Psalm 32 - Acknowledging Our Sin Is To Be Our Regular Practice

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.