OF DAVID. A maskil.
1Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3When 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 sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Selah
5Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD”—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
Selah
6Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you
while you may be found;
surely when the mighty waters rise,
they will not reach him.
7You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah
8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you.
9Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
or they will not come to you.
10Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the LORD’s unfailing love
surrounds the man who trusts in him.
11Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!
Original Meaning
AS A PSALM of thanksgiving coupled with instruction encouraging the reader not to resist the guidance of Yahweh but to trust fully in him, Psalm 32 is divided into five segments: a proclamation of blessing (32:1–2), the narrator’s personal example (32:3–5), exhortation with personal testimony (32:6–7), admonition against resisting God’s instruction (32:8–10), final call to praise (32:11). While the term selah appears three times within the psalm, it only imperfectly relates to the proposed structure of the composition (see comments on selah at Ps. 3.)
Thematically Psalm 32 links back to Psalm 31 through the use of “hiding place” terminology in 32:7 (cf. comments on 31:20) and links forward to Psalm 33, which has no heading of its own.1 Psalm 32 concludes with an exhortation to “rejoice” and “sing” directed to two groups: the “righteous” (ṣaddiq im) and the “upright in heart” (yišre leb). Psalm 33 opens with a similar exhortation to “sing” directed to the same two groups (ṣaddiq im and yešarim). The remainder of Psalm 33 can be understood as an appropriate response to these two exhortations by the whole worshiping community.
The primary focus of Psalm 32 is on the salutary effect of confession of sin that leads to divine forgiveness and restoration.2 The instructive exhortation in 32:8–10 flows from the wisdom tradition and is taken by some scholars to be the words of the psalmist to the reader out of personal experience. Others understand this passage to report divine encouragement—perhaps reminiscent of a priestly oracle given to the supplicant in the temple (see comments below).
The Heading (32:0)
THE PSALM HEADING marks the first appearance in the Psalter of the Hebrew term maśkil in a heading (a noun based on the verb śkl, “make someone keen/clever; instruct”).3 The term is well known in the wisdom literature, where it is frequently used to mean “instruct, make perceptive,” but is occasionally taken to mean “have success, be prosperous.” While the idea of instruction is appropriate for the context of Psalm 32 and is reflected in the instructive style of Psalm 78 as well, the other eleven psalms so designated cannot by the widest stretch of imagination be called instruction. Kraus suggests that a maśkil is a song that has been “artistically molded” according to “the principles of wisdom,” searching for “the fitting, uplifting, mighty word that is suitable for the object to be sung about and to be praised.”4 As such, the term is more an evaluation of the artistic merit of a psalm than an attempt to categorize it.
The fact that the following Psalm 33 has no heading of its own suggests a possible tradition for the combination of Psalms 32 and 33 (as seen previously with Pss. 9 and 10). Here, however, there is no clear evidence of original unity, so that any connection is more one of theme, imagery, and purpose than actual composition.5
Proclamation of Blessing (32:1–2)
THE PSALM BEGINS with a twofold repetition in verses 1–2 of the Hebrew term ʾašre (“blessed”)—the same word that begins the whole Psalter (1:1). The poetic structure of these two verses is primarily affirming, with ʾašre in verse 1 introducing two participial phrases that describe the blessed person: “whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” In verse 2 ʾašre is used, and the first following phrase, while not grammatically parallel to the two participial phrases just noted, is thematically parallel: “whose sin the LORD does not count against him.” Each of these three phrases employs a distinctive term for human sin: “transgression” (pešaʿ [“rebellion against God”]), “sin” (ḥaṭaʾah [“turning away from the true path”]), and “sin” (ʿawon [“distortion, perversion, evil, disrespect for God”]).6
The second phrase in verse 2 does not parallel the preceding lines either grammatically or thematically. Instead, it leads the blessing to its conclusion with a declaration of the kind of human character that justifies the gracious forgiveness and blessing promised. The person who can anticipate Yahweh’s forgiveness is the kind of person “in whose spirit is no deceit.” The phrase also prepares the way for what follows in the personal narrative section. There we find flesh put on the bones of a spirit without deceit. Forgiveness comes to the one who confesses sin completely and openly without deceit or reservation.7
A Personal Example (32:3–5)
IN THESE THREE verses, the psalmist describes a personal experience that moves from initial resistance to confession (32:3–4) to reluctant but complete admission of sin (32:5). The two movements in the narrative—first resistance, then confession—are accompanied by contrasting descriptions of the consequence of the psalmist’s attitude.
When I kept silent. First, the psalmist refuses to admit sin, preferring to remain silent. But resistance led to what appears to be inward turmoil and agony. The psalmist’s “bones wasted away” (32:3), indicating an interior pain that set him groaning day and night (32:3–4). The result of the inward conflict was a loss of strength, as if wilting from a summer drought. Those who have experienced extreme bouts of depression probably recognize the symptoms here. An interior darkness opens up that threatens to swallow the sufferer. A normally energetic person can be reduced to inactivity—feeling almost drugged and unable to lift a finger to move.
Your hand was heavy upon me. The cause of the agony is clear to the psalmist: Unconfessed sin leads to divine disapproval. He can find no escape from this sense of God’s judgment—even enmity—either day or night (32:4). In Psalm 31, the narrator, although affirming innocence, experienced a similar agony because of the false accusations of friend and foe. Eyes, soul, and body grew weak; life was consumed with groaning; strength failed and bones grew weak (31:9–10). There the cause was the psalmist’s enemies (31:11), not God. Remarkably, the innocent suffering psalmist was able to trust God for deliverance and find refuge in the midst of trouble. But here in Psalm 32, the guilty narrator finds no release from the agony of guilt, because God’s judgment leaves no refuge to flee to!
The linkage of sin and sickness is apparent here as well as in Psalm 31. It was commonly understood that sin could bring divine retribution in the form of physical illness. Thus, the illness of the narrator of Psalm 31 gave ample justification to enemy or friend alike to assume the worst: God was judging the psalmist for sin. But the psalmist took care to indicate that to the contrary, the suffering experienced was the result of false accusation by malicious humans.
In Psalm 32, however, the community perception is closer to the truth—the psalmist has sinned, with illness as the consequence. It is interesting that the suffering appears less as the result of divine assault than the outworking of the psalmist’s own repressed guilt. This is perhaps too modern an interpretation, but one with which many moderns are thoroughly familiar. The destructive effects of repressed and unexpressed emotions and anxieties can be powerfully experienced in physical pain and psychological disintegration.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you. Having descended into the depths both physically and emotionally, the psalmist is, by some unrevealed change of attitude, mind, or will, able at last to reveal his hidden sin to God. Once the cover-up is over, the resulting release is immediate. The response to the psalmist’s confession is not further punishment but complete divine forgiveness (32:5). Not only is his sin forgiven, but even the guilt is “lifted away” (NIV “you forgave”), using the beautiful image of removing the terrible crushing weight of guilt like a boulder. We will consider implications of this idiomatic phrase in the Bridging Contexts section.
Exhortation and Personal Testimony (32:6–7)
HAVING LAID OUT personal experience as evidence, the psalmist now calls his readers/hearers to apply these insights to their lives through personal action. The exhortation in these two verses is styled as direct address to God (note the second-person masculine singular pronouns), but the purpose is clearly to encourage humans to seize on the hope engendered by the psalmist’s experience of divine grace extended in response to honest confession, so that they too will approach God in prayers of open confession.
While you may be found. There is a sense of realistic urgency in the psalmist’s call to prayer. While God is always present with humans, he is not always available to be found by them. Reluctance to confess leads to delay and compounds the possibility of human error. God does not make himself readily available to those who seek him only in times of extreme distress. The psalmist’s exhortation is that a relationship of trust and reliance on God must be built in times of relative peace and security, so that when the “mighty waters” of trouble come, the one who has an established pattern of communication with Yahweh will not be overcome.
Once again, as throughout the psalms, note that the coming of trouble to the righteous is assumed. The psalmists are realists, who base their understanding and hope on the real experience of life with all its diversity. The assurance given here is that a firm foundation will enable those who are prepared to face the onslaught without being toppled.
You are my hiding place. The psalmist continues the sideways exhortation of the reader/hearers by addressing to Yahweh a personal expression of confidence in the protective care of God. The “hiding place” terminology (seter) directs us back to the strong refuge motif that dominated Psalm 31. As there, the psalmist of Psalm 32 encourages the audience to trust that Yahweh provides protection in the midst of trouble; God will “guard/protect” him from trouble (32:7). God surrounds the faithful, not with strong defensive walls, as might be expected, but with “songs of deliverance.” It is as if the confident songs of those who have placed their trust in Yahweh soar upward to form an impenetrable barrier to repulse the enemy.
Admonition and Instruction (32:8–10)
AS SUGGESTED ABOVE, there is some debate as to who is speaking in these verses, with some opting for God and others for the psalmist. The former is made difficult by the third-person reference to Yahweh in verse 10: “The LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.” The latter interpretation is hindered by the use in verse 8 of the second-person singular pronouns to reflect the addressee of the exhortation. If the psalmist were instructing a larger audience in the temple, it would seem more likely to employ plural pronouns in direct address.
It is true, however, that the initial verb in verse 9—a Qal jussive directed to the listener—is second-person plural. This raises a third possibility (mentioned by some8) that these statements may represent a priestly oracle of deliverance delivered to the psalmist (thus in the singular) in the temple as a direct message from God. If this is the case for verse 8, the plural in verse 9 suggests that the psalmist is using a traditional adage to connect individual personal experience to the experience of the listening community.
Horse and mule. The psalmist appeals to the image of two common beasts of burden to make his point. Horses and mules have no moral sense to guide them in decision-making, in plotting out the righteous way. Their movements must be controlled and limited by the use of “bit and bridle.” The verb translated in the NIV as “have [no] understanding” (byn) is commonly used in wisdom literature to describe those who are perceptive, having clear understanding that informs right decision-making. Clearly, animals like the horse and mule lack this kind of perception, relying on instinct, ingrained training, or human control to direct their paths.
The readers, therefore, are warned not to deaden their perceptive senses so that they end up resisting the divine will and must be disciplined by the “many woes” (32:10) that come on the wicked. By contrast, those wise ones who trust in Yahweh find themselves surrounded by his “unfailing love.” Once again the faithful are protectively surrounded by Yahweh. In 32:7 “songs of deliverance” provided the shield against the enemy. Here the same verb for “surround” is employed (sbb), but it is God’s enduring covenant love (ḥesed) that provides the barrier.
Final Call to Praise (32:11)
THE SONG CONCLUDES with a call to praise Yahweh. As noted earlier, two groups are identified as being summoned: the “righteous” and the “upright of heart.” These two groups are the ones blessed in the opening verses because their sins have been forgiven. There is no sense that “righteousness” in this context assumes absolute purity and sinlessness. These are righteous because they have trusted Yahweh and been willing to confess their sins openly and completely to him, as the psalmist eventually did (32:5). Such righteousness is not earned by blameless human comportment but is granted by a gracious God in response to human trust and surrender.
This final verse, with its invocation to praise Yahweh, provides the occasion for the voicing of praise in the following Psalm 33. What the psalmist exhorts here, the voices of the next psalm fulfill (see comments on Ps. 33). This is not to say this verse does not function perfectly well as the conclusion to Psalm 32—it certainly does that as well. Joy, ecstatic shrieking, and singing are all appropriate responses for those who experience the faithful love of God poured out on them. This word picture gives us a brief window onto the celebratory worship of ancient Israel. No solemn, staid occasion this! The milling throngs, overcome with the wonder of God’s love, parade about leaping and dancing, shrieking and singing in a marvelous cacophony of uninhibited and infectious praise.
Bridging Contexts
BEARING THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GUILT. As mentioned in the comments on 32:5, the psalmist’s confession brings an experience of release from guilt that is likened to “lifting” a crushing weight that has pinned him down. There is more to this image of “lifting away the guilt” than immediately appears on the surface. This idiom occurs numerous other times in the Old Testament, beginning with Cain’s plaintive cry, “My guilt is greater than I can bear” (Gen. 4:13, lit. trans.), and it continues through the prophets.9 The consistent meaning of the phrase is “to bear (responsibility of) guilt.” That is clear in Cain’s situation, though he feels the weight of his responsibility. In Exodus 28:38, Aaron is said to “bear the guilt” involved in consecrating profane items to the service of God. The Leviticus passages use the phrase to conclude specific legal circumstances with the judgment that a person “will be held responsible” for the guilt of his actions.
That it is possible for someone to bear responsibility for the guilt accruing from the actions of another is illustrated in Numbers 30:15, where a husband who fails to nullify his spouse’s vow in a timely manner is held responsible for any guilt that may result. In a contrasting manner, Ezekiel 18:19 describes circumstances in which a son is not to be held responsible for the guilt of his father.
The affirmation in our passage that God “lifted up” the guilt of the psalmist’s sin is part of a broader use of this idiom in relation to God. In Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; and Micah 7:18, Yahweh bears responsibility for the guilt of Israel. Like the husband of Numbers 30:15, he assumes responsibility for the actions of his spouse, whether right or wrong. For this reason Isaiah (Isa. 33:24) can say (using the passive form of the same idiom) that the sins of those who dwell in Jerusalem (lit.) “will be lifted up” or borne by God himself.
Of course the ultimate example of God’s “lifting up” or “bearing the guilt of our sin” is accomplished in the work of Jesus. Hebrews 9:28 most nearly approaches the Old Testament idiom when it declares “so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people;10 and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Paul, in a less direct allusion, makes a similar point: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
As the Old Testament people of God realized, when they confessed their sin openly and faithfully, God did through the sacrificial system what they could never do for themselves. As he did in Jesus, he himself bore the responsibility for their sin, lifted up the crushing stone of guilt that pinned them down, and ushered them into the “glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21).
Contemporary Significance
CONFESSING SIN. At the heart of Psalm 32 is the act of confession of sin. Not only does the psalmist confess to God (32:5), but he makes that confession within the hearing of the worshiping congregation. It is the opening of his heart to God that ultimately works forgiveness and restoration (32:5, 7), but there is also an important dynamic at work in his constant movement from God to the worshiping community. For the psalmist to make public confession in this way is both instructive to the community (32:1–2, 6, 8–10) and supportive of him as the community surrounds him with “songs of deliverance” (32:7c, 11).
Public confession remains an uncomfortable and therefore infrequent experience for modern (esp. Protestant) Christians. Particularly in North America two elements collide to inhibit our willingness to admit our faults even among our fellow Christians. (1) The first is the fierce independent streak that characterizes much of our society. We are at some levels consumed with a concern for personal privacy. What I do is my business and no concern of yours.11
This desire—even demand—for personal privacy is closely linked to the sense of radical tolerance that permeates society. What is “good” for you is okay with me as long as you demonstrate the same tolerance for what I consider “good” for myself. Such a dynamic of privacy makes us increasingly unwilling to divulge our most private issues and concerns to others and makes us uncomfortable to intrude into the inner privacy of others. The result is often a rather superficial relationship with others, in which only the most obvious or innocuous elements of our lives are shared.
(2) The second element that stands in the way of public confession is a sense of perfectionism that pervades much of Western Protestantism. Our desire to be completely independent leads us to assume that we ought to be perfectly able to accomplish our goals, fulfill our needs, and reach our dreams. We should have the self-discipline to overcome our shortcomings and lead full and satisfying lives. All too often, however, our lives are marked by failure, dissatisfaction, lack of self-control, and an erosion of confidence in our ability to meet our own needs or those of the ones we love.
Our obvious (at least to ourselves) failure to live up to the “shoulds” and “oughts” of our lives, instead of leading most of us to confess our weakness and need, causes many of us to hide our failings behind a façade of apparent success, happiness, and control. Twelve-step groups are full of people who followed their sense of powerlessness and fear of being discovered as they really were into years of hiding their fears in a variety of destructive behaviors: alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual compulsion, eating disorders, gambling addiction, and many, many others.
Those of us who make our home within the church have fared little better. The cults of independence and perfection have prevented many a struggling evangelical Christian from admitting his or her fears, failures, and helplessness until the crisis was so great that it could no longer be denied and broke out with the utmost devastation for all those concerned.
Those who have passed through this dark and painful tunnel and emerged at last on the other side, forgiven and restored to their faith in God, almost unanimously speak of having learned the value of confession and accountability within a supportive community of loving, caring fellow strugglers in life. The “fifth step” of Alcoholics Anonymous says, “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” That is confession, and these people have found it to be a powerful necessity for life lived truly and faithfully. Having a support group or community of faith willing to hear your wrongs as fellow sinners rather than perfectionist judges, a group willing to share from their own less-than-perfect struggles the experience, strength, and hope they have gained from relying on God’s power, has broken through years of helplessness and denial to offer freedom from a lifetime of compulsive behaviors that no human power within or without could ever have relieved.
Our psalmist confides, “[When] I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity . . . you forgave the guilt of my sin” (32:5). God bore the guilt of the psalmist’s sin himself—lifted it up and bore it away! That is a very New Testament concept deeply embedded in the Old Testament consciousness of the psalmist. John says it in similar words, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). I have found that confession to God and another human being, freely given and freely received, is an important step in freedom from the bondage of sin that gains immeasurable strength from our fear and hiding. May you find such an accountability person or group in your own life, and may you take it as God’s calling to you to be a faithful and trustworthy hearer for those who need your loving ear.