Psalm Chapter 32

Psalm 32: The Weight That Lifted

There is a particular misery that belongs only to the person who knows he is guilty and will not say so. David describes it in terms so physical they are almost medical: bones waxing old, moisture turned to the drought of summer, a roaring that went on all day long. The body, it seems, keeps the score that the lips refuse to speak. And then — confession. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid." The sentence is almost anticlimactic in its simplicity, but what follows is not: "And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Just like that. No elaborate penance, no probationary period, no fine print. The God who had been experienced as a heavy hand in the silence became, in the speaking, a hiding place. It is one of the great ironies of the spiritual life that the thing we most dread doing — telling the truth about ourselves — is the very door through which relief comes rushing in.

00:00 The Blessedness of Forgiveness
01:00 Silence Broken, Guilt Released
01:40 Songs of Deliverance