Psalm 32

Lent 1 – Year A

Psalm 32

John the Baptizer: "I baptize you with water for repentance…." (Matthew 3:11)

"Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven…." (Psalm 32)

Jesus: "It is written …." (Matthew 4:7,10)

Out of Baptism comes a happy word, "This is my Beloved…." (Matthew 3:17)

This "happiness" (a combination of repentance and belovedness) opens one to receive and live out of Psalm 32:8 – "I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you."

Here we have the development of a storehouse of treasures from which new and old (appropriate) responses to life might be applied (Matthew 13:52). Here the remembrance of old responses and investigation of new ones takes place in an intentional study of life that is both alongside and moving toward G*D.

Out of this happiness comes an openness to hear the intent behind a question and a willingness to respond to that larger organizing principle. Out of this happiness comes a sense of enough (even when hungry or entitled to more of anything from simple bread to complex economic/political power) that can identify and move beyond each temptation to be satisfied with the surface of living.

Many are the faces of unrepentance, unforgivenness, unbelovedness. Each face is best responded to in steadfast love (Psalm 32:10).