Psalms Through the Summer #8: Blessed Is The Forgiven – Ps 32

Psalms Through the Summer #8: Blessed Is The Forgiven – Ps 32

 Psalms 32 is a “penitential” psalm, a psalms of repentance and seeking God’s forgiveness. This is the second of the seven penitential or repentance psalms. The penitential psalms are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143.

It is probable that David wrote the 32 Psalms after confessing his sin with Bathsheba. He was guilty of adultery, murder, and covering up the sin. But of course you cannot hide sin from God.  Some commentators say that God gave David a year to confess and repent but he did not. It was not until the prophet Nathan told David a story about a poor shepherd whose treasured lamb was stolen and killed by a rich neighbor that David was forced to confront his own sin. When he condemned the man in the story, Nathan pointed at the King and said those famous words, “Thou art the man!”

In Psalms 51:13 David vows  to God, “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

When God forgave David, David promised to teach transgressors the way and sinners shall be converted, turned around. Psalm 32 could be seen as a partial fulfillment of David's vow to teach sinners.

This is also the first “Maschil” psalm. The others are in Psalm 42, 44, 45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88, 89, 142. This is one of those Hebrew words that are difficult to interpret because the only context we have for the word is that it is found as a label on those Psalm. The word is understood in several different ways. It is called “a skillful song, or a song of instruction, or a contemplative poem.” The word means “instruction” and is translated that way in verse 8. However, Maschil may be a musical direction, the meaning of which is still unknown.

Psalms 32 is recited by Jewish worshippers on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is also seen as linked to Psalms 33 that we used as our text last week. Psalm 32 is about personal rejoicing for forgiveness, while Psalm 33 is about national rejoicing for God’s grace.

The Blessedness of Forgiveness. – Psalm 32:1-4

​ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

David Is Blessed By God’s Forgiveness

David begins with this proclamation, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgive, whose sin is covered, whom God imputes no iniquity and whose spririt is guileless. The word blessed you already know mean happy and to be envied. Here we would read it, “Oh, the happiness of the forgiven!”

David uses three words to describe his and our sin,

(1) transgression from the Hebrew, פֶּשַׁע p̱eša‘; which means a revolt,  rebellion, sin, transgression, trespass. (2) sin is ḥăṭâ’â; which is an offence, it is the missing God’s way; and (3) iniquity which comes from  עָוֹן ‘âôn; or עָווֹן ‘avown  aw-vone; from which means perversity, moral evil, fault, iniquity, mischief, distortion, and crookedness.

David uses no euphemisms to minimize the depth of sin. He doesn’t say, “Oh, sorry, I guess I made a mistake.” Don’t you hate the phrase, “My bad.” Well David doesn’t tell God, “My Bad.” No, he makes it clear what sin really is. David rebelled against God. He missed God’s way because he walked away from God’s way and he committed the worst kind of  iniquity. What he did was perverse and evil in the sight of God and man.

But this Psalms is not about sin and its repugnance to God, it is about sin and its forgiveness by God.

David now uses three words that deal with forgiveness.

The word (1) forgiven, this is the Hebrew word, “נָשָׂא nâśâ’; it literally means to lift and here it would mean that God has lifted David’s burden, he guilt and sin, away. He says that his sin has been (2) covered. This is כָּסָה ḵâsâ and it means covering the offense from sight  and (3) imputeth not. חָשַׁב ḥâšaḇ, to be released legally from a debt.

For David this state of forgiveness is a blessing. He is blessed because God covered his sin and released him from its full spiritual accounting. “Psalms 32:1 Blessed is the person whose transgression is forgiven,”

David can appreciate his now blessed state because he had been in just the opposite state, a condition of cursedness, for a year while he tried to ignore his own guilt and hide his sin from God.

In vss. 3-4 we can see his state before he was forgiven. Psalms 32:3-4, He says, When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.

He was affected physically by his refusal to deal with his sin, he seemed to feel old and ached in his bones. Because of that pain, he roared or groaned all day long. Day and night felt like God chastising him it was as if God was pressing him down with his hand. He felt dried up like a man in the midst of a drought.

Finding The Blessing of Forgiveness

If you are a child of God, you can’t be happy, you can’t be blessed if you sin and refuse to seek God’s forgiveness through confession of that sin. David tried and it broke him. The truth is that unconfessed sin will break us all.

Charles Spurgeon said this, “God does not permit His children to sin successfully.”

John Donne wrote, “Sin is a serpent, and he that covers sin does but keep it warm, that it may sting the more fiercely, and disperse the venom and malignity thereof the more effectually.”

God won’t let his children dwell in sin. We will feel the pressure of his chastening hand upon our life. Unconfronted, hidden sin in our life, separates us from God.

This is what Isiah said, in Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Sin separates us from our Heavenly Father and because He is a loving father then he will do that which will bring us back to His love, back to himself and back to being blessed.

As long as we choose sin instead of God then we will suffer its consequences and the chastisement of God.

David learned the painful lesson of unconfessed sin and the joy of forgiveness. The apostle John wrote his first epistle with this same lesson as its theme.

1 John 1:6-10 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

If you are a child of God and have unconfessed sin that you are ignoring or refusing to deal with then know this. God already knows you have sinned, that sin is not hidden from Him and he will not be allow you to ignore or deny it. Don’t dwell in the misery of being separated from the God who loves you by your sin. Don’t sink into the joyless life of someone who is living in the shadows of sin instead of stepping into the sunshine of God’s great forgiveness.

The Blessing of Confession.  – Psalms 32:5-7

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

David Unburdened

Now in vss 5-7 David shares the relief, the unburdening, that came when he confessed his sin. Once again, he uses those three words, transgressions, iniquity and sin to express the fullness of his guilt and the heaviness of what lay on his soul.

He says, I will confess unto the Lord and then switches to second person, and you, speaking directly now to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

In Psalms 51:8-10, David prayed, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Vs.12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation!”

Sin had robbed him of that joy he shared with the Lord. Instead of joy he was left with a burden, a burden that had cost him his joy, his health and worst of all, the closeness of his relationship with God. But in confession he found forgiveness and restoration.

David praises God in vs.6, because this forgiveness is for all of God’s people. Psalms 32:6 “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.”

And after forgiveness, David experienced the restoration of his walk with God. “Psalms 32:7, “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance”

Isn’t that a wonderful way, a beautiful way, to express forgiveness? “You will surround me completely with songs of deliverance!” Deliverance means victory, victory over the sin that had tried to enslave him and to separate him from His loving Lord. But God would not let him go. His love was too great, and He did what was needed to restore His child to Himself and give that child the victory of forgiveness instead of the burden of guilt and shame.

Take Your Burden To the Lord

Listen to what the Bible tells us, listen to what David experienced. The sin is real, the burden is real, therefore confession must be real and then the lifting of that burden will be real. Its sin, don’t deny it, ignore it, whitewash it or sugar coat it. Its sin and you committed it. That sin has separated you in some way, small or great, from God and in place of the joy of your salvation you now carry the burden of guilt and shame. You know in your heart its wrong, but you won’t confront it. Even though the Holy Spirit convicts you, you won’t confess it. Even though God was never unaware of your transgression you act as though you are ignorant of it and refuse to act.

God won’t let you stay in that condition. He loves you too much.

Hebrews 12:5-6 My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

You don’t have to stay under that burden, take it to the Lord, confess your sin and leave that burden for the blood of Christ to cover once more.

 1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (the payment) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Pilgrim’s burden falls.

In the story of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, Pilgrim is still carrying his burden though he has passed through the beautiful gate and put his faith for salvation in Christ. But in the story he has not yet learned to leave the burden of sin with Christ. In the story is this wonderful illustration of  when that happens.

“Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

He ran thus till be came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

He took his burden to the Lord and if fell from his shoulders into the empty tomb. That is what happens at salvation, but it is also what happens whenever we confess our sin and repent. That burden we have been carrying falls from our shoulders and the power of Jesus over sin and death swallows it up.

This is what happened to David and because of his vow and because of his desire to share what he has learned through this ordeal of unconfessed sin, he says in vss. 7-10

The Blessing of Wisdom.  – Psalms 32:7-10

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

David Shares The Way Back To Blessing

David wants all of God’s people to learn from his experience. It is what he must do in response to what God has done for him. He says let me teach you, don’t go through what I had to go through. Don’t be like a stubborn horse or mule, they can’t understand these things and have to be forcibly guided by bit and bridle.

You are not an animal, and you are not the wicked. They will have many sorrow, but you are God’s people, you trust in the Lord Jehovah and His mercy will surround you. Don’t suffer under the burden of sin, repent, confess, and experience the mercy, the forgiveness, the joy of God and His love.

In Psalms 51:15-17, David expressed it like this, “O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

That is the way of forgiveness, it’s the way of salvation, it is the Gospel in the New Testament.

David says, Its not sacrifice, something that I bring, something that I give or a work I can do. God’s takes no delight in burnt offering that a man can bring to the temple. No the sacrifice God accepts is a broken spirit and a contrite heart, repentance and confession that come from our heart and soul.

In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus said it this way quoting the book of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

God’s Blessing Must Be Shared

The last lesson we learn from Psalm 32 is that we who have been forgiven, have experience God’s grace, not just once but over and over and over again. We need to teach the way back to God, just as David did. We need to “preach deliverance to the captives” just as Jesus did.

There is no joy, like the joy of forgiveness. There is no comfort like the protection of the Lord. There is no hope like the promises we have in Christ. We can’t keep that to ourselves. David told God, I will instruct the sinners. He could because he was a sinner. We are commissioned by our Lord in Mark 16:15 to, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel (the good news) to every creature.” The good news that Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross, proved His power of sin in the tomb and promises the joy of forgiveness by grace through faith. And that promise doesn’t end at salvation but is there every time sin tries to reclaim us. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I don’t deserve such a blessing, but it is mine. The world filled with sinners they don’t deserve such a blessing, but that is what grace is, undeserved love from God through Jesus Christ. What a blessing and if you have experienced then you have to share it.

When God Dips His Pen Of Love In My heart

Have you ever heard the song, When God dips His Pen of Love In my Heart? It’s not your typical hymn. It an old black spiritual and if you listen to bluegrass music you’ll hear it song from time to time. It illustrates our compulsion to tell others of God’s forgiveness and grace.

When God dips His pen of love in my heart
And writes my soul a message, He wants me to know
His spirit all divine fills this sinful soul of mine
When God dips His love in my heart

Well, I said I wouldn't tell it to a livin' soul
How He brought salvation when He made me whole
But I found I couldn't hide such love as Jesus did impart
Well, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry
It sets my sinful soul on fire
When God dips His love in my heart

Now we come to the last verse and here as it was in Psalm 33 and in many of the Psalms, the last verse acts as its own conclusion and summary.

Conclusion - Psalm 32:11

Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Be Glad In The LORD Jehovah

Now that is a great conclusion, short to the point and it says it all. Be glad in the Lord, rejoice and shout for joy. You are God’s people, you are His children and you have experienced forgiveness and are promised a never ending supply of His love and grace. If that doesn’t make you glad, what will? If that doesn’t make you rejoice? What can? If that doesn’t make you shout for joy and tell others then as the saying goes, “Your church bell is missing its ringer, your dancing shoes are missing their soles and your lighthouse is missing its keeper.” Yes, I made that saying up for this sermon.

But you know what I didn’t make up? The joy of forgiveness. You can’t make that up, it’s real and it yours and mine when we get serious with God, serious about our sin, serious about the burden we carry and then repent and confess. When that happens then we really will shout for joy.