How lovely God is Pt 14: The power of forgiveness
Psalm 32 1Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 5Then 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. 6Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. 7You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. 8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 9Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. 11Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!
James 5:16 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
1 John 1:9 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Context
The Catholic Church has the formalized sacrament of confession, and the Protestant Church strongly advocates confession as a necessary pathway to healing, but I think it is probably true that no penitent person truly enjoys publicly confessing their sins even if it is to only to one other individual. In Psalm 32, though, David speaks of the joy to be found on the other side of a habit of truthful repentant confession.
When I Kept Silent, I Wasted Away
We don’t know what the sin was that David speaks of in Psalm 32—was it the adultery with Bathsheba or the murder of Uriah? We don’t know, and we don’t really need to know because the point of the Psalm is not the sin itself but the pain resulting from unconfessed sin. David speaks with the hindsight of a man who has tasted both the misery of hidden sin and the liberating delight of honest confession. He wants us to know that the one who is forgiven is truly blessed, truly happy, truly alive. The instinct to hide, the inner collapse that hiding creates, the healing that confession brings, and the ongoing security of God’s steadfast love—is exactly the experience believers continue to have. It is no wonder that the apostle Paul quotes Psalm 32 as a prime Old Testament example of justification by grace through faith (Romans 4:6–8).
There has been a rash of public exposures lately of leaders of mega-churches and ministries whose sin has been brought to the surface after years of submerged cancerous growth. The most important thing to God for any of His children is the condition of that person’s eternal soul, not the size of the ministry, success in life, or accumulation of wealth. When David speaks of the “hand of the Lord” being “heavy” upon him, it is not the hand of wrath so much as the hand of mercy. God refuses to let David make peace with sin; God loves him too much to leave him comfortable in rebellion.
The final image David uses—his strength evaporating “as by the heat of summer”—is painfully relatable. Anyone who has carried private sin knows that it drains vitality. Energy that should be used for life, worship, relationships, and work gets consumed by maintaining the secret. David is describing what spiritual disintegration feels like. And he wants us to know that refusing to confess sin does not preserve life—it corrodes it. Hiding sin never ends in joy; it ends in spiritual exhaustion.
And yet this is where many believers still linger. Shame tells us to hide. Pride tells us not to admit anything. Fear warns that if others knew, we would lose everything. But Psalm 32 exposes that lie: it is hidden sin that destroys us, not confessed sin.
This is the ‘shock me now—spare me later’ mercy of God. When a person stands before Jesus on that great day life is over—there is no longer any opportunity to repair the damage cause by years, maybe decades, of hidden sin. But if sin is confessed now, repentant hearts having turned to God, then there is time for healing, for drawn-in close communion, for resurgence of love.
When I Confessed, You Forgave
After groaning—after feeling the weight of internal sins—David turns to God. “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.” (v. 5) Astonishingly, the verse ends with no delay. No conditions. No penance. No probation period. As soon as David confessed, God forgave.
David does three things :
I acknowledged—he becomes honest with God.
I did not cover—he stops pretending and hides nothing.
I will confess—he speaks openly and specifically to the Lord.
And God does only one:
You forgave.
Notice the logic: forgiveness does not rest on our faithfulness but on God’s. It is as if David is saying, “Don’t wait. Don’t hide. Don’t waste away like I did. Confess now—while God’s door of mercy is wide open.” God loves to forgive. That is not wishful thinking. It is revealed truth.
You Are My Hiding Place
Here is one of the most surprising turns in the psalm. Earlier David hid his sin from God, but now he hides himself in God: “You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with shouts of deliverance.” (v. 7)
The contrast is intentional. When hiding sin, David became weak, miserable, and spiritually parched. When hiding in God, he is preserved, protected, and surrounded with songs of rescue. It is impossible to miss the emotional transformation: the man who groaned all day long (v. 3) now hears shouts of deliverance (v. 7). The one whose bones wasted away now finds preservation. The man who felt crushed by God’s hand now finds shelter in God’s arms.
The idea of God as a hiding place runs all throughout Scripture. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength.” Proverbs 18:10 adds, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.” And Jesus, in John 10:28–29, promises that no one can snatch His sheep from His hand.
Confession creates that shift—from running away from God to running into Him. Sin tells us to flee from the Lord; grace invites us to flee to Him.
Then comes God’s own voice in vv. 8–9: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” God does not merely forgive. He guides. Forgiveness is not the end of God’s work—it is the beginning of restored fellowship and renewed direction. God keeps His eye on His children. He leads them gently. The only warning God gives is not to be like a stubborn horse or mule (v. 9). Confession softens our hearts—stubbornness hardens them.
And You Surround Me with Unfailing Love
The last movement in the psalm is a contrast between two kinds of people: those who persist in their sin and those who trust in the Lord. “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.” (v. 10)
The phrase steadfast love is one of the most important words in Scripture. It means God’s covenant faithfulness, His loyal love, His unwavering commitment to His people. Steadfast love is not sentimental affection but promise-shaped devotion. It is the love that keeps loving—even when the beloved falls. It is the love that forgives again and again. It is the love that remains.
Remember, David is not calling us to rejoice because we are flawless, but because we are forgiven. In Christ, we are the “righteous” and “upright in heart,” not because we have no sin but because our sin has been dealt with. Psalm 32’s language is fulfilled in the New Testament reality of justification: God does not count our sin against us because He counted it against Christ (Romans 4:7–8). This is why a forgiven person can rejoice freely. Shame has been lifted. Sin has been covered. Iniquity is not counted. We are surrounded—not by guilt, not by fear, not by secrecy—but by the unfailing love of God.
There is a quiet but powerful shift in David’s vocabulary from the start of the psalm to the end. Early on he spoke of transgression, sin, iniquity. At the end he speaks of love, joy, and gladness. That is the journey of anyone who honestly confesses and receives God’s grace. God moves us from devastation to delight, from hiding to healing, from wasting away to being surrounded with shouts of deliverance, and from guilt to gladness.
Psalm 32 is ultimately a psalm about the goodness of God. A God who does not let sin destroy His children. A God who forgives fully and freely. A God who becomes our hiding place. A God who surrounds us with unfailing love. This is what it means to be blessed.
What about me?
The idea of ‘shock me now, not later’ is counter-intuitive. We don’t want our sins exposed, but the healing that comes from confession is truly transformative. We want to keep things hidden—fear of embarrassment or public humiliation causes us to cover things up. But that is precisely the wrong thing to do.
These mighty men of God whose sin has been exposed lately suffered great criticism precisely because they covered up. No doubt God had been talking to them for years, maybe decades, to repent and seek forgiveness. But because they avoided small rebuke, they suffered great exposure.
Believer, God wants you to come clean—literally. Repentance doesn’t have to be a scene of public exposure, but it does have to be an honest declaration before God. Find someone in your spiritual community that you trust. If you are so new to the group that you don’t know anyone well enough, seek out the pastor. He has been anointed by God to care for your physical and spiritual health. But in any case, don’t hesitate. Don’t allow yourself to stagnate. Your spiritual relationship with God is too important.