Hidden sins and indiscretions – Advent Psalm of Confession, Part 1

As I write this in December 2023, we’re just three weeks away from Christmas Day. Do you hide Christmas presents and wait until Christmas Eve night to place the gifts under the tree? When you were a child, did you tried to find the hidden gifts and take a peek?

Thinking about hiding things, take a moment, and I want you to think about the last time, or any time you can remember, that you hid something from someone.  I’m not talking about Christmas gift, though. I’m talking about a time you did something bad, and you didn’t want them to find out, you didn’t want to be caught.  You were trying to avoid consequences. 

The desire to hide our sins is a common human experience. We do something bad, something we regret, something we are ashamed of, and we tried to hide it so we don’t get caught, and especially so we don’t have to face the consequences.  In our Advent blog series, we’re looking at a selection of psalms that help us prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Last week Jeff Byerly blogged about psalms of lament. This week we turn to Psalm 32, a psalm about uncovering the sin we have hidden.

The writer of the psalm, King David, reflects on a time when he was not doing well at all. He starts with a reminder of grace in verses 1-2:

“Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.”

The problem is that sometimes we do have a spirit of deceit in our lives.  We sin, and we hide it.  When we lie.  When we steal.  When we act like one person at home, another person at church, and yet another person at work or school or with our friends.  When we have an secret sin in our lives.  A bad habit no one knows about.  Maybe we call it a guilty pleasure, trying to appease the feeling of shame.  Maybe in our minds we rationalize and try to legitimize the reason for hiding things. 

As he continues his poem in verses 3-4, David talks about the pain he was suffering from hiding his sin:

“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”

Do you wish you knew the details that led David to write these deeply emotional words? There is a story from David’s life that he might be talking about.

In 2 Samuel chapter 11, David is at a very, very good spot in life.  It hasn’t been easy for him for a long time.  From the time he left his father’s house to fight the giant Philistine Goliath, David has had all sorts of drama.  Though the prophet Samuel had anointed David as king, David’s father-in-law Saul wanted to kill him, so David was a refugee for something like ten years.  Even after Saul died, it took many years for David to fight more battles and unite the nation.  So much war. But through it all, David sought the Lord, striving to live and lead God’s way. Finally he is king of a unified nation and he brings the Ark of God into the city.  That brings us to 2 Samuel 11, verse 1,

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”

There are still wars to fight, but they are now far from home.  David can finally relax.  You know that feeling of calm and ease and peace when you’ve worked so hard for so long?  Here’s the problem.  If you’re so used to working, you might not know how to do anything else.  There is a vacuum, an emptiness in your life.  Work is gone.  What will you fill that time with?

Look at 2 Samuel 11, verse 2-5,

“One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

Do you ever do people-watching?  It is really fascinating.  Go to the mall, especially in this busy holiday season, sit in the middle, and just watch.  People are endlessly interesting. 

David is people-watching.  He’s up high, and he gets an eyeful.  He should have turned away.  But no. 

What he does is bad.  Very bad.  Lust leads to using his power to sleep with the wife of his soldier, while his soldier is away fighting for him.  It is deeply, deeply troubling and sinful.  David was called a man after God’s heart, and that is true, but this situation is really shameful.  David has served the Lord, an incredible example for decades.  Now this indiscretion. 

What should David do?  Tell everyone the awful thing he did?  That would be unthinkable because the Mosaic Law in Lev 20:10 and Deut. 22:22 says that the punishment for adultery is death.  So even though it would be the right thing to do, it’s very unlikely that David is going to make a public confession.

What does he do?

We’ll find out in the next post.

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash