Psalms of David

Psalms in Book 1 (Psalms 1 to 41) are primarily personal songs, so I will look at how they apply to us personally. Social and communal aspects of life and work do not come in until the later books of Psalms.

It is not said when David wrote Psalm 32, but it has been thought from ancient times to be after David had slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife.

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The books of Psalms are roughly themed like this:

Book 1: Psalms 1 – 41: God is beside us.
Book 2: Psalms 42 – 72: God goes before us
Book 3: Psalms 73 – 89: God is all around us.
Book 4: Psalms 90 – 106: God is above us.
Book 5: Psalms 107 – 150: God is among us.

A Maskil of David.

32 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up^[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”,
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
⁶ Therefore let everyone who is godly
    offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
    they shall not reach him.
⁷ You are a hiding place for me;
    you preserve me from trouble;
    you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
⁹ Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
    which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
    or it will not stay near you.
¹⁰ Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
    but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
¹¹ Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
    and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Psalm 32 ESVUK

I am not saying it is inevitable that this song is about David sleeping with Bathsheba, but it fits.

The timeline:

David sleeps with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife.
David sent Uriah to die in battle.
David marries Bathsheba.
David does not ask God to forgive him and is unhappy.
Nathan, a prophet, tells David of his sin.
David confesses and God forgives him. David is happy.

Compare this to the personal bit in Psalm 32:

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”,
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Whether the composition of this Psalm is connected with Bathsheba or not, it still has a lot to say about confession and forgiveness.

Structurally it is two different songs in the form of chiasma poems that repeat in reverse order, verses 1-5 and 7-11 linked by verse 6,

The first song is about David’s own confession and concludes that if we do not cover our wrongdoing from God then God covers up our sin. It also shows the struggle of the confession, it is not a simple case of saying sorry, it requires a complete change of heart.

The second song starts off personal for the first part and in the repeat asks for others to do the same. Verse seven, talks about shouts of deliverance which was the first to draw my attention as it describes what this psalm is, a song of deliverance, a shout of joy to a forgiving God. Who can blame David for shouting after what he has been through? God does not have to forgive us, the confession/forgiveness thing is not prescriptive, but it is a sign of God’s grace us given freely as a sign of his love.

But after looking at the psalm in different ways it is the central verse that gets my final focus. Maybe it is because I procrastinate about taking things to God: This is unnecessary. But it is also the necessary sincerity that I find difficult. This came as an unsubtle reminder that approaching God is easy as he knows it already. Maybe it’s my shame that makes honest confession difficult. It shouldn’t be but it often is.

God forgives sins of all kinds whether against God or man, whether great or small, whether conscientious or inadvertent, or whether by omission or commission—it is all to be found in God.

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