The Psalm For Overcoming Series

Summer Psalms #5 - The Psalm for Overcoming

Psalm 32:1-11

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - June 24, 2009

*Jesus Christ wants His followers to be overcomers. God’s Word makes this clear in many places. For example Rom 12:21 tells Christians, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. The original word there is nik-ah’- o. It’s where Nike got the name for their shoes. And this word that we translate “overcome” is found 28 times in the New Testament. You see, God wants His people to be overcomers.

*1 John 5:1-5, is a good example. There John said:

1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.

2. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.

3. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

4. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.

5. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

*Through Jesus Christ we can overcome everything the world throws at us. And the reason why is because Jesus has overcome the world! As the Lord said in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” A thousand years earlier, God had already sent Psalm 32 to help us find His victory in life.

1. First: God shows us how to overcome our sins.

*In vs. 1-2, David was a man who had overcome his sins. You can almost hear him sing out in joy, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.” David was certainly saved. By faith, he was looking ahead to the salvation that God would provide through the Messiah. And now, on the resurrection side of the cross, we know that the only thing that can cover our sins is the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins, and when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior:

-Our sins are forgiven.

-Our record is cleared.

-The righteousness of Jesus Christ is put in our account.

-And we are saved!

*David was a saved man. But he was also a sinful man. And there was a time when he tried to cover up his sin before the Lord. David talked about that time in vs. 3-4, and said, “When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.”

*Most of us are familiar with the dark story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his cover-up conspiracy to murder her husband. Now we could try to take false comfort by saying, “Oh, I’ll never do that.” But that doesn’t get us off the hook. We are all sinners. 1 John 1:8 tells believers, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

*We are all sinners. And the truth is that we are a lot worse than we usually think we are. Every moment that we spend doing something wrong is a wasted moment when we could have been doing something good. Every moment we spend not loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is a moment in sin. Every moment we spend not loving our neighbor as our self is a moment in sin.

*We are all sinners, and there are many ways to sin. In fact, man is such an expert in sinning that God used 15 different words in the Old Testament to describe our sins. David used 4 of those words in vs. 1&2.

[1] “Transgression:” That’s defiance, rebellion, revolt. “I’m gonna do what I want to do!” -- That’s transgression.

[2] “Sin:” That’s a defect, missing the mark. This is the man who is really trying his best. But he can’t seem to make it. This is the person who walks all the way across the desert, but can’t crawl that last 10 feet to the waterhole.

[3] Then there’s “iniquity:” That’s a distortion -- something warped, bent, crooked, twisted, perverse. It could be sexual, but it could just be a warped outlook on life. Have you ever known anybody with a warped outlook on life?