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| God's "good" hiding places include the winter soil for flower bulbs. These are daffodils, ready for spring. |
“The
When “The
Hiding Place” was released, I was in my twenties and reading the Psalms with
fresh spiritual eyes. When I came across the “hiding place” phrase in Psalm
32:7, I marked it: “Thou art a hiding place for me; thou preserveth me from
trouble; thou dost encompass me with deliverance” (32:7). Later, re-reading Corrie’s
book, I realized it quoted another “hiding
place” passage right after Corrie’s family was arrested and detained at the
local police station. The night before her family was split up to go to
different prisons, a group had gathered around Corrie’s aged father for evening
prayers. She recalled: “His blue eyes seemed to be seeing beyond the locked
crowded room, beyond Haarlem, beyond earth itself, as he quoted from memory:
‘Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word….Hold thou me up,
and I shall be safe…’” (The Hiding Place,
Chosen Books, 1971, p. 126).
Corrie’s
father had quoted from Psalm 119 (starting at verse 114), but both that verse
and Psalm 32:7 used the same Hebrew word (sether)
for “hiding place.” In both places,
“hiding place” is a metaphor for God’s loving presence, even when we face
unspeakably difficult circumstances.
TWO ‘HIDDEN’ THINGS
Psalm 32
deals with two types of “hidden” things. One is hidden sins. Psalm 51 tells how
David confessed his hidden sins of adultery and conspiracy to murder. Psalm 32
also refers to that incident, but was written later, probably to warn and teach
others about falling into hidden sin. Psalm 32 reveals how hiding sin damaged
David’s health. He describes his bones wasting away, groaning all through the
day, a sense of heaviness, and sapped strength. The second
“hidden” subject, after confession of sin, is God’s love and protection,
described as our “hiding place.” The
psalm also speaks of spiritual teachings that are hidden from the hard hearts
of the unsaved.
HIDDEN AND HIDEOUS
Both Psalms
1 and 32 open with the word “blessed.” The Amplified version, trying to catch
the energy of the original Hebrew (‘esher),
translates this “happy, fortunate, to be envied.” Psalm 1’s “blessed” person
completely followed God. Psalm 32’s “blessed” person realizes he has fallen
from God’s perfect path, but knows the blessing of forgiveness after
confession. Hebrew
poetry is characterized by parallel thoughts, and Psalm 32 begins with an
excellent example as David seems to rake the Hebrew language for synonyms for
the hideousness of sin.*Transgression (v. 1), from the Hebrew peshah, a “going away,” “departure,” or “rebellion” against God.
*Sin (v. 1), from the Hebrew chattath, a falling-short of a mark, like an archer failing to hit his target. In this case, sin is “falling short” of God’s law.
*Iniquity (v. 2), from Hebrew hawon, something corrupted, twisted, crooked—which we become in twisting away from God to sinful choices.
Next, the psalmist gives three divine responses to sin.
*Forgiven—literally, to have our sin burden lifted off, like Pilgrim losing his burden at the cross in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.”
*Covered—a term picturing the Old Testament sacrificial system. A priest would carry blood from a sacrificed animal and sprinkle the “mercy seat” or cover of the ark, which contained the law the people had broken. The blood symbolized shielding the sinner from God’s judgment. Christ’s death fulfilled that ritual, once and for all.
*Not counted against him—like a divine bookkeeping term. God takes the sins recorded in our life’s ledger book, removes them and put them in Christ’s ledger book. He died for them, and His righteousness was credited to our ledger. In Romans 4, the apostle Paul quoted these verses and went to great lengths to explain “justification by faith.”
GOD’S HIDING PLACE
The word selah, which denotes a musical pause to
“think about this,” separates each section of this psalm. First David defined
sin and revealed how it wrecked his health. Selah,
he wrote, as though urging people not to
go down similar paths. Then David recounts his confession and the relief of
getting what was dark and hidden out in the open. “You forgave the guilt of my
sin,” he said, followed by selah (v.
5).
Next comes
an admonition to keep accounts clear with God and not wait for the fearsome
floods of chastening (“when the mighty waters rise,” v. 6). Earlier, he was
hiding from God. Now forgiven, he hides in God, his “hiding place.” David knew
well how God led him to “hiding places” in the rocky wastelands during the
dozen years he hid from Saul’s murderous campaigns. That was worth a big selah.
NOT-SO-HIDDEN COUNSEL
The psalm
ends with Proverbs-like counsel. Verse 8 spoke to me during a scary time of
change when I was a young adult. I’d decided to leave my newspaper reporter’s
job with its steady paycheck for “mission service” a thousand miles away, and
“support” for income. To help me decide, I’d flown to the mission headquarters
to talk with people there. I had thought much about Psalm 32:8, now marked in
red in my Bible: “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I
will counsel you with my eye upon you.” On the flight back, as I looked out on
clouds and land, I had an inexplicable sense of God guiding me with His all-seeing
wisdom.
The next
verse was my challenge: to not be
like a mule that had to be pulled into submission. Lyrics of an old hymn kept coming to me:
“Have thine own way, Lord…I am waiting, yielded and still.” How well these summarize
the message of Psalm 32. When we quit hiding from God, we can rest in God’s
hiding place. There is no better place to be.
And though it’s not written in David’s text, this is another place where
a selah would be very appropriate!
Next time: Psalm 34
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