This morning we are going to hear about how we can have peace of mind about our eternal destination. If you have ever been concerned about whether or not you will go to heaven when you die, or how you can gain God’s favor, then this passage is for you. Concerning Psalm 32, the Bible commentator Matthew Henry says it is “a psalm of David giving instruction, and there is nothing in which we have more need of instruction than in the nature of true blessedness . . . [which] consists in the favor of God.”(1)
This morning we will see that David gives us the prescription for true blessedness, which according to Matthew Henry lies in having favor with God; and the favor of God will allow us access and entrance into heaven when we die and leave this world. So, let’s dig into the Scripture and see what we can learn from the words of David.
We All Need to Be Forgiven (vv. 1-2)
1Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
David said, “Blessed is he . . . whose sin is covered.” Why do we need to have our sins covered? Because we are all sinners. Romans 3:10 says, “As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one.” Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We have all committed sin; specifically against God. In Psalm 51:4, David said, “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” We are all sinners from our very birth; meaning that our own death warrant is written into our birth certificate.(2)
In verses 1-2, David shared a threefold description of sin. He spoke of “transgression,” “sin,” and “iniquity.” 1.) “Transgression” depicts a spirit of defiant disobedience against God. 2.) “Sin” denotes a missing of the mark. The Greek word for sin in the New Testament is hamartia, which was an archery term. An archer would shoot an arrow at a target, and if he missed the bulls eye, then the score keeper would shout out “hamartia!” meaning, “You missed the mark!” 3.) “Iniquity” represents a perversion and a distortion of that which is straight.(3) Iniquity is voluntary and willful disobedience.
Each and every person in the world has committed transgression, sin, and iniquity. In verse 2, David said, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” “Impute” means to hold accountable. So, why is a person blessed whom God does not hold accountable for his or her sin? Because Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” Without the forgiveness of sin we are destined to die. We all know that we will die a physical death, but the Bible tells us that we will also die a spiritual death if our sin is not forgiven.
In verse 1-2, we also discover a threefold counterpart to sin. The main word here is “forgiven.” The two other phrases are “being covered,” and “not imputing.” 1.) “Forgiven” means, “to lift up,” “to take away,” and “to bear.” 2.) “Covered” means, “to conceal or hide,” as from the eye; and 3.) “not imputing” pictures the canceling of debt.(4) Our sins can be forgiven and hidden from God’s eyes if we want them to be. Jesus, God’s one and only Son, wants to forgive our sins and take on our burden, and that’s why He declared in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
If we accept Jesus into our heart by confessing Him as Savior and Lord, then God will remember our sin no more. “A man was telling his friend about an argument that he had with his wife. He commented, ‘Oh, how I hate it! Every time we have an argument she gets historical!’ The friend replied, ‘You mean hysterical?’ ‘No,’ he insisted. ‘I mean historical! Because every time we argue she drags up something from the past and holds it against me!’”(5) Let me assure you right now that the Lord won’t get historical with us if we have accepted His Son, Jesus Christ, as our personal Savior and Lord.
So, the Bible tells us that we have all sinned and are in need of forgiveness. In verse 2, David said, “Blessed is the man . . . in whose spirit there is no deceit.” David affirmed here the fact that forgiveness is obtained only when there is absolute sincerity and honesty on person’s part in acknowledging his or her sins before God. Forgiveness is granted to the person in whom there is no deceit and who truly and sincerely desires with all their heart to be forgiven.(6)
Without Forgiveness There Is Death (vv. 3-4)
3When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. 4For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
David was referring to those times when we try to hide our sin. We know that we have sinned; but rather than confess it, we try not to think about it, and we attempt to fill our mind with something else. These verses illustrate the biblical principle that one’s physical health is vitally related to his or her spiritual well-being. Matthew Henry said, “The wounds of sin, not opened, wilt fester, and grow intolerably painful.” Therefore, as long as David failed to acknowledge his sin, he suffered great pain.(7) In Job 33:19, Elihu informed Job that people who run from God will be chastened with pain upon their bed, and with strong pain in many of their bones.
One of the most painful times that I can recall in my life is when I was convicted of the fact that I was a lost sinner. When I was made aware of my sin, and that I was destined to hell without Jesus, I was extremely troubled. Just as Elihu told Job that the person in sin would lie in his or her bed in pain, I lay in my bed with the agony of thinking about where my soul would be if I died without Jesus in my heart. Maybe some of you can identify with what I am saying. That pain won’t go away until you make your life right with the Lord through His Son, Jesus Christ.
In verse 4, David said, “Your hand was heavy upon me.” Perhaps part of what David felt was the weight of sin. “A youth once asked a preacher, ‘You say that unsaved people carry a weight of sin. I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? Is it ten pounds? Eighty pounds?’ The preacher replied by asking the youth, ‘If you laid a four-hundred pound weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?’ The youth replied, ‘It would feel nothing, because it is dead.’ The preacher concluded, ‘That spirit, too, is indeed dead which feels no load of sin or is indifferent to its burden and unaware of its presence’.”(8) Only when we are aware of sin’s presence can we do something about it; and what we should do is repent and ask the Lord for His forgiveness.
In verse 4, we read, “My vitality is turned into the drought of summer.” David suffered spiritually, but he also suffered physically. God’s hand of conviction lay heavy upon him both day and night. He dried up like a brook in the drought of summer. Have you ever felt that you were walking through a spiritual desert, or perhaps you found yourself in a spiritual dry spell? That is what unconfessed sin will do.(9) Sin causes a distance between us and the Lord. The further apart we grow from Him, the less we feel His presence in our life.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Do not expect God “to cover” what you are unwilling “to uncover.” In order for a believer to feel God’s presence once again; and in order for an unbeliever to know His presence for the very first time and to receive eternal life; then he or she must ask God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
Forgiveness Leads to Eternal Life (v. 5)
5I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
Once David realized his sin, he acknowledged it to God and didn’t try to hide it from Him. This is called repentance. Millard Erickson defines repentance as, “Godly sorrow for one’s sin together with a resolution to turn from it.”(10) We have to feel truly sorry for having displeased the Lord, and then we must turn from what we have done wrong, in order for it to be true repentance.
Erickson says, “If we have sinned and the consequences are unpleasant, we may well regret what we have done. But [regret] is not true repentance. That is penitence. Real repentance is sorrow for one’s sin because of the wrong done to God and the hurt inflicted upon Him. This sorrow is accompanied by a genuine desire to abandon that sin.”(11) We read earlier, in verse 2, that “blessed is the man . . . in whose spirit there is no deceit.” This basically means, “Blessed is the man who is truly sorry for his sin and desires to turn away from it, never to return again.”
We must feel sorrow in our heart and confess our sin to the Lord in order to be forgiven. And, we must not only confess our sin, but we must also confess the name of the One who is able to pay the price for our sin, Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven,” meaning that we will be forgiven of our sin and receive eternal life. However, Jesus continued to add, “Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven,” meaning that if we fail to repent and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, then we will experience spiritual death.
Time of Reflection
What we have seen this morning is that if we choose to hide our sin and fail to acknowledge it to God and repent, then our life will be miserable without any peace of mind. For the believer, he or she will have to live with the pain, guilt, and sorrow of sinning against God. For the unbeliever, he or she will have to live with the fear of eternal death and spending forever in hell.
The only way to have true peace is to confess our sins to the Lord and sincerely ask for His forgiveness. If we do this, then He will heal us and make us spiritually whole; and thereby, we find true blessedness.
NOTES
(1) Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1991), 785.
(2) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 345.
(3) David R. Mills, “The Confession of Sin to God,” a sermon preached at Berean Baptist Church, Mesquite, Texas. (March 2001) http://www.sermons.org/sermons/dmills1.html.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Green, 153.
(6) Mills.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Green, 334.
(9) Mills.
(10) Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), 937.
(11) Ibid., 937-938.
