This morning we are looking at Psalm 32 and we find that it is written by King David. It’s a psalm paired with Psalm 51. They’re bound together. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love.” And they’re bound together because the context of the psalm is 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12. It’s the familiar story when the Israelites were at war and David should have been with them but he was not. And he saw a woman bathing on her rooftop, Bathsheba, and he called for her and he impregnated her and then to cover it up he had her husband, one of his best and most loyal soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, killed on the battlefield. And for at least nine months – I think this is helpful language, chilling language that scholar and author Sinclair Ferguson uses – for at least nine months David apparently lived with “a quiet conscience.” He lived with a quiet conscience. He hid and covered up and he pushed back the guilt and the shame. And then God forced the issue in 2 Samuel chapter 12 when Nathan exposed his sin to him. And as a result of that confrontation, David wrote Psalm 51. Many believe that Psalm 51 was first penned by David as a result of that confrontation, and in Psalm 32 we have a later reflection.
So, David is at a point where he is confronted by his sin and realizes he has to do something. His relationship with God has been, not just stagnant, but wooden and hollow, with no life, no relationship, no joy, no vibrancy or flourishing. It is forced and faked and empty.
QUESTION: Have you ever felt that way? I think if we are honest we all must agree that there are times in our lives when we have felt this way. It could be any number of things. Maybe not adultery and murder, like David. It could just be busyness, laziness, lack of discipline, apathy – lacking a desire and drive to go deeper. Interestingly, All of these things can be summed up with one word that causes the hollowing out of our relationship with God…SIN.
In today’s psalm we will see that David, after he had been so lost, after he had failed, he finds his way home. And so that’s what we are going to look at today. We’ll consider the journey home. We’ll consider the journey home in verses 1 to 5. And second, verses 6 to 11, the joy of home.
PRAY
I. Returning To A Deep Relationship With God is a Journey. (1-5)
The psalm begins taking the form of a beatitude. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It takes the same form as the beginning of the Psalms. Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord.”
And, this morning, Blessed is the one who knows what forgiveness from God is!
A. The journey home requires admitting our sinfulness. (1-2a)
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
And I want you to notice this. There are three ideas conveyed here for David’s sin and they fit for our sin too. “Transgression,” in verse 1, “sin” in verse 1, and “iniquity” in verse 2.
Transgression – which means our resistance to God, our rebellion. It means “crossing the boundary.” This is what the prodigal son did when he left the father’s house and went away from his father’s love and care and protection. He crossed the boundary. He left home. A turning away from God. Transgression.
Then second, the word “sin” – an archery term; “to miss the mark.” To miss what God has called us to aim at in our relationship with Him, in our relationship with one another. And then this third word, “iniquity.” This refers to how sin is “a twisting.” So, David is saying this is the twisting of a heart, of his heart.
The bottom line is that David is saying that his sin was complete. There was no use trying to deny it. “A rose by any other name.” David, and all of us, know all too well what sin is in our lives. Whatever word you want to try to describe it, it is sin. Full and complete.
And this sin hangs on us like a putrid stench.
This is where we all must go first if we want closeness and intimacy with God to return. We acknowledge and admit our sinful state. What is it that AA says? “the first step in recovery is acknowledging you’re an alcoholic.” The same is true with our addiction to sin.
This is step one. You see, David was holding this deep secret. For all those months after committing adultery and then murder to cover it up. His sin was eating away at his very soul!
Then, like we all must do, he recognized his need. For David, it took a prophet of God to confront him. For you and me, perhaps it is this ongoing lack of closeness to God. This ever-present distance between us and the one we claim to follow. That dullness and lack of joy in the Lord that we would so much love to have in our lives. But our sin keeps it from us and robs us of it. We know Him. But we are distant and far from the intimacy and Joy only closeness to God can bring.
But here’s some GOOD NEWS OF GOD”S GRACE - we don’t have to stay there. How do we know?
David next brings these three words of grace that overwhelm every facet of our sinfulness. God first forgives our sin and then He covers our sin and then third in verse 2, He refuses to count our sin against us. And so, there’s not only removal of guilt, that our sin is forgiven, but there is obliteration of our past record. It’s been covered and not counted. And so not only does God forgive me in the high court of heaven – no matter how tall or wide or deep my sin is, God has also removed my guilt and my record has been expunged. It’s as if it never happened.
ILL. Natural Talent - Have you come across someone who is a natural born talent at something? They don’t need to learn or practice. It just comes natural to them. It’s usually a combination of awe and irritation because we have to work do hard and aren’t even close to how good they are. It just doesn’t seem fair some how!
Well, David, in the first two verses, reminds us of the fact that we are indeed, accomplished sinners. We are not only good at sin. We are born naturals! We don’t need to learn it or practice to get better. We are naturals! That is what the Bible says in Romans 3:23- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
TRANS: So, we see here we are all wretched sinners and God’s grace is available to us. NOT by our merit, NOT our penitence, but by His grace as we come clean and admit our sin…
B. Admitting our sin allows for true genuine community with God. (2b &5)
and in whose spirit there is no deceit. - 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
This second part of verse 2, implies something very important. It is telling us that when we come to this place of acknowledging our sin to God, there is a renewed openness and honesty in our relationship.
We can stop pretending there is no elephant in the room and simply admit it.
ILL. We have all experienced times when we had to fake it. Pretend like you’re having a good time. A family picture where you tell the kids to at least try to look like they are enjoying themselves. Shopping with your wife? Your spouses “office Christmas Party”?
We are good at pretending all is good with us. Putting on a “happy face” and faking it. The truth is, we can’t do that with God!
Admitting our sin to Him is just being honest as He knows all our sin anyway.
We might fool some of the people around us into believing we are good people, compassionate people, honest people. But, we are careful to never let out the real beast inside. So, we put on a good façade and pretend all is well.
With God, this is a joke. We must be open and honest. When we confess, suddenly “the game” of pretend is over! No more duplicity. No more, “fake it till you make it”. We just simply surrender to the obvious clear truth. We are sinners with hearts that are corrupted by our sinful nature.
That is why we see in verse 5 - 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
When we confess this truth to God then, and only then, is there truly, a spirit where there is no deceit.
The result is, “blessed is the one!” When we get real and honest with God about our sinfulness, we experience His grace abundantly. As Romans tells us, this doesn’t mean we should sin more so grace can abound. It does, however mean, The more you recognize just how evil and disgusting you are before a Holy God, the more you can marvel at God’s grace. If you think your, “Not all that bad” then God doesn’t have to expend much grace to forgive you and love you, right?” ILL. I remember years ago someone coined the acronym – EGR regarding certain people. Extra Grace Required. Certain people who are just a thorn in your side. Well, we all need to recognize, as we see in this psalm, we are all desperately people who are EGR.
TRANS: Next, I want us to see that…
C. There are serious repercussions for not confessing our sins.
The first thing we need to note is that David was holding this deep secret and he was silent about it for at least nine months. And David provides this summary of what it was like to hide his sin. He says in verses 3 and 4, “When I kept silent my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” So, we see that David is describing the results of his trying to hide his sin. Nine months of hiding. This is the way that sin works in our lives and encourages us to hide.
This is our natural response to our sin, we hide! The first couple to sin, Adam and Eve. Do you remember what they immediately tried to do? That’s right – hide.
Genesis 3:8 (NIV) - 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
And you see, there is a thread that runs through Adam and Eve that runs through King David in Psalm 32 and it runs through me and through all of us. We spend so much time hiding and pretending. And we are so afraid of being known, of being found out.
SIDE NOTE: Now, we need to note that confessing sin to God and our sin to others are two separate things. I must be honest, there may be times when it is better that we hide our sin from other people. I know the Bible tells us in James 5:16 (NIV) - 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
But there is a “therefore” in that passage and what comes before it is the emphasis to pray in all circumstances whether hurting or happy. To pray when you’re sick and confess any sin that might be causing your sickness.
We are to confess all our sins to God, because He not only can handle it, He can forgive it, cover it, and refuse to count it against us. But, when we consider confessing our sins to others, we need some discretion and grace because others can’t handle it and too often, because they are not God, they can’t forgive us.
So, there is no peace trying to hide our sin from God. The only option is to acknowledge it as we see in verse 5.
“I acknowledged my sin to You and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.’”
When we do this, we are told in;
1 John 1:9-10 (NIV) - 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
TRANS: So, stop trying to hide your sin from God. The result of doing so is groaning and a heaviness.
But, how do we know what sins to confess and which ones we don’t need to? Do we wait till they keep us up at night and confess just those?
D. We need help to know what and when to Confess our sin to God and others.
How do we know what sin we need to admit to God? Obviously, we can’t hide anything from Him. He knows our sin before we commit it. God knew David’s sin and it wasn’t news to Him. God didn’t say, “Thanks for coming and admitting your sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. Wow, I didn’t know. I knew there seemed to be this thing that was off between us. You seemed more distant and more ornery and irritable than usual. I’m glad you let me know, I forgive you.”
No, God knows all our sin. Even sins we aren’t aware of. To confess our sinfulness fully would be a 24/7/365 kind of deal. So, what do we confess?
For David, he recognized the symptoms of restlessness, the weight of God’s hand upon him, the misery he felt and was able to recognize it was this great sin he had committed that was causing this large divide, this chasm between Him and God.
What about you and me? I think most of us can become pretty comfortable with our sin and sleep like babies at night. No tossing and turning at all. So how do we figure out what we need to take to God in confession? For you and me, we have the Holy Spirit within us to reveal such sins for us! What a blessing!
John 16:8 (NIV) - 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
We need to listen to the Holy Spirit and confess to God and others accordingly.
Both with God and with others. There are certain times when the Holy Spirit will prompt us and make us aware of some way we might have offended God or someone else. We need to listen to that and go, and confess it to the other person.
TRANS: So, we are sinners and we must live in this reality. To try to pretend and live otherwise is a sad miserable existence where we will live feeling distant and disconnected from God. Once we confess this, what this psalm tells us next is that there can be restored joy in God’s perfect presence.
II. Once We Come Home There is Great Renewed Joy. (6-11)
In these verses we see the joy of being home and close to God once again. “6Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to You at a time when You may be found.”
This is God telling us that this practice of admitting and confessing our sin is to be a regular practice for those of us who are godly because we believe in God and love Him. The sign, in other words, of a godly person, is their regular awareness of their sinfulness and God’s grace in forgiving them. So, instead of doing what most of us tend to do, hide our sin, ignore our sin, deny it, pretend it isn’t a part of who we are and our very nature. We are to be more willing and regular in stopping and admitting our sin to God. God is always present and, for us who believe, He can always be found. Simply bowing our heads and talking to Him in prayer. It is to be a top priority for us. This practice of confession of our sin.
And jump with me down to verse 9 for a second, David uses great imagery here as we are told to fight against our natural tendency to be stubborn in this matter. “Be not like a horse or a mule.” In other words, don’t be stubborn. Don’t waste any more time. Horses and mules were well known to need a bit and a bridle or they would wander off, looking for a nice patch of grass to munch on. Wandering further and further from their master. The imagery is not lost here. We are naturally inclined to be people who are stupid and stubborn and throwing off our attachment to God, our master, to wander away and become distant from Him. That is how it feels when we refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit and acknowledge our sin. We find ourselves further and further from God.
This isn’t the way things are supposed to work. It is the exact opposite of what God wants for us. He wants us near to Him!
James 4:7-8 (NIV) - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
And that nearness is described in verses 7-8 of Psalm 32.
And look at verses 7 &8;
7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Do you see the imagery here? Back in verses 3 to 5. We saw the language of hiding our sin. David is hiding. He talks about when he was silent. Keeping this whole sinful mess buried deep inside so no one, including God would know. And then in verse 7 we see the right alternative, “You are a hiding place for me.”
So, you see, the heart of the Gospel is this invitation, as one pastor said, “we are to quit hiding from God, and instead hide in Him.”
And I want us to see the contrast here of what David was like before he got this right. When David didn’t confess his sin, we see in verse 3 that he groaned. But when he confessed here in verse 7 – we see Songs of deliverance. “You surround me with songs (shouts -ESV) of deliverance.” And who was singing? God.
And not only does God sing (which I would love to hear! Wouldn’t you? Think of our most beautiful and famous singer singing with vocal cords God gave them and then think of the creator Himself, lifting His voice in song…whoa!) Right!?! And He is singing to you and to me and to all who confess and admit their sin. NOT to inform Him, but to admit to ourselves who we really are before HIM. The result of this beautiful song!
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
When we get this right, we see the truth about intimacy with God. ILL. Let me ask you, “What does intimacy and closeness with God look like to you?” We might think, well, like the dad in the story of the prodigal son. Feeling, in some way, God’s loving goodness wrapped around us like a loving Fathers arms. Hugging us so hard it takes our breath away in pure delight. Just enveloped by His love ad mercy. Not a bad image at all!
Here in verse 8, however, it says that when we grow in our relationship with God and become mature enough to continually keep a clean slate with God each day. Confessing our sin to Him. When we do that, He does shower us with love, but it says that this intimacy results in teaching and council under His watchful eye!
Isn’t that amazing? ILL. I picture my granddaughters, both just turning 1 and starting to walk. They both wander around under the watchful eye of their mom or dad. There is constant instruction and teaching, “No, don’t go there.” No, don’t touch that.” No, don’t eat those stones.” Parents love those little ones and won’t take their loving eye off them. Inevitably, they fall as they try out their shaky legs for the first time. Then, mom or dad, having a watchful eye on them scoop them up and holds them tight and comforts them until they are consoled and ready to be put down and try again.
That is intimacy with God. Not some perfect utopia where suddenly we are free from the dings and pains of this world. Rather, God’s perfect presence and peace in the middle of it all!
Then, in summary, we see in verses 10-11.
10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him.
Many are the woes, the times of sadness and sorrow for those who are NOT the godly. Those who don’t know God. This isn’t to imply that if you know Jesus and God you will never suffer similar woes. That would be clearly untrue. We who know Jesus also know woes in this life, don’t we?
But, the difference is, we also know an “unfailing love” that never gives up or stops and that surrounds us in the midst of our woes. That is that peace the Bible talks about, that is beyond human comprehension. Isn’t that true? Isn’t it so wonderful to know God and His Son Jesus Christ who died for all our sins past, present, and future?
What are we to do with such a wonderful reality?
11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!
We worship and praise! The only true response!
Homework:
1. We need to fight the tendency to hide and ignore our sin. – We can’t do this on our own. We are too weak and too afraid and our tendency is to hide our sin, ignore it, pretend it isn’t there. So, it will be a battle. We need to ask God to show us our sin every day. This needs to become as much a part of our daily walk with God as reading Scripture and praying.
2. We need to add Confession to our daily walk with Jesus. – Put a note on your mirror, on your car steering wheel, some place to remind you. Pray and ask God to reveal any sin that is hindering your walk with Him and with others. Then trust the Holy Spirit to do His job of revealing and convicting. And then, deal with it.
1John 1:8-9 (NIV) - 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
