The particular sin which David refers to here is not important. There are plenty to choose from - that's one of the reassuring things about David's life, that he was "just like us," with all the frailties and weaknesses that we experience. Maybe it was his sin of adultery that he committed with Bathsheba. Maybe it was the sin of murder he committed by ordering Uriah to be executed on the battlefield. Maybe something else. The important issue of the Psalm is not the sin but the forgiveness that God gives to those who repent. God provides happiness - (verses 1- 2) Happiness comes when we have the correct view of ourselves - (verses 1-2a) As with Psalm 1 we examined a few weeks ago, this Psalm begins with the pronouncement of happiness. There is a promise of satisfaction, of contentment on a specific type of person - the person for whom sins are removed. This first step of all knowledge, knowing what sin is, is critical if we are to go any further. David uses a variety of words for sin.Transgression means to rebel against God’s authority. It is tearing away from God’s rule. This refers not to specific sinful or harmful actions, but to an attitude of rebellion, a mindset of corruption. It's a self-centered outlook; a premeditated decision to ignore God as we go about our life. Does your day go by without reference to God? So often we can go through our daily routines and God does not enter the picture. With myopic vision we imagine our life is all there ever is or will be. That’s transgression.Sin describes a faulty action. It is the most general term meaning to turn from the way God has prescribed, to miss the mark. This is a word that refers to individual, specific acts of wrongdoing. These are the "things" we do or do not do: sins of commission and of omission. This is the term with which we are most familiar, yet sin is often something best to describe others. But to call ourselves sinners is to admit the obvious - we fail God’s commands in all we think, say and do. Iniquity (NIV "sin" in verse 2) comes from the same Hebrew word meaning "twisted" or "distorted." Iniquity refers to a basic "crookedness" in our nature, a crookedness which leads to the attitude or mindset of rebellion against God (transgression) which in turn leads to actual, specific "sins." Augustine defined sin as being turned in upon oneself. It is the ultimate in navel gazing. To say we are iniquitous is to admit we are at our core perverted. By piling up these words, David covers the gamut of what is offensive to God. The happiness which God provides comes only when all that is offensive to God is removed.How does God confer happiness, make us blessed when we have such a record of wrong doing? Forgiven means to lift or remove. The transgressions, the rebellious attitude, the self-centered outlook which demands our own way and ignores God’s, are taken away. Covered seems antithetical to forgiven. Whereas the former means to take away, we think of the covering as concealing. But the emphasis here is that which is offensive to God is put out of sight. The first symptom of guilt in our first parents was blushing at their own nakedness. Sin makes us abhorrent in the sight of God and utterly unfit for intimacy with Him. But, when sin is pardoned, it is covered with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, just like God covering Adam and Eve with the skins, so that God is no longer displeased with us, but perfectly reconciled. Sin isn’t hidden from me as though I no longer see it, nor is it covered from God’s omniscience, but from His vindictive justice. When God pardons sin He does not dredge up the past. Not counted against means that the distortion which is at our core is no longer considered an issue. In its place the righteousness of another is considered ours; Christ’s right standing before God is ours and our sin His. Happiness comes when we agree with God - (verse 2b) How can this be? How does God provide this kind of happiness? The answer is found in the final phrase of the second verse: "in whose spirit is no deceit." Now all that seems rather impossible. Since you and I are rebellious against God, since we constantly miss the mark of His perfection, since we are crooked in the most basic way - we are certainly going to be deceitful. But what this word means is not that we cease from sin, but that we are not deceitful in acknowledging our sin. The key to the Christian life is not our personal holiness, but our repentance. It is agreeing with God that we are sinners. Not that we were sinners, we are sinners. Blessing from God comes when we stop lying to ourselves and others, and most of all to God and come up clean - we sin. Not just in the hypothetical, not in some abstract theological sense, but that we in our core are rotten. We don’t like to hear that, we even more don’t like to say it. We want to think good of ourselves. But to do so is to miss the happiness God provides. Far too often Christians are quite dishonest about their sin. It is sad when someone who makes no pretense to be a Christian readily admits his sin, but the person who thinks his righteousness adds something to God sits with a closed mouth. How easy is it for you to admit your are a sinner? How easy is it to admit to sin when confronted? There’s the rub. In his book, Not the Way We’re Supposed to Be, Cornelius Plantinga writes, "The awareness of sin used to be our shadow. Christians hated sin, feared it, fled from it, grieved over it. Some of our grandparents agonized over their sins. A man who lost his temper might wonder whether he could still go to Holy Communion......in today’s confessionals it is harder to tell. Where sin is concerned, people just mumble now." It is time we stop dealing deceitfully with ourselves and God and readily admit our inward corruption. We need to get beyond the moral myopia that distorts our view of ourselves. Each Sunday we confess our sins as God’s people; each time we pray we should readily acknowledge this truth. Recalling and confessing our sin is like taking out the garbage - once is not enough. Otherwise…God provides heartache - (verses 3-5) Heartache comes when we are silent about our sin - (verses 3-4) If we refuse God’s provision of happiness by acknowledging our sinfulness, then instead of happiness God provides heartache. When David kept his mouth shut, his conscience screamed. David’s groaning is a word used of the roaring of a wounded animal - he may have been silent in his confession of sin, but that would not stop the inner agony, the horror at his guilt. Like trying to hold one’s breath, we feel that in a minute we’ll explode.Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them could walk out the next day! But while this passage may describe what we call psychosomatic illnesses, while what we think will affect our bodies, the picture here is more than just an explanation of how sin affects us physically.The groaning is a consequence of living with guilt and a stifled conscience; the aging bones portray the growing weakness of the spiritual life which follows the unhealthy practice of bottling up one’s evil within the soul, steadfastly retaining silence, rather than finding the emancipation of forgiveness through speech. The heavy hand of God, experienced within the mind and conscience, indicates an awareness of the need for repentance, but a stubborn refusal to yield to God. The sinner’s silence, aggravated by the heavy hand of God, contributed to the dry curling of the tongue, as in one desperate for water in a desert; so long as the tongue refused to speak the words of repentance, it curled in speechless pain. The Spanish Inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds within the heart. The Serbian atrocities can not compare to the terror of the one under the conviction of God. Here for David, one loved by God, chosen by God, used by God, God will not allow his sin to go uncontested. Repentance is not an option, it is a necessity. When my kids misbehave, it is not uncommon for me to place my hand on their neck or shoulder, and begin to apply pressure. It’s not much, but soon they begin to melt, finding it hard to remain standing. When we refuse to see our sin for what it is, we too will feel God’s hand weighing down on us. Discipleship means discipline. The disciple is one who has come with his ignorance, superstition, and sin, to find learning, truth, and forgiveness from the Savior. Without discipline we are not disciples. Heartache is removed when guilt is forgiven - verse 5 Rather than silence about our sin, God wants to hear words. David repeats the three words for sins mentioned in verse 1: he acknowledged his sin, did not cover up his iniquity, confessed his transgressions to the Lord. He is clear as to his character and goes to the correct place to find the solution. This is similar to what the prophet Hosea says in Hosea 14:1-2: "Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: 'Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips."' Not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor in television, Marghanita Laski, one of our best-known secular humanists and novelists, said, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me." Because of God’s gracious discipline, because of God’s merciful punishment, David was clear about his sin and more importantly about his sinfulness. Very often, when we engage in the exercise of "confession," in prayer, we dwell on the "sins," the individual, specific acts: "Lord, forgive me of this, forgive me of that," and we make a list often of minor infractions, of external acts.But whenever we start really examining and taking stock of our lives, truly being honest with ourselves, we can be absolutely staggered by the sheer number of specific "things" we need to ask forgiveness for! But: If we follow David's example in this Psalm, we can realize that even though we do need to recognize the individual acts of "sin" that we've been guilty of, the important part of confession is not so much the asking of "Lord, forgive me of this, I confess that, I confess this," as much as the simple plea, "Lord, I confess to you that I am crooked. I am bent at my very core, and I need your healing hand down deep in my life." Yes, it is important to ask God to cleanse us of the individual sins that we've committed; and yes, it is important, too, to make restitution to those we've possibly hurt or wronged in the process; but even more important is that we ask God to work on us at our very core, to cleanse us of the way we are, and to change those things about us that cause us to be that way!Are you done with hiding your sin, concealing your perversity? Confession is like opening the floodgate of a dam. When there is no confession, the waters pile up behind the dam, creating immense pressures on the wall, but as soon as the floodgate is opened, the waters subside and the pressures diminish. We need to know that there is freedom from the depression brought on by unconfessed sin; there is hope from the self-centered life of personal salvation; there is liberty from the tyranny of trying to make yourself good, but always failing. In the 14th century, Robert Bruce of Scotland was leading his men in a battle to gain independence from England. Near the end of the conflict, the English wanted to capture Bruce to keep him from the Scottish crown. So they put his own bloodhounds on his trail. When the bloodhounds got close, Bruce could hear their baying. His attendant said, "We are done for. They are on your trail, and they will reveal your hiding place." Bruce replied, "It's all right." Then he headed for a stream that flowed through the forest. He plunged in and waded upstream a short distance. When he came out on the other bank, he was in the depths of the forest. Within minutes, the hounds, tracing their master's steps, came to the bank, but went no farther. The English soldiers urged them on, but the trail was broken. The stream had carried the scent away. A short time later, the crown of Scotland rested on the head of Robert Bruce. The memory of our sins, prodded on by Satan, can be like those baying dogs - but a stream flows, red with the blood of God's own Son. By grace through faith we are safe. No sin-hound can touch us. The trail is broken by the precious blood of Christ.God provides help - (verses 6-11) God helps through protection - (verses 6-7) David draws the implications for us. Knowing that the heartache of silence is removed when confession is spoken, we are told to pray. But when I’ve read through this, I’ve questioned why David calls for the "godly" to pray. If someone were really godly, there would be no sin to confess. But the word used here refers not to the person who is holy, but to the person who belongs to a holy God. The word "godly" comes from the same word we see in verse 10: "unfailing love." This word, "hesed" is often translated lovingkindness or merciful. But its root belongs in the idea of the covenant. God’s lovingkindness depends not on our character but His promise. It is a word which does not translate easily for us, but refers to God’s guarantee of His love for us. When used in this noun form in verse 6, "godly" means those who have God’s favor on them, those who belong to His covenant people. Confession is not a means to obtain God’s favor, but an evidence of God’s favor. But there is a warning attached this call to prayer: Don’t hesitate or delay. Just as Isaiah 55:6-7 calls us to seek God, Psalm 32 reminds us that time is limited. There is grace offered, but the danger dawdling is real. It is a mistake to scoff at God’s offer of grace, to think that you can deal with it some other time. The rising waters is a word picture derived form the heavy downpour during a storm when, in a short time, the dry wadis become raging torrents. Whenever the stress of unrepented sin is experience, that person must turn to God in a prayer of repentance. The metaphor of the flood may imply a torrential flood following rain, whose waters would not reach the person who had prayed in confession to God. So what kind of protection does God give those who repent? God helps through instruction - (verses 8-11) God’s protection is by means of God’s instruction. He shelters us not from troubles, but from their devastation, which, if we reject His grace, refuse to confess our sin, will destroy us. When we acknowledge our need for help from God, God promises to teach us, to watch over us. His watchful care will tell us how we should live. But there is again a warning: Don’t reject what God has to say. This vivid picture brings out, by its contrasts, the emphasis in verse 8 on intelligent cooperation, which God has set His heart on eliciting from us; for whatever else one can do with a horse one can hardly counsel it (verse 8), or control it without bringing pressure on it. When we think we can handle our lives apart from obedience to God, when we think we can smooth out the rough spots in our lives without repenting of sins, acknowledging our wickedness before God, we are like a stubborn mule. The only way to control them is with a bit in the mouth and reigns to control their movement. When we refuse to confess our sinfulness, God will humble us, break us. He does this so that we will see our need. But if we refuse, the only option left is judgment. Proverbs 26:3 says: "the whip for a horse, the bridle for an ass, the rod for the fool’s back." David concludes with a call to rejoice, to sing. This echoes the same promise of verse 7 by its call to shout for joy, expressing in worship the shouts of deliverance which the psalmist had already anticipated, in faith, in the time of trouble. Here we see the happiness promised in the first verses are not just our privilege, but they are our duty. This Psalm reminds us of the importance of allowing God to be the one to right our wrongs. God tells us to own up to the truth, admit our need. There remains one more point that needs our attention. The forgiveness mentioned in our Psalm: on what is it based? Is it based on the fact of confession of sins as such? What David says here seems to say as much. After all, he lays beside each other the notion of confession and forgiveness, and so makes forgiveness dependent on confession. There is a connection between confession and forgiveness. Yet we also know from the rest of Scripture that the ground for forgiveness does not lie in any deed on the part of a sinner; the ground for forgiveness lies outside of the sinner.The apostle Paul, when he wished to prove in his letter to the Romans that one is saved not by personal works but by grace alone, quoted Psalm 32 as evidence; that's the point of Romans 4. David doesn’t say it in so many words, but it is understood through the entire Psalm: the ground for forgiveness lies on Calvary. David can go free, his sins can be lifted off of his shoulders, because there will come one day a righteous man who will satisfy for the adultery and murder and theft of king David. That heavy hand of God on David's shoulders: it can be taken away because there will come Another on whose shoulders will lie the full weight of God's heavy hand, the eternal weight of God's wrath on sin. Christ Jesus: there will be the fulfillment of the discipline of God that David experiences in his life. |
