The Sweet Sound of Forgiveness

The memory side of your senses and mine are very powerful.  In a moment a smell can brings tears.  Or, a big smile.

For instance, you may be walking down the aisle of a department store and smell the perfume your mother used to wear and be moved with a strong desire to go and visit her or if she is no longer with you to sit down and talk with her.

There are two examples from my past that engender strong emotions.

One is the certain smell of stale smoke.  As a youngster I went to visit my grandparents in Michigan and they lived in an apartment.  When you walked in there was a certain density in the air.  It was the lingering smell of people who lived in that apartment and smoked.   It is not just any smell.  Every now and then, a smell will waft by my nostrils and I will be taken back to a place 50 years ago.

Another is a certain sound that reminds me of a time during the summer between my third and fourth year of college.

            When your down and troubled
and you need a helping hand
and nothing, whoa nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me
and soon I will be there
to brighten up even your darkest nights.
You just call out my name,
and you know wherever I am
I'll come running, oh yeah baby
to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall,
all you have to do is call
and I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've got a friend.
If the sky above youshould turn dark and full of cloud

There is another group of words that have been strung together that never ceases to move me as well.

            How blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven

            Whose sin is covered

Turn to Psalm 32 and let us delight ourselves again in this wonderful Psalm that speaks of our forgiveness before God

Read

Now this is a Psalm of David.  Most believe that it was written sometime after Psalm 51 where David confessed his sin of adultery and murder.

When David said “how blessed is the one who knows forgiveness” he knew what he was talking about.

Now, I want to work through the teaching of this Psalm but we will not start with the beginning of the Psalm and work our way down.  Instead we will start with the problem and then look at it solution followed by instruction to keep us from making the same mistake.

We want to see first of all David’s cover up and relate that to ourselves.  Then we will look at the confession and the results of that.  Finally we will see the choices that are before us and how we need to listen to instruction and then make the right choice.

The Cover up

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

my vitality was drained away as with the f ever heat of summer

David has committed a horrible sin, and he kept silent about it.

He could get away from his guilt.   Bad enough he committed adultery but he also had an honorable man murdered.

For those of us here this morning who are Christians, we know why this happens.  The Holy Spirit speaks to us and convicts us.  Something is just not right.

When will we learn that we cannot mess around with sin and be truly happy - be truly blessed.

But what about the person who has never become a Christian.  There is still a cover up, a hiding, a running from God.

Adam and Eve were innocent.  “Naked and not ashamed”

After they ate of the forbidden fruit, what did they do?  They went and clothed themselves.

We have been covering ourselves ever since.

            We hide from people really knowing who we are, what we think.

We even hide from the people closest to us for fear they might not love us as we wish

Then the hid from God

            Each one of us has turned to our own way.

            We try with all our might to fill the void that creates.

What do we need to do?

Confess

When I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin

How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!

1 Jn 1:9

Why do we try and hide?

He has paid for it.

The Choice

Don’t act like the horse

But, listen to the instruction

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 Selah may mean: Pause, Crescendo or Musical interlude