Psalm 32:1-11 "The Blessing of Confessing Sins"

[Music] let's turn together in God's Word to psalm 32 psalm 32 and we'll look together at verses 1 through 11 psalm 32 is a must skill or my skill of David blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit for when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer Salam I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin Salah therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when it when you may be found surely in the rush of Great Waters they shall not reach him you are a hiding place for me you preserve me from trouble you surround me with shouts of deliverance Salam I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go I will counsel you with my eye upon you be not like a horse or a mule without understanding which must be curbed with bit and bridle or it will not stay near you many are the sorrows of the wicked but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord be glad in the Lord and rejoice o righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart so far the reading from God's word this evening may he add its blessing to our hearts well when you're attempting to teach something to somebody you can approach it in two different ways you can approach it negatively trying to define what something is by saying what it is not so if you're talking about a circle you would say or if you're talking about a square you would say a square is not round Square has doesn't have those properties or or you could teach somebody about what they should or should should not do so when you're teaching your kids you could say gentleness is not pushing your brother down the stairs that's not being gentle it's it's defined by something that is not or you could approach teaching something positively you could define what it is so when you're talking about a square you would say well a square is is a shape that has four 90-degree angles and the sides are all the same length that would be a positive way or of instructing or when you're teaching something about somebody about character or about how to behave you can show them that gentleness is to help your brother up when he's fallen down the stairs instead of pushing him down the stairs and so David is actually in this song using both of those methods and he's using them to contrast them the main idea which is to say that confessing our sins to the Lord actually frees us from this burden of guilt that we have and it allows us to enjoy his special blessing and by contrasting both negatively and positively David approaches it not so much in the sense of this isn't you shouldn't do this but but he approaches it more from the perspective of why would you not want to do this look at the benefits that it gives to you in terms of confessing your sins to the Lord and so he's going to show us first the weight of repressing your sins and then he's going to show us the freedom that comes from confessing your sin so confessing our sins to the Lord frees us from the burden of guilt and allows us to enjoy his special blessing David's going to teach us that first by showing the weight of repressing our confession and showing the freedom that comes from our confession to the Lord so let's look first at the weight of repressing and we're going to look at the repressing of sin in verses one through five before we get into verses 1 through 5 I want us to stop and think about who King David was because sometimes we approach Scripture and we approach scripture like Renaissance painters do so when we think about David we think about a young man pure maybe nice nice nice garment on with a with a harp very clean and and maybe a halo over his head that's not who David was David was never portrayed in that way in the Old Testament or in the New Testament and neither is any other character in Scripture the people that characters of the Bible are always portrayed with all their sins with all their proclivities towards sin they are people like like you and I are they they struggled in their rebellion or they struggled to curb their rebellion against the Lord they they wrestled with the flesh just as you and I wrestle with the flesh and so David as a as a man knows what it means to sin and knows what it means to be in the position that he is required to ask the Lord to forgive him of his sin and it's important that when we approach the psalm we do it with that in view namely that David is approaching God he is approaching his sin towards the Lord there are other passages of Scripture that inform us how were to seek forgiveness from each other this is not one of those passages this is a passage that deals specifically with how we are to seek reconciliation with God when we sin against the Lord so man is not in view so much in this passage as God is and so there's a process that we walk through when we want to when we need to restore with the Lord and it is the process of seeking forgiveness from him now we know from life that there is nothing that is more difficult than asking forgiveness asking forgiveness from somebody that you love the most for example those of us who are in marriages know this when you in your marriage have an argument and you walk out the door and you slam that door you say things that you shouldn't say to your wife you know and it actually slows you down doesn't it you know there's to be a time were you gonna have to open that door back up again and you're gonna have to face that person that you spoke wrongly to and you're gonna have to say that person I sinned against you will you forgive me and it's a hard thing to do because we don't like to humble ourselves before people much less before God now sometimes it's it's harder to seek forgiveness from God because he already knows everything and we've we've come become comfortable with the idea that in Christ our sins are forgiven already so why would I want to humble myself before him in this particular way well David is dealing with that that kind of trouble he's dealing with with with that that struggle within humanity to seek forgiveness from each other but specifically here in this case to seek forgiveness from the Lord how often do you hear in human relationships the politicians apology right now I I'm sorry if I've offended everybody and really what they're saying you shouldn't be so sensitive right that's that's really not an apology or or the apology that we hear from our kids when we're trying to force them to reconcile with somebody and they're mumbling something about being sorry and as I walk out the door they stomp on their siblings toes just to make sure they know that it wasn't sincere or the apology that we might hear ourselves say when we're when we walk back into that room after we've slammed the door and we say to ourselves to our spouses will you forgive me but if you hadn't have done that really it wouldn't have been a problem right we struggle with seeking forgiveness one from another and David knows it now granted in this song David is not dealing with the difficulty of seeking forgiveness not directly anyways what David is dealing with is the joy of seeking forgiveness from the Lord so he doesn't say what he doesn't say you should seek forgiveness from the Lord this is your requirement but he says why wouldn't you seek forgiveness from the Lord and David does that by showing a contrast between the one who is forgiven by God and the one who is room under the weight of his sin David is is showing positively the benefits and the blessing of forgiveness that's where he starts anyways he begins by describing the forgiving state blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity that's the first thing that David observes about the one who is forgiven that person is blessed now the blessed condition the condition of the righteous is often described in the Psalms and it doesn't always deal with forgiveness for example in Psalm 1 verse 1 blessed is the man who doesn't stand our walk in the way of the wicked or stand of the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers write that that person is blessed in Psalm 34 verse a blessed is the one who seeks safety and the Lord psalm 41 1 blessed is the one who considers the port Psalm 94 12 blessed is the one whom the Lord disciplines Psalm 127 5 blessed is the one who has many children they are a heritage from the Lord Psalm 112 verse 1 blessed is the one who fears the Lord all these things all these different instances in the Psalms are all instances examples of those who are blessed and the one thing they have in common is that they come near to the favor of God that is what it means to be blessed to have the favor of God rest on you to have his nearness his warm approving nearness rest on you and in this way the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered who is in whose iniquity has not counted to get against him in this way a man is is blessed these people they they experience the approving presence of the Lord that is the essence of blessing to experience the approval of the Lord you see it Deuteronomy chapter 28 1 through 14 years you're all about to enter into Cana and they're about to cross over the river Jordan and Moses before God calls him home to glory confronts the people of Israel and he and he says to them there are two ways to walk before the Lord one little result in blessing one will result in cursing and in the verse verses 1 through 14 of Deuteronomy 28 Moses lays before the people of Israel the blessing of God what is the blessing of God well it's his nearness how is his nearness seen it's seen in the fruitfulness of of their families the fruitfulness of their crops their ability to defeat their enemies the success that they will have in driving the Canaanites from the land God is faithful to his people and he shows his nearness by providing for them in in every way or in the fifth commandment the blessing of the Lord is established is recognized that and seen in the living long in the land of the Lord your God is giving to you honor your father and mothers so that the blessing of the Lord will rest upon you living long in the land that God is giving to Israel so those who are forgiven those who live with their iniquity covered they live in the condition of being blessed they live in the approving presence of God surrounded by one of his precious gifts one of his precious gifts being forgiveness of their sins and the forgiving man is is the one who experiences God fate God's favor in that particular moment and this is the picture that the positive side which is contrasted with a man who is hardened innocent and you see him described for sin in verses 3 and 4 on the opposite end David has known what it means to be hardened in his sin now being hardened in your sin isn't something that's only reserved for the godless the people who are in the church many of us here in this place have known for ourselves what it means to be hardened in our sins and and David is no different it's not only the experience of the unregenerate so you can think in David's life as he's recorded in Scripture it's not hard to think of diff ways in which David is shown to be hardened in his sin think about the whole experience that he had with Bathsheba that took place over a period of months and as David was walking through that process he over a period of time committed adultery with his friend's wife planned for this friend's death and then married the widowed woman in that whole process David never showed any sign of repentance never did does the scripture record that he at any point thought that he had done something that was problematic in all this David appeared on the outside anyways to be okay so David as that kind of man writes down verses 3 & 4 for when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for a night and day your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer in contrast to the blessing of the forgiving the one living in the hardness of heart is never content it says that his bones are wasted away it's a picture of what's taking place on the inside of somebody even if on the outside everything might look good David knows what happens to a man who's hardened in his sin he knows that on the inside he's rotting away I think of this in terms of what happens to your potted plants we see this in our house often we have a big potato vines on either side of our door right and I think of the person who is described here who's whose bones are wasting away I think of them as like unto the potato vine that hasn't gotten enough water that potato vine is is wasting away right there on my front porch it does it looks like it's it's when you walk by the plant it's almost like you can hear it feed me some water right it's shriveling up it's it's not looking healthy and then you feed it water in it and it's it's restored that's the kind of picture that's being described here of of the whose hardened in his sin sometimes you can see it also with with maybe a flowering plant an annual and you plant them and when they're well fed the stock is straight and the flowers are beautiful right but when you withhold water when you forget to feed that plant water what happens to that stock it falls over immediately it looks thirsty it looks like it's wasting away and that is the condition of the heart of the one who is hardened in his sin this is the condition of the heart that refuses to confess to the Lord now why what causes that dryness what causes that that wilting in your heart it tells us right here in verse four we will when we don't confess our sin because God's hand is heavy on us the oppression that we feel in our heart when we cover over our sin and we refuse to turn to the Lord comes from the hand of the Lord Himself and here in this Psalm David then is saying when I refuse to confess my sin God's hand was heavy on me he was oppressing me so that I had no rest so that I groaned all the day long David is describing what happens to the child of God when he goes down the road of sin when he commits himself to the road of sin he's describing that continually pricking of the conscience by the Holy Spirit that's what the Holy Spirit does he works in his children's life to bring about repentance in the Westminster Confession of faith the thirteenth chapter is the chapter that deals with sanctification and in that chapter it recognizes that in the one who is called by God in the one who is regenerated by God there still remains a residue of the flesh and that residue of the flesh is so strong that it describes in the confession of faith and in Scripture this waring that takes place between the flesh the spirit and it says in the third paragraph of that chapter describing this war between flesh and spirit that in this war although the remaining corruption for a time a much prevail yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ the regenerate part doth overcome and so the Saints grow in grace perfecting holiness in the fear of God that's what David is describing here he's describing that process in which God in His mercy never lets his children go when God sees his child walking down the way of sin he oppresses them in their heart there is no comfort for the child of God when it comes to sin it is impossible now you may harden your heart in that time for a season but when you do your bones waste away you groan all the day long because the hand of the Lord is upon you God works to bring his saints to repentance and so in that sense that the suffering that David's describing verses 3 & 4 when I kept silent his bones wasted away and those are the things that he's describing those are a blessing from God we don't think of them as that way when we're in the middle of that sin but those are a blessing from the Lord he does not allow you to remain comfortable in your sin as a child of Christ what the Lord wants for his children is to restore them to a right relationship with him and he goes about making sure it will happen he ensures that they are not comfortable in their sin and that's what happens when we sin against the Lord as the regenerate we are forgiven we will not be cast into hell if we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit but our relationship with the Lord is destroyed is hampered in in that sense and so in repentance in the seeking of forgiveness from God in the things that David is describing here and there Psalm this is where we find restoration of that relationship with God to admit to God I have sinned against you to admit to God my heart is at enmity with you in this thing is to start the restoration process with your loving Heavenly Father and to to turn to the Lord and that way is is to begin what David did in that process of the sins that he committed with Bathsheba you remember in in 2nd Samuel 12 second Samuel 11 is all the description of all the wickedness of David's doings and his decisions that he made and then 2nd Samuel 12 you have Nathan Nathan the Prophet comes and you remember the account II he tells the account of he gives him a parable and he tells him about the the rich man who had many sheep and the one poor man who had one lamb and the rich man when he had a guest come he took the sheep from the poor man slaughtered him and fed it to his guests and and David says that man deserves to die and Nathan knew he had him didn't he and he said to David you are the man now David in that moment had a choice he could have set off with his head and it probably would have happened but David in that moment recognized this is true and he said something very simple to the Lord and verse 13 of 2nd Samuel 12 he just says I have sinned against the Lord it's simple repentance there's no more excuse from David there is no more cover-up from David David confesses his sins plainly before the Lord is there's no qualification no I have sinned against the Lord but if Bathsheba wasn't so beautiful does anything like that he just confesses his sin he just repents that's what true confession is that's what true confession and repentance says it says I have sinned I know that forgiveness is found only in God and I rest only my Savior and that's what David is is calling us to do it's an acknowledgement and the expression of the Christian gospel in the Old Testament and in the New Testament it's something that says I know that forgiveness is found in God alone David here in this psalmist is writing down the experience of what later is described theologically in 1st John 1 verse 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness isn't that what David is saying in in verse 5 I acknowledged my sin to you I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin David realizes that what he has done is sinful and he turns to the Lord and he confesses now by comparing the blessing of the forgiving with the impression of those who are hardened in heart David is setting before us a very simple picture who would not much rather be among the Blessed in forgiveness than to walk around with your bones wasting away groaning all the day long and so David draw some conclusions that flow out of that comparison that he has made in this song and we see that in verses six through 11 as David speaks to us about the freedom that comes in confessing our sins David urges all God's people to leave behind their sins and to seek forgiveness from God in fact he urges them to do it without delay and in verse six offer prayer to the Lord at a time when you may be found when can God be found in your prayer when is he found right now he's found right now you don't know what's going to happen in your life you don't know if you're going to make it home after this service today do you you don't know but you know that the Lord may be found right now because you're breathing and because you can come to him in prayer and David is urging the people of God to address right now don't presume on the future don't presume on the future and hold on to your sin come to the Lord today and confess your sin to him it's common for us especially I think maybe in our culture we have great affluence we have a fantastic medical care in our time we have seemingly solutions for just about every any medical problem we can imagine and when there's not one we're always shocked that there's not a solution to this particular problem that we're facing and so it's common for us to presume on our health and our safety to tell ourselves that we will deal with our guilt of sin later but David is saying pray while you know that God can be found pray while there is breath in your lungs because confession is a pressing issue when sin is committed in our expression to God in our expression of guilt to God there is an implicit trust that comes with that isn't there we confess our sin to God knowing something about the gospel we confess our sins to God with full assurance that Christ has paid for the guilt of our sin there is a trust that comes in our confession to the Lord and it's founded and grounded and based in Christ and and his work we know the darkest parts of our hearts when you stop and think about your sin and by the way you should do this from time to time you should stop and think specifically about your sin and when you think of those specific sins up and I'm not talking about a generic Lord forgive me for my sin kind of throw a blanket and cover everything that's in your heart but dealing specifically with Lord forgive me for my pride towards my neighbor Lord forgive me for my anger towards my spouse Lord forgive me for dishonouring you yet again today when you speak those words to God you're speaking them with a full knowledge that he will take that sin and nail it to the cross of Christ you do it with a trust in him and that's why David here in this Psalm can talk about right after this this call to confess our sins to God that God is our hiding place that God preserves us from trouble that God spares us that he surrounds us instead with shouts of deliverance when we ask for God's forgiveness has he ever not proven himself trustworthy in that has he ever failed anyone when it comes to the forgiveness of his faithful children the accusations of the devil against the believer they're not heard by the Lord that time of trouble is discarded by God instead God surrounds us with shouts of deliverance we are delivered from the depth of our sin and david has learned about this freedom in in verses 8 and 9 he he is so enthusiastic about it that he can't keep quiet about it he wants to tell the the people that he knows he wants to impress it on his readers when he has learned for himself he wants to tell everybody about it that there is a way in which there can be peace that is made with God that this blessing rests on you because your sin is covered because your transgression is forgiven and David says that if you won't heed his instruction if you won't enjoy the blessings of a forgiving person that you will be like a horse or me or mule you will need to be curbed with bit and bridle now how does God curb you with a bit and bridle when it comes to your sin well he takes you back to verse 3 and 4 he he places his hand heavy on you he causes you to groan all the day long and he dries you up as in the heat of summer why so that he can steer you so that he can steer you away from your sin and back to himself it is the confession of our guilt that God's God knows all things but that we expressed to God our desire to stay with him we don't need him to steer us with a bit and bridle we don't need his heavy hand upon us to flee them we're already fleeing to him and David is saying listen to me don't ask for God's heavy hand upon you there is of course a difference between what is true in terms of the shouts of deliverance of the righteous and the sorrows that come with the wicked the sorrows of the wicked those who do not repent those who do not seek forgiveness from God those those sorrows are great it's what God gives them to drive them to their knees their sin is the cause of their sorrow and and God lets them wallow in that sorrow that they would not be comfortable in their sin now in Scripture when we come to the book of Revelation we see that that sorrow caused by sin is removed in heaven there will be no more grieving there will be no more tears there will be no more sorrow and suffering why because there will be no more sin because sin will be removed and it will not even exist in the heavenly places it's hard to imagine what that life will be like but that's how it's described for us in God's Word the pain that we caused each other the the the sins that we commit which result in an enmity towards God they won't they will not be in heaven so on on the other hand when we come to the heavenly places when sin is removed or even when sin is atoned for in verse 11 there is that contrast where there is great sorrow for the wicked those who are unrepentant there is great gladness for the righteous there are shouts of joy that comes from that come from the righteous because the work of Christ has spared us a great misery because the work of Christ has always worked in US and among us to bring us to repentance I'm afraid that does God's people we don't value that gift as much as we should when's the last time you oppress material shouted for joy because of the forgiveness of God in your life the work of Christ to spare you the misery of eternal condemnation they can just become words that we say blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven is that great read psalm 32 together again when properly understood these words should result in shouts of joy shouts of joy that God has delivered you yes you and me from eternal condemnation this is the great gift that God gives to his people so when David pens this sallman we thousands of years later he pens this Psalm that we would learn several things first that we would learn to confess our sins to God we all understand the importance of prayer or at least we would pay lip service to it we know we should pray but we do not always understand the importance of confession in prayer to live in the blessing of being forgiven by Christ learn to confess your sins to God in prayer our sin is rebellion against Christ it's treason against him and yet when we come into the presence of our King and I'm just as guilty of it as everybody else my temptation in prayer is to pray I learn to pray prayers of adoration to God I learn to pray prayers of Thanksgiving to God I learned to ask God for things I learned that very early on I had that one down very early on but how much time do I spend confessing my sin to God in prayer I often make out just a blanket the Lord forgive me my sins and that let me move on to things that I want to talk about right this is how we can approach confession of sin in our prayers but we should camp out not so that we can wallow in misery over the things that we've done but so that we can remember the things that God has delivered us from that in our hearts would well up a shout of joy because what God has delivered us from this is the joy of what it means to be in Christ that all the guilt of my sin as it says in Colossians is taken away and nailed to that cross and when you stand before Christ he never sees that again praise God praise God for the forgiveness of your sin David's sins were were great and yet he laid them before the Lord in simplicity without making excuses without trying to justify himself he simply said I have sinned against the Lord if you fail to do so this passage tells us that your inward parts are wasting away your groaning all the day long it's exactly because your sins are covered by Christ that you can be free with your confession Christ isn't going to change his mind about you if you are a Christ child he's not gonna say whoa whoa that's one too many I didn't know that one was going to come if I hadn't known I would have picked somebody else that's not how Christ operates he knows your sin from beginning to end you're not telling him anything that he doesn't know he knows your guilt and he loves you and he forgives you your sin when you come to him by faith so his promise is sure enjoy the blessing of forgiveness and confess your sin to God the second thing that we learn as God's people from this psalm is that we can be glad in the Lord don't take this forgiveness for granted when you begin to take God's forgiveness for granted or you begin to presume on forgiveness of God you stray into this error that and your mind has begun to fail to recognize the depth of your sin the depth of your depravity or to recognize the glory of God in forgiving you the the Son of God Jesus Christ came to the earth as a child as we're celebrating this time of year to offer himself as a gift there's no special no special blessing in Jesus coming to the earth the special blessing comes and why he came to the earth and he came to pay the price to grant forgiveness for our sins we must understand this as as God's people we we're gonna we're gonna ask that question when we when we are about to begin the Lord's Supper we're gonna ask if we understand the truth of God's Word when it comes to Christ and His forgiveness but something results from understanding the forgiveness of Christ and it's that gladness that comes from being redeemed the gladness that comes from being redeemed always has its expression in action next Lord's Day if Christ doesn't return we're gonna talk together about the Heidelberg catechism again we're gonna look at the second question and answer of that catechism and that catechism divides the Christian life into three parts the first part that it's going to talk to us about is is helping us to understand how great our sin and misery is well that's kind of what we've been talking about right we've been talking about recognizing our sins then it's going to talk to us about how we are delivered from this sin and misery and that's kind of what we've been looking at in this psalm specifically and seeking forgiveness from the Lord but then it's also going to talk to us about how we are to express our gratitude to God and that's what flows from our forgiveness this enjoy these the shouts of joy that come from the people of God when reminded of Christ's forgiveness for you what is your response are you as enthusiastic as you should be about the work of Christ in your life it says in in the psalm the end of it be glad in the Lord and rejoice o righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart if you've confessed faith in Christ those words are written for you they're written for you how is that joy manifest well that would vary from person to person but it will be manifest there will be joy in your heart that will be gratitude to God in your heart because you will be glad in the Lord when you recognize his forgiveness so David here in this psalm he he gives us a lesson as to why we confess our sin and there are different ways to approach this kind of exhortation that he's giving to us a teacher could go in hard and and talk about the obligation that belongs to us but what David does is he takes a more gentle approach he sets before the believer the great benefits of confessing your sin to God and and compares it to what happens when you don't and in essence this question is why would you not why would you walk around with this burden when you can have the joy that belongs to the forgiving the blessing that belongs to them confessing our sins to God it it frees us from the burden of guilt and it allows us to enjoy his special blessing and People of God that blessing can be yours today let's pray together you

Channel: Cliffwood Presbyterian Church

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Keywords: Psalms (Book), Cliffwood, Augusta, Presbyterian, desire for God, Praise, Gospel, Mercy, faith, blessings, rewards, God does Exist, Religion (TV Genre), Lord, Holy, Preaching, trust in God, the blessing of God, Prayer, God's faithfulness, family integrated worship, reformed church, reformed worship, psalm 32, God's care, joy comes in the morning, sadness to gladness, forgiveness

Id: PXYQiE57qEE

Length: 39min 37sec (2377 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2016