Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin. – Psalm 32:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 17, 2013): Psalm 32

To be human means, at least to a certain extent, that we live with a certain amount of regret. There are times and activities that we wish we had handled differently. For me, they are the moments that help to keep me awake at night. It is a word said, or an action that might have been misunderstood – the things that I wish I could take back and redo another way – that bothers me. In a friendly golf match, there is a thing called a mulligan, a second free try to replace a mishit ball. And sometimes I wish that real life came equipped with its own set of mulligans.

The question that Psalm 32 raises is found in this verse. If David wrote it, as the ascription indicates, and if he wrote it in response to his experience with Bathsheba, as tradition leads us to believe, then what did David mean in this verse. He says that he did not cover up his sin, and yet is that not exactly what he did. He slept with Bathsheba, and then sent her home. When he realized that she was pregnant, he brought her husband home from the war so that he would sleep with her and then believe that the child would be his. And when that did not work, he had Uriah placed in a position where he would be killed in battle – and all of this was done for no other reason than to cover up sin.

It was not until the prophet revealed that he was aware of David’s sin that finally David owned up to his own sin. So what exactly does David mean when he says that he did not cover up his iniquity? As I read it, I wonder if maybe it was his regret that was speaking. After all, if God could forgive him after all of the things that he had done to avoid his sin, then could he not have forgiven David’s sin before he had tried to avoid it. And, maybe, it is an admission that there is no way for any of us to hide our sin from God.

David would eventually learn to keep short lists with God – and to come quick repentance. Eventually, what 

David writes in the Psalm was the way that he would try to live his life. But that, for David, would remain an event for someday. For today, he would have to live with the regrets of his actions and his wish of the way that he had handled his sin.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 13