1 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.
3 For 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 dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

— Psalm 32:1-11, ESV

The Spring of Culpability (vs. 1-4)

It happened “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle” (ref. 2 Samuel 11:1).  

He was the king and commander in chief.  But he was bored with battle, a little too aged to lead the charge, so he stayed behind in the capitol city and let others do his fighting for him.  With little else to do, he wandered up to his rooftop to catch a cool breeze, when he caught a glimpse of something else entirely.

“She was,” in the words of Bob Seger, “a black haired beauty with big dark eyes, and points all her own sitting way up high.”  Way up high, she was, bathing, in her rooftop jacuzzi or in her chambers with the window wide open.  Her husband was away, in the king’s army, and she was all alone, until she wasn’t.  

David was a man after God’s own heart and Bathsheba was a faithful wife to Uriah and devoted worshipper of God.  They did not wake up that morning in Jerusalem intending to commit adultery and murder, two of the top ten.  They were not those kind of culprits.  But, they were culpable, as are all human beings, because they were capable of committing any and every sin in the book, against one another, and against God.

Sin is “transgression,” the commission of any deed done contrary to the commandments of God.  It is the use of one’s hands, or other body parts, to carry out lust instead of love, sinful desire rather than sacred duty, personal pleasure instead of concern for other people.  It is a failure forged by doing the wrong thing.

Sin is “sin,” the failure to do the right thing.  It is the omission of obedience to God’s ordained word and will.  It is the absence of good faith, the denial of blessed hope, and the misuse of sacrificial love.  It happens when our worst instincts are aroused and not doused with holy water.    

Sin is “iniquity,” the the condition that leads to the commission of the wrong and the omission of the right.  It may be called total depravity or spiritual inability.  It is present in every human being since the fall of man, save the one man who can save us from it, who was, is, and always will be more than a man, for He is God.  

So it was, in the spring of 1,000 B.C., David and Bathsheba sinned.  The committed the act of sin.  They sinned before they acted by failing to look the other way or just say no.  They sinned because they were sinners, then they wanted what all sinners want, silence.

David wanted their sin to be “forgiven,” “covered,” and not counted against them.  First he tried it his way, the human way, hiding it, which is just one sin leading to another.  He concocted a conspiratorial coverup.  He brought the husband home on furlough, but Uriah humbly refused to take advantage.  Bathsheba showed up pregnant and Uriah showed up dead.  

People began to talk.  David “kept silent” before God and man.  That is until God and man began to bear down upon physically, “My bones wasted away,” psychologically “my groaning all day long,” and spiritually, “Your hand was heavy upon me.”  Culpability finally gave way to confession, as the long spring of sin, an actual period of about a year, gave way to “the heat of summer.”

“Selah.”  Stop and think about it.  Are you living in the spring of your culpability.  Are you hiding some sin from God, or others, that needs to be confessed?

The Summer of Confession (vs. 5)

When you try to hide your sin from people and God, you ultimately fail.  People have a way of finding out.  God already knows.  David’s scandalous sin was revealed and his Nixon-esque coverup collapsed when “The Lord sent Nathan to David” (ref. 2 Samuel 12:1).

God speaks through His word and His people, and particularly through His people who know His word.  Nathan was a prophet and preacher who knew what to say and how to say it.  So he courageously confronted the king, taking his life into his own hands.  The king’s confession ensued. 

David acknowledged all three levels of his murderous affair, the “sin,” the “iniquity,” the “transgression.”  It is always all three.  The sinful condition of our heart fails to restrain our lust or greed or pride and we do something that breaks God’s commandments, God’s heart, and often other people or relationships in the process.  

“I said I will confess,” said David, and confess he did.  He agreed with God that what he did was wrong, hurtful, sinful.  He wished he’d never done it.  He won’t, by God’s grace, do it again.  That’s a full confession.  

At first, it’s like sweet summer rain.  “You forgave,” David said to God.  The pressure eased in his chest.  The aches left his body.  The burden rolled off his soul.  David was free to enjoy unbridled and unhindered fellowship God, his first love.  

This is true for all of God’s people.  If you have a covenant of grace with him, and you sin against him, confess.  He gives more grace, grace based on the mercy of the cross.

David was a prophet and a priest in addition to being king.  He had many times offered Old Covenant sacrifices symbolic of the divine truth that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (ref. Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).  The symbol became a Savior in the New Covenant, and now we look to the finished work of Christ as the basis of our atonement.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!
— Horatio Spafford

“Selah.”  Stop and think about it.  It is always the season of confession.  Confess your sin today and be saved.  If you are saved, keep your sins confessed to God so that the free, flowing water of forgiveness will forever wash your soul and keep you in sweet fellowship with God (ref. 1 John 1:9).  Rejoice, but also remember.  There are always consequences.  

The Fall of Consequences (vs. 6-7)

Yogi Berra famously said, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”  The prophet Nathan firmly said to King David, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house” (ref. 2 Samuel 12:10).  Sin confessed is sin forgiven, this is true.  But it is also true that confession cannot take away the consequences.  

David had sinned.  He committed adultery with Bathsheba and conspired to murder her husband, Uriah.  David had confessed, freely and fully.  God forgave David, punishing David’s descendant and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, instead.  David is enjoying his place in Paradise with God as we speak.  

But Uriah died, and David’s confession did not make him Lazarus.  The child born of the illicit first union between David and Bathsheba died, and suffered terribly before going on to Heaven before his father.  In the sexual confusion that followed, one of David’s sons, Absalom, killed another one of David’s sons, Ammon, and a rebellion broke out that eventually cost Absalom, David’s favorite son, his life.  

Confession is necessary and forgiveness is sweet, but it would be better not to sin in the first place.  The earthly consequences, especially sexual sin and the ensuing divorce culture, can take you and your loved ones farther than you want to go, keep you you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.  

Back on that rooftop, God was there with David, but David chose not to be “godly,” but rather glare at Bathsheba.  God was listening, but David chose not to “offer prayer” for strength and guidance, but rather plunged into “the rush of great waters” where he abandoned God’s will to do his own, the exact opposite of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“Selah.”  Stop and think about it.  Yes, God forgives our sin when we confess to Him.  But He does not eradicate the consequences.  Better to be godly, to feed your soul with worship and the word, and to be prayerful, unceasingly.  You’re going to Heaven because of God’s forgiveness, don’t put up a stumbling block for others.

The Winter of Contentment (vs. 8-11)

“Now is the winter of our discontent,” wrote Shakespeare, which could well summarize the aftermath of the David and Bathsheba affair.  The biblical record backs this up.  “There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary (ref. 2 Samuel 21:15).”  “Now King David was old and advanced in years. And although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm (ref. 1 Kings 1:1).”

Psalm 32 pricks us by pointing out our sin.  Then it settles us with the sweet smell of of forgiveness.  Yet it warns us there are consequences, still, which can be unsettling all over again, making us, like David, tired and cold.  How can we arrive at a more contented place?  By living in the last season, the final stanza, of Psalm 32, then climbing back to the top.

Let God speak.  “I will instruct … teach … counsel you.”  David got back to work, back to worship, back to spending time in the word of God.  

Don’t be stupid.  What do you think “Be not like a horse or mule” means?  Don’t make God break out the rod (ref. Hebrews 12:6).  He loves, He forgives, but He also rebukes and chastises His children.  Just ask David.

Look before you leap.  Make choices that are wise, careful, godly.  Do you want “the sorrows of the wicked” or the “steadfast love [that] surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.”  

Be content, “glad in the Lord,” with what God has given you, be it your spouse or anyone or anything else.  Don’t take the shortcut of sin for pleasure that will not last.  Be “righteous,” with God and others, “upright in heart.”  Then, with confidence and contentment you can “shout for joy,” knowing your are fully forgiven and “blessed.”   

I am a sinner, this is true.
My punishment is overdue.
Though meted out some, in this life,
To face it finally would be total strife.

O Lord keep me blessed, and a blessing to others,
Forgive all my sin and let it not bother,
You on your throne, high up above,
Or the people here, You’ve called me to love.