Everyone born of God overcomes the world—sooner or later—after defeat, or in avoiding it by faith.
Having delighted in the joy of forgiveness (Ps 32:1-2), and the high cost of unconfessed sin (vv 3-4), along with the simple solution to it (v 5), David now expands his vision to include “everyone who is godly.” These, he says, “shall pray to You in a time when You may be found” (v 6). If you are thinking God’s way, you obviously want things set right with the Lord. But sometimes there’s a delay between the sin and the confession. Why? Our deceitful heart has its reasons: it isn’t a big deal; everybody does it; you’ve done it before and gotten away with it; you’ve been good for quite a while and deserve the odd fling now and again; God has blessed anyway, so it can’t be that bad. We know the lines the Liar uses. So it often takes time for the patient, gracious Spirit to peel away the layers of self-delusion until we’re ready to ’fess up. David calls this, literally, “the time of finding.” Otherwise we quench or grieve the Spirit. Such openness leads to confidence in the Lord. Floods can’t drown us (v 6). Enemies can’t find us, and nothing can dishearten us (v 7). At this point in the psalm, the Lord suddenly interjects. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (v 8). Eye guidance only happens when we’re looking to Him with nothing between. In all of this, He enjoins us, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule” (v 9). The horse must be held back, and the mule must be spurred on. Instead go with God’s timing because it’s perfect. The psalm concludes much as Psalm 1 does. There’s a fork in the road—the “many sorrows” of wickedness (v 10), or trusting in the Lord, when “mercy shall surround” us, resulting in gladness and joy filling our lives (v 11). Is that a difficult choice?