1/23/2012 8:12:53 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Sin & Forgiveness
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 32
Message of the verses: “ 1 ¶ «A Psalm of David. A Maskil.» How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! 2 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! 3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. 6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
“7 ¶ You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. 9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. 11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”
Psalm 32 was one of the psalms that I put to memory in the early part of my Christian walk with the Lord and thus it is one of my favorite psalms along with Psalm 1, Psalm 40, and Psalm 121. This psalm is written about David’s sin with Bathsheba which included adultery, and also murder. Psalm 51 is also written about this incident and in that psalm David promises to tell others about what he had learned: “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.” (Psalm 51:13) Psalm 51 was written before Psalm 32.
“Psalm 32 has been classified as one of 7 penitential psalms (cf. 6; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143). It is called “A Maskil” in the heading of the psalm and this introduces a new technical term. It could indicate that Psalm 32 was a ‘contemplative poem,’ or a ‘psalm of understanding,’ or a ‘skilful psalm.’” (John MacArthur Study Bible)
Dr. Wiersbe points out that the word that is translated “Maskil” is translated in verse eight as “instruct.” He goes on in his introduction to write “In this psalm, David shared four basic facts about sin and forgiveness that need to be understood by every believer.” We will look at these four important aspects of this psalm.
The Blessing of Acceptance (vv. 1-2): “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! 2 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”
I think it was about a year after David’s sin with Bathsheba that the prophet Nathan came to David to tell him a story about a man who had only one lamb which he loved very much and also about a rich man who had many lambs, but the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and killed it. This story angered David and then Nathan told David that he was the man who stole the lamb. Now we must remember that David was the king in Israel when this happened and I would suppose that a lot of other kings of that day who would have heard that story would have just killed the prophet and that would be the end of it, but not David, for David was a man after God’s own heart as we have said before, and David was an emotional man who loved the Lord with all his heart and did not want to disappoint the Lord and so David would write two psalms about this incident. In the Ten Commandments there was no grace, but only a series of laws, and the punishment for murder and adultery was death, yet God chose to forgive David as Nathan would tell David. The forgiveness by the Lord is what this psalm is about and we must remember that when a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord that the forgiveness is free to them, but it cost God His only Son, and it cost His only Son His life, and that was all done because of His great love for us. Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap and so we do not want to ever take this forgiveness for granted.
There are two beatitudes in the first two verses of this psalm. In verse one we see the pronouncement of blessing on the obedient and in verse two we see the pronouncement of blessing on the disobedient who have been forgiven.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “But having now entered into the freedom of forgiveness, David couldn’t wait to shout about it. If we have acceptance with God, it matters not what else my happen to us.”
We will now look at the meaning of some of the words in these two verses to help us understand the meaning of this psalm.
Transgression: Crossing over the line and rebelling against God.
Sin: To miss the mark, not living up to the standards God has set.
Iniquity: Twisted and this describes what happens to the inner character of the sinner.
Guile: Deception (The word in the NASB is translated as deceit) (Guile is from the KJV)
Forgive: This means to remove a burden. (The scapegoat from the Day of Atonement)
Impute: A bookkeeping term that means “to put on the account, to add to the record.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes this about “impute” “When we confess our sins, God cancels the debt and it’s no longer on the books. As the children say, ‘It doesn’t count anymore.’ Why? Because Jesus paid the debt on the cross, and His blood cleanses the record and the heart of the offender. The forgiveness of the Lord is certainly something to sing about! It’s unfortunate that too many of God’s children take it for granted.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I read Psalm 32 and some of the commentary that Dr. Wiersbe has written about it I must say that like David, I am convicted. My conviction is different than that of David’s but conviction just the same. Dr. Wiersbe wrote that it was unfortunate that many of God’s children take this forgiveness for granted and I would suppose to some degree that I have done this and must talk to my Lord about this. I do not deserve this forgiveness and can never earn it for it is by grace through faith that I am saved and not of any work that I have done. Our society seems to be turning into an entitlement society and perhaps that is why many believers take the forgiveness of God for granted.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. I need to tell the Lord that I will surely try not to take His forgiveness for granted, but will praise Him for His indescribable gift of salvation that He has given to me.
2. Continue to learn contentment in my walk with the Lord.
1/23/2012 9:20:45 AM
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