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Psalm 32:3
When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
1By David. A contemplative psalm. Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
5I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
Notice
Silence and groaning share the same day: David withholds confession while his suffering becomes so consuming that he describes his bones wasting away.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do you notice about the contrast between David’s silence and his groaning all day?
Write on thisIf something remains unspoken before God, what makes it hard to put into words?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Proverbs 28:13He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.Psalm 32 describes the cost of concealed sin; Proverbs contrasts concealment with the mercy found through confession and renunciation.
Psalm 38:3There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.Both psalms describe suffering in the bones within an account of sin and God’s heavy hand.
Psalm 38:8I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.Both speakers describe groaning together with bodily distress, showing how anguish involves the whole person.
Psalm 22:1For the Chief Musician; set to “The Doe of the Morning.” A Psalm by David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and …Groaning marks the distress in both psalms, though Psalm 22 asks why God seems far from helping.
Lamentations 3:8Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.Both describe distress involving speech and God, though one recounts silence and the other a prayer shut out.
Psalm 6:2Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint. LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled.Troubled bones express bodily suffering in both psalms; Psalm 6 turns that suffering into a plea for mercy and healing.
Hosea 7:14They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.Both passages distinguish sounds of distress from openness toward God: David groans without confessing, while Hosea describes howling without heartfelt prayer.
Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.Both speakers describe suffering in their bones, though Job’s words here make no connection between that pain and concealed sin.
Job 16:16My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids,Both describe suffering through bodily signs: wasting bones in the psalm and a face reddened by weeping in Job.
Job 3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.Groaning fills ordinary life in both passages: throughout the day for David and around eating for Job.
Isaiah 59:11We all roar like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.Both passages make distress audible through groaning or moaning; Isaiah’s speakers also name their frustrated hope for justice and salvation.
2 Samuel 11:27–12:12When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased …David appears in both settings with sin before the LORD; the psalm does not identify this particular event.
Where this verse fits
Guilt and confession.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
David’s account does not make every bodily pain a sign of hidden sin. In this psalm, his silence gives way to confession, and God forgives.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).