Joy of Forgiveness
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Introduction
Introduction
Tonight we come to Psalm 32. The second of the so-called penitential psalms. This psalm is also the first of 12 psalms that bear the title of Maskil, which has been interpreted several ways i.e. “a skillful song, a song of instruction, a contemplative poem.” It is an instructional psalm whether the instruction is given or comes through contemplation. This psalm is used by the Jews at the close on the Day of Atonement; the Church calendar has it for Ash Wednesday. The psalm is a psalm of forgiveness - or the experience of forgiveness and the resulting joy.
To be forgiven results in an emotion that defies description. The relief of an enormous burden lifted, a debt canceled, a conscience cleared and able to rest and of guilt being gone. Some burdens are so heavy they consume us and no burden is greater than the burden of unresolved and unforgiven guilt.
King David the man after God’s own heart knew well what it was to carry this burden. Though blessed greatly and given prophecy and victory - yet committed vile callous acts - adultery and murder to cover it up. This Psalm here tonight is the testimony of the joy of forgiveness
1 How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! 2 How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit! 3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel. 9 Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you.
10 Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him. 11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
Experiencing Forgiveness
Experiencing Forgiveness
1 How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! 2 How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!
King David begins this psalm describing the joy for the one who has been forgiven. He can describe this accurately because as we will see a little later down it is his own testimony of coming and finding forgiveness. David uses three words for sin - transgression, sin and iniquity.
Transgression is the Hebrew word peshah and literally means a going away or a departure - in the sense of a rebellion against God and His authority.
The second word sin is chattath and is the equivalent of the Greek word hamartia. Both mean coming short or falling short of the mark. Used to describe an archer who shoots short of the target. The target is God’s law and sin by this word is a failure to measure up to it.
The third word is iniquity in Hebrew hawon - NIV also interprets this word as sin but it means corrupt, twisted and crooked.
The weight of sin comes out in these three terms. Transgression is a willful knowledgeable act of rebellion against God. It is the picture of our relationship with God. The second word describes our relationship with His divine law. We fall short of it and because of that we are condemned by it. The third word describes our condition corrupted, twisted and crooked in our practice and understanding of righteousness.
David also gives three words for what God does with sin. What does God do with sin for those who confess and repent? He forgives, covers it and refuses to charge it against the sinner.
Forgiven is the word - Nasa - literally means to carry away or to lift off. When your sin is forgiven it is lifted off. The burden of carrying the sin is lifted off. My sin, not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the LORD O My soul!
Covered is what God does with our sin. It is a word that comes from the Day of Atonement imagery in which the high priest of Israel takes blood from an animal that had been sacrificed in the courtyard of the temple and carried it to the Most Holy Place where it was sprinkled on the mercy seak of the Ark of the Covenant. The mercy seat was the lid or covering for the ark and the blood was sprinkled there because it came between the presence of the Holy God and the broken law of God contained in the ark itself. It thus covered the broken law and shielded the sinner from God’s judgment. In Greek the word for mercy seat means “propitiation” which is the act of turning God’s wrath aside, and Hebrew is Kisah - covered.
The third word is what God doesnt do. Goid does not charge the sin against us. This word is translated elsewhere as impute and is a bookkeeping term. Paul quotes from this Psalm in Romans.
7 Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin.
No wonder David describes the one whom God does that for as being joyful! What joy to be forgiven! To have your guilt covered over and the account of your conscience cleared! There is no greater joy than to know our sin has been forgiven covered and will not be charged against us.
Pathway to Forgiveness
Pathway to Forgiveness
3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
David moves on from experiencing forgiveness to what he experienced before forgiveness and how he came to find or receive forgiveness. David says that before forgiveness he was silent and he kept silent. When he was silent David didnt acknowledge nor did he confess his sin. In a lot of ways perhaps he thought if he just stayed quiet it would pass or enough time would make it all better. Instead he was miserable and even says that his bones became brittle.
Nouthetic counseling is a biblical counseling model in which confession and forgiveness of sin are necessary to experiencing freedom and healing. In many recorded encounters with some of the most extreme and catatonic mentally distressed people after counseling and confession many have been freed to regular normal mental capacity and functioning. It goes to show that guilt weighs heavy and is very crippling to the body - the spiritual reality manifesting in a physical ailment.
David says during this unconfessed time night and day he felt the hand of God upon him heavily. His strength was zapped as if he had been out in the heat all day. Perhaps the dryness in your life could be sin being harbored causing a drought in your spirit. Not all dryness is the result of sin, but much is.
David then shares his testimony of when he experienced freedom, forgiveness and joy. He acknowledged his sin before God. When we sin we wish we could forget and overlook it hoping God may ignore it. God cannot and will not ignore sin and so He brings pressure upon us that we might acknowledge sin and confess it. David did not conceal his sin before God any longer. We are fooling ourselves also to think that we can hide our sin from God. Man has been trying to hide his sin before God since the garden. David says I will confess - he determined to confess his sin and it was in that confession that forgiveness came. God hasnt changed this since the garden.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
21 The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
God covered Adam and Eve in their sin after they confessed. God forgave David’s guilt after he confessed. God forgives our guilt after we confess, confession is the way of restoration and forgiveness from God.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
13 The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
Also notice here that verse 5 is the theme of the psalm and in verse 5 is the heart of David’s testimony. The three words used to describe the scope of our guilt of sin are all addressed here in this verse as well. David acknowledged his sin, and did not conceal his iniquity and confessed his transgressions to the LORD. David confessed it all and God forgave it all.
Do not miss a major detail in the forgiveness of God - this forgiveness was not only total, but it was immediate. This statement of David that he determined to confess and the LORD forgave ends with the word SELAH. Which we remember is a pause in order to reflect on what was just said. The pause to reflect is after confession not in confession no hesitation between confession and God’s forgiveness of it.
Admonishment From the Forgiven
Admonishment From the Forgiven
6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him. 7 You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah
David then admonishes that after considering the quickness of God’s forgiveness following his confession that everyone who is faithful would pray to God immediately. Why oh why do people prolong coming to God and confessing - especially when God promises to forgive us? God not only promises to forgive but in David’s experience and everyone else’s who has come and confessed God is ready and willing to forgive! The time to confess and pray to God is immediately - also translated is when He can be found.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near.
When the great floodwaters come - the flood of judgment - they will not reach the one whose sins are forgiven, iniquities covered and transgression is not counted against them.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and the rivers will not overwhelm you, When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched and the flame will not burn you.
I believe it is simply an exhortation to pray now. It’s another way of saying: “Today is the day of salvation,” and that none of us has a claim on tomorrow. Are you experiencing God’s conviction right now? Then respond, right now. Confess right now. Who is to say whether you will experience God’s conviction tomorrow? Cry out to God now, while he may still be found.
And when you call out in faith to God, not only will God cover up your sins, but God will cover you. He will surround you with his protective care. When the waters rise they will not reach you, for you have taken cover in God. He is your hiding place, and he will protect you from trouble. He will surround you with songs of deliverance. David says, “Call to God while you may” – before the time of trouble comes and before the time of conviction goes away. When you take cover in God, you are surrounded by his protective care.
Hiding is a necessary skill for survival.Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian, provided a place for Jews to hide from Nazi Stormtroopers during the regime of Adolf Hitler. (She wrote about these experiences in her book, The Hiding Place).
When times get tough, you can retreat to the pages of God’s Word. The Bible is a hiding place because we can hide ourselves in the pages of God’s Word. At the same time, God Himself becomes our Hiding Place. He can be a Person who I can confide in and receive comfort from during my time of trial and difficulty. He becomes my security and comfort when I feel trapped or discouraged. When I feel like everything is falling apart, God Himself provides a place where we are protected. God wants to be that Hiding Place. He wants us to take refuge in Him. He wants us to look to Him for protection and care when life is hard.
What is that reward that God will give you when you come to Him in secret? Not just forgiveness.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, HCSB). The joy that comes with forgiveness is the reward. How do I know this? Because this psalm is related to another psalm that David wrote. Psalm 32 is when David is struggling with the guilt of his sin and how he overcomes it with forgiveness. Psalm 51 is David after he has confessed his sin.
12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
Psalm 32 shifts from a cry about guilt to the joy of forgiveness. “You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah” (Psalm 32:7, HCSB)
Do you see the change that happens? David goes from guilt to glory, from frustration to forgiveness, from silence to shouts of joy. It changes his outlook and the way he approaches God. God never changed. It’s David that changes. God never changes. It’s us He changes.
Promise In Forgiveness
Promise In Forgiveness
8 I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel. 9 Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you.
10 Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him. 11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
David writing these words gives us the promise from the LORD to the backslider of instruction for the pathway ahead. His keeping His eye on us and providing counsel as we face the confusion and decisions of life.
A word of caution also to not be like a horse or mule. The horse is restless wanting always to move ahead without command, whereas the mule obstinately refuses to move even when commanded and directed. Both animals require the same treatment to get them to submit - the bit and bridle. The caution is for us as we have received forgiveness to be obedient and sensitive to the LORD’s direction that He doesnt need to use a heavy hand or harsher discipline to bring us back in line.
God promises to keep an eye on the one restored as they continue to travel along in life so they do not get lost or go wrong again. Forgiveness is great but to have the protection and promise to not repeat the sin again and be able to to continue walking in the right way. To ignore God’s leading and counsel is to be nothing more than a brute beast without understanding and not come near to the one who forgives and guides.
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools.
The promise of forgiveness is pain comes to the wicked - the unrepentant, the sinful and the transgressor who hides and does not confess their rebellion or sin. The other side of the promise is that the one who trusts in the LORD has faithful love - hesed love - surrounding him.
21 Disaster pursues sinners, but good rewards the righteous.
Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart! (v. 11)
In the final verse of Psalm 32, David makes it clear that rejoicing is a non-optional activity for those who really know the forgiveness of God. They have something to shout about. Do you? Have you experienced His forgiveness? Can you, will you rejoice today?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Who is covering your sin tonight? Are you silent and unconfessing hoping to ignore it away? Or have you come and confessed your sin before God and received His forgiveness? Be glad in the LORD and rejoice! Shout for joy because you are upright in heart!
God can forgive all sin - the only sin He wont forgive is the unconfessed sin.
Another joy of forgiveness is when you forgive others as well. Peter asked how many times shall I forgive my brother? 7 times? the context was for the same issue. Jesus replied 7x70, and another place Jesus told them they must be careful to forgive others for if they do not forgive others than God in heaven will not forgive them. Why? Because a forgiven heart forgives others. Experience joy and give joy to those whom you need to forgive and watch joy fill the space that was once heavy laden and burdensome.