14. Finding Forgiveness, Psalm 32

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Hymns: 247 Cleanse Me, 213 Welcome, Happy Morning, 286 O Happy Day!

Finding Forgiveness

Psalm 32 (KJV)

1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 5 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. 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. 7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. 8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. 9 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. 10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about. 11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

 

OUTLINE

(1) Divine Blessedness of Sins Forgiven (v1-2)

(2) Heaviness of a Guilty Conscience (v 3-4)

(3) Confession and Forgiveness (v5)

(4) Surrendering and Submitting (v6-7)

(5) Learning and Teaching (v8)

(6) Resistance and Sorrow (v9-10a)

(7) Mercy for the Contrite Heart (v10b)

(8) Exuberant Joy (v11)

 

INTRODUCTION

Who is this man?

The man described in this psalm is the word “” is a son of Adam. The earthly man, made from the dust of the ground, used in verse 2, cursed as a result of the fall – “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19) The word signify human nature or the human race generally, as contrasted with God above, describing the feeble, mortal and earthly man, showing forth the sense of his weakness. The heart of this man is bear before us in this psalm for sin has plunged his soul into great turmoil. 

The problem of this man is termed transgression, sin, iniquity (v1-2). The remedy for this man is termed forgiven, covered, imputeth (1-2). The testimony of this man is meant to instruct, teach, guide (v8). The blessedness of this man is described as gladness, rejoicing and joy (v11).

These terms form triacs – three different words with the same meaning. The psalmist use the repetition of words similar in sense but different in sound and origin. The single most important characteristic of Hebrew poetry is repetition. It is called parallelism. It expresses thoughts – similar thoughts or contrasting thoughts. In this psalm, we see the full expression of similar thoughts in triacs in verse 1 & 2, in verse 8 and verse 1.

Background of Psalm

When God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David of his sin of adultery and murder, he immediately repented 2 Samuel 12:13 “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”

Nathan has pronounced the consequences of his sins would mean a troubled family life for him.

2 Samuel 12:9-12 “Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

The Old Testament law tells us that when we take something from somebody and return it, we pay double. When we take something from something from somebody and did not return it, we pay 4 times. David paid for his sin by the death of 4 of his sons – the baby born out of the adulterous relationship with Beersheba, Amnon (who committed incest with Tamar his daughter), Absalom and Adonijah.

David found it very difficult to admit that he had done wrong. God didn’t want David to go on feeling miserable, so He faithfully used Nathan to make David be honest about his sin. Numbers 32:23 “…ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.” Once David was willing to face what he had done, he was able to confess it to God. God helps us to see where we have sinned, by giving us our conscience, His Word, and people like Nathan to point out our wrong to us. The people can God use may be our parents, pastor, Sunday School Teacher, a school teacher, or a friend, or even a Christian colleague. Once we see where we are wrong, then with God’s help, we can confess our sin to God and we can be sure that when we do, God will forgive us (Psalm 32:1-5). It is only God’s grace that enables us to admit our sin and be willing to turn from it (1 John 1:9). Through Nathan, God was helping David to see what he needed to do.

(1) Divine Blessedness of Sins Forgiven (v1-2)

Psalms 32:1 “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.”

Realise that forgiveness of sin is given freely by the grace of God (v1-2).

First, some definitions: Transgression is pesha, from the root, “to break or to break with”, hence to break covenant with God is to rebel, to transgress, to revolt, to sin. In the majority of the 40 times the word is used in the Old Testament, it describes direct rebellion against Jehovah, Israel’s covenant God. The Mosaic covenant depicts Jehovah as the only one who can grant or refuse to grant forgiveness for sin. Our sins alienate us from God, unless we repent of them, the psalmist’s experience is a guilt-plagued conscience. Transgression is rebellion against God. It begins with a thought, like the arch angel Lucifer, then another thought then another thought, 5 thoughts later, he fell, God judged him (Isaiah 14:12-15).

Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven. To be forgiven is to have sins taken away, lifted off, like the taking away of a weight. This word is in the passive meaning that we cannot take away our own sins. It is being taken away by an external party – God.

Remember in Pilgrim’s Progress, how the burden of Christian’s back was lifted off him when he came to the cross? How the paralytic man experienced exuberant joy was able to walk again and experienced the forgiveness of his sins when he came to Jesus by simply faith, just believing that Jesus is God (Mark2).

Blessed is he whose sin is covered.

Sin (chtaah) means missing the mark against the standard of God’s Word, as delineated most emphatically in the Ten Commandments. It also describes to miss the step or footing, and to stumble – hence to err, go astray, trespass. Every departure from God’s law is therefore a missing of the mark and trespass against Him.

First, we saw rebellion is against God, then here we see how to identify sin, it is against God’s laws (its measurement).

Cover “kāsāh” is in the passive meaning “being covered”. The action of covering is done on the subject, the sinner. Again, the word is in the passive, we cannot cover our own sins. The Bible tells that our sins are covered by the righteousness earned on our behalf by the shed blood of Christ. Hence God now longer hold His wrath against the sinner.

Remember after the fall, Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of both Adam and Eve were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” The leaves they made for themselves could not cover the guilt of their sins. Can we cover up our sins and they will be gone? Just sweep in under the carpet, as long as no one knows I’m safe?

Dear brethren, God knows, the Bible says, be sure our sins will find us out. Our friends, our spouses, our teacher, our colleagues, our bosses may not know, but God knows He will deal with us after our sins.

But God was gracious to save Adam and Eve by the coats of skin which is a pre-figure of Christ – sinless the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world for in Genesis 3:21 “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” And after which Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Cleansed by blood of Christ man makes man positionally righteous before God but the sin nature continue to reside in this earthly man – “adam”. We may have received the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and are justified in the sight of God. However, when we are not hiding God’s word in our hearts and let it rule and direct our steps, we can still fall. Here is the description of David’s fall into sin, a man after God’s own heart.

Verse 2 Blessed is the man whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity.

 Iniquity is “avon” means “a bending or curving”, speaks of actions, acting “crookedly or perversely”. It is generally rendered perverseness. This is the outward manifestation of sin in perverted behaviour. The word “imputeth” means to ascribe, to credit, not to count against us, not remembered is the sense in this verse.

Sin is the measure – against God’s law and iniquity is the outworking of sin in wickedness deeds.

I know of a man after his stint in the army sport long hair and wears make-up. We are told that he worships a Thai god. He made his house to become literally a temple. When we enter the house, there are the idols facing you as you enter and at the side, a box that says “Ai Xin”, a donation box. Departure from the living and true God results in perverted behaviour.

Psalm 32:2 “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”

The word “impute” means “ascribe” or “credit” is the word “ḥāšaḇ” – think, account, count, charge, with the negative particle “not”. Describing how we are justified, God no longer hold us guilty, God does not credit our sins on us. We on longer have to pay the penalty but Christ had paid the penalty for us. The wrath of God is no longer upon us.

The word “guile” means “deceit” or “treachery”. David, therefore, means that no man can taste what the forgiveness of sins is until his heart is first cleansed from deceit and treachery. Contrast the iniquity and “no guile”. Unless we cleanse our hearts by coming to Jesus for forgiveness, the deceit and treachery in the heart remains. This is the sin nature in us. David is a child of God, yet he needs God’s forgiveness. Dear brethren, even after we come to know Jesus, the sin nature wars in our hearts with the law of God and this battle rages hard, we struggle with sin. But here David is providing for us a way of making right with God.

The confession of David is the experience of everyone. When he kept silent in resistance to God, the inner struggle of conscience and conviction drained away the very vitality of life. This is the description of verse 3-4.

(2) Heaviness of a Guilty Conscience (v 3-4)

Psalm 32:3-4 “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.”

Silence communicates. Silence here expresses the emotion, attitude of resisting God. Roaring is the human cry of distress. The torment of the heart due to sin can give rise to physical ailments too. The sensation of pain in the bones is used to express depth of anguish and is linked with unforgiven sin and divine judgment.

David was miserable for a long time Why was he miserable? He had a guilty conscience because he had not confessed his sin. That is the same reason we are unhappy when we sin. But God loves us and wants us to be happy.

We can tell a person by the health of his/her countenance by looking at the eyes. We will be happy when we have a clear conscience by confessing our sin. David needed help to admit to his sin and deal with it.

This psalm speaks of the blessings of sins forgiven, reconciliation with God. When we sinned against God, our conscience gives to us no rest until we repent and submit to God’s authority and sovereignty in our lives. The inner struggles of the heart were vividly described by the psalmist and how he had no peace in his heart until he yielded to God and repented of his sins.

 

(3) Confession and Forgiveness (v 5-6)

Psalm 32:5-6 “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.”

“To acknowledge” is “to own up, to be honest and admit” before God where we have fallen short of God’s law. The psalmist described that his crooked and perverse ways were not hid from God.

“Hid” is the same word for cover. The essential idea of hiding is concealment or cover up. Note here that the tense is in the active voice, not passive as in verse 1 & 2.

We must do the acknowledging ourselves. It has the sense that the psalmist acknowledged his sin due to the intense guilt in the heart that caused him to submit to God.

To confess our sin means to admit our sin, agree with God that it is wrong and be willing to turn from it. It is easy to think we can make our sin go away by covering it up with the many good things we do. We need to confess sin to God and tell the truth to those we’ve wronged. Only God can take our sin away, and He will – 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.” If we accept God’s free gift of salvation, you can be sure that God will forgive your sins when you confess them to Him. But David tried to cover his sin instead of confessing it to God.

We cannot have true peace inside until we have realized that we are a sinner and that we need the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. God hates sin even more than we do. God hates sin so much that He sent His own perfect Son to die on a cross to destroy sin (1 John 3:8b). Jesus gave His precious blood for you and for me and for everyone (Romans 5:8). Jesus came back to life again, and He is alive today. He wants you to be saved from your sin (Acts 16:31).

We need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour only one time. From that time on, we belong to Him. But when we sin, we need to confess it to God right away (1 John 1:9). Stop now and think in the recent past. Ask God to show you some sin that you need to confess to Him. Ask God to help you admit that sin to Him right now as we consider this verse of confession. Agree with God that it was wrong and tell Him you are willing to turn from it. Then you can be sure God will forgive you your sins and you can have peace inside because you have a clean and clear conscience. Then the good things we do will please God and others.

When God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David of his sin of adultery and murder, he immediately repented 2 Samuel 12:13 “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”

(4) Surrendering and Submitting (v6-7)

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. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.”

David makes an address to all who reads the psalm to quickly make right with God before judgment comes. The prophet Jeremiah gives these comforting thoughts to teach us that confession and repentance is for our good always. Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

(5) Learning and Teaching (v8)

Psalms 32:8 “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.”

When the way of salvation is here shown to the children of God, the greatest care must be taken that no man departs from it in the slightest degree. David is not speaking only for himself who has learned his lesson by his own experience, he now endeavours to explain the benefit of God’s guidance to others that they too may benefit – For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. God’s care for his people is described anthropomorphic portrayal of God of his eyes, God’s seeing is his care and guidance for his people.

(6) Resistance and Sorrow (v9-10a)

Psalm 32:9-10a “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.”

The bridle is the instrument with which a horse is governed and restrained by a rider; consisting of a head-stall, a bit, and reins, with other appendages. Its purpose as a restraint, a curb, a check. David prayed, confessing his sin and asking God to forgive him. David not only wanted God to forgive him his sin, he wanted God to change him so that he wouldn’t do the same thing again. When God forgave him, David described it as having his heart washed clean and made white once again. David had peace and joy again, and he praised God.

(7) Mercy for the contrite heart (v 10b)

“But he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.”

God’s mercy is the out-flowing of His character.

Dear brethren, we have an All-Merciful God, a good God. When His children come to him for mercy, He never withholds His mercy. Mercy is what we do not deserve. We do not deserve, David knew his unworthiness but he humbled himself before God. Jesus said “blessed is the poor in spirit”. This is the opposite of self sufficiency, but of spiritual poverty, includes deep humility of recognizing one’s utter spiritual bankruptcy apart from God. It describes that they are lost and hopeless apart from divine grace. This is the contrite heart.

 

(8) Exuberant joy (v 11)

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

 Joy can be the voice of recovery from a wayward path of guilt. The transition from mourning to joy is like turning “wailing into dancing” like the changing of sackcloth into garments of joy (Psalm 30:11), the transformation is readily apparent to those who watch. Joy is found because he found God as its source. Joy is a by-product of life with God. Joy is not found by seeking it as an end in itself. It must be given by God. Therefore, it is received by faith with the gift of salvation. The energetic welling up of emotion frequently manifests itself in shouting and singing, so that the psalms resound with a chorus of shouts and songs of joy.

Three imperatives in the plural, message is for all who will humble ourselves to receive God, we will receive God’s blessings – receiving gladness, rejoicing and joy.

What then is true godly repentance?

  • How to receive it?
    • By God’s Grace & Mercy (v1-2, 10b)
    • By Honest Acknowledgement – Confession and Forgiveness (v5)
    • By Seeking God Early while His longsuffering tarries (v6)
  • What are the blessings?
    • Sins Forgiven (v5c)
    • Exuberant joy in the heart (A cheerful countenance) (v11)
    • Showing Others (v8)
  • What if I spurn it? The admonition.
    • Heaviness of Guilty Conscience (v3-4)
    • Resistance and Sorrow (v9-10a)

 

CONCLUSION

There is forgiveness of sins with God. Hallelujah! His Name be praised. Amen.