The Hiding Place and the Song Text: Psalm 32:6-7
Introduction: The Open Secret
In the first part of this psalm, David has laid bare the misery of unconfessed sin and the sheer, unadulterated blessedness of full and free forgiveness. He described his bones wasting away, his vitality drying up like a plant in a summer drought, all under the heavy hand of God. But then he confessed. He stopped his frantic cover-up, laid his transgression before the Lord, and God, in His infinite mercy, lifted the crushing weight of his iniquity. What David learned in that agonizing process was not just for him. The lesson was not a private note tucked into his journal. It is a public proclamation, a truth to be shouted from the housetops. The mercy of God is not a state secret.
And so, flowing directly from this profound personal experience of repentance and restoration, David now turns to instruct the congregation. He takes his personal testimony and makes it a public lesson, a piece of practical theology for every saint. The man who has just been pulled from the miry clay is the best man to tell you where the firm ground is. The one who nearly drowned is the most qualified to point out the lifeboat. David moves from autobiography to application, from his personal deliverance to a general principle for all of God's people. He is telling us what to do with the knowledge that God is a forgiving God. The answer is not to take it for granted, but to take Him at His word, and to run to Him, not from Him.
The Text
Therefore, let every holy one pray to You at a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
You are my hiding place; You guard me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
(Psalm 32:6-7 LSB)
A Time to Be Found (v. 6)
David begins with a logical conclusion, signaled by the word "Therefore."
"Therefore, let every holy one pray to You at a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him." (Psalm 32:6)
Because God is a forgiving God, because He does not hold our sin against us when we confess it, what is the logical response? It is to pray. It is to seek Him. And who is to do this? "Every holy one." This refers to the saints, the godly, those set apart by God. It is a covenantal term. If you are in Christ, this means you. This is not a call for the pagan to become religious; it is a call for the child of God to act like one. The saints are not sinless, as David's own recent history demonstrates with brutal clarity. Rather, the saints are those who know what to do with their sin. They take it to the only one who can do anything about it.
But notice the crucial timing: "at a time when You may be found." The Hebrew is literally "in a time of finding." This is a time of grace, a window of opportunity. The prophet Isaiah says something very similar: "Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6). This does not mean that God is sometimes playing hide-and-seek with His children. The point is not that God is fickle, but that we are. There is a time to repent, and that time is now. To presume upon tomorrow is the height of folly. The day of grace does not last forever. The door of the ark was open for a long time, but eventually God shut it. The acceptable time is the one you have in front of you. Don't put it off. The man who waits to confess his sin is like a man with a sucking chest wound who decides to finish his crossword puzzle before calling for a medic.
The result of this timely prayer is security. "Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him." This is the language of judgment. A flood is a picture of overwhelming, catastrophic divine wrath, just as it was in the days of Noah. For the one who hides his sin, the floodwaters of consequence and judgment are a terrifying threat. But for the man who has run to God for refuge, the man who has prayed in the time of finding, those same waters cannot touch him. He is safe. This is not because he is a strong swimmer, but because he is in the ark. His security is not in himself, but in the God to whom he has prayed. The judgment comes, the waters rise, but they cannot reach the one who has taken refuge in the mercy of God.
God Our Fortress (v. 7)
David now shifts from a general exhortation to a personal declaration of faith. The theology becomes a doxology.
"You are my hiding place; You guard me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah." (Psalm 32:7)
This is one of the most intimate and comforting statements in all the Psalms. "You are my hiding place." This is not an abstract proposition; it is a personal confession. God is not simply a hiding place; He is my hiding place. In a world full of threats, both external and internal, the believer has a secure bunker, a divine fortress. When the guilt of sin accuses, we hide in Christ. When the world persecutes, we hide in Christ. When our own hearts condemn us, we hide in Christ. He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
And this hiding place is an active one. God does not just provide a place to hide and then leave us to fend for ourselves. No, "You guard me from trouble." The verb here means to keep, to watch over, to preserve. God is the active sentinel. He is the one standing guard. We are kept by the power of God. Our safety is not dependent on our ability to stay hidden, but on His power to guard us.
The result of this divine protection is not a grim, stoic silence, but an explosion of joy. "You surround me with songs of deliverance." Think about that image. The believer is not just saved from trouble, but is encircled, encompassed, and engulfed by joyful shouts of victory. This is not just one little song, but a chorus of them. This is the testimony of the redeemed. It is the song of Moses after crossing the Red Sea. It is the song of the church triumphant. When God delivers you, He doesn't just hand you a get-out-of-jail-free card. He throws a parade. Your deliverance becomes a reason for the whole congregation to erupt in praise. Your personal testimony becomes part of the corporate hymnbook of the saints.
And then we have that word, "Selah." We don't know its precise meaning, but it almost certainly functions as a musical or liturgical instruction. It tells the singers and the congregation to pause. Stop. Think about what was just said. Let it sink in. You, a forgiven sinner, are hidden in God Himself. He is personally guarding you from all that would destroy you. And you are living in the midst of a symphony of His deliverance. Let that truth settle deep into your bones before you move on. Selah.
Conclusion: Hidden in Christ
These verses are not just about David's experience with Bathsheba. They are a profound illustration of the gospel. We are all born with a fatal inclination to hide from God. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, our first instinct after sinning is to find some fig leaves, to duck behind a tree, to pretend we are not there. We try to hide our sin, and in so doing, we hide from the only one who can help us.
The gospel is the good news that God has provided a true hiding place for sinners. But it is not a place where we can hide from God. It is a place where we can hide in God. That hiding place is the Lord Jesus Christ. When the flood of God's righteous judgment against sin was poured out, it did not fall on those who are in Christ. It fell entirely on Christ Himself. He was engulfed by the great waters of wrath on the cross so that they would never reach us. He became our trouble so that we could be guarded from it.
Therefore, the call to every holy one is to pray in the time of finding. That time is today. The gospel is being proclaimed. Christ is offered to you freely. Do not try to cover your own sin. It is an exhausting, soul-crushing, and ultimately futile business. Instead, confess it. Bring it out into the open before God. And when you do, you will find that He does not just forgive you, He becomes your hiding place. He will guard you, keep you, and preserve you. And the result will be that your life will be surrounded by songs of deliverance, a joy that cannot be contained. And that is a truth worth pausing to consider. Selah.