Immediate Forgiveness (Psalm 32)

"It is a Psalm of penitence, but it is also the song of a ransomed soul rejoicing in the wonders of the grace of God. Sin is dealt with; sorrow is comforted; ignorance is instructed." G. Campbell Morgan.

"This was Saint Augustine's favorite psalm. Augustine had it inscribed on the wall next to his bed before he died in order to meditate on it better." James Montgomery Boice.

Psalm 32 emphasizes


the sinfulness of humans




the merciful character of God



how a sinful human can be right with a holy God (i.e., confession)




The main points of this psalm 32 are

The joy of forgiveness (1-2)


The curse of silence (3-4)


The benefit of confession (5-7)


The value of trust (8-11)

This is the first of 13 psalms described as maskil, which means to ponder, think through, act with prudence and is to be regarded as a teaching poem. It is the Hebrew word for contemplation and is understood as instruction. It is full of instruction and contemplation and worthy of meditation, as indicated by the frequent repetition of Selah, 3 times in only 11 verses: "This is all true; I know it; I felt it; I feel it."

Psalm 32 was written by David (Ro 4:6-8) and is generally thought to have been composed after he received forgiveness in the matter of Bathsheba (2 Sa 11:1-12:15). In seeking forgiveness, he had promised to "teach transgressors Your ways" (Ps 51:13), and with this psalm he fulfill his promise. The heading calls this psalm a "Maschil", possibly meaning a poem of contemplation or meditation.  It certainly qualifies as a didactic or instructive psalm (Ps 32:8).    [God forgives instantly (Ps 32:5); From oppression to liberation. From depression to freedom. Blessed are the forgiven; God to God in prayer; How not to be a mule; Cover up your sins or have your sins covered; Removing the pain of guilt; The only solution for sin.]

Two important concepts in this psalm are joy and righteousness (Ps 32:11), both of which are created by one divine action--forgiveness (Ps 32:5). Righteous and upright (Ps 32:11) is not merited by a person's good upright behavior but by God's forgiveness of their sins (Ps 32:1-2). It has always been this way (Rom 4:1-8). This is the gospel preached even to Abraham (Gal 3:8). Before forgiveness one is a rebel against God's will

If prayer is sufficient to deal with the most serious problem of all -- the sin which could be counted against us before God (1-5) -- will not prayer solve every problem of life (6)? Such is the theme of this psalm, presented through alternating statement (1-2, 6, 10) and testimony (3-5, 7-9) or appeal (11). If this belongs to the time of David's adultery with Bathsheba, Ps 32:3-4 reveal David burdened by a guilty conscience and Ps 32:5 corresponds to the remarkable 2 Sa 12:13. This incident illustrates what the psalm affirms: a prayer of confession brings instantaneous forgiveness.

• The idea behind transgression is crossing a line, defying authority
• The idea behind sin is falling short of or missing a mark
• The idea behind iniquity is of crookedness and distortion

1. The joy of forgiveness...the blessedness and fullness of sin forgiven (1-2). "The word blessed is in the plural, oh, the blessednesses! the double joys, the bundles of happiness, the mountains of delight!" (Spurgeon)  Psalm 1 tells the way to be blessed: don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, don't stand in the path of sinners, but delight in God's word – thinking deeply on it all the time. Yet if one has failed to do this and fallen into sin, Psalm 32 shows another way to be blessed – to make full confession and repentance of sin. David knew what it was like to be a guilty sinner. He knew the seriousness of sin and how good it is to be truly forgiven. He knew – as Paul would later state in Romans 4:6-8 the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. If David were judged on works alone, the righteous God must condemn him; nevertheless he knew by experience blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. "Rebellions" (deliberate flouting of God's known will), "sins" (specific items of wrongdoing in thought, word, deed), "iniquity" (the inner moral distortion of fallen nature). When the sinner conceals nothing, God has no residual charges (Ps 32:2). The forgiven life needs no more deceit to cover one's ways. 
   "You must all have noticed in David's case that after he had fallen into his foul sin with Bathsheba he ceased to exhibit that transparent truth-speaking character which had charmed us so much before." (Spurgeon)
   "The lesson from the whole is this: be honest. Sinner, may God make you honest. Do not deceive yourself. Make a clean breast of it before God. Have an honest religion, or have none at all. Have a religion of the heart, or else have none. Put aside the mere vestment and garment of piety, and let your soul be right within. Be honest." (Spurgeon)
2. The curse of silence...the agony of hidden unconfessed sin (3-4). Same three words as in 1-2. Acknowledgment of sin, the wrong I did and owning up to the willfulness of my rebellion.  The now-forgiven David remembered his spiritual and mental state when he kept his sin hidden and was silent instead of confessing and repenting. The stress of a double life and unconfessed sin made him feel old, oppressed, and dry and wasting away. "I kept silence, 'not merely I was silent, 'I kept silence, 'resolutely, perseveringly; I kept it notwithstanding all the remembrance of my past mercies, notwithstanding my reproaches of conscience, and my anguish of heart." David understood that his misery was directly connected to the oppression of unresolved sin and rebellion against God.  David's dryness and misery was actually a good thing. It demonstrated that he was in fact a son of God and that the covenant God would not allow him to remain comfortable in habitual or unconfessed sin. One who feels no misery or dryness in such a state has far greater concerns for time and eternity. David seemed to ache under the result of his sin (guilt and the lack of true fellowship with God) more than the sin itself. Ideally we should be terribly grieved by sin itself, and it should lead to confession and humility for relief and resolution.
   "God's hand is very helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down: better a world on the shoulder, like Atlas, than God's hand on the heart, like David." (Spurgeon) "This work of the Holy Spirit, convicting the man or woman of God of their sin and hardness of heart, is an essential mark of those who truly belong to God. The consideration of this work is so important that David gave the pause for meditative consideration, Selah. "The Selah indicates a swell or prolongation of the accompaniment, to emphasise this terrible picture of a soul gnawing itself."
3. The benefit of confession ... Groaning replaced by confession and forgiveness (5-7). David's 1st problem was the sin he committed – probably the immorality with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband to cover the immorality. David's 2nd problem was the double life he lived to hide those sins. The1st often leads to the 2nd, and there's nothing we can do about the 1st--it's done. It was only as David was ready to repent and end the second problem that God would graciously forgive the first problem. God immediately reached right into the well-spring of corruption and forgave the guilt/iniquity of my sin (Ps 32:5; 2 Sam 12:13). Prayer is the answer for everyone (6-7). Even sin can be dealt with by prayer (Ps 32:6). Everyone can pray in every emergency. God's ready response of forgiveness is immediate. It is "that moment ... a pardon receives" from the timeless hymn "To God be the Glory." God's faithful people (Ps 31:23) are those whom he loves and who loves him back. Ps 32:7 comes true when the word of God is given conscious obedience. God Himself was his hiding place, a secure shelter. A good hiding place has strength, height, is not easily seen, and is reliable. In more modern phrasing we might say that Jesus is our safe-room or panic-room. The idea of God as our hiding place is also associated with the idea of finding shelter in the house of the Lord, in His own presence (Ps 27:5; 31:20).  David found security surrounded by God's own songs of deliverance, sung in the joy and confidence of victory.
   Before the communion service in the English Prayer Book the minister is instructed to give this invitation: "Come to me or to some other discreet and learned minister of God's Word, and open his grief; that by the ministry of God's holy Word he may receive the benefit of absolution." There can be great value to opening one's grief.
   Real, deep, genuine confession of sin has been a feature of every genuine awakening or revival in the past 250 years. But it isn't anything new, as demonstrated by the revival in Ephesus recorded in Acts 19:17-20. It says, many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. This was Christians getting right with God, and open confession was part of it.
   "Ah! but there are too many who make confession, having no broken hearts, no streaming eyes, no flowing tears, no humbled spirits. Know ye this, that ten thousand confessions, if they are made by hardened hearts, if they do not spring from really contrite spirits shall he only additions to your guilt as they are mockeries before the Most High." (Spurgeon)  "Observe that the same man who in the fourth verse was oppressed by the presence of God, here finds a shelter in him. See what honest confession and full forgiveness will do!" (Spurgeon)
4.  The value of trust (8-11). God's or David's teaching (Ps 32:8-9) is not an impersonal dictate but the loving word of a caring God. Just so, our response should not be the forced compliance of the uncomprehending beast but a correspondingly loving obedience.  The horse and the mule are turned with difficulty; they must be constrained with bit and bridle. Do not be like them (Ps 32:9). “I will counsel you with My eye upon you” is a way of stating that He will not just guide us with His Word but accompanied by His very presence. The idea is of on who waits upon another so attentively that a mere look at the eye indicates the will (Ps 32:8). A butler waiting upon his master at dinner can illustrate this; the master need only look at the saltshaker and the butler understands that he wants it. God promised that for those who diligently seek and focus on God, He will also guide. This is a great blessing that comes from being forgiven and having fellowship restored. In David's season of guilt and misery he did not (so to speak) look upon God for the guidance of His eye, and therefore could not receive it. When fellowship was restored, the blessing of such close relationship could be enjoyed again. Trust brings love and joy (10-11). David understood what it was to live (at least for a season) as the wicked, and the sorrows that came with it. The repentant David then had a renewed experience of the mercy of God surrounding him. There are three facets to the enjoyment of a protected status: the ongoing activity of trust (Ps 32:10), the basic relationship of being right with God (righteous) and the moral reality of an upright character (Ps 32:11). Such are not immune from woes (the rising waters - Ps 32:6), but when they come they are encompassed by the love that never fails (Ps 32:10). The Psalm appropriately ends with a call for God's people to remember and respond to those reasons.

· Remember the blessedness of forgiveness

· Remember the release of guilt and double-living

· Remember the protection God gives His people

· Remember the guidance of the Lord

· The idea behind forgiven is the lifting of a burden or a debt



· The idea behind covered is that of sacrificial blood covering sin



· The idea behind does not impute is bookkeeping; it does not count against



Summary: Psalm 32 begins with stating the blessedness or joy of forgiveness, where the Lord does not count one's sins against him, and in whose spirit there is  no guile (1-2).  What led David to this conclusion was first the curse of remaining silent, in which he experienced both physical and emotional  stress.  This was partly due to the guilt of sin itself, but David also mentions the chastening hand of the Lord upon him (3-4).    But then he confessed his sin to the Lord, and the Lord forgave him. This prompts Dave to bless (speak well of) God as a source of protection  easily found by the godly in time of trouble, Who will surround him with songs of deliverance (5-7).    The psalm ends with David (though some think it is God speaking) offering to instruct and teach one in the way he should go (cf. Psa  51:13).  With a caution not to be like the mule or horse which lacks understanding and must be drawn near, David contrasts the sorrows of the  wicked with the mercy that will surround him who puts his trust in the Lord.  This ought to cause the righteous to be glad in the Lord, and the  upright in heart to shout for joy (8-11).

QUESTIONS

Have you come away changed/on a different course after seeking God’s forgiveness or, like a stubborn mule, returned to the same behavior?
Do you understand that seeking forgiveness is not the END of the process but the beginning for something larger leading to permanent change?
What results have you experienced when your actions stop at merely asking for forgiveness?

1) What are the main points of this psalm?

- The joy of forgiveness (1-2)

- The curse of silence (3-4)

- The benefit of confession (5-7)

- The value of trust (8-11)

2) What is the condition of the blessed man described in this psalm? (1-2)

- His transgression is forgiven

- His sin is covered

- The Lord does not impute iniquity against him

- There is no deceit (guile) in his spirit

3) What had been the affect of keeping silent about his sin? (3-4)

- His bones grew old through his groaning all day long

- The hand of the Lord had been heavy on him day and night

- His vitality had become like the drought of summer

4) What did he then decided to do?  What was the result? (5)

- To confess his transgressions to the Lord

- The Lord forgave him

5) What will the godly do when in need of forgiveness? (6)

- Pray to God

6) What blessings does God provide for those who put their trust in Him? (6-7)

- In a flood of great waters, they shall not come near

- He is their hiding place

- He preserves them from trouble

- He surrounds them with songs of deliverance

7) What does David (or perhaps God) offer to do in this psalm? (8)

- Instruct and teach one in the way they should go

- Guide one with his eye (insight, perspective?)

8) What warning is given concerning those who read this psalm? (9)

- Don't be like the horse or mule, which lacking understanding have to be drawn in order to come near

9) What antithetical statements are made concerning the wicked and those who trust in the Lord? (10)

- Many sorrows shall be to the wicked

- He who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him

10) What are the righteous and upright in heart called upon to do? (11) What is the goal of being forgiven?  

- Be glad in the Lord and rejoice

- Shout for joy