of God’s discipline requires a confession of sin, which David offers (v. 5). He gives up his pointless hiding from God, and God forgives his sin. Looking at the opening verses of the psalm, we see four lines, three of which describe the joy of God forgiving us, covering our sin, and removing our iniquity (vv. 1–2). The nearest analog is that of a debt repaid on our behalf, which is exactly how Paul describes the work of Jesus on the cross for us, to cancel the debt of our sin through his death (Col. 1:14).
Psalm 32:2 describes the person who receives such forgiveness: one who does not deceive. The prerequisite for experiencing forgiveness is confession. You cannot be forgiven if you try to hide your sin, whether to avoid embarrassment or to protect your pride. You must come clean. This is the sign of a mature Christian in this life: not a total absence of sin but a lack of deceit about it. To put it positively, we must be transparent about our sin, and then God will wipe away the effects of that sin (though there may still be consequences in the world).
The balance of the psalm switches to various modes of instruction. David invites us to seek God while we can (v. 6), expresses his delight in God’s deliverance to God himself (v. 7), and then shares the voice of God, who is like an attentive trainer looking for obedience rather than the willful stubbornness of a mule (v. 8–9). Finally, David’s voice returns in verses 10–11 with a proverb-type description of the two ways: sorrow for wicked and the joy of God’s love for those who trust him. It is to this joy that we are invited.
In high school, I worked as a lifeguard at a community pool. When you crossed my boss, she was pretty outspoken about her displeasure. I remember one day, early in my employment there, giving out her phone number in order to help a pool member. The next morning, my boss showed up at the pool before anyone else but me. And she was red-hot with anger, railing about how someone had revealed her personal phone number to a pool member. She complained about how she had been forced to change her number so many times in the past because people from the pool would pester her.
At that moment, I knew I had a choice: confess now and deal with the consequences or hope nobody discovered that I was the guilty party. I made a quick decision to confess, and all the tension and anger went away. My decision to come clean built trust, and the next summer my supervisor hired me as the head lifeguard.
It is exhausting to fight with God. But it is also unnecessary because God is ready to forgive. May we be quick to respond to God’s discipline and confess our sin so that we can grow in fellowship with him.
Daniel Owens, PhD, is NCC’s Pastor of Discipleship. Go to the NCC Blog for the previous posts in this series.
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