32:1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up2 as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 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. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 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. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. 11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Footnotes
[1]32:1Probably a musical or liturgical term [2]32:4Hebrew my vitality was changed
32:1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up2 as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 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. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 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. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. 11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Footnotes
[1]32:1Probably a musical or liturgical term [2]32:4Hebrew my vitality was changed
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Collin Hansen:
I hope that you all are doing well. This week this is when we're going to be looking at a psalm together, and we're gonna be going to the the table for communion together, and so I I'd like for you if you've got a Bible with you, we're gonna be in Psalm 32. Go ahead and start making your way there. If you don't have a Bible with you, Psalm 32 is printed in your worship guide. Psalm 32.
Collin Hansen:
We're gonna we're gonna be going through the entire psalm. It's it's kind of short, we can kind of get our arms around it. We're just gonna walk through it and, and then see what the Lord has to to teach us tonight. So Psalm 32, beginning with verse 1. And let's listen very carefully for this is God's word.
Collin Hansen:
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 night, your hand was heavy upon me.
Collin Hansen:
My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledge 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. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.
Collin Hansen:
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. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
Collin Hansen:
I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved 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, oh righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. Let's pray.
Collin Hansen:
Oh, god, we are desperate to hear from you. We're desperate to hear from you because there are so many competing voices in our lives, voices that deceive us and confuse us. And Lord, we need we need your certainty. We need confidence in who you say we are and who we will become. Lord, we need to know who you are.
Collin Hansen:
We need to know your promises and to hold fast to them. We need to know that you are holding fast to us. And so we so we ask you we ask you now, Lord, to bless this time. Spirit to open our eyes, to open our ears that we would see you and hear you with clarity and certainty. Lord, bring us life through your word tonight.
Collin Hansen:
We pray this in and for the name of Jesus. Amen. So growing up, I have an uncle that lives in California, and so at Christmas getting a present from him was always special because it was exotic. Because it came from California. And so, I remember 1 year I was about 6 or 7 years old, and he sent a VHS tape of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Collin Hansen:
Now at that time, I hadn't seen the movie, so with all my 6 or 7 year old joy and anticipation, I went home to watch this acclaimed classic children's movie only to find out it was absolutely not a children's movie. If you've seen it, it's terrifying. I mean, it really like every at every turn, it's terrifying. The premise is children get lost in a chocolate factory. Some of them presumably die, and and then there's this promise though of a lifetime supply of chocolate, which is worth it.
Collin Hansen:
Right? And so and just at every turn, I mean, you've got the Oompa Loompas, terrifying. These kids that just like go missing, one of them might drown. One's like in a furnace where the garbage is being burnt, and and then one of one of the craziest moments well, first is the tunnel. Okay?
Collin Hansen:
Like when they go through the tunnel, and Wonka starts like this weird poem and this, like, art house film of bugs and stuff is going on. Really, that's just not good for children. And then at the end, so spoiler alert on a movie that's about 35 years old, if you haven't seen it yet, Wonka loses it. Okay? He loses it on this little boy, Charlie, because Charlie and his grandpa Joe go in there like to collect the lifetime supply of chocolate.
Collin Hansen:
And Wonka goes crazy on him. And he pulls out his, the contract that they signed at the beginning and his little magnifying glass, and he says, You lose. You have stolen fizzy lifting drink, and you bumped into the ceiling which now has to be sterilized and cleaned. You get nothing. You lose.
Collin Hansen:
And then the classic good day, sir, which I need to start implying. That's a really good one. Good day sir, that ends any conversation. Like that's the period. And so he says all this and he's like, you you lose, you you clear as crystal, it was written down, you signed it, you lose.
Collin Hansen:
And little Charlie and his everlasting Gobstopper, which is this thing that an evil rival candy maker wants. Anyway, he he he gives it back to Willy Wonka. He brings his little I'm sorry sacrifice, and puts it on the desk, and Wonka grabs it and turns to him. Now, no longer in this like crazy wrath but he calls him my my son, my boy. You've won.
Collin Hansen:
And sometimes, I think that I think about god like that. I don't know if you do, but I think about like he's got this crazy anger, and I broke the rules, and I lose, and I get nothing. This promise of paradise, this this room full of candy, and you can eat everything. It's edible, it's eatable. And so all these things, these prizes and these glories, I lose.
Collin Hansen:
I don't get that because I broke the rules. But then, if I come with my I'm sorry, then he turns to me and he goes, oh, you get a lifetime not only the laugh lifetime supply of chocolate, you you get the whole candy factory. You see, I think of God like that, but but I don't think that that can possibly be true. You see, that has to do with this contract that little boy signed. This has to do with these arbitrary rules that he had set up, and and he broke those rules, and so he doesn't get the prize.
Collin Hansen:
A fundamental tenet of the Christian faith is is confessing that we're all sinners, right? That we are sinners, and that that that's pretty a broad thing, but it means specifically that that we are sinful in our actions, the things that we do. We act sinfully, but also we are sinful in our condition. That we are responsible in ourselves, in our identity, for the rejection of god's love by humanity. You see, what that sin means is that sin is, in shorthand, a rejection of God's love.
Collin Hansen:
That that's different than a contract. This theologian, Cornelius Plantanga, he he wrote this in in a book called Not the Way It's Supposed to Be. It's a book about sin. He said this. This is how he defines sin.
Collin Hansen:
Sin is always a departure from the norm, and it is assessed accordingly. Sin is deviant and perverse, and injustice, inequity, ingratitude. It's disorder and disobedience, faithlessness, lawlessness, godlessness. Sin is both overstepping the line and the failure to reach it. It's transgression and shortcoming.
Collin Hansen:
Sin disrupts and resists the vital human relationship to god. Sin is a rejection of the love of god. You see, what what god is calling forth in this obedience, obedience is the call to walk in accordance to the love of god. And when we reject that, when we reject the love of god, it's sin. And we need a greater understanding of our sinfulness, because when we understand sin better, we understand forgiveness better.
Collin Hansen:
And when we understand forgiveness better, we understand the love of god. Let's walk through that again. When we understand our sinfulness better, we understand forgiveness better. And when we understand our forgiveness, we understand the love of god. And so this poem of David, this poem about sin and confession and forgiveness.
Collin Hansen:
It instructs sinners in the love of God. And there are 2 movements really that happen throughout the psalm. And the first one has to do with this, the seriousness of sin. The seriousness of sin. And then the second part is the certainty of forgiveness.
Collin Hansen:
So the seriousness of sin and the certainty of forgiveness. So let's turn our attention to these words of David in Psalm 32. He begins in verse 1 by acknowledging the blessedness, the joyfulness that overwhelms the believer whose sins and transgressions are forgiven. He says this, verse 1. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Collin Hansen:
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. It's as though there is an implicit question being asked here. Who is truly happy? Who is truly joyful and blessed? And his answer is this, the one whose transgression is forgiven.
Collin Hansen:
The one whom the lord counts no iniquity against him. You see, this is important because think of all of our pursuits of satisfaction and happiness and joyful fulfillment. David is is is answering with this, to your pursuits of joy and fulfillment and satisfaction in all these different pursuits. He he answers and counters with this. Real blessedness is for those whose sins are forgiven.
Collin Hansen:
He begins with this proclamation that the restored relationship with god, that is where fulfillment is found. And then he explains, he he moves here in verse 3, to what it's like to neglect that confession. Verse 3. For when I kept silent, meaning when when I did not confess my sin to the Lord. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
Collin Hansen:
For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. He is silent, and his silence is damaging. His bones wasted away. He was groaning all day long, and his strength dried up as the summer heat.
Collin Hansen:
He feels in his body, the neglect to confess his sins. Have you ever felt this way before? The draining of neglecting confession. It leads to inaction most of the time. In my life, it leads to not reading the scriptures, not praying, not wanting Christian community, not wanting people to ask me really how I'm doing.
Collin Hansen:
Because if I'm honest, if I say how I'm doing, I'm gonna have to say, drained. And and this image of the summer heat, I mean, we know this well, right? You know, if you if you've been out in that late July, August, Alabama heat, the way the sun just drains the energy out of you. He says, that's how I feel. And it's because I'm hiding my sin.
Collin Hansen:
And then David feels the heavy hand of God. We have to keep in mind that as a child of God, as sons and daughters of God, when we feel this heavy hand upon us, it's not punishment. Hear that. It's conviction. And those are different things.
Collin Hansen:
Conviction is rooted in love. And this is how God deals with his children. The author of Hebrews states it like this in chapter 12. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons and daughters?
Collin Hansen:
Says this, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. The heavy hand of God, the weight of guilt and conviction is not the weight of condemnation. Be sure of this. In Christ, we have been set free from condemnation.
Collin Hansen:
Romans 81, for there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Jesus says this in the gospel of John, Whoever believes in him, meaning himself, is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of god. The heavy hand of god, the weight of guilt, the weight of conviction is not the weight of condemnation. It is not the weight of punishment.
Collin Hansen:
It is the weight of correction and discipline and love. And the weight of love can bear down hard. We are called to obedience, which is the call to walk in accord with the love of god. And when we fail to do this, and we do, he corrects us because he loves us. All these different snippets that I'm saying here, if they if they aren't linked together, if they don't if they don't progress out of fundamentally the love of God, we are ruined.
Collin Hansen:
Do do you track with that? Like, if we just if you just pick up one nugget of one of the things that I'm saying and just put it in your pocket and say, I've been to church, here's my little truth pebble for the week. It's it's gonna bear down on you wrongly. That's not the hand of God, that is the hand of the enemy. And we need to know the difference.
Collin Hansen:
David feels the heavy hand of God, showing him his sinfulness and leading him to confession. This is the kindness of God which leads us to repentance. This is his love bearing down on us. And so David does. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you and did not cover my iniquity.
Collin Hansen:
I said, I will confess my transgressions to the lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. David did not cover his sin. And then god did. Do you see that parallel with verse 1? Look at 5 and 1 there.
Collin Hansen:
I acknowledge my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. Verse 1, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. When David confessed, when he stopped hiding his sin, when he stopped covering it up, God effectively covers up the sin. That's a completely different kind of cover up. That that's a completely different effort and effect of covering sin.
Collin Hansen:
See, David's covering of sin brought guilt. It brought conviction and heaviness. But when god covered his sin, it brought freedom. And that is what we are called to in Christ. Freedom.
Collin Hansen:
The Hebrew here for forgiveness has multiple images. The hiding of the sin, the covering of the sin, the taking away of sin, literally, the lifting up of sin. That god lifted up the heaviness, the burden, the weight of sin was lifted up from him. This divine hand lifted the sin away. David says, I did not pretend my sin wasn't there.
Collin Hansen:
I acknowledged my sin and God forgave my sin. This should call us to think of 1st John, chapter 1, where John says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. But this isn't just the casual, I'm sorry. Right?
Collin Hansen:
It's not the I'll do better next time, or just give me another chance. It's being honest about our sin. An accurate view of sin, an honest and right consideration of sin is necessary. I won't hide it. I won't pretend it isn't real.
Collin Hansen:
I won't excuse it anymore. Because when we do that, when we excuse our sin and neglect confession, the greatest danger isn't just remaining unforgiven. The greatest danger is making god a liar. Making the cross a lie. Because the cross testifies to my unrighteousness and my sinfulness.
Collin Hansen:
And if I say I have no unrighteousness, I make the cross a liar. I make God a liar. You see the cross shows how great God's love is. And it shows how great my sin is. The fact that Jesus, the son of god, had to die shows me not only the great love of god, but the greatness of my own sin.
Collin Hansen:
There's a relationship that we have to strive to understand here. Between our sinful rebellion against the love of God and the very love of God displayed on the cross. If we deny our sinfulness, ultimately, we deny the love of god. In this truth, David turns to instruct sinners. Look at verse 6.
Collin Hansen:
He says this first to god, and there's a parallel here with Psalm 51 where he says, you know, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, and he says, I will teach transgressors your way. Well, this is David doing that. This is him striving to teach sinners in the way of God. And he says this, first he says this, he he's kind of talking to God here, but he says, therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you, God, at a time when you may be found. Surely the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
Collin Hansen:
You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. And then he kind of turns to the audience. He turns to us and he says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
Collin Hansen:
I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. See here, David instructs sinners to go to the Lord in prayer. Now Go to him in confession now. Find in him peace and protection.
Collin Hansen:
That's what he's describing with the waters in the time of trouble. Peace and protection in the Lord. Go to him now. David sets out an urgency for confession. And the reason for that urgency is found in in verse 10.
Collin Hansen:
Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. He contrasts there, the wicked and the one who trusts in the Lord. Many are this are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. Surrounding throughout the psalter, throughout all the Psalms, surrounding is usually a bad thing. You're surrounded by bulls or enemies or or people that are out to get you.
Collin Hansen:
It's usually wickedness and trouble that you're surrounded by. But here, David says there are 2 things. You are surrounded by shouts of deliverance and steadfast love. Know this and believe this today. Okay?
Collin Hansen:
Today, you are surrounded by the loyal, faithful, steadfast love of God. And by his shouts of deliverance, He shouts today that your sins are forgiven. Therefore, since you are surrounded by his love and his deliverance. Verse 11. Be glad in the lord.
Collin Hansen:
Rejoice, oh righteous. Shout for joy, all you upright in heart. Do you see what's happened here? The sinner has been called righteous. The wicked has been called righteous.
Collin Hansen:
And then called to worship. The seriousness of sin and the certainty of forgiveness. The seriousness of sin, where we feel the weight of our guilt, the weight of the heavy hand of God. We do this sober mindedly. We take this in.
Collin Hansen:
We are sinful. We acknowledge our sin and we're honest with ourselves, with one another and with the Lord. And then there is the certainty of forgiveness. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit. He gives us a certainty of forgiveness.
Collin Hansen:
And I believe he does that in primarily two, two ways. There there are lots of different ways, but but 2 in particular. 1st, a confidence in the word of god. That God's word tells us who we truly are in our sinfulness, and who we truly are in our forgiveness. It also tells us who God is, who he is as judge, as the just judge, and as the justifier.
Collin Hansen:
As the means by which we have forgiveness. And the other thing, so the in the certainty of forgiveness, there's a confidence in the word of god That when we go to it, that it's true, and it tells us true things about god and about us. And the second thing is this, centrality of the cross. Centrality of the cross. The the the spirit directs our attention to the cross of Christ.
Collin Hansen:
If we want confidence and certainty in our forgiveness, we have to look to the cross. Because there's no other means by which we can stand and say, my sins are forgiven. In fact, if you take away a confidence in god's word and a centrality of the cross, I don't know how you stand and think that you're forgiven by any stretch. In fact, I'd say you are hopeless. I would be hopeless.
Collin Hansen:
But we're not hopeless. We have offered to us this certainty of forgiveness because of the truthfulness of God's word, what it declares to us about our sin and our forgiveness, and as we look to the cross. Do you remember when I was saying that the, the Hebrew there of the taking away, the lifting up of sins? Well, it's not like a balloon that you let go of that just, you know, slowly makes its way up to where you can't see it in anymore up in the heavens. Where it pops.
Collin Hansen:
No. No, it's it's not like that. It's not just some balloon that just takes off and then you just think that it's gone and disappears. God lifted up our sin and then placed it on the cross. He placed it on his son.
Collin Hansen:
It had to go somewhere. It doesn't just disappear. We don't just get this good feeling inside because he somehow just removed our sin. We have a certainty of forgiveness because he placed it on Jesus. We see this in our opening scripture this evening, in 1st Peter 2.
Collin Hansen:
Let me read that. If you want to look back in your worship guide. Hear these words. Take take these words in. These words about our savior.
Collin Hansen:
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
Collin Hansen:
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. He made him, Jesus, to be sin. Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God. This is the only way this righteousness happens. This is the only way that this forgiveness happens.
Collin Hansen:
This is the only way that the guilt is gone. This is the only way that we connect back to the love of god. This is the only way. We must acknowledge our sin. And if you don't mind, I'm I'm gonna just I'm gonna say you, even though I mean me, of course, and all the things I'm about to say.
Collin Hansen:
But I'm gonna say you. You must acknowledge that you are a sinner. You must feel the weight of your guilt. You must confess your transgressions to the Lord. Don't be stubborn like the mule.
Collin Hansen:
Don't wait around. Because when we confess, he is quick to forgive us. Be certain of your forgiveness and then be glad in the Lord. Be blessed in the Lord. Have the joy given to you by his righteousness, by his cross, by his love.
Collin Hansen:
Shout for joy is what he David says. Shout for joy. Why? Because it's church. No.
Collin Hansen:
Shout for joy because he shouts your deliverance. Show but that's what makes the difference. We shout for joy because he shouts deliverance today. I'm gonna close with this quote from Soren Kierkegaard. He says this.
Collin Hansen:
Listen carefully. You rest in the forgiveness of sins when the thought of God does not remind you of the sin, but that it's forgiven. When the past is not a memory of how much you trespassed, but of how much you have been forgiven. That is resting in the forgiveness, the certain forgiveness that God has effectually, effectively worked on the cross for you and me, sinners, because he loves us. This is God's triumphant love for sinners.
Collin Hansen:
See what kind of love the father has given to us? That we should be called his children. Let's go to him in prayer. God, by your spirit, give us a seriousness about our sin. Lord, by your grace and your love, let us feel your heavy hand of conviction that is born out of love, not of anger, and help us to hear your shout of deliverance.
Collin Hansen:
Right now, Lord, give, give us ears to hear it in this silent room. Let us hear your shout that we might be glad and that we might be certain today. Lord, you love us and because of that, we love you And we don't have fear in our hearts, because fear has to do with punishment, and you have taken all of that punishment on yourself. So we have confidence and we have certainty because of your love displayed on the cross, victorious in your resurrection. Help us to hear you now, and help us to shout with joy.