Psalm 32 "True Confessions"
What do you do when you fail God? How can or should we respond to those times when we do something wrong? How can you get back on track? How can we be fully restored into a right relationship with God after we have sinned?
This would seem to be a very important question for two reasons. First is because the consequences of failing God, and committing sin are significant. They consequences include: Guilt, Judgment, Separation, Depression, Physical Infirmities, A Void and Emptiness in one’s life. There is a loss of peace, joy and intimacy and confident prayer when our relationship with God is damaged and in need of restoration. Just like in a marriage relationship in which unfaithfulness has occurred, you can’t simply ignore the issue but their must be some process of restoration. Until that restoration takes place the marriage relationship suffers considerably. The same is true of our relationship with God! The question of "How can we be fully restored to a right relationship with God after we have sinned?" is an important question because of the significant consequences of a broken relationship.
The answer to this question is also important because we will fail God. We will sometimes disobey and do the wrong thing, sometimes repeatedly. The Christian life is not one of continued steady upward progress into righteous living! Many ups and downs - like the stock market. There will be great highs in the Christian’s life, but there will also be great lows. Therefore we need to know not only how to live a successful Christian life, but also "How we can be fully restored into a right relationship with God after we have sinned ." What do we do when we have failed? The answer to this vital question is found in Psalm 32.
Read Psalm 32
I’ve entitled this Psalm "True Confessions" for reasons that will become obvious as we proceed. This Psalm was written by King David. A man who wrote many of the Psalms and whose life was especially pleasing to God. Yet even this man had his failures, his sins. He sometime blew it as we do also. Sometimes they were real doozies. For instance David committed adultery with a soldier’s wife and then had the soldier murdered to cover it up! David was a man who knew what I was like to need restoration.
David probably wrote this Psalm after that incident with the intent of helping others know how a person could be fully restored even after committing such terrible things. In fact this Psalm in ancient Hebrew had a superscription that was called a "maskil" A word which probably means "Instructions for Godliness." The basic format of the Psalm is to remind us of the blessing of being restored into a right relationship with God, along with motivation and instruction on the process of full restoration.
Read Verse 1,2
In these verses David encourages us to seek restoration after we have "blown it" by reminding us of the joy, peace and favor that belongs to those who have been forgiven. The word "blessed" includes all these ideas. David is saying that his heart was relieved and filled with joy when he was forgiven and restored. His guilt, fear, and his heavy burden were taken away.
Illustration: Imagine if you were a criminal who had committed murder and were standing before the Judge who was ready to pronounce sentence on you. You might not be able to stand, you would certainly be under a heavy load because you would be facing the loss of your freedom, separation from all the joys of life, separated from your spouse and children and eventually you might have to pay for your crime, your debt to society, with your very life. This would be a great burden to you as you awaited the sentencing. Then imagine that the Judge begins to speak He looks right at you and says "Let this man go he is forgiven - he is free!" Blessed? Joyful? I would say so!
In a similar sense that is what restoration to a right relationship with God does for us. It is a blessed, joyful condition that is certainly worth pursuing. In verses 1 and 2 the psalmist uses three different Hebrew words for wrongdoing. They are translated in English as "Transgressions, Sins, and Sin." They basically mean to rebel against God, to miss the mark or goal, and to pervert or twist God’s good way. The point is using these three different words is more than literary style or interest. This usage reminds us that ALL types of sin or wrongdoing can be forgiven, and need to be forgiven. What we consider "little sins" still "miss the mark" and offend God. There needs to be restoration. The things we consider "big sins", acts of rebellion or perversion, are not so big that we can not be fully restored to a right relationship with God. Little sins are not to be ignored because they are little, and seeking restoration for big sins is not to be avoided because we feel they are too big. All sin makes us sinners and all sinners are in need of restoration. Restoration is available and joyful!
The Psalmist also uses three different Hebrew words to express the fullness or completeness of the restoration into a right relationship with God. In English the words are translated in verse 1 as "Forgiven, Covered" and in verse 2 with the phrase "does not count against him." Each of these words is a reminder of the completeness and blessedness of full restoration.
The word "forgiven" literally means to have a weight or load lifted from you. When things are not right between someone and God it places a heavy burden on that person. It can be very emotionally, spiritually and physically trying. Figuratively speaking a broken relationship can weigh you down. Life can become unbearable and miserable. Often fear, depression and such things set in. The good news is that restoration with God means forgiveness, which means that the weight or load is lifted from you. "The burden of our sin is rolled away…" The guilt of sin will destroy you! Satan will try to use it to make a slave of you and rob you of your freedom and joy, but restoration will set you free from that unbearable weight!
Illustration: Richard Hoefler’s book Will Daylight Come? Includes the story of a little boy visiting his grandparents. The boy was given his first slingshot. He practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he came back to Grandma’s back yard, he spied her pet duck. On an impulse he took aim and let it fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell dead. The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing. After lunch that day, Grandma said, "Sally let’s wash the dishes." But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you, Johnny?" And she whispered to him, "Remember the duck!" So Johnny did the dishes. Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma said, "I’m sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally smiled and said, "That’s all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it." Again she whispered, "Remember the duck." So Johnny stayed while Sally went fishing. After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s, finally he couldn’t stand it. He confessed to Grandma that he’d killed the duck. "I know, Johnny," she said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I just wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave of you."
The second word used is "covered." This word does not mean a "cover-up" but it does mean to "hide from view." Our sins are in a sense hidden from God when we are restored. Our wrongdoing is ugly to God, it is despicable. It makes us unacceptable to Him. This is why sin brings such a sense of shame. We know that God knows and sees our ugly sins even when nobody else does. When we are restored to God our ugliness, our offensiveness is covered. It is completely hidden from God’s view, so that when God sees us His heart is not appalled by our ugliness but rather awed by our beauty. We may be aware of our own sins even after we have been restored but to God’s eyes it does not exist. It is "covered."
The third word that is used to express the completeness of our restoration to God is actually translated as the phrase in English - "does not count against him." The meaning is obvious and important. It means that God erases our sin-debt from the books as if it had never happened. It means we can start over with a "clean slate!" The record of our sins is forever gone!!!
Illustration: In our criminal justice system sometimes a judge will expunge a person’s criminal record. This means that the record is completely done away with and the offense no longer counts for any reasons. It is "not counted against them" even if the person has committed the same offense a dozen times. This means a person’s previous offenses can not be found on background checks, no affect on job applications, they can even become a police officer, lawyer or a judge. Why? When that record is expunged it is completely and forever removed. This is what God does when He restores us - He makes our sins so that they "do not count against us."
What a blessing! What joy and hope we have with God. Restoration is something worth seeking with all of our hearts. It brings back the joy, freedom and peace of a right relationship with God. Every act of wrongdoing whether big or little is in need of restoration and can be forgiven. That restoration is complete. The weight of guilt of iniquity is totally removed, the ugliness and shame of sins is forever hidden, all record of our offenses is completely and forever expunged.
This is the blessing of restoration, but it is available only for those "in whose spirit is no deceit." What does this important phrase mean? It means the person who is forgiven and restored is the person who is not being deceitful about their sin by hiding it, ignoring it, denying it or excusing it.
Illustration: A small foreign car making the loudest, most irritating racket I had ever heard pulled into the auto-service shop that I ran. The woman behind the wheel drove it into one of our garage bays so the noise could be diagnosed. When our service manager explained the problem and estimated a high cost for repair, the woman slumped back in her chair, dismayed. "How much," she asked, "to install a very loud stereo instead?" --Robert Liparulo, Reader’s Digest
This is what we do when we try and ignore or drown out the noise of a guilty conscious. We don’t really solve the problem. Those who really solve the problem and are restored into a right relationship with God are those that are honest with God and themselves about their wrongdoing and guilt. They do not deny, excuse, ignore or hide their sin but they admit it. These are those who confess their personal and particular sins to God without any reservations. True confession brings restoration. This is the main message of this psalm. The first and final step in the process of restoration is to go to God and fully admit our sin, fully acknowledge our guilt, and fully accept the blame. The blessing and freedom of restoration only belongs to those confess.
Next week we will finish looking at Psalm 32 as we discover from the Bible "How can we be fully restored into a right relationship with God after we have sinned."
(End of Part 1)
