How Blessed is he...

Psalm 32 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

A Psalm of David.

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
² How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!

³ When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
⁶ Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
⁷ You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
⁹ Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
¹⁰ Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.
¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

David, the psalmist lived and wrote this and his many psalms thousands of years before Jesus was born, before He died to so that we would be redeemed, our sins could be forgiven. Yet, David understood clearly what many on this side of the cross still miss. The psalmist says:   When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.     The hand which was heavy upon him, was not God’s heavy hand of condemnation, rather it was the heavy hand of conviction. The truth is, as it says in Romans 6:23:    All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.     Medical science will acknowledge that things like guilt, anxiety, fear, unforgiveness etc, all have negative effects on our physical bodies. When we hold onto and do not acknowledge the presence of these things in our lives, like the psalmist, our bodies waste away, our vitality is drained. Human philosophies try to deal with the problem of sin by simply denying that it exists. They encourage people to eliminate God, so that there is no longer guilt. The problem is God is not the one causing the guilt. He is not condemning. Like the psalmist, the heavy hand upon us is the hand of conviction. Try as we might to eliminate guilt by denying God, we cannot deny God. Romans 1:19-20 says:   That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.      When we do something wrong, we don’t need to be “caught” by anyone, our conscience bears witness against us and we feel conviction, and so guilt.  

The way out is simple. The psalmist understood. He says: I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.  1 John 1:8-9 says:  If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.      We cannot hide our sin from an omniscient God. We cannot even hide it from ourselves. I agree then with the psalmist, who says:   Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.      When we turn to God, in confession and repentance, we find we too, like the psalmist, can say:   You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.   Far from condemning sinners, God’s desire is to preserve us, to deliver us.

The psalmist says:  Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.  Many are the sorrows of the wicked,      God does not place a bit and bridle on us. He does not force us to follow Him. God created us with a free will, an ability to chose for ourselves whether we will follow Him. Rather than bit and bridle, Jesus says:  "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.” (Matthew 11:29)   The yoke of the Lord is voluntary. He does not force it upon us. If though we will take it upon ourselves, if we will chose to walk with Him, He will do all the hard work. In truth He has already done it. On the cross Jesus said:   “It is finished.” (John 19:30) In John 16:33 Jesus says:   “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”     Jesus has overcome every difficulty we face, on the cross.

The psalmist says:   How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! … He who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.   

 I say: Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit.   Amen.