Psalm 32: Resolving Guilt

READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART XXV

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Psalm 32

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One lesson from the Book of Job that has not pierced the theological shells of many people is that illness or other misfortune is not necessarily divine punishment for sin.  We read Psalm 32, in which the author assumes that his illness resulted from unforgiven sins.  We can also read stories in the Gospels in which characters made the same erroneous assumption.

There is also the matter of psychosomatic conditions, of course.  The Biblical concept of “soul” is not the Platonist version thereof.  The Biblical concept is “essential self,” not that which occupies a body much like a liquid fills a glass.  The boundary between the physical and the mental does not always exist.  Sometimes the border is porous.  Those of us who have been close to a person with at least one mental illness may understand the biological origins of such illnesses, as well as the fluidity extant in the physical-mental dynamic.

The psalmist’s experience involves guilt, which has physical manifestations.  At this point, I say,

I resemble that remark.

I know guilt–much of it misplaced–from the inside out.  I understand survivor’s guilt and the negative consequences of asking,

What if I had…?

So, the sage words of Walter Brueggemann speak to me:

…guilt fully embraced and acknowledged permits movement, a new reception of life, and a new communion with God.  Only then can the guilt be resolved and genuinely relinquished.  There are, the psalm asserts, no alternatives.  The body will not be deceived, even as God will not be mocked.  Freedom from guilt requires embracing it and having it dealt with by the mercy of God.

—The Message of the Psalms:  A Theological Commentary (1984), 97

Knowing that one needs to act accordingly is a good start.  If the old saying that

the end depends upon the beginning

is true, nobody should disparage a good start.  Yet moving beyond that good start requires more than human power.  For example, I know rationally that my survivor’s guilt is irrational and my asking “What if?” is pointless, counterproductive, and destructive.  Yet I carry survivor’s guilt and ask, “What if?”  As I continue to take my guilt to God, I understand my disagreement with myself.  I pray, to quote a man from a story in a Gospel:

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.

We human beings are, as Psalm 103 reminds us, “but dust.”  We also bear the image of God.  May we proceed from a correct understanding of ourselves relative to God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 31, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF SAINT GIUSEPPINA NICOLI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND MINISTER TO THE POOR

THE FEAST OF HENRY IRVING LOUTTIT, JR., EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF GEORGIA

NEW YEAR’S EVE

THE FEAST OF ROSSITER WORTHINGTON RAYMOND, U.S. NOVELIST, POET, HYMN WRITER, AND MINING ENGINEER

THE FEAST OF SAINT ZOTICUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PRIEST AND MARTYR, CIRCA  351

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