Good For You, Good For Me

Good For Me, Good For You

Psalm 32:1-11

Its not easy for us to admit our sins is it?

Its like the guy who went into the Hallmark store and asked the clerk

“Do you have a card that stops short of saying I’m sorry yet vaguely hints of some wrongdoing?”

Many of us do this with God when we’re not specific about our sins

We might tip our hat to our frailty but rarely fall down on our knees in real repentance before Him

Two elderly southern women were sitting together in the front pew listening to a fiery preacher

He was banging the pulpit and the ladies were cheering him on

When he condemned the sin of stealing the two church ladies cried out loudly “AMEN BROTHER”

When he condemned the sin of lust they yelled again

“PREACH IT, PREACH IT!”

And when he spoke out against lying the jumped to their feet and screamed “RIGHT ON, BROTHER! TELL IT LIKE IT IS…AMEN!”

But when the preacher-man condemned the sin of gossip the two got very quiet

One lady turned to the other and said

“Well, he’s done quit preachin’. Now he’s just meddlin’”

What sin shuts you up this morning?

Its easy for us to get upset with those who sin differently than we do

But its much tougher when the Holy Spirit starts meddlin’ in our lives

Psalm 32 is a very interesting psalm

It describes the experiences of a person passing from sorrows of conviction into the joys of salvation

This psalm has been classified by the early church as one of 7 penitential psalms

Among these 7 Psalms 32 and 51 stand out as confessional giants

As historically related to the life of David, and especially connected with the Bathsheba soap opera episode

Psalm 51 would have proceeded Psalm 32

David is really showing us here in Psalm 32 life’s most important lessons about sin, confession and forgiveness

He takes two avenues of approach

Remembering these lessons and Relaying these lessons

In our first half of Psalm 32 we read about and remember those lessons learned

Or we could call it “Good for me”

READ 1-5

The theme for Psalm 32 is forgiveness brings true joy

I. First Avenue - Remembering These Lessons

A. Lessons about results (1-2)

In these first two verses we see David examining the results of this forgiveness

What are those results?

The person who is forgiven is blessed

We are blessed in so many ways

And to be blessed of God is such an amazing concept

We often overlook how important and monumental it is

One of the old fashioned traditions that probably isn’t practiced much today is the act of asking for your future father-in-laws blessing to marry his daughter

Tell story of asking Alan for his blessing

We seek other people’s blessings and we need to seek even more the blessing of God

You know is something is said once in the Bible it is important

If twice, then you really need to take note

Repetition in the Bible reinforces a message and draws special attention

How blessed is he, how blessed is the man

This emphasizes how wonderful this blessing is

And as we talk about the blessing of forgiveness

We also examine the severity of sin

Note how David speaks of our sin in a three-fold manner

David calls sin: transgressions

Transgressions carry connotations of revolt, rebellion, rejection of God’s authority, rebellion against God’s Law

It is to trespass, it is a willing rebellion against God and His standard

David also calls sin: sin

The term sin is the principle, the basic term used in the Bible and is used for our failure to live up to God’s standard

It is the breach of God’s Law

The failure that all men are guilty of

Missing the mark. All have sinned, we all miss the mark

One of the arguments that people use to try and prove that you can lose your salvation is the fact that we continue to sin

If you can’t lose it when you sin, then you have nothing to lose when you sin, they say

There is a story about a former prizefighter that had been converted and thought God had called him to preach

The only problem was, while he thought he had the gift of preaching, nobody else had the gift of listening

So he couldn’t get a church

He got a little pulpit, found a street corner and preached to passersby in Chicago

He had two-or-three hangers on, friends that liked him

Two-or-three that hated him

And he had one man, a professed atheist who said

“I don’t believe any of the Bible”

These two would get into arguments

One day the preacher was ready for him

He said to the atheist