HEBREW WORD STUDY – SILENCE – CHARESH   חרשׁ   

Psalms 32:3: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.”

Looking at the context of this passage we find that David has some hidden sin that he is not confessing.  The word for silence in the Hebrew is charesh which is found in this verse as a Hiphal perfect form preceded by the word ki.  Ki is generally rendered as because or that rather than when.  I really feel the word because is more fitting here than when.  Thus you would render this in a Hiphal as: “Because I was caused to keep silent.”

That word silent or charesh has multiple usages from silence, to being deaf to plowing a field.  The word in its Semitic root has the idea of plowing over.  When you plow over something you are digging  little trench and the dirt that is dug up will cover the plants that already exist. You then plant new seeds and cover them up.   This word charesh eventually reached the Hebrew language as not only plowing but silence.  It is silence not in the sense of just being mute, but not speaking up and revealing the truth that is in you.  Just as plowing covers up plants that were on the surface, so too does silence cover up sins that are commented and buried deep inside of you.

It is like a man who has an extra-marital affair and doesn’t tell his wife. He keeps charesh, trying to plow over the feelings of guilt.  Before long he will begin to roar.  That word roar in the Hebrew is sha’ag which is a rumbling or groaning.  A lion roars when it is hungry, you stomach rumbles when it is hungry.  This word sha’ag has the idea of a hunger a need to be feed.  The wife knows something is wrong, not right, he knows what it is and it is burning inside of  him like a hunger.

Eventually this husband will have to confess his adulterous act to his wife and seek her forgiveness if he ever even hopes to have that intimate relationship with her that he once enjoyed

This is what David is expressing in his relationship with God.  He has committed some sin that is unconfessed. He has not sought the Lord’s forgiveness.  God is ready to forgive David, ready to embrace him, hug him, express His love for him, share His heart with him, but God cannot do it because David has set up a wall a barrier with his silence or charesh.  He has hidden his sin away in his heart. But by hiding his sin in his heart God is not able to share His heart with David’s heart.  

I hear people all the time saying they have lost their joy in the Lord, they no longer feel His presence and they are totally frustrated and miserable because they no longer feel the presence of God.  But like in a marriage that sense of the presence of your mate, that joy in your relationship comes from sharing your heart with that person and they with you. If you sin against you mate and it is unconfessed you no longer share your hearts with each other and the joy and intimacy is gone. So too with God, if there is sin in your heart you no longer share an intimacy with God for He cannot share His heart with you nor you with Him. That trust is broken.