Wednesday, October 25, 2023 PM

Forgiveness as the Central Blessing of Psalm 32

One of the first things I think of, one of the first characteristics of the Lord that comes to mind is His forgiveness. And this psalm will teach us about the forgiveness of God tonight. So, Psalm chapter 32.

Some people think that this comes right after Psalm 51, after the sin of David with Uriah and Bathsheba. Whether that's the case or not, I'm not sure. That would make sense, but it is a psalm of David.

And this psalm is actually quoted in Romans, I believe it's chapter 4. When David is talking about justified by faith alone, he quotes this psalm. He says, David says, blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

And so this particular psalm is used by the Apostle Paul as he's talking about justified by faith alone. So, with that being said, let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer and take a closer look at this psalm.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for tonight. Lord, we thank you for the praises, Lord, that we have heard tonight of how you are working. How you are helping your people, Lord, for you always help us.

You're always good. We thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness. And we pray, Lord, for all these prayer requests again, Lord. We lift them up to you and we pray, Lord, that you would work in them and around them.

Father, we pray for your spirit to help us, to guide us tonight, and to help us to understand your word a bit better. Please help us to understand Jesus Christ a bit better. And it's in his name we pray, amen.

The Blessedness of Forgiveness in Psalm 32

So, Psalm 32, let's begin by reading the psalm. Psalm 32, a psalm of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him.

You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.". This is God's word.

Very thankful for it today. So we see in the first two verses the main truth of what this psalm is conveying to us tonight. This is David inspired by the Lord, and he's talking about the forgiveness he finds in the Lord.

And again in the first two verses we see the main truth. We see that blessed is he who is forgiven by the Lord. Some translations might say happy is this man. And that's the sense of what blessed means.

It's happy. It's at peace. It's content. There's a great joy in being blessed by the Lord and being forgiven by Him. Why do we need to be forgiven? Because our acts are evil. Because we are sinners in the sight of a holy God.

And we need to be forgiven by Him. And the Lord is good to forgive us. He's so gracious and full of mercy to forgive us again and again and again. He's a loving Father. What does it mean to be forgiven?

This psalm gives us several pictures of what it means. In verse 1 it says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. And that word indicates to take and lift up and away. The Lord takes our rebellious acts against Him, our transgressions, and He takes them.

And He lifts them up and He lifts them away. Lord you have taken my sin away as far as the east is from the west. He takes away our sin. It also says in verse 1, Whose sin is covered. The Lord covers our sin.

He deals with it in a right and good way. He deals with it. He addresses the sin. He takes care of it. Not in a way that's unjust, but in a very just and good way. He covers our sin. Not like Adam and Eve who tried to cover themselves with fig leaves.

But with the sacrifice the Lord covers Adam and Eve. He covers them and takes care of their sin. Verse 2, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. It's that idea to account to, to charge against someone, that legal term.

The Lord does not charge us with our sin. When we are forgiven by Him, we're not guilty anymore. We're forgiven. No longer guilty. Verse 2 talks about at the very end, In whose spirit there is no deceit.

That is the man to whom the Lord forgives. He doesn't try and hide his sin. There is no deceit. Other translations say there is no guile. He's not trying to hide his sin. He's not trying to cover it himself.

But he's laying himself bare before the Lord saying, This is what I have done. I plead guilty before you. And as we plead guilty, as we confess to the Lord our sins, He takes them away. He covers them.

He does not charge us with our sin. Because we are forgiven. So the first two verses of Psalm 32, Show us the main truth. The blessedness of he who is forgiven by the Lord. Verses 3 -5 talk about confession.

Confession, Conscience, and the Heavy Hand of God

We've heard the man who is forgiven, He does not try and hide his sin. But he confesses it to the Lord. And in verses 3 -5, We see more of the idea of confession. David says, When I kept silent, my bones grew old,.

Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me,. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I remember the great spiritual truth,. Never underestimate the spiritual power of a snack and a nap.

It's in reference to Elijah. Right after his contest with the false prophets, He runs out into the wilderness and he's tired,. He's hungry, and he's ready to give up. And before the Lord speaks to him, The Lord lets him sleep.

He lets him eat. The Lord understands that we're both body and soul. It's not that we're separated,. Or one's bad and one's bad. Although we're sinners, so we're bad to the core. But it's not the idea of the physical.

Well, for lack of better words, We're body and soul. We're connected. They influence one another. And here we see David, Who has sinned and he's not confessing. He's not bringing it to the Lord. And because of that, because his soul is not right with God, His body is suffering.

And we can see the intense picture of what's going on. When David is like, I haven't done anything wrong, There's no evil within me. He keeps silent about his sin. What happens? My bones grew old, Through my groaning all the day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. Whose hand is that? That is the Lord's. The Lord is good to instill in the human soul a conscience. And I like the way John MacArthur describes the conscience, The inner warning system of the soul, To indicate something is wrong,.

Something is not right with me and with God. And that's what's going on here. The Lord, by his spirit, is convicting the conscience of David to say, There is something wrong here. And so the Lord puts his hand upon David, And as a loving father, chastises him to help him understand, There is something wrong here.

You have to confess. You have to not hide from me. But bring your sin to me. Lay yourself bare before me so that I can forgive you. It's happening day and night. He finds no release from his guilt,. His vitality, his very life is turned into the drought of summer.

I know that we all understand this. We've all gone through this at some point in our lives with the Lord, Where we've been guilty, and we know it, But we don't go to the Lord in confession. We try to misdirect.

We try to go around. We try to hide by our own efforts. We try to cover things on our own, But unsuccessfully, just like Adam and Eve in the garden. And the result of that is the conscience convicts us.

And that is by the Lord's grace and mercy. And the conscience is a good thing, isn't it? It indicates that something is wrong. It helps us to understand that we have to go to the Lord in order to find forgiveness.

It indicates that there is something wrong. Just as if the body didn't have pain receptors, That would keep us from knowing something's wrong. And just like that, the conscience indicates for the soul something is wrong.

So the Lord is good to give us a conscience. I like the illustration of J. Adams, the Christian counselor, Who says the conscience is like that check engine light in your car that comes on. And so you don't take a hammer and smash the light when you see it.

You don't ignore it, but you turn off to the side of the road, You park, and you pop the hood to see what's wrong. And when our conscience convicts us, we have to go to the Lord and confess our sin. To not try and hide it away, but to be honest with the Lord.

And to say the same thing about our sin that God says. In a sense, to plead guilty before Him and saying, Yes, Lord, I have done this. I have done that. You are right, and I am wrong. So in verse 5, David acknowledges my sin to you.

He acknowledges the elephant in the room between him and God. He says, This is what I have done, Lord. He is honest to the Lord. And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.

And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. There is forgiveness in the Lord. When we go to Him, we are not trying to hide or trying to misdirect. When we go to Him, we are honest and we say, Yes, Lord, I have done this evil.

The Lord is good to forgive us and to help us. And He takes away that pain of conscience that is there. That is leading us on to confession. And once we confess, the Lord helps us. He restores us. He cleanses us through forgiveness.

Safety, Guidance, and Joy for the Forgiven

And now through the rest of the Psalm, verses 6 -11, we see the blessings of the forgiven. Those who go to the Lord and acknowledge their sin, who confess to the Lord their sin, we see the many blessings of those who are forgiven by the Lord.

In verses 6 and 7, one of the blessings is we find safety in God. We find safety in God as He forgives us. Verse 6 says, For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found.

I think what David here indicates by everyone who is godly is those who are sinners but who are seeking godly forgiveness. They're seeking the Lord knowing that they are sinners and they need the Lord.

So therefore, they are seeking after Him. They are coming to the Lord in a time when He may be found. They're not saying, I need to confess, so I'll do that next Wednesday. I'll do that next month. But they're saying, no, I'm going to confess right now.

I'm going to seek God when He may be found. For tomorrow, who knows if He may be found? So seek Him in a time when He may be found. And He is ready to forgive always. And Jesus said, It is far better for me to go away and to give you the Holy Spirit.

And through the Spirit, we can always go to the Lord and confess our sins and find cleansing and forgiveness in Him. Back in verse 6, David says, Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near Him.

In trouble, the one who finds forgiveness with the Lord is safe. He's secure, even in a flood of great waters. Even with wave after wave of trouble, there is safety in the Lord. Verse 7, You are my hiding place.

The God of all the universe who has created every bird and every tree and every blade of grass, who has created your soul and your body, that is the hiding place of those who find forgiveness in Him. We hear that phrase a lot, and I was kind of surprised to find it here in verse 32.

God is the hiding place of those forgiven. But what a blessed thing that is to find a hiding place, a place of refuge, a stronghold, a place of safety and security in the Lord who forgives us. You shall preserve me from trouble.

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Other translations say, shouts of deliverance. There are shouts of deliverance by the Lord. There are songs even, and He sings these songs over those He forgives.

We find that the Lord delights in those He forgives. He doesn't forgive them as a reluctant judge or as a reluctant father, saying, I'll forgive you this one, but I don't know about next time. But He rejoices in forgiving us.

He sings songs of deliverance over us, shouts even. Not whispers or not tender soft songs, but shouts even. Songs of deliverance. Just like the parable of the prodigal son. The father was waiting for the son.

When he saw the son coming, he didn't like respond to the son coming back saying, I guess I'll let you in since you are my son. But no, he runs out to the son. He greets him, accepts him. He brings him back and he rejoices over his son returning.

There is great joy from the father in the son coming back to him. There is great joy that the Lord has when those are forgiven by Him. There's great joy in the Lord. We find safety in God who forgives us.

Verses 8 and 9 show us that we are guided by God. We are forgiven in Him. In verses 8 and 9, we see that we are guided. We are instructed by God. We are led along by Him. Verse 8 says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will guide you with my eye. Some have said that this is David still talking. That this is the one forgiven will then do the instructing. He will teach others the way of the Lord. But I would tend to think that this is God.

For the Lord is the one who ultimately leads, who gives instruction, who gives guidance. And in a similar manner to Psalm 46, when that psalm is talking about God as the refuge, the hiding place, the God who is always with us, the God of hosts who never leaves us.

And then all of a sudden in that psalm we find, be still and know that I am God. The Lord takes over the narrative and begins to speak. And here is the same thing. He says, I will instruct you, those He forgives, and teach you in the way you should go.

I will guide you with my eye. The Lord does not just forgive and say, you stay on your side, I'll stay on mine, and we'll stay eternally separated, but you are forgiven. No, He says, you are forgiven, I rejoice over you, and now I'm going to teach you a better way to live.

I'm going to teach you new ways to live. I'm going to teach you how to live as one forgiven. I'm going to teach you how to live as one of the kingdom of light. You've been taken out of the domain of darkness.

Now you are a part of the kingdom of the Son of God. And so now the Lord will show us and instruct us how to then live as one of His children. And He says, I will guide you with my eye. I appreciate the words of Charles Spurgeon here.

He notes that it's with the Lord's eye that He directs His people. It's just the smallest gesture from the Lord, and His people are so focused on the Lord that even the smallest gesture, they're like, okay, I understand.

I'm going to go this route. I'm going to obey you in this way. They are so in tune with the Lord that even the smallest gesture of the eye or of the hand, they understand and they know and they follow through.

They are happy to obey. They're happy to live out these new ways to live. Verse 9, do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.

The Lord says to those He forgives, do not be without understanding, but know that I have forgiven you and that you are my child. Don't go about with just no understanding. And there are many ways which we can go about without understanding.

Sins can lead us away to think differently and to be led astray from the new ways of living. Sometimes our emotions can lead us astray, and we can begin to act like those who have no understanding. But it's not that we live by emotion.

It's that we walk by faith, right? We walk with an inspired understanding of what the Lord has said. Regardless of what we feel or what's going on around us, we know what the Lord has said, so we will therefore walk in that way.

We walk by faith, not by sight nor by emotion, but by faith. So even when everything around us and everything within us is saying something different, we know what the Lord has said. We walk with one who has inspired understanding.

So we walk after Him. We walk in His ways that He instructs us in. Thinking about the emotions as well, too. Going back to the flood of great waters. Sometimes for the Christian, that is outward. There can be many outward trials that we go through, which are great floods of water.

Sometimes there are internal ones as well. We are forgiven, but sometimes we have that little bit of doubt within us that asks the question, has God really said? Are we truly forgiven in Him? And when we have that, when we have that great flood of trouble within us, we can still find refuge in the Lord.

Even when we are accused, either by our own heart or by those around us, we can find refuge in the Lord. He is our hiding place. I appreciate the work by John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. And thinking about forgiveness, I'd like to read just a short part of the book to you.

Chapters 9 through 11. No, I'm just kidding. So, Christian is right now, he's equipped with the armor of God, and he's on the highway of holiness. And it's here that he encounters Apollyon, who is a picture of the devil, the great accuser of the Christian.

And they go through this whole exchange of words. And near the very end of their discussion, Apollyon says, but you have already been unfaithful to him, that is, to the Lord. And Christian responds, wherein have I been unfaithful to him?

Apollyon responds, you stumbled and fell into the slough of despond. You turned aside out of the way to go to Legality's house for help, at the advice of one worldly wise man. You slept and lost your book on the way.

You were ready to turn back at the sight of the chained lions. And when you talk of what you have seen and heard in the way, and all your Lord has done for you, it is with a certain inward desire for vain glory.

Christian, all this is true, and much more which you have left out. But the prince I serve is merciful and ready to forgive. Christian says he confesses his sin. He says, you're right, Satan, but you don't know the half of it.

You don't know the half of it. But I look to my Savior, I look to the prince to which I serve, and I find full forgiveness in him and much more. He is ready to forgive and full of mercy. Even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart.

Joy in the Lord and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Verses 10 and 11, we find that there is great joy in God for those who are forgiven by him. In verse 10 it says, many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.

The conscience, by the grace of God, is still active in every human soul. Sometimes it can be seared to the point of not operating well at all. Sometimes people can live in sin so long that the conscience doesn't even bother them.

They no longer hear it. But there are other times too when the conscience is still well and active, and it causes great sorrow for the wicked, to those who do not seek forgiveness, who do not come to God, who do not confess their sin to him.

But the conscience continues to bring up that guilt, bring up that guilt, and it makes them sick. It makes them sorrowful. And they could turn to the Lord and find forgiveness and relief, but they won't.

The wicked will have sorrow upon sorrow in this life and sorrow upon sorrow in the life to come, unless they turn to the Lord, unless they find forgiveness in him. But for those who trust in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.

Mercy. Verse 11, be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. There is great gladness, there is great rejoicing, for those who have been forgiven by the Lord.

They are able to shout with joy, all those upright in heart. When we look at the psalm overall, we see that David starts with the main truth, and he goes through the entire journey of one who is convicted by his sin.

He starts out with his bones growing old, groaning all the day long, his vitality turning into the drought of summer. But he looks to the Lord, he confesses, he finds forgiveness in him, he finds safety in the Lord, he finds instruction in the Lord, he finds great joy in the Lord.

Great joy. One question that Christians can ask is, will I ever find joy? Because my sin is always before me. As the Lord has opened our eyes to our sin, we no longer find joy in it. Our natures are changed to the point where we're no longer the pig that enjoys wallowing in the mud.

But when we do fall in, we are disgusted with it. We hate it. And we find conviction in that. But we find forgiveness in the Lord. And when it's hard to believe that, when it's hard to believe, am I truly forgiven by the Lord, we find our hiding place in him.

And just like Christian, we can say, I have sinned and much more that maybe I don't even know about. But my Prince is full of mercy and ready to forgive. His mercy is much more. His grace is far greater.

Jesus Christ is the one who takes away our sin. He is the one who bore our sin for us and walked outside of the camp. He is the one who covers our sin with his blood. We are not charged with our iniquity because he was charged for us.

He became the guilty so that we might walk away guiltless. When we commit sin, we can confess our sins to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, to take away that sin, to help us to grow in sanctification and to be just a bit more like him.

I want to, I need to be more like Jesus. We find great safety in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hiding place. He is the one who we find great safety in. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great shepherd, we get to know more about how to live as one forgiven.

We follow him. We are his disciples and we follow him and we stay in step with him. We imitate him. We take on his ways. We die to our old self and we take up his ways of living. And just as we have been forgiven, we forgive in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who are forgiven in the Lord Jesus Christ find great joy in him. He has taken away all of our sin, all of it. We are safe in him, forgiven by him, eternally kept by him. Blessed are those who put their trust in Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for tonight. We thank you, Lord, for your son, Jesus Christ, in whom we find forgiveness and cleansing. Lord, we believe. Please help our unbelief. Please help us to grow in sanctification.

Please help us to remember Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray.

Amen.