Psalm 32:3-5 - March 31, 2009

Ps 32:3-5 "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 sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah 5 Then 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." NIV

These verses are a tremendous description of the process of conviction and repentance. David presents a powerful account of his own agony of soul as he walks under the weight of his own guilt and pain that spring from his sinful actions concerning Uriah and Bathsheba. According to the biblical record David has effectively hidden from the consequences of his sin for approximately a year. He has calculated the murder of a faithful soldier, conceived a child through an adulterous affair, implicated many of his servants in covering up the fact of his transgression and now the child is born so David has evidently walked in the knowledge of such tremendous guilt for a year or more. It is obvious from this psalm that David was not a cold hearted serial adulterer and murderer. David was caught up in a moment of lust and then he engaged in a deceptive and sinful scheme to cover his actions through the murder of Uriah but his actions are those of a desperate man who is now trapped and fearful of the consequences not those of a hard hearted man who commits an evil deed with no remorse following.
Listen again to his introductory words, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.” These are not the words of someone who doesn’t grieve about their actions. David is being tormented by the knowledge of what he has done and it is this condition that is the gift of God to him. The very fact that our hearts still feel the sting of our conscience is a sign that God is still reaching for us to restore us to himself. In Psalm 32 David is remembering the intensity of his suffering under the burden of a guilty conscience. Conviction is an inward pressure upon the soul that either breaks us down until we acknowledge our guilt before God or until we finally harden our hearts in denial of responsibility before God and push away the voice our inner man. David’s description of conviction is awesome as he paints a picture of the unrelenting presence of God’s hand pressing down upon him. This is such an illustration of the principle of true conviction that John the beloved shares in 1 John 3:21, “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” David cannot stand up under the weight of God’s hand speaking inside his thoughts, calling him to acknowledge his guilt and turn in repentance. He speaks of his strength being sapped like in the heat of summer. Who cannot relate to the oppressive power of labor under a hot sun? This is truly a picture of a guilty conscience; labor under the heat of the unrelenting fire of the Holy Spirit’s conviction.
Even in great guilt there is hope. David, the man after God’s own heart (I Sa. 13:14), was called this by an all knowing God who knew that David was capable of such wickedness. The presence of sin in a life is not what disqualifies us before God at the end of the story. Ro. 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and earlier in verse ten Paul states, “There is none righteous, no, not one:” What separates David from others is that when confronted by his sins David broke in conviction and repentance, truly turning from it and receiving in return a revelation of God’s mercy. “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.” The cover up is over! No more hiding, only confession, repentance and the knowledge of forgiveness!