We began our study of Psalm 32 last time, which is entitled “A Psalm of David, Maschil”.  We found the title means a Psalm that gives instruction. We have entitled the Psalm “Instruction On The Plight Of A Sinner”.  We looked last time in verses 1-2 at ‘The Confidence Of The Sinner’.  Let us turn our thoughts to verses 3-5, which says, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.  I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.”

I have entitled this section ‘The Conviction Of The Sinner’.  In verse 4 we find ‘The Horror Of Conviction’.  David said, “…I kept silence,”  I see from our text that he was silent as far as confession is concerned but not as to sorrow.  Oh, what a killing thing sin is.  I was reminded of the power of sin recently and talked to a lady whose son was involved in a hideous sin when she said to me, ‘Sin will take you farther than you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and make you pay more than you want to pay’.  Unconfessed sin will destroy us physically.  He who had been so strong physically now finds himself overnight with bones like an old man.  He is in so much pain he sounds like a dying animal with his roaring all the day.  God has placed upon him the powerful work of the conviction of the Holy Ghost.  “The Spanish Inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds within the heart of one convicted by the Holy Ghost”. (Spurgeon)  How many in our church today are going to Doctor after Doctor when it may be an altar before God they need.  I am not saying every sickness is the result of unconfessed sin, but all sickness does find its roots in the fall into the depravity of sins curse.

In verse 4 we find ‘The Hand Of Conviction’.  The hand of God is a blessed and helpful thing when it is under us and lifting us up.  It is an awful thing when His hand is over us pressing us down.  It would be better to have the world upon our shoulder than God’s hand of conviction upon our heart.

David said the hand of God has dried up all the moisture in his body.  This speaks of the sap of strength and the flickering light of life.  David is literally dying because he has hidden his sins.  David closes verse 4 with ‘Selah’.  It is high time to change the focus. 

In verse 5 we find ‘The Hope Of Conviction’ when David begins to own up to his sin.  He uncovers it to the God who already knows about it all.  David confesses his sin to the Lord.  The word ‘confess’ is bigger than saying I am sorry.  The word carries the idea of seeing my sins as God sees them.

It is here that David finds forgiveness.  The word means to pardon, remit, to act as if it never happened, and to write not guilty across ones account.

David ends this section with the word ‘Selah’.  John Phillips defines ‘Selah’ appropriately as “Well, what do you think about that?”