Psalm 32:3-7
3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
I recently read Max Lucado’s book called “Grace: More than we deserve, Greater than we imagine”. In that book, Max mentions this passage quoted above in Psalm 32. He suggested that this was written when David had unconfessed sin in his life when he had Uriah murdered and committed adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12). David goes a whole year without confessing that sin until Nathan the prophet rebukes him. It is interesting that here in verses 3-4 David mentions that when he kept silent about his sin he felt the effects of it in his body and spirit (similiar to Psalm 38:1-9). What this demonstrates to me is the importance of regular times of repentance before God because sin can and does grieve the heart of God.
Paul used a term for this in Ephesians 4:30 when he told the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit (see also Hebrews 12:11). I believe this is what David was experiencing. Max says about this
“Sin’s reality replaced sin’s euphoria. David began to see in Bathsheba not a picture of beauty by a symbol of his own weakness. Could he see her face without imagining the face of her husband, whom he had betrayed? Most of all, could he look at her and not sense the gaze of God upon himself?”
He was experiencing a time of spiritual drought because he was unwilling to confess his sins to God. This isn’t always the reason for times of spiritual drought, but it is one possible reason. Once David did confess he says that God was more than willing and ready to forgive him verse 5. David says in verse 5 that he acknowledged in the Hebrew is the word yada that means to know, perceive or discern. He experienced God’s willingness and even his eagerness to forgive. An overflowing, rushing torrent of grace that fills my cup to overflowing.
God knew that David would one day commit adultery and have Uriah murdered. It didn’t surprise him that David did this. Nor did it surprise Jesus when Peter denied him and the other disciples abandoned him. Nor does it surprise God when we have times of self reliance or rebellion. God know us all better than we know ourselves. The amazing thing about this is that God knows us this well and loves us anyway. And he is always ready and willing to forgive us when we come back to him and acknowledge our sins. God treats us with grace or unmerited favor.
John said in his little letter of 1 John that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and because he is faithful he forgives us our sins and cleanses us 1 John 1:9. I’m glad that my forgiveness doesn’t have to rely upon my own goodness, but God’s faithfulness is what it rests on. Just like the prodigal son’s father ran to him and welcomed him home Father God is ready and willing to forgive and cleanse us of our sins. Luke 15:11-32
