Refreshment in Refuge

Psalm 32

Have you ever taken a cat to the vet?


(This is not our cat Scooter, but a stand in actor.)

Like all good owners ,we had to take our cat to the vet and the caterwauling he set up all the way there and all the way back! (that’s where that word comes from, you know= CAT—er—wailing)

I was grateful it was only a 30 minute drive. “Out, out, I want out,” he wailed all the way there.

I can imagine it was much like David’s misery which he describes in Psalm 32. Our cat didn't have unconfessed sin, but he was sick. Unconfessed sin makes people bodies sick.

Look at verse 3…When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.


It is like borrowing money from a friend knowing you can’t pay it back. After awhile you start avoiding your friend. Soon, you’re ducking down hallways and going the long way around just so you won’t bump into your friend. Then you want to avoid your friend at all costs because you have built a wall. (Can you tell this happened to me?) The person you borrowed from doesn’t care about the money, never did care about it, and most likely never truly wanted you to pay it back. Your friend loves the fellowship with you, and would much rather have you than the money. That’s how God is. He wants that relationship with you, but sin breaks the fellowship on your part, not His part because He promised to never leave or forsake you. David finally understood this.

Psalm 32 – the ungodly can be reinstated into godliness. David is prostrate in repentance and worship. This was after Nathan had confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba. We get a peek into his heart in this Psalm.

His bones became old. Now, I’m growing older and I have more aches and pains than I ever had when I was younger. Just to get out of bed sometimes sounds like a tool box being turned over with all the clanks and grindings.

He was howling all day. Imagine that. King James translates it roaring. The word means literally “a rumbling or moan”, so I translate that as CAT-er-wailing.
He says in verse 5: I confessed my sin to You, and I have not hidden my iniquity; I said, I will confess over my transgression to Jehovah; and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Glory! There is something so incredibly important here. First we see David angry at the injustice, then he is deeply repentant when he recognizes his own sin. (2 Samuel 12:13), Then he is prostrate (2 Samuel 12:16) for his son, fasting, seeking God in the hope God may have mercy and let his son live. David understands the deep necessity of confession in order to be right with the Lord and how God forgives. It is essential that we know beyond doubt that God forgives our transgressions.

Without that knowledge, we cannot worship from our heart. Without that knowledge, Satan builds a web of guilt and shame around us to keep us from Worshipping God.

Psalm 32:11 Be glad in Jehovah and rejoice, you righteous ones; and all the upright in heart, shout for joy.

David addresses it again in Psalm 51. He tells us Who to go to to get right with God. We can't do it on our own. God can.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me out from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

We have established that there is much more to worship than singing and praising, although that is part of worship. The word Worship means to bow low and to serve. In actions, it means,

Obedience regardless of the apparent cost, as Abraham obeyed.  
Sacrifice as ordained by God.  
Confession and repentance is crucial to experience worship as God would have us experience it.

Then God gives us a renewed, sparkling clean and a right spirit (some translations state steadfast spirit). It can be done from a distance as the Children of Israel did when God came to the Tabernacle, but is that how we should worship? It involves the heart (will), and the ears (understanding).

Worship is a constant and continual state when we are right with God. We can barely understand how the Holy Spirit indwells, how much we miss of true worship in these frail bodies, temporary tents we inhabit for such a speck of time. What a blessing it is to have the Holy Spirit joined to body and soul to help with our worship. It is a fascinating, imagination stretcher to contemplate worship in the proper setting (God's Heavenly Temple) and in the proper dress (our bright, white linen robes of righteousness), surrounded by millions of angels all of us singing a new song of the Lamb. I can't wait.