There is a saying, “Men’s evil deeds we write in brass; their virtues we write in water.” All the world knows of David’s adultery with Bathsheba. The unsparing honesty of God has set down in Holy Writ the whole painful story and the manner in which David engineered the death of Bathsheba’s husband. It was sin, high-handed and open. In his great transgression David had sinned against the nation of Israel of which he was king, against his own family, against Bathsheba and her husband, and against his own body. But in the first awful agony of his repentance, every thought was swallowed up in this–that he had sinned against God.
The Joy of Forgiveness
All the world knows of David’s sin, but not so many know of the forgiveness of which David sings in this psalm. The heading of this psalm is the Hebrew word maschil which means, “for instruction” or “to make wise.” It is the first of the thirteen Maschil psalms, and is usually reckoned also as the second of the penitential psalms. It follows historically Psalm 51 which appears to have been written in the very midst of David’s penitential struggle. In that psalm he expresses his anguish of soul and his longing that the face of God which was averted on account of his sin might be again lifted upon him and the joy of God’s salvation restored to him.
This psalm commences with that note of joy expressed in a beatitude. The Hebrew word ash ray signifies, “oh the happinesses” or “the blessednesses” of the man who is forgiven. That forgiveness is first of all treated doctrinally and then as experienced in David’s own personal history.
Three words are used to give us first of all a complete view of sin. Transgression is an act of revolt, an attitude of rebellion, our act of breaking away from God and over-stepping the mark of Divine authority over our lives. Sin is an erring from the mark, a deviation from the path of well pleasing to God. Iniquity is moral crookedness, that inward perversion of our nature, that distortion that manifests itself in wrong-doing. At first our conscience becomes awakened to the guilt of some act of transgression: but as the terrible question presses itself more and more upon our attention we are finally landed in the painful conviction that, behind the isolated acts of transgression and the manifestations of sin, there is iniquity, the natural depravity of our being.
Similarly, three terms are used to describe the fullness of God’s forgiveness. Forgiven, meaning “lifted off” or “borne away,” has in view the removal of the burden of sin. Covered refers to the hiding of the stain of sin, so that it becomes invisible to God, the Holy One, and is as though it had never taken place. Imputeth not is the cancelling of the debt of sin because it has already been paid. The six terms thus used in verses 1 and 2 have as their background the solemn proceedings on the Great Day of Atonement recorded in Leviticus 16. There the blood of the goat shed as a sin offering was taken within the veil of the tabernacle by the high priest and sprinkled seven times before the Mercy Seat. At the same time the sins of the nation were confessed over the head of the live scapegoat which was then taken by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
With this imagery in mind, David saw himself as the man whose transgressions were borne away by the sin-laden goat into the wilderness of God’s forgetfulness, whose sin was covered by the blood of the goat offered as a sin offering, and to whom the Lord no longer imputed iniquity because it had been put upon the head of the sinbearer. And all this so vividly reminds us of “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.”
The Torment of Conscience
David now relates the truth of this to his own personal experience. For nearly a whole year after his fall, he obstinately resisted the accusations of conscience. He seems to have suffered utter misery of spirit as well as affliction in body (vv. 3-4). Delitsch remarks here, “The Selah here indicates that while the singers pause, the music breaks in and does what it can to represent the hell anguish of an awakened conscience not accompanied by a broken heart.” Conviction leads to confession. He had sinned against God. He made his confession to God. Frank and full confession met with instant pardon and forgiveness (v. 5). Let us be sure of keeping short accounts with God.
On the ground of David’s own personal experience of God’s forgiveness, he is able to exhort others to pray (v. 6). Now that he is back on terms with God, he can sing of all he has found in God. Again three terms are used. First, he speaks of a “hiding place.” He finds in God a safe retreat, a haven of rest to whom he can turn in every hour of need. Next, he says the Lord “preserves from trouble.” He has now the confidence that although God’s people are no more exempt from trouble than their fellowmen, yet they will not be overwhelmed in trouble. Finally he describes himself as being “compassed with songs of deliverance.” God surrounds him each day with such delivering power over sin that He will cause him to praise.
God’s Guidance
So much for the past and the present. As a man fallen, he has been forgiven. What of the future? Verse 8 commits him to God’s guidance. If we are obstinate and self-willed, God will need to keep us in check with the bit and bridle of painful circumstances. On the other hand, if we will but listen daily to God’s instruction from the Scriptures, He will unfailingly show us our pathway for each day, and keep His guardian eye upon us as we travel along it (vv. 9-10).
In the final note of David’s song, the number three appears again. “Be glad in the Lord,” for now there is an inward joy in the heart. “Rejoice ye righteous,” declares the outward expression of joy in right living for God. “Shout for joy,” is the triumphant proclamation of a victory gained.
“The psalm begins with happiness as the fruit of forgiveness, and ends with fullness of joy as the fruit of fellowship.”
Psalm 32 from the Psalter