1/24/2012 9:01:51 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Sin & Forgiveness PT-2
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.”
In today’s SD we continue looking at Psalm 32 and hopefully will be able to finish with this very meaningful psalm. When we think of the different circumstances that David found himself in so that he was then moved by the Holy Spirit of God to write the different psalms it could make us think of Romans 8:28 where Paul writes: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” The circumstance under which David wrote Psalms 32 and 52 were not good, yet I believe that one of the ways that God worked them out for David’s good and for God’s glory was the writing of these two different psalms that have brought comfort to those many, many people who have read them throughout the ages and that is my prayer for all of us who are reading this today.
Dr. Wiersbe wrote at the end of his introduction these words: “In this psalm, David shared four basic facts about sin and forgiveness that need to be understood by every believer.” We continue with the second fact this morning.
The Folly of Impenitence (vv.3-4): “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.”
David was hurting a lot after his sin with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah and this was probably a period of about a year when David was around fifty years of age. David was an outdoors man as he lived much of his early life outside taking care of sheep and then after that he lived with King Saul, which may have been inside for some part of his life then, but fighting the king’s battles he would have been outside too. The point is that he was a healthy man who loved to do physical things and now we see the heavy hand of the Lord upon David and his physical stamina was dwindling, and perhaps he may have been wondering why. We can read Hebrews 12:1-13 and find out that God chastening is proof that He loves us and that we are genuinely His children.
Dr. Wiersbe quotes two men in his commentary with words that help us understand why impenitence is folly. “God does not permit His children to sin successfully” says Charles Spurgeon and John Donne wrote “Sin is a serpent, and he that covers sin does but keep it warm, that it may sting the more fiercely, and dispense the venom and malignity thereof the more effectually.” These two quotes along with Hebrews 12:1-13 are truths that can set us free when we have unconfessed sin and of course repentance is the key issue which we will see in the next point.
The Way of Deliverance (vv.5-7): “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.”
Verse five is a very wonderful and uplifting verse for in it we see David realizing his sin and confessing his sin, but more than that for he realizes that God has forgiven his sin and for that he will rejoice in the goodness of the Lord. I don’t actually know what Selah means here but if it is like a hardy “Amen” then that makes sense to me. This verse has to remind us of 1John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I have mentioned before that God has said that are forgiven sins are as far away as the East is from the West. If you start going East around the world you will never be going West, but if you start going North around the world you eventually will be going South.
We also spoke about the scapegoat who would carry away the sins of the children of Israel out into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement. This pictures God carrying away our sins and Christ did that for us while on the cross. This is something to rejoice about forever. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The burden of transgression had been carried away, the debt was canceled, the twisted was made straight, and the Lord didn’t put David’s sin on the record. Instead of imputing our sins, the Lord puts the righteousness of Christ on our account, and we are accepted in Him (See Rom. 4:3ff; 5:13; 2Cor. 5:19-21; Gal. 3:6).”
David did not wait when he realized that sin was causing so much trouble to him, but he confessed his sin to the Lord and the Lord forgave him. “Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die (2Sam. 12:13).” Dr. Wiersbe writes “Guilt is to the conscience what pain is to the body: it tells us that something is wrong and must be made right, or things will get worse.” David did not wait.
David says in verse six something that I have had a hard time understanding “let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found.” John MacArthur writes these words in his study Bible about verse six: “David slips right back into teaching mode in this verse, emphasizing that every person who knows the grace of God should not presume upon that grace by putting off confession.” Now I am thinking about some verses from 1Cor. 11 that I think ties into what David is teaching in verse six, and the verse speaks of those who were believers who did not come to God with their sin when He could be found, and like verse six says and the note from John MacArthur says we should come to God when He can be found: “28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”
Now we know that the sin that David committed with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband was forgiven by the Lord, but there were consequences to that sin. Dr. Wiersbe writes “God in His grace forgive us, but God in His government says, ‘You shall reap what you have sown.” What did David reap? Bathsheba’s baby died, David’s son Amnon raped his half sister Tamar and then her brother Absalom killed Amnon and tried to take David’s throne, but Joab killed him. David’s son Adonijah tried to take the scepter from Solomon and Solomon killed him. David told Nathan that the man who stole the little ewe lamb had to pay fourfold and even though David’s sins were forgiven he paid fourfold.
David went into the sanctuary to worship the Lord as seen in 2Sam. 12:15-23 and there with the other worshipers, he was surrounded by “songs of deliverance.” Read again Psalm 32:7.
The Joy of Obedience (vv. 8-11): “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.”
We see the word LORD in verse eleven and we know that there are many name for God in the Scriptures, but whenever you see the word LORD in all caps it means Jehovah.
In verses 8-9 and Psalm 51:12 which reads, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit,” we see that God is assuring David that the joy of his salvation would be restored to him.
We know from the story of David’s sin that his thinking was not right, for is some ways he was acting like an animal. David acted like a horse and rushed ahead impetuously (unthinkingly, suddenly, recklessly), and the David acted like a mule, for he was stubborn in not confessing his sin to the Lord. I suppose that we all can relate to this in our lives as I know that I surely can especially the impetuously part like a horse.
As we finish this commentary on Psalm 32 I want again to look at the ending quote for Dr. Warren Wiersbe, “When he joined the assembly at the sanctuary of God (vv.1-2), David began his song with the joyful announcement that God had forgiven him. Now he closed the psalm by exhorting the others worshipers to join him in celebrating the joy of the Lord. ‘Be glad! Rejoice! Shout for joy!’ Years later, his son Solomon would write, ‘He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy’ Proverbs 28:13 NKJV).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I love this psalm as it speaks to my heart. I was 26 years old when I came to Christ and the first 25 years, at least from age 15 on were not good years for me as I was in the world and of the world and acted like it. My life changed after age 26 in fact in two days from now it will be 36 years since I bowed my knee to the Lord and He changed my life forever, giving me a new destination for eternity.
I see in this psalm forgiveness of sin and I am so very thankful for that. I also see that David had acted like an animal in sinning with Bathsheba as he describes with the horse and the mule and I can relate to that and that is why contentment is so important for me to learn as it relates to patience, to thinking before jumping into something and trusting the Lord to lead me and to guide me.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Proverbs 3:5-6.
2. Phil. 4:11b.
3. Ephesians 6:10-18.
4. Romans 12:1-2.
5. Psalm 32:8.
1/24/2012 10:43:49 AM
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