Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the Psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Pray some peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: We continue praying through the Psalms. We come now to Psalm 32, a Psalm of David verse 1. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty. When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away and I groaned all day long.
Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. And finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. What a way to pray today.
And you forgave me. All my guilt is gone, David declares. Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment, for you are my hiding place. You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.
The Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse or or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control? Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord. So rejoice in the Lord and be glad all you who obey him.
Shout for joy all you whose hearts are pure. By way of reflection, notice the tone of David in verse 1. What joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven. Our sin is put out of sight, we're told. The Lord has cleared our record of guilt, like all the objective reasons for why we should be punished for the wrong that we have for sure done that we need to own.
David says, it's been cleared by Yahweh, it's been completely forgiven, and joy is now what we get to receive from him. He even says when he was slow to confess that his his strength was gone, but then he noticed like, you have forgiven me, and I have acknowledged my rebellion to you. And so I just think what a profound invitation for us today to courageously go before God, and confess our sin, to name the ways that we are tempted to rebel from him, and to say, God, would you forgive me? And would in turn I experience the joy of your salvation knowing that you are in fact, you are my hiding place, and you will guide me. So you see there's a unique aspect of forgiveness here that I want us to pay attention to as we prepare to pray, and it's that that God, the Lord, just doesn't forgive us and and let us go free, but he forgives us, lets us go free, and listen, walks with us personally.
You see, it's not just that we relate to God in terms of a relationship, like I know God, but but God knows us personally. He guides us personally on an intimate level. And so it's a forgiveness, yes. It's a forgiveness, yes, it leads to joy, but it's a forgiveness that leads to intimacy with God today. And he will guide us through our days.
Jesus, we hear this invitation that forgiveness was fully and finally demonstrated by you on the cross. And so we can have the same confidence, maybe even more than David had, that there is joy for us today as we declare our forgiveness in you. And as we confess sin, holy spirit, would you help us to discern the things that we need to confess and repent of today so that we might once again know that we are loved and forgiven by God in Christ Jesus. We say these things in his name. Amen.
Grace and peace.