Chapter 32
David.
This is a "maskil" of David. This is some kind of term who's meaning is uncertain. Per MSB it could mean "a contemplative poem", "a psalm of understanding", or "a skillful poem". In any case, it is a word that sets apart the psalms so titled.
1st Stanza, Blessed is he to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity.
2024 - I think of this now in connection with the verse in an earlier Psalm that said something like "Remember not my sins..." It goes with these verses:
1 A Maskil of David. 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. [Psa 32:1-2 ESV]. If God sees no sin in us, because it is covered, forgiven, removed as far as east is from west, then His justice demands blessing only, and not recompense. To be without sin before God means blessings without end. So...the only thing that separates us from the blessings of God - of a Father to His own children - is our sin. Our knowing choice to wrong our Father, while also knowing that He will know what we did. How entirely childish of us to choose a course that prevents our Father from giving us what we desire. Think of the examples...If we won't do the work to graduate, we don't get the '64 Mustang as a graduation present. Things like that. I'm sure we could find a more tear-jerking example, but this is the idea.
2025 - The key to this is in the next verses:
3 When I kept silent [about my sin,] my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away [as] with the fever heat of summer. Selah. 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. [Psa 32:3-5 NASB95]
2nd, When silent, vitality was sapped. This seems to refer back to the deceit mentioned in 1st. Maybe. No...this is about being silent instead of confessing our sins to God. It eats on us. We know it's there, and yet to keep silent is to keep sin in our lives. This rolls right into the next stanza where...
2021- He was silent about Bathsheba, hoping to keep it a secret, and the guilt overwhelmed him. Perhaps the rush of water is the flood of events when the sin was discovered anyway. When dark, shameful, secret sin is exposed to public light.
2024 - Refusing to confess our sin is injurious to our bodies. It is the stubbornness of childhood. As in 1-2, we have chosen the wrong though we know we'll be found out, and now in these verses we are pretending that if we don't confess we won't be found out. Why "hurt yourself" keeping a secret that is not at all a secret! He already knows, and we only hurt ourselves when we refuse to repent and confess to God. Talk about a health problem, a cancer that eats on us and wastes us away! He already knows!!!
3rd, Confession is made, and leads to forgiveness. Only 1 verse in this stanza. This verse is followed by Selah, ending the "thought".
4th, 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. [Psa 32:6 ESV] It starts with therefore, so this is a conclusion/recommendation based on the truth of the verses preceding Selah. Perhaps the "rush of great waters" is about the cares/troubles/requirements of each day. The things we do to maintain ourselves and our families in this world. Things that "attach" us to this world. I am not really sure about the waters. Maybe the demands of this world, over time, will distance us from feeling guilty about our sin, and make us less and less likely to go back and confess it.
MSB says David is teaching that we shouldn't wait to confess, because God may no longer be near. If we don't confess, we are "keeping" the sin, and God may turn His back on that. So confess right away. But I have no idea what the rush of great waters is about. MSB doesn't address that phrase at all. Background noise from the continued sin? I really don't know. Just this one verse.
5th, One verse. You are my hiding place.
6th, Listen to God's counsel, and learn, so that you don't have to be led all the time, like a horse or mule.
2024 - This verse:
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. [Psa 32:9 ESV]. A better analogy than my child who won't confess above. When we won't confess to God what he already knows anyway, we are being a "dumb animal", who knows no better than to run from the source of all the good that can come to us. How dumb is that, and we do it every day!
7th, Rejoice in the Lord, all you upright in heart.