The Happy Ones

Happiness is an intriguing concept. Most of the time when “happiness” is discussed, it’s as a fleeting emotion, a feeling based on whatever is going on in the moment.

The next time hear someone advise another to “Just do what makes you happy”, I will likely barf.

You don’t want everyone to do what makes them happy. Trust me. That has ‘disaster’ written all over it. And it’s certainly not the prescription for a life lived well by any biblical standard.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is found in the Declaration of Independence, not the Bible.

One is a fallible, man-made document; the other is inspired, God-breathed, perfect.

The Bible is not opposed to happiness, but the Biblical understanding of happiness is often worlds apart from ours.

The Bible’s idea of happiness is never “doing whatever you feel like doing”, but rather being “in close accord with God,” having a relationship with Him and living to honor Him with our lives.

Psalm 32 starts like this:

Psalm 32:1–2 NIV

1 Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.

“Blessed” is a very churchy word, isn’t it? Especially when you say “bless-ed”, giving it two syllables instead of one.

This word “blessed” is found all over the Bible, throughout the Psalms, we hear it from the mouth of Jesus in the beatitudes, the roadside worshippers ascribe it to Jesus as He rides a donkey into Jerusalem.

It’s an important, significant word: “blessed.”

According to the Oxford Annotated Bible, “Blessed” is the conventional translation of a Hebrew expression meaning literally (wait for it): “O, how happy!”

“O, how happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. O, how happy are those whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.”

According to Psalm 32, those who are happy are happy because what? Who are the happy?

David, king of Old Testament Israel, the author of this psalm, tells us that the happy, the blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, those whose sins are covered, those whose sin the Lord does not count against them.

David knows some people who are truly happy. He is among them; they are blessed, they are happy because their sins have been forgiven.

In the Living Bible, verses 1 and 2 read like this: What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record.

Psalm 32 gives us three different words for sin, three different pictures of forgiveness, and at least three ways in which forgiven sinners should respond.

So, for the next three hours, we are going to talk about sin, forgiveness, and our response.

Unfortunately for you, bad preacher jokes make me happy.

Psalm 32 uses three different words for sin; most English Bibles translate these words as transgressions, sins, and sin.

The first of these words, translated transgressions is that deliberate disobedience to God’s known will.

The second word, sins, is a general term which means moral failure, missing the mark.

The third, sin or iniquity, refers to crooked and perverse qualities.

None of these are good; and what’s worse: we are, all of us, guilty of each.

We are transgressors of God’s revealed will, of His Holy standard;

We are sinners, we miss the mark;

We are a crooked and perverse people, we tend toward sin and evil. This is our natural state.

The apostle Paul, who would call himself the chief of sinners, reminds us that Jews and Gentiles alike are under the power of sin…there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who does good, no not one.”

It’s stated very clearly for us in Romans 3: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This is the bad news. I’m getting to the Good News, trust me.

But for the Good News to be truly good, we have to understand our sinful inclination and sinful state.

One now deceased preacher, speaking of his own sinfulness, would say: “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got me a bag of trash.”

If we’re honest, we, too, could say that we have a bag of trash; our transgressions and sins and iniquity, if they could be bagged up, would result in several bags of trash—in my own case, I’d need my own landfill.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve got me a bag of trash.”

The Good News is this: God has dealt with our sin decisively, once and for all time.

Psalm 32 is prophetic, it’s looking forward to Jesus and the perfect, ultimate forgiveness He will grant to those who belong to Him by faith—to those who are happy in Him:

Happy are Those Whose Transgressions Have Been Carried Away

The word here—forgiven—is another one of those churchy words, one of those words you expect to hear the preacher preach about.

But this word—forgiven—is a really interesting word. Here in Psalm 32, verse 1, it’s the word nasaw and it means: to carry off.

It’s the word that’s used in Genesis 50, after Jacob, the patriarch of Israel, dies. Jacob dies and we read:

So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them; they carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah…

So, then, Psalm 32 tells us: Happy are those whose transgressions are carried off, carried away to a far off place.

There’s this great picture in the Old Testament book of Leviticus; it’s one of my very favorite parts of the Bible (I’m pretty strange).

Under the Old Covenant, there was one day a year when the sins of the people were taken care of. It’s called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (this year, Yom Kippur will be observed by the Jewish community on October 4-5).

On this day—the Day of Atonement—the high priest would take with him two goats (I really wanted a couple of goats up here with me today, but I thought better of it. Jackie deals with enough as it is).

On this day—the Day of Atonement—the high priest would take two goats; one he would sacrifice and sprinkle its blood on the altar.

And with the other, the high priest would place his hands on the goat, symbolically transferring the sins of all the people to the head of this goat, making it a scapegoat for the people.

And then, with the sins of the people upon its head, the goat would be led out through the gathering of people, and the people would see a visible representation of their sins being carried away right in front of them…pretty powerful stuff…out of town and into the wilderness.

That’s the picture of forgiveness—our transgressions carried away; God taking our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.

Friends, so it is for all who belong to Jesus Christ—the perfect, spotless Lamb of God who takes away our sins, carrying them off, bearing their weight on Calvary’s cross.

For those who believe in Jesus, for those who put their faith in Him—our transgressions are no longer with us; they have been carried away by God’s own Son.

Our transgressions have been carried away—let us be happy! Happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven.

Happy are Those Whose Sins are Covered

Happy are those…whose sins are covered.

Of course we understand what it means that something is covered. But I want us to think about this the way the Bible would have us think about this.

Sins are covered—that is, concealed from sight.

In Genesis 38, we find the story of Judah and Tamar. This is not exactly G-rated. It’s not even PG-13. It’s clearly R-rated. So, I’ll edit it and bleep out some of the content; I’ll keep it appropriate.

Suffice it to say, Judah got into some serious trouble with his own daughter-in-law because he didn’t recognize her.

Genesis 38:15—When Judah saw [Tamar, his daughter-in-law], he thought she was a prostitute[someone else], because she had covered her face.

This covering meant that Tamar was unrecognizable; her identity was concealed from Judah’s sight.

This has the idea of hiding—covered over completely, to conceal, to hide from sight.

For our sins to be covered means that all our trash—all our moral failure and falling short, all this imperfection and dirt and scum—no longer appears as it once did.

It’s covered, it’s hidden. It’s unrecognizable.

I think this might be part of the reason David sings these words to God in verse 7: You are my hiding place. David knows that God has covered over his sins; that they’re hidden and hidden forever.

That’s the picture of forgiveness—our transgressions covered over.

God atoning for, God covering our sins so that they are completely concealed, completely unrecognizable.

God covers our sins; He doesn’t see them any longer.

Friends, so it is for all who belong to Jesus Christ—the eternally-existing Son of God who covers our sins, washing the scarlet white as snow with His precious, sin-covering blood.

For those who believe in Jesus, for those who put their faith in Him—our sins are no longer seen; they have been hidden, atoned for, covered by the Savior of the world.

Our sins have been covered—let us be happy! Happy are those whose sins are covered.

Happy are Those Whose Sin is Not Counted Against Them

This is, for me, the most incredible, most beautiful part of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 32:2 says this: Happy are those whose sin the Lord does not count against them.

We can call this imputation or reckoning or crediting. Or we can just call it counting.

We deserve for our sin to be counted against us, to be credited to our account; we, after all, are the ones who have sinned. We cannot point the finger at anyone else.

We earned it. We own it. It’s ours. We deserve the consequences. We should pay the price; that’s what’s fair.

The wages of sin, after all, is death.

You can bet, if our sins were counted against us, we would surely die.

And yet we know there’s this possibility for our sin to not be counted against us, because of what Psalm 32 says: Happy are those whose sin the Lord does not count against them.

This must mean that the Lord can do something else with our sin; the Lord must be able to count our sin against someone else.

As it turns out, the Lord counts our sin against His One and Only Son.

If I had to pick a favorite verse in the Bible, it’d be 2 Corinthians 5:21—the Gospel in miniature; this is the Good News in one verse.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is what God has done for us who believe in Him: instead of counting our sins against us, God made His own Son, Jesus—He who knew no sin—to become sin for us.

Jesus took our sin; our sin charged to Him. And Jesus gave us His perfect, sinless life and righteousness; His perfection credited to our account.

This flies in the face of everything we think we know, everything that makes sense to the rational mind.

We like to believe the lie that if we do more good than bad in this life, than the cosmic scales will tip in our favor and we’ll soar to the great beyond.

Well, that’s not how it works.

“It’s not the [counting] of people's good works but God’s act in not [counting] their sins against them that constitutes forgiveness.” - Douglas Moo

God doesn’t sweep our sin under some cosmic rug; He deals our sin. He counts our sin against Jesus.

As it is written: The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

That’s the picture of forgiveness—our sin counted against another; God crediting our sin, counting our sin, reckoning our sin, just not against us.

Rather the LORD charges our sin to Jesus, and credits His righteousness to us when we place our faith in Him.

Friends, so it is for all who belong to Jesus Christ—God the Son, the radiant second person of the Trinity, taking what should be counted against us upon Himself; paying the bill in full, so that there is no sin, no guilt left for us to pay.

For those who believe in Jesus, for those who put their faith in Him—our sin is no longer counted against us, never again counted against us,

because it has been charged to Jesus;

He has paid the price.

And there’s no balance left.

Our sin will never again be counted against us—let us be happy! Happy are those whose sin the Lord does not count against them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

According to Psalm 32, those who are happy are happy because what? Who are the happy?

Those who are happy are happy because their sin is forgiven—carried away, covered, never counted against them.

How then, should we respond, to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Well, in a word: worship.

Happy are those who Worship the LORD

Worship is more than singing. It’s the full life of those who have been forgiven. Worship is confession and prayer, rejoicing and praising the LORD.

David knew the importance of confessing and acknowledging his sin. When David kept his sin to himself, things didn’t go well for him:

Psalm 32:3–4 NIV

3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

It’s a miserable feeling to hold that in. Sin will eat at you. Unconfessed sin will devour you from the inside out. It’ll ruin relationships in a hurry.

We get the whole “strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” We feel that, especially right now during summer in Missouri.

This is what the LORD wants His people to feel. God’s hand is heavy upon His people, to help them come to the point of confessing, even if through a little pressure and pain, a little sweat and exhaustion.

Verse 5 tells us what David did with his sin (after a time):

Psalm 32:5 NIV

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

See what David did with his sin?

- He acknowledged it.

- He didn’t cover it up.

- He confessed his sin to the Lord.

And the LORD forgave him.

It’s pretty clear what we are to do with our sin.

Friends, acknowledge that you are a sinner: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Don’t try to cover your sin—as if you could pull one over on God anyhow.

Confess your sin—not to me, not to another person. You don’t have to climb into a box or a booth and ask forgiveness from another person.

Confess your sins to the Resurrected Lord. Only He can forgive. And He will.

David says to pray to the LORD:

Psalm 32:6 NIV

6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.

Run to Him and hide in Him—He is our only hope, He is our protection, He is our Deliverer. Under the shelter of His wings, we find safety and salvation.

The rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.

The direction of the psalm takes a sharp turn at verse 8. David had been addressing the LORD, and now he turns to give some advice to his fellow worshippers:

Psalm 32:8–11 NIV

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. 11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!

What David is calling for here is faith and obedience from his fellow worshippers.

David goes to the farm, to horses and mules.

As Douglas Young used to say, “Horses can horse around, and mules can be, well, mule-ish, and they won’t do what you want unless you have them under bit and bridle.”

David’s advice here is: “Don’t be mule-ish. Don’t be like I was when I refused to confess my sin, when I tried to hide it. Don’t position yourself to be broken by the hand of God.”

This is David passing on what he has learned, one worshipper to another. The hope is that we learn from him.

Don’t be dense and stubborn like the horse or the mule: The Lord’s unfailing love [His covenant love, His forever love, His love that never lets go] surrounds those who trust in Him.

For those who know this story, who have trusted in Jesus and placed their faith in Him, you still have a response:

It’s worship—joyful, glad, happy worship.

David’s call to us is a call for joy.

David isn’t calling the perfect, but the forgiven, to be happy in the LORD.

Because we have been forgiven, because the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds those who trust in Him, there’s a joyous happiness that fills us and wells up in us until we overflow with rejoicing and singing:

Psalm 32:11 NIV

11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!

Be happy—

Rejoice and be glad!

Sing! Sing, because you’re happy. “I sing because I’m happy…”

>Let me close by saying this. And I mean this with all my heart: I want you to be truly happy.

Life is hard. There are ups and down. There are struggles all along the way. Life will not be all rainbows and fairy tales and puppy dog kisses, even with everything that might make us happy in this life.

Trusting Jesus and knowing that you are forgiven—well, that’s what happiness is; that’s what it means to be truly, truly happy.

As a sinner, I could not bear existence if I did not know that because of Jesus, I live under the smile of my Heavenly Father and in that relationship I can go on walking with Him through sadness, disappointments, and troubles, knowing I am forgiven and free.

That’s true happiness.

The absolute worst thing about you, all your accumulated bags of trash—at the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ— it’s dealt with once and for all;

In Jesus, the absolute worst thing about you is never again counted against you—it’s counted against Jesus.

It’s covered, once and for all time, by the blood of Jesus.

And it is, wondrously, forever, carried away—on the shoulders of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This, because Jesus died in your place, taking your sins and transgressions and iniquities upon Himself, and then He rose victorious over sin and death, so that you and I would be really, truly, actually happy in Him.

“O, how happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. O, how happy are those whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.”

O, how happy...