You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

Psalm 32:7 

Christ puts a song in the mouths of His redeemed. David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, knew this right well. He referred to it in Psalm 40, ‘He has put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD.’ Other psalm writers refer to it, ‘Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has done great things for them.’ The Psalms are the inspired songbook of the people of God. There we find the lyrical expression of the spiritual experiences of those whom God has saved by free and sovereign grace. When we have been oppressed, persecuted, excluded, downgraded and disrespected it is a burden to our soul. When Christ intervenes on our behalf, and we see Him break off the yoke of those who do evil, we rejoice, not at their demise but at the relief we feel because their foot no longer rests on our neck. Thus we have reason to sing songs of deliverance. Christ is the theme of those songs. He is the High King of Heaven. He is advancing His kingdom. He is conquering His enemies and ours. We have an abundance of reasons to sing now and to keep on singing right into the very throne room of the King of Kings. He has liberated us and continues to break off the bonds that bind us to this scene of time. He compasses us about with songs of deliverance. They will form for us everlasting anthems of praise.   

High King of Heaven, 
we rejoice that You are advancing Your Kingdom. 
We praise You that we can enter into Your gates with singing, 
and into Your courts with praise. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

Psalm 32:6-7 

God makes Himself available most of the time. There are times, however, when He hides Himself for His Own reasons. David was aware of this truth. He realized that on the foundation of the forgiveness of sins, ‘everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time, when You may be found.’ Isaiah hits some of the same notes when he writes, ‘Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.’ There he calls to the wicked and unrighteous to return to the LORD for mercy and pardon. What is interesting for our purpose is that both David and Isaiah refer to God allowing us to access Him with the understanding that there will come a time when He will not be so immediately available. This is a hard concept for us to embrace. We like to think of God as being ever available. The idea that he would withdraw Himself or be somehow inaccessible is disconcerting. Job complained that he could not find God. ‘Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; when He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.’ His consolation was, ‘But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.’ Even when God seemed to hide Himself, Job continued to express faith in Him. What can we gain from these thoughts? The short answer is, that we who believe seek the LORD now while He may be found. Christ is available today. He may be found now. Therefore, because He has purchased our pardon, because He does intercede for us, we can and should call upon Him. 

God of Grace and Glory, 
we rejoice that You do give us access to You. 
We praise You that we can seek You, 
while You may be found. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

Psalm 32:6-7 

Christ is the hiding place of His redeemed. In all his hardships, and in spite of all his failings, David had hope in Christ. He said, ’From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.’ We could hardly conceive of a clearer expression of the evangelical truth of what Christ means to a believer than this. The people of God come from the weak, the foolish, the nothings, and nobodies of the world. They are not the high and the mighty. They are accurately depicted as the wandering sheep, easy prey for the predators of the world. Christ has been, is, and shall ever be the refuge of His redeemed. They resort to Him at every turn. Thus David is a representative believer. In many instances he articulates our experience. Therefore when we read his remarks we say, Amen. We do pray in the time when God may be found. He does keep us from the flood of waters. He is our hiding place. He does preserve us from trouble. He surrounds us with songs of deliverance. Christ is our hope for time and for eternity. We have no other in whom we have such faith and upon whom we can rely. Therefore his words become our words. These are the expressions not just of David but also of us. We go forth daily depending on Christ to lead us, to guide us, to help us, and to preserve us. He surrounds us with songs of deliverance.    

O God, our Shield and our Defender, 
We rejoice that You know all the dangers that beset us. 
We praise You that You are our refuge, 
where we may continually hide.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah   
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah  

Psalm 32: 3-5  

David was a notable sinner. In his lifetime he broke the law of God in various rather spectacular ways. God records those in his biography, thus presenting him to us, ‘warts and all.’ David was also a notable repenter. He had a heart for God. He failed often and repented often. He endured the hard experience of continuing in sin long enough to be thoroughly miserable. Our text reflects that miserable condition. As long as he continued in sin, his ‘vitality was turned into the drought of summer.’ We know this condition firsthand. Continuation in the practice of evil, or attempting to ignore the fact that we have done evil is soul-desiccating. It produces its own special brand of misery in a believer. The only remedy is confession. The only relief is forgiveness. David confessed and God forgave his sin. We may sin as spectacularly as he did. Certainly we have the potential. When we do sin, we will experience the misery that denial of or continuation of sin brings. What will reverse that misery? John has the answer. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ In that same passage, John specifies that it is ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son (that) cleanses us from all sin.’ Herein lies forgiveness. Herein lies the path to the rejoicing of the soul that forgiveness brings. There is a way back for us through Christ.   

Our Kind and Forgiving God, 
we rejoice that You are acquainted with all our ways. 
We praise You that You stand ready to forgive 
our many offenses. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning