Psalm 32 (CSB)
The Joy of Forgiveness
Of David. A Maskil
1 How joyful is the onewhose transgression is forgiven,whose sin is covered!2 How joyful is a person whomthe Lord does not charge with iniquityand in whose spirit is no deceit!
3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittlefrom my groaning all day long.4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me;my strength was drainedas in the summer’s heat. Selah5 Then I acknowledged my sin to youand did not conceal my iniquity.I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. When great floodwaters come,they will not reach him.7 You are my hiding place;you protect me from trouble.You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah
8 I will instruct you and show you the way to go;with my eye on you, I will give counsel.9 Do not be like a horse or mule,without understanding,that must be controlled with bit and bridleor else it will not come near you.
10 Many pains come to the wicked,but the one who trusts in the Lordwill have faithful love surrounding him.11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,you righteous ones;shout for joy,all you upright in heart.
Today we are looking at Psalm 32. It is one of seven “Penitential Psalms” which includes Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. In Catholic and liturgical churches, these psalms are read during Lent, which is the time leading up to Easter. Even though we’re not a part of a liturgical or Catholic church, I believe there is great value in taking time before both Christmas and Easter to intentionally reflect during the weeks leading up to these events. It’s important to prepare our hearts and minds for what we are truly celebrating. Any extra time we can take during the year to ready our hearts and minds and consider all that Jesus has done for us is time well spent. So, while we are getting ready for Easter Sunday, let us prepare our hearts by spending time in this psalm of penitence.
One note before we begin: we are going to see the word “selah,” in this psalm, and it might seem out of place. What does “selah” mean? Strong’s Lexicon says, “The term ‘selah’ is used primarily in the Psalms and is thought to be a musical or liturgical marker. Its exact meaning is debated, but it is often interpreted as a pause for reflection, a musical interlude, or an instruction to lift up the voice or instruments. It serves as a moment for the reader or listener to contemplate the preceding message.” So, whenever we read that word, let’s pause a moment and consider what was said.
Now, let’s start at the beginning. In the CSB translation, this psalm is titled, “The Joy of Forgiveness.” Verses 1-2 state, “How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!”
Is that something you have given much thought to before? Do you find joy in forgiveness? I think that finding joy in forgiveness is the foundational characteristic of a true follower of Christ. After all, how do we come to saving faith in Christ? By understanding that we are sinful, and we need Jesus to forgive us. That’s what it means to “believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.” We believe in the work that Jesus did for us by dying on the cross and rising again. He died as the sacrifice for our sins. But it’s not enough to have some vague understanding that Jesus died on the cross to take away the world's sin. We must come to a personal knowledge that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. He died because I am sinful. The only way I can come to the Father is because Jesus has proclaimed my sins forgiven and washed me clean. Unless we have been convicted of our sin, we have not been born again.
We see this very thing happen with Simon Peter. He had been following Jesus and listening to Him preach, but it wasn’t until Simon Peter understood that he was a sinner and fell at Jesus’ feet that he was converted. Luke 5:8 says, “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, ‘Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!’” Simon Peter had previously met Jesus. Then he started following Him, and he got to know Him. Once He saw Who Jesus truly was, that truth produced the realization of who Simon Peter was (a sinner) and so he repented and fell down at Jesus’ feet and worshiped Him. And what was Jesus’ response to Simon Peter’s repentance? He said to him in verse 10, “‘Don’t be afraid,’ Jesus told Simon.” That was the moment when Peter was converted; he had been born again.
This is why David says, “How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven.” Those who have been forgiven of their sins are full of joy, for joy is found in forgiveness. Another wonderful example of this is seen in Luke 7:47. After the sinful woman falls at Jesus’ feet, weeping and washing His feet, Jesus says about her, “Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”
In MacLaren’s commentary on that passage in Luke, he says, “all true love to God is preceded in the heart by these two things-a sense of sin, and an assurance of pardon. Brethren, there is no love possible-real, deep, genuine, worthy of being called love of God-which does not start with the belief of my own transgression, and with the thankful reception of forgiveness in Christ. I do not for one moment deny that there may be in the hearts of those who are in the grossest ignorance of themselves as transgressors, certain emotions of instinctive gratitude and natural religiousness, directed to some higher power dimly thought of as the author of their blessings and the source of much gladness: but has that kind of thing got any living power in it? I demur to its right to be called love to God at all, for this reason-because it seems to me that the object that is loved is not God, but a fragment of God. He who but says, ‘I owe to Him breath and all things; in Him I live and move, and have my being,’ has left out one-half at least of the Scriptural conception of God. Your God, my friend, is not the God of the Bible, unless He stands before you clothed in infinite loving-kindness indeed; but clothed also in strict and rigid justice. Is your God perfect and entire? If you say that you love Him, and if you do so, is it as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you meditated on the depths of the requirements of His law? Have you stood silent and stricken at the thought of the blaze of His righteousness? Or is it a vague divinity that you worship and love? Which? Ah, if a man study his Bible, and try to find out for himself, from its veracious records, who and what manner of God the living God is, there will be no love in his heart to that Being except only when he has flung himself at His feet, and said, ‘Father of eternal purity, and God of all holiness and righteousness, forgive Thy child, a sinful broken man-forgive Thy child, for the sake of Thy Son!’ That, and that alone, is the road by which we come to possess the love of God, filling and sanctifying our souls; and such is the God to whom alone our love ought to be rendered; and I tell you {or rather the Bible tells you, and the Gospel and the Cross of Christ tell you}, there is no love without pardon, no fellowship and sonship without the sense of sin and the acknowledgment of foul transgression!”
Unless we realize we are sinners who need the forgiveness of Jesus to cleanse us, we do not truly understand who God is. As MacLaren says, we don’t possess true love of God. But once we have understood that God is perfect and holy, and we are not, and that God, because He loves us so much, sent Jesus to die for us and clothe us in His righteousness, then we are filled with utmost love and joy for all God has done for us. If we haven’t repented and found forgiveness, if our faith has never produced sorrow at our sinfulness, then it should be no wonder why so many Christians do not have joy. They have yet to repent and find forgiveness. They have yet to truly love God.
Why are there so many people who don’t understand this? Sadly, so many churches fail to explain this. We are told that God loves us and accepts us, but we aren’t told what needs to happen for that to be true. Nobody likes to call anybody else a sinner, but that’s exactly what all people are. This omission leads to people thinking they are Christians when really they are not. They have only thought about becoming a Christian, but they have never been converted because they have never repented from their sins. Because this doesn’t get talked about, we have a crisis within the Church.
The other problem this creates is found within people who have been converted, they have come to faith in Christ and been forgiven of their sins, but then they mess up, fall into sin again, but don’t know what to do about it. They don’t want to admit their sins, or they don’t want to give up their sins, or they just feel really guilty about their sins, but they don’t want to confess them. They feel bad about something they have done, but they don’t know what to do about it. This creates a real problem: they don’t know how to repent. Have you ever been there? Well, I have good news. This Psalm of David gives us the perfect outline of how to repent.
David knew how to repent and find forgiveness. He knew that joy is found in forgiveness. But until we repent and find forgiveness, we can find ourselves stuck like David felt stuck. In verses 3-4, he explains what was happening to him before he repented. It says, “When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah”
In the easy-to-read version of the Bible, it translates verses 3-4 as, “Lord, I prayed to you again and again, but I did not talk about my sins. So I only became weaker and more miserable. Every day you made life harder for me. I became like a dry land in the hot summertime.”
I’ve been considering if that is what David meant. Did David feel like God made every day harder for him? Is that what is happening when God’s hand is heavy on us? I don’t know how much it’s God intentionally making life harder for us, or if our choices and lack of repentance simply weigh down harder and harder upon us, making life more difficult. When we sit in our sin, we are weighed down by guilt and shame. It grows increasingly harder to find joy and peace. Anxiety increases. Fear of being found out increases. Worry increases. Self-loathing increases. The silence of God increases. We become weaker in faith, and more miserable the longer we sit in sin.
The idea of becoming “like a dry land in the hot summertime” is also important to understand. Land that is dry is not good for anything. Nothing will grow in soil that is parched. It’s useless. Until the land receives water, it will remain barren- a wasteland.
What should we do? Is there any hope? Yes! Verse 5 says, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah”
Do you know what this is like? Have you experienced this profound joy? Have you felt the burden of sin being lifted off?
Hear what verses 6-7 tell us, “Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah”
Let us not wait, let us confess our sins immediately and find the loving forgiveness that Jesus extends to us. Like Jesus told Simon Peter, “Don’t be afraid.” We have nothing to fear when we admit to the Lord what we have done. When we fail to do what is right, or we do something wrong, let us pray to the Lord immediately, without delay. Then those “floodwaters” of guilt and accusations from the enemy will not reach us. Jesus will hide us in His righteousness and protect us from trouble. He will declare His forgiveness over us, delivering us from our sin. Selah, indeed. Let us pause and think about what that means!
Then verse 8 says, “I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel.” There is debate among scholars about this verse. Is it David who is still speaking, or has David recorded the words of God and now shows what God has said to him? Most scholars think it is still David speaking. In the Benson Commentary, it says, “Those are best able to teach others the grace of God who have themselves had the experience of it. And those who are themselves taught of God ought to tell others what he hath done for their souls, and so to teach them.”
That is plausible, and certainly what Benson says is true. We who are more experienced or mature in the Lord should guide new believers and teach others how to follow the Lord. But the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges disagrees that it is David still speaking. It says, “Who is the speaker? The Psalmist or God? Most commentators suppose that it is the Psalmist, who now assumes the part of teacher, but surely it must be God who speaks in answer to the Psalmist’s profession of trust. Would any human teacher venture to say, I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee, as the last line must be rendered? For the ever-wakeful ‘eye’ of God’s loving Providence see Psalm 33:18." That verse says, “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who wait for His faithfulness (NASB).”
I agree with that reasoning. It sounds to me like David is quoting what God has spoken to him. At the end of verse 7, David says, “You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah”, and I think David records what those shouts of deliverance are in verse 8. The Lord says, “I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel.” Picture the scene that David is describing. You are in trouble, great floodwaters are rising, about to overwhelm you. But the waters don’t reach you, for the Lord shouts over the noise of the floodwaters, “I will show you the way to go! My eye is on you! I see you- listen to My voice, I will instruct you on the way to go.” The Lord’s shouts of deliverance are music to your ears. You have been rescued.
And music to our ears it is, is it not? God sees us. He will instruct us. He won’t leave us in our sin. He will show us the way to go, so we can move on from this place of barrenness: this place where God’s hand is heavy and we are dried out and useless.
Then verse 9 is either still the Lord’s direct instructions to David, or David picks up the narrative again. If it’s David speaking, then this time he is counseling others, and this verse should go together with verse 10. Verses 9-10 say, “Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you. Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him.”
Whether verse 9 was still the Lord speaking, or is David, either way, we should not be like a stubborn mule who resists being led. If we resist the Lord’s leading, it will lead to “many pains,” but the one who trusts in the Lord, that person will not face the trouble that the resistant face. Instead, the one who follows the leading of the Lord will have “faithful love surrounding him.”
Let’s look at this metaphor more closely. A horse who trusts his owner is easily led. A good owner will reward that horse, and they will have a loving friendship built on trust and obedience by the horse. A difficult horse that is obstinate and disobedient must be trained and disciplined so that it submits to its owner. It will suffer many pains through the bit in the mouth. Once it learns to listen, though, the horse doesn’t suffer any longer but is rewarded by no longer needing that stern correction. Then, surrounded by love, the horse listens and obeys.
The same is true of us as we follow the Lord. That is why David ends this psalm by saying in verse 11, “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.” We can be glad and rejoice, shouting for joy, for we have been cleansed and forgiven. We no longer need to fear the correction of the Lord, for He is leading us and guiding us. We can trust Him and do not have to fear His punishment, for He has delivered us from sin and the enemy.
God’s hand is heavy on us until we repent, for He wants us to repent so we can be healed. We see this explained in Hosea 6:1-3, which says, “Come, let’s return to the Lord. For he has torn us, and he will heal us; he has wounded us, and he will bind up our wounds. He will revive us after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up so we can live in his presence. Let’s strive to know the Lord. His appearance is as sure as the dawn. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the land.”
Once we repent and come back to the Lord, He will refresh us, and we won’t be dried out and useless any longer. As Hosea 6:3 promises, “He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the land.”
This is why our joy is found in forgiveness: forgiveness is the way in which we not only come to faith in the Lord, but we stay in right relationship with the Lord. There is no other way. Don’t wait a moment longer. Pray to the Lord immediately. Find the refreshing forgiveness of the Lord.
Pray: Heavenly Father, Your Word promises us in 1 John 1:9 that, “If we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We confess to You our sins. Please forgive us and cleanse us. Help us to walk in the righteousness You have provided for us through Jesus. Please fill us with joy as we rejoice in all that You have done for us. We love You and thank You for Your great love toward us. In Jesus our Savior’s name we pray, amen.