A Word in Season: The Joy of Salvation (Psalm 32:1–2)

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Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. How then can we ever call ourselves blessed?

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How is it possible that a rebel against God, whose rebellion is expressed in thought and word and deed, can ever know the joy of drawing near to God?

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If we are enmity against God in our natural or carnal minds, if we are set against Him in all our being, if we are either fighting against God or running from God, then how can we ever know that peace and that joy and that true satisfaction of soul that is found only in Him who alone can bring joy and peace and in whom alone we can know true satisfaction?

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If we have been made for the glory of God, as we have, then how can we know blessing when we have fallen short of the glory of God?

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Psalm 32 begins to provide the answer to that question when it tells us,

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Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the

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Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

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It seems sometimes that when the biblical writers want to encompass everything that is involved in our sinfulness, they use those three words, transgression and sin and iniquity, with their subtle shades of meaning.

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And here we are told what is the doorway to all true happiness. This is the starting point of all peace and joy.

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It is the blessedness of the one whose transgression is forgiven. Sin is law -breaking.

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Sin is disobedience to God. It is transgressing His law. It incurs a debt, a debt of punishment and pain.

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And yet here transgression is forgiven. It is put away so that there is no longer any judgment that arrives upon us because of our law -breaking.

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Our transgressions are swallowed up and remembered by God no more. Furthermore, our sin is covered.

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The transgressions, the sins, the rebellions, the uglinesses which would have merited

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God's disfavor, His fierce judgments, those things are now covered over.

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There has been a covering thrown over them so that though they are real and fearful and awful, yet with regard to God's judgments,

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He is no longer going to deal with us on the basis of the sins that we have committed because someone else has dealt with them for us.

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And then blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. God does not count our perversions and rebellions against us, that twistedness in our very nature which turns us away from and against our

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God. The Lord is not going to put that to our account. And you'll notice that in the spirit of this man there is no deceit.

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The sense seems to be in the context of the psalm as a whole that he's not trying to pretend anymore to be something that he's not, that he's not trying to cover sin for himself, he's not trying to excuse his transgression or explain away his iniquity.

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Here is a man whose heart is open before God and he's facing these realities front and center.

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So why is it then that God has forgiven his transgression? How has the

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Lord covered his sin? On what basis will the Lord no longer impute iniquity to him?

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Well, he is a man who has confessed his transgressions to the Lord and has received forgiveness.

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It is God who has done this for him. This is not an impersonal reality.

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This is a transaction that has been carried out between God in his heaven and man on earth in his sin.

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And God himself has removed these realities. He's taken away the punishments that sin deserve with the transgressions forgiven, the sin covered, and the iniquity not put to our account.

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Now, on what basis can God do that? How can God open the floodgates of favor toward a man who could describe himself in this way?

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It is only through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.

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Transgression is forgiven because Christ has died in our place.

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Sin is covered, swallowed up in the ocean of his atoning blood, and the iniquity that should have been put to our account has been put to his instead.

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And so, in Christ, and by faith in him, a sinner like me and you can be truly happy and live for the glory of God.