Ps. 32.8-9 (building the barrier)

“I will instruct you / and teach you / in the way / you must walk – I will / give counsel / with my eye / upon you.” – Don’t be / like a horse / like a mule / without understanding – whose gallop / must be restrained / with bridle and halter – or it will not / stay near you.” For the first time in this psalm, and fairly unique for the psalms in general, Yhwh speaks. His words stands as development of what went before: that Yhwh would be a source of protection and deliverance. His words are, in effect, showing how he will accomplish this: by instruction, teaching and counsel. It is through these things that one is ‘surrounded by Yhwh’ or ‘in Yhwh’; these are the ‘shelter’ within which one hides and what ‘lifts the individual’ above the flood. They are, important for our purposes, also what ‘hide from sin’. We understand this ‘hiding’ through the analogy of the horse: one who does not confess is here compared with a wild, unrestrained horse and mule “without understanding”. The owner must forcefully (with a ‘heavy hand’) restrain the animal so that it will stay near to you (Yhwh). This ‘bridle and bit’ can be seen, in the context of the psalm, as the active ‘heavy hand’ of Yhwh as he presses himself upon the unrepentant sinner in order to keep him close to himself (to Yhwh). This is an important aspect to the psalm: for the unrepentant, Yhwh cannot provide ‘instruction, teaching or counsel’—they only respond to his, what we have called, stance of an enemy (his constricting and heavy hand; the ‘mighty waters’ he will employ in order to draw forth a confession). For those, however, who do not stand as silent and rebellious to Yhwh, his ‘words’ (rather than his hand) are spoken; dialogue is restored. Yhwh surrounds both: for one (he is experienced as oppressive), for the other (he surrounds him with protection and ‘lovingkindness’). (What an interesting picture of this ‘heaven’ / ‘hell’ dynamic….). We can conclude as follows: to be protected by Yhwh is to be ‘in Yhwh’—to be ‘in Yhwh’ is to receive his instruction/guidance/counsel—to be receptive to these is to be ‘hidden from sin’. One sees here the important point that this ‘hiding’ and ‘protection’ is not something one-sided: one must ‘walk with’ (or, perhaps more accurately: “follow after”) Yhwh. It is the covenantal relationship, and the dynamic therein, that constructs the walls.