What the ancients called leprosy was a disease that respected no moral code among its victims. It could afflict the good and the bad, the potentate as well as the peasant, working the same havoc on each of their lives. People with leprosy, like people with any other disease, turned to God for healing. When people of deep faith received the cure they sought or simply came to a deeper awareness of God’s love, they would have easily sung the refrain of today’s psalm, rejoicing in how God can turn any sorrow into joy.

The text of Psalm 32 takes the question of healing from disease into the realm of sin and forgiveness. Leprosy is understood as symbolic of sinfulness as well as the isolation we bring on ourselves when we destroy our relationships. Forgiveness implies the healing of those ills. Underneath our Judeo-Christian faith, there is a deep intuition that sin brings death. Although we may not always fully appreciate the logical conclusion that confession and forgiveness therefore bring life and healing, that is what Psalm 32 celebrates.

As we pray this psalm, it is crucial that we recognize the importance of the second stanza. The psalmist says: “I acknowledged my sin … and you took away the guilt.” Open recognition of my sin is the opposite of the scapegoating which blames another for ill. Scapegoating harms the innocent and suppresses the real problem such that it only grows more powerful in darkness and silence. As many as 2,500 years ago, Hebrew wisdom taught that the more we hide our sin, the more power it has over us. The psalmist tells us that confessing our faults is the necessary path to allowing God to take away our guilt. (If you want confirmation of that, ask anyone who has gone through the 12-step program of recovery from addiction.)

The power of this psalm-prayer depends on the depth with which we take in its message. If we ask for help simply to get out of our scrapes, to be rescued from the results of our waywardness, we are asking God to act like a crafty lawyer. Unfortunately, that is not God’s specialty. If, on the other hand, we turn to God to heal the deep causes of our selfishness or fear, we will find that our time of trouble can become a time of salvation. Christ will be waiting to touch us at whatever depth we open to him. When that happens, we will understand what we sing at the Easter Vigil, “O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”

SOURCE: ©2017 National Catholic Reporter. All Rights Reserved. Sr. Mary McGlone is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet. 2017 Reflections, 2020 Reflections can be read at National Catholic Reporter website.

Confessing our sins before God

Psalm 32:1-4 When we get serious about our past sins, admitting each of them and seeking to make amends, we will probably find that most people are willing to forgive us. Making amends for our past failures and reconciling our relationships is an important part of the recovery process.

We see in this psalm that being reconciled to God begins as we admit our sins to him. He will forgive us; we can count on it! When we try to hide our sins from God, our life becomes dysfunctional and miserable. Our inner beings become tied up in knots, and we once again begin to lose control. Why fight it? Confessing our sins to God is the first step toward having a joyful heart.

Psalm 32:5-9 Like David, we need to confess our sins before God and admit them to the people we have wronged. By doing so, we set a good example for others who are also having a hard time admitting their sins to God. We also set our heart free of the destructive grip of guilt and can reestablish the healthy relationships we all need for a full recovery. God wants to give us a full and productive life, but we must respond willingly to his commands.

SOURCE: Content taken from Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition. Copyright © 2019. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.