Blessed by forgiveness

Psalm 32 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Blessedness of Forgiveness and of Trust in God.  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 lived under the Old Covenant, so some of his understanding was based on the realities of the Old Covenant. He says:  How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!    Under the Old Covenant the sins of man were covered through the offering of sacrifices. There were prescribed offerings and sacrifices to be given and made according to the sin. This was an ongoing cycle, which needed to be repeated regularly. The offerings and sacrifices covered only the sins which were committed between the time of the last offering and the present. Under the New Covenant, established by Jesus, through the cross, sins are no longer just covered, they are forgiven completely. Washed away, removed as if they had never occurred. In Isaiah 43:25 God says:  "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”  Through Christ and the cross our sins are not covered, they are completely blotted out, as if they never happened. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)

The psalmist continues: 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.    Medical science confirms that anxiety, anger, bitterness, guilt etc, sins  all have a negative effect on our physical bodies. Romans 6:23 says:  The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.    Sin causes death, both physical death and spiritual death. If indeed the hand of the Lord was heavy upon David, it was the heaviness of conviction not condemnation. Guilt and condemnation are not of God. They are the result of denying or keeping silent about sin. Even when we are silent about sin, our conscience knows. The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness. (John 16:8) Denying our sin does not take away the negative effect of sin in our lives. Even when we are silent about it, still: the wages of sin is death.

David’s life was filled with great victories and significant failures. One thing he realized though was that regardless of the circumstance, he needed God. 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.    In Psalm 51, after he had sinned with Bathsheba and caused the death of Uriah, her husband, David wrote:  Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. ForI know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight…     It is important that we have the same understanding that David had. That regardless of what we may have done, regardless of who may have been a victim of our sin, in truth, sin is against God alone. We can and should seek forgiveness from those we have hurt or offended, but sin first and foremost is an offense to the righteousness and holiness of God. It separates us from His presence. We may hide our sin from and deny our sin before man, but we cannot hide it from God. The answer then is, like David, to turn to God when we have sinned, rather than hiding or running from Him. We need to know, as David did, God’s grace, His compassion and His loving kindness. 1 John 1:8 says:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son, the one who sinned against his father. Verse 20 gives us a beautiful picture of the love and compassion of God for us, when we come to Him.    But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.     When we have sinned, God watches and waits for us to return. God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Even while we were sinners, He loved us. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

David ends his psalm saying:  Therefore, (because of the love, compassion and forgiveness of God)  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. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. 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, But 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, Amen thank You Lord. Amen.