INTRODUCTION
Most
church going Christian will claim that when tragedy strikes, one should turn to
God for comfort, and that a great place to find that comfort is in the psalms
of David. This is probably due to the fact that David’s psalms are his prayers, poetic outpours
of joy, anguish, blessing, and grief to his Creator. A psalm of David is simply
a prayer and prayer is the first language of man. Eugene Peterson
explains prayer is the primal instinct claiming: “we do not first learn how to do it, and
then proceed to do it; we do it, in the doing we find out what we are doing,
and then deepen and mature in it.”[1]
BODY
In
our reading today, Psalm 32, David says “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose
spirit is no deceit.” (NIV 32:1-2).
A
respected Lutheran scholar, H.C. Leupold, in his Exposition of the
Psalms claims that though the traditional translation of “Blessed” is technically correct and should be acknowledged
as a possible meaning. But his personal opinion is that the word emphasizes
happiness as well.[2] His opinion falls
well in the current North American thought where being happy is the ultimate
goal. After all, there are countless anecdotes about happiness; movies are
supposed to end with “happily ever after,” and the “health and wealth gospel” is rampant in teaching. While there is
nothing wrong with happiness, being happy is not what God teaches his children.
Through both example of past human life, and experiences of current life, one
can easily see that while the path man desires is a straight line from birth to
God with no bumps or potholes, God’s path is full of valleys, and rivers, and mountains, mud pits, and
quicksand. Not because He wants his children to hurt because he wants his
children to grow and mature into his plan, and without suffering and trial,
happiness cannot be cherished. And though some of his children are consistent
in prayer of thankfulness in the good and happy times, most turn to him in the
bad when they are blinded to the blessings He is bestowing.
I prefer the thought of Dr. Scott
Gleaves, who in a lecture once explained to me that though happiness and
blessedness may sometimes be correlated; there is no direct link between the
two. I realized
after some thought that there is no correlation because happiness is an emotion
while being blessed is not. One is blessed by God, but one feels happy because
of circumstances. In other words, the connection between blessedness and
happiness is sometimes happiness is the emotional response to being blessed.
With this differentiation in mind, in our
reading, David is not saying that those who are forgiven are “happy”
because even once
sin is forgiven, consequence remains; but those who are forgiven are blessed
because they are yet again pure in the eyes of the Almighty God.
David goes on to write that “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day
long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in
the heat of summer.”
(NIV Psalm 32:3-4)
In his commentary, J. W. Rogerson
explains that admitting that his stubbornness and unwillingness to confess and
repent of his rebellion to God caused him pain physically. Rogerson also
hypothesizes that David’s groaning is not
due to his guilt, but self-pity[3]. When someone is stubbornly refusing to
confess and repent, there are consequences added to the consequences of the
initial sin. This is seen through the change in David after repentance.
“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 Psalm 32:5)
As soon as David let go of his stubbornness,
the consequences of rebellion let up, his spirit and body were set at ease.
Though the consequences of the initial sin will remain, once a child of God
repents of his rebellion, God will ease his spirit and guilt.
Picking up the reading with verse 8, the
reader finds what appears to be the Lord speaking: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will
counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or mule, which
have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not
come to you.” (NIV Psalm 32:8-9)
Here it seems that the Lord is directly
speaking love and comfort to his people (and a little bit of
reprimand) . Though we do not have time to look in detail, in verse 7, David
had declared God to be a hiding place, and God confirms this declaration. He says to his
followers that he will teach and counsel his children. The argument can be made
that one way he fulfills this promise is through conscience and the guidance of
the Holy Spirit. When one is guilty, he is led to confession by the prodding of
the Holy Spirit.
It is no wonder that the Psalmist claims
that the one who confesses is blessed. The one who confesses and repents is
directly following commandments and the teaching of God. Of course doing as a
teacher instructs will lead to blessing and not a curse. The blessings of God
are promises for mankind to grab hold of and make good on. Any man can do this,
because of the free will described in verse nine. Man can be stubborn like a mule
(or David in verse 4) and not listen to the way of God, but that man will miss
out on the blessing. Likewise the man can follow
in the way he should go, and the blessing will be given to him. The decision
remains in the hand of the man. God wants all of his creations to be blessed, but
he does not want to force the blessing upon those who do not show they want the
blessing.
David ends this poem in a positive tone: “Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts him. Rejoice in the Lord
and be glad, your righteousness; sing, all who are upright in heart.” (NIV Psalm 32:10-11)
The upright in heart, those who have been
blessed by God’s forgiveness are commanded to sing and
be happy. Not because being blessed and being happy are the same, but because
they are clean in the sight of God, which is always a cause to be happy. What
an appropriate way to end an outpouring of emotion.
CONCLUSION
As
a Christian, it is important to remember that though Blessing is not the same
as happiness; the blessing of refuge is always available. We simply must choose
to accept this amazing comfort. David understood this promise well and takes
hold of it often in his poetic writings. When he has no words to explain his
pain or joy he prayed to his comforted. These prayers were then recorded in the
psalms. Personally, I think God preserved them because they are a fantastic way
to connect through Peterson’s “Primal speech.” Preacher Collin
Packer says it well in his sermon A Song for Sinners:
“Psalm 32 is not only a psalm of David. It
has become the property of all of God’s people. Psalm 32 describes the feeling
of every person, from Adam and Eve in the beginning, to each man and woman
living in the twenty-first century. The words of David can be the words of anyone who
feels David’s pain.”[4]
According to this
thought, Psalm 32 can be used by any living person. Logically, this idea
extends to all other psalms. So it would not be farfetched to assume that even
Jesus connected to his father through David’s writings. This is the stance taken by
author N.T. Wright in his book Simply Christian. Wright claims that “The agony of the Psalmist reached its own
climax when Jesus wept and sweat blood in Gethsemane, struggling with his
father about the final step in his lifelong vocation.” (p 161).
If connecting to God through the psalms is good enough for Jesus, who
was both fully human and fully God, connecting to God through the primal speech
of David’s prayer is good
enough for me too. I hope praying prayers such as this, with blessings and
promises of forgiveness and refuge are good enough for you too. May the peace
of the Lord be upon you as you decide if you are going to follow his teaching,
or continue in stubbornness. I pray that each of you consider the promises and
blessing included in the psalms. I challenge you to read through, and pray
through the Psalms this week. It is amazing what God will do when asked.
Whether you are praying for the forgiveness, or the refuge, or the teaching, God
will show up one way or another.
Bibliography
Leupold, H. C. Exposition of the
Psalms . Grand rapids : Baker Book House Publishing , 1984.
Packer, Collin. "A Song for
Sinners." In An Honest Cry, by Bob Chisholm and Dave Bland, 141-148.
Abilene: Leafwood Heritage, 2010.
Peterson, Eugene H. Answering God .
San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishing, 1989.
Rogerson. Psalms 1-50. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Wright, N. T. Simply Christian.
New York: HarperOne , 2006.
