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I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.
Psalm 32:8 NLT
Have you ever heard the voice of God? People want God to speak to them, until He does. As you probably know, Lyssa and I help Christians in Belgium by serving in the Christian bookstore/coffee shop, Het Goede Boek in Leuven. Sometimes people want a red letter edition of the Bible. Other times we are asked for a Dutch language version of the King James Bible. I think both requests come from the same desire. People want to really know what God says. Today in reading and longhand copying the Bible from Psalm 32, I too got a bit excited and I thought I knew what to share about God from Psalm 32 because of a particular translation choice. When I checked my observation with several other translations in three languages, I found a big difference.
v.8 “Le Seigneur dit : Je t'enseignerai” (NFC), “De Heer zegt: "Ik leer je” (BB), “The Lord says, “I will guide you“(NLT) cf. v.8”Je t’instruirai” (S21), “Ik onderwijs u” (HSV), “I will instruct you” (ESV)
When I saw the quotes and the introductory address, “The Lord says,“ I got excited. I copied with extra attention and thought to myself, now I have got the message for today straight from God’s mouth. I was making an outline of verses 8 & 9. I was really focusing on the words between the quotation marks.
I want to quote Paul’s instruction to Timothy, but first let me warn you of a rabbit trail on a hobby horse of mine coming up.
The book of Job records for us the long sermons of bad (according to God Himself at the end of the book) theologically heretical advice of Job’s friends. If you take whole chapters of Job out of context you’ll have beautiful sermons of errant false theological teaching. Yes it is God’s word because it is in the Bible but it is not correct thinking about how God works and thus it is included in context to correct the prevalent humanist deistic ideas of Job’s friends, especially concerning why bad things happen to people.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Timothy 3:16
So the question remains, why do the translators struggle so much to decide: did David offer personal advice and offer guidance, or did God? Which king is speaking in verses 8 and 9? Maybe our question is not too dissimilar to the struggle of the Pharisees. How can God speak through a man, and we take it seriously as the word of God? Because the spokesman is human, couldn't he get it wrong? If we are getting a few snippets of God’s personal instruction straight from Him, isn't that purer and more trustworthy?
And that then brings me to the content of Psalm 32. Here we have a famous confession in Psalm 32 that parallels 2 Samuel 12:13 that is at the occasion of the confession of David's adultery.
Does David offer advice to the hearers of this Psalm, or does God interject a response to David’s confession? In James chapter 4 it says, draw near to God and He’ll draw near to you, in the context of confession of sin. Was James thinking of how here in Psalm 32 God responds to confession with guidance?
Psalm 32 lesson continued
Main Point: God forgives the repentant so they can have joy in Him.
Confession of sin brings joy. vv.1-2, 10-11
Refusing to confess sin is bad for your physical and mental health. v.3
God disciplines us with heaviness, pain and problems so we confess our sin and can have joy. v.4
Confession is followed by forgiveness v.5
Once you have experienced God’s forgiveness you naturally recommend it to others. V.6
You tell people.
You show people by your attitude.
There is confidence in the relationship of the forgiven person, they don’t continue to live in guilt. Their focus is on God’s love, and that fills them with joy. vv.8-11
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