PENITENTIAL PRAYER - Psalm 32 is one of the few laments
that make the liturgical scene; in the course of Christian history, most laments in the
psalms have long vanished from communal, public prayer. This psalm is significant because
of what it holds in common with the other Pentitential Psalms (6, 51, 38, 102, 130, and
143): a type of lament that explicitly stresses sin and its forgiveness. [1]
CIRCLE OF FORGIVENESS - This psalm creates a circle of logic that begins with a simple
discovery: happy are those . . . The truth about forgiveness recalls a moment in which the
pray-er came to such a discovery: a time of unhappiness due to un-confession of sin. The
final forgiveness section closes with a full acknowledgement of personal guilt and sin
which then leads the reader back to the learning moment: and you forgave the guilt of my
sin. Now were back to the happiness that results when sin/transgresssion is
forgiven.
WHY WE NEED SIN - Dr. Karl Menninger penned his famous book, Whatever Became of Sin
decades ago. He sought to recover the concept of sin, i.e. the responsibility of personal
wrong-doing. He realized what Psalm 32 also recognized: the devastating physical,
emotional, and spiritual effects of failing to acknowledge our sinfulness. Like the
psalmist, he calls on us to break our silence, "to identify it, to define it, to warn
us about it, and to spur measures for combating and rectifying it." [2]
What keeps people from confession
of wrong doing? Unconfessed sin sapped this pray-ers strength like the summer
humidity. How would you describe the cover up of sin-what images come to mind?
God freely forgives. How has that message been driven home to you recently?
I think a very useful homily on this
psalm might be entitled, Why we need sin. In one sense that is not true. But from the
perspective of Karl Menninger the absence of sin-awareness begins to skew personal
responsibility in our actions. Create an imaginary world in which no one takes
responsibility and then hold that over against the three movements of Psalm 32-the
devastation of unconfessed sin, confessing our sins and forgiveness, and the discovery in
v. 1: Blessed is the one whose transgressions is forgiven.
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