Psalm 32

 

What a perfectly fitting Psalm to consider on this Resurrection Day 2015.  We give it to you with only brief comment as it presents the happiness of those whose sin is forgiven.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the powerful declaration that He was and is the Son of God (Rom. 1:4).  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to be the sacrifice for sin.  Not His best angel, not His best prophet, but His Only Son whom He loved!  We know atonement has been made.  The resurrection is God's confirmation that His righteous demands have been met.   

 

 PSALM 32

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,

Whose sin is covered.

² Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,

And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

•  v1-2 summarize the Psalmists experience.  Certainly the backdrop for this is David's sin with Bathsheba and the attending coverup.  As huge as this was, he came to know God's forgiveness.  He knew God did not count this sin against him. 

³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old

Through my groaning all the day long.

⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

• It is not that David's sin was not real.  He felt deeply the guilt, the pain of unbelief, of failure to trust God to satisfy him in life.  Instead he had grievously turned away to seek joy on his own terms only to find sorrow.  Have you not yet come to know the heavy hand of God upon you, the drought of a life lived in sin?

⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,

And my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

⁶ For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You

In a time when You may be found;

• Amazingly, God could be found by David when in the depths of sin.  But finding God began with the honest confession of sin.  Consider this friend.  Do not seek God with your accomplishments, your good works.  Seek him in humility.  In this He will be found.

Surely in a flood of great waters

They shall not come near him.

⁷ You are my hiding place;

You shall preserve me from trouble;

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

• True forgiveness, that which comes from the Creator, brings about the most refreshing change of heart, from groaning day and night to songs of deliverance.  It is because God is the just Justifier of the one who believes in Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26; 4:5).  The picture is presented by the great Jewish Passover holiday, also being celebrated at this time.  The blood of the sacrificial lamb over the door meant the Lord passed over that home.  That picture pointed to the once-for-all sacrifice of God's Son.  Faith in Jesus Christ as God's provision, as THE Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, brings the forgiveness that blesses.  The certainty of this is bound up in an empty tomb near Jerusalem!

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye.

⁹ Do not be like the horse or like the mule,

Which have no understanding,

Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,

Else they will not come near you.

¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;

But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.

¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;

And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

• What a simple but powerful conclusion.  Don't be a stubborn mule.  Trust in the Lord!