Psalm 32 is one of the Bible’s great passages on the heaviness of sin and on the joy and relief of forgiveness. David begins the psalm with shouts of joy: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity!” David then concludes the psalm with another outburst of praise: “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart!” The psalm is about the blessing of forgiveness.

But what sin is it that David has in mind? We can speculate that David is celebrating his forgiveness from his sin with Bathsheba and with the murder of Uriah. While those may very well be the sins that David has in mind, I think it is significant that David does not mention any particular sin. Notice that all the references to sin in the psalm are general references. There is no specific sin identified. Why is this significant? It is significant because it allows the psalm to apply to all sinners. If the psalm mentioned adultery or murder, then the covetous man or the thief could find no joy in the psalm, because the sins mentioned would not apply to him. There would be no sense of conviction for the idolater or the liar, because the sin identified was not their sin. But there is intentionally no sin identified in the psalm and thus the psalm applies to all sins.

Because of the way that Psalm 32 is written it can apply to any sin. Do you have any transgression that needs to be forgiven, or do you have any sin that needs to be covered? In Psalm 32 you will find that even your sin can be forgiven.

All sin causes you to waste away as with the fever heat of summer. All transgression and iniquity bring the LORD’s hand of heaviness and guilt pressing down upon you. This is the case no matter the sin or transgression. But if you will acknowledge your sin and if your iniquity you will not hide, then no matter what the sin is the LORD will remove the guilt of your sin.

This is the beauty of the Scripture and this is evidence of divine authorship because the Bible brings conviction, no matter the sin and it brings the hope of forgiveness, no matter the sin that is plaguing a person.

Because no sin is specified, all sins are included.

SDG       rmb       6/27/2018