22 Psalms 32
[SCRI INT] Psalm 32
Good morning and come with me to Psalm 32.
Many of us know what it’s like to keep a dark secret for too long. Especially when that secret is our own sin. David gives us the proper way to deal with our own secret sins. If you have struggled in this way, this text is for you this morning.
Psalm 32 is about David being bent out of shape in deep despair over his own sin. Yet, when he brings his sin before God, he finds joy, relief, and a restored relationship with God. Come, let’s read David’s Psalm.
Psalm 32
1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man
whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him,
in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle
from my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
Your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was drained
as in the summer heat.
Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to You
and did not hide my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
and You forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah
6 Therefore let all the godly pray to You
while You may be found.
Surely when great waters rise,
they will not come near.
7 You are my hiding place.
You protect me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
I will give you counsel and watch over you.
9 Do not be like the horse or mule,
which have no understanding;
they must be controlled with bit and bridle
to make them come to you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but loving devotion surrounds him who trusts in the LORD.
11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous ones;
shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
Prayer
Father, we know what it’s like to have your hand heavy upon us when our strength is drained as in the summer heat.
We have hid our sins from you far too often.
Do not hide your forgiveness from us and your mercy.
May we, like David this day, come freely confessing our sins, knowing you know them. May we find you when waters rise around us. May we sing great songs of deliverance. May we sing and be glad and rejoice.
We thank you for the great forgiveness you have given us to the blood of your son Jesus Christ.
It is in His name we pray. Amen.
[INT] THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS DRAGONS
It is the second Sunday of the month and we now turn to the Psalms. On Wednesday we looked at Romans chapter 4 and David speaks of the great blessedness one who receives forgiveness of his sins and whose transgressions are covered.
I want to just talk more about this. And so this morning, we’re going to talk about Psalm 32.
I’ve titled this lesson…
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS DRAGONS:
[BIND]
[FCF]
We hide our sins from God like David did.
[PROP]
There is no greater satisfaction than in restoring your relationship with God through the confession of sins.
[BILL]
[1-EXPO] THE DESPAIR OF SIN, THE JOY OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS
This first part of the sermon I just want to walk through Psalm 32 with you and briefly comment on each of its sections.
1-2: SUMMARY OF THE PSALM
The first two verses of Psalm 32 tell us that a man is blessed when his sins are forgiven. It ends with the line in whose spirit there is no deceit.
In other words, those who do not have self-deception are right before God. But David’s heart was not always right before God. He would often live without confessing his sin.
3-4: LIFE WITHOUT CONFESSION
In verses 3 and 4 we see what life is like with unconfessed sin. We find David, groaning. His bones are brittle. He feels God’s heavy hand upon him, and his strength is strained as if he’s out on a hot summer day.
In other words, his unconfessed sin affects his whole life. And this makes sense because when our relationship with God is severed or frustrated like David’s showing his life to be, it affects the rest of our life. And in this self-deception, we continue to wane and spiral into depths of even great despair.
5: CONFESSSION LEADS TO FORGIVENESS
At some point David recognizes the root of his predicament and freely he comes to God and confesses his sins and does not hide his iniquity. Things are out in the open for David.
And when he confesses his sins to the Lord, God forgives his guilt. His sins are removed.
As Psalm 103:12 says:
Psalm 103:12
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
and Micah 7:19 alsod says
Micah 7:19
He will again have compassion on us;
He will vanquish our iniquities.
You will cast out all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
6-7: SATISFACTION IN GOD
Then, in verses 6 and 7, David declares that God is his hiding place. It is God who protects him from trouble, even when great waters rise against him. They will not harm him.
Isn’t this one we are most often tempted to sin? It’s easy not to sin when things are easy. But when life is hard, it is hard not to sin. Sin is a forbidden shortcut. It is moving game pieces on the board when God is not looking.
So instead of taking a shortcut, David finds satisfaction in God. This is what will drive out his desire to sin when the waters come around him. If David knows that he is protected in the hiding place of God, then all temptations to sin or take an easy way out are removed.
8-11: CALL TO FOLLOW DAVID’S EXAMPLE OF CONFESSION
He ends with a call to those who hear him. He says to those who hear him, “Listen to me, and do not be like the horse or the mule.” These creatures need to be told what to do by the bit and the bridle.
What does he mean by this to not be like the horse or mule? I think what he is saying is this do not be forced to come to God. Instead, come to him freely. When David is silent and his bones are becoming brittle and he groans all day, in a sense he is being forced to come to God because things have gotten so bad.
He is saying don’t wait until you are forced to come to God to confess your sins when you also are drained as if you are standing in the summer heat. Come to God long before then and be glad in him and rejoice in him and shout for joy.
“Learn from my mistakes,” he says.
SUMMARY
What a wonderful Psalm. This Psalm shows us just how much we need be on good terms with God.
When things are not as they should, when we try to hide our sins with fig leaves, we waste away.
But God is there waiting to listen to our confessions and mercifully restores us and forgives our sins.
How great is our God!
[APP]
Now let’s look at three takeaways from this Psalm for us.
[2-APP No. 1] VOICE THE SINS IN YOUR LIFE
The first is this. VOICE THE SINS IN YOUR LIFE. What I’m saying here is a very personal thing. It requires great courage on your part. Our courage comes from Christ who courageously went to the cross to sacrifice himself for our sins.
CALLING SIN WHAT IT IS
This is important to emphasize this point on calling out our sins to ourselves. This is because we live in a therapeutic age. Much of the secular therapy project and even modern evangelicals try to hide or soften sin.
Instead of talking about sin, they talk about brokenness. Instead of going to God for forgiveness, you have to forgive yourself. Instead of talking about greed, you say he is compensating for his insecurities.
Now, is it true to talk about people as being broken? Yes. Is it true that we should learn to forgive ourselves as God forgives us? Yes. Is it true that those who struggle with greed are probably compensating for insecurities? Yes. But notice there’s a different emphasis on sin versus brokenness versus God. forgiving you versus forgiving yourself versus greed versus compensating for insecurities. That specific emphasis of what is true is where the problem lies.
This is why it is good to advocate for calling Bible things by Bible names. What can happen is it removes a person’s agency to commit sin. In other words, a person cannot help but do wrong because of something intrinsic in them that they cannot overcome.
One of the main forms of pushback that comes from speaking this way is to say that you are being harsh. Why not use language that doesn’t trigger or provoke people?
There are a number of reasons, but I’ll say two.
Self-Deception
Number one, it leads to self-deception. We have the ability to deceive ourselves, to manufacture blind spots in our view of our self. This can happen easily when we shift our language.
George Orwell’s book 1984 is a study in the power of using language to shift focus and to create blind spots. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
The goal of these slogans was to create blind spots, places where the general masses wouldn’t see as issues of their own place.
It was a way to get everyone to put up their own blinders and to deceive themselves.
DEFINING THE PROBLEM FOR THE SAKE OF THE SOLUTION
When we shift the focus by using watered-down language when talking about sin, we will never be able to find a solution. That is the second problem. If you don’t properly define the problem and can’t use language to specifically identify the problem, specifically sin, then you’re going to go to all the wrong places to find the solution.
You steal and take what’s not yours? Oh, that’s because you grew up in a home where you’d never had enough.
He’s not really lying, he’s just telling his truth.
She’s not disobeying her parents. She’s just living according to her authentic self.
He can’t help but like other boys. He was born this way.
In leadership and self-deception, here’s how they explain what self-deception does to a person:
“Self-deception is like this. It blinds us to the true causes of problems, and once we’re blind, all the “solutions” we can think of will actually make matters worse. Whether at work or at home, self-deception obscures the truth about ourselves, corrupts our view of others and our circumstances, and inhibits our ability to make wise and helpful decisions. –LEADERSHIP AND SELF DECEPTION
NOT CALLING SIN WRECKS OURSELVES
This is why we have to be firm on using biblical language for these ideas, to call sin for what it actually is.
Because when we try to hide it, or when we try to justify our actions, we will continually harm our relationship with God. and our bones will become brittle, we will groan all day, and our strength will be drained. All the while will be blinded to what is actually going on.
You know, generally, I can stand up here all day and say things like, “Hey, we’re all human. Hey, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.” But what’s hard is when I turn around and say that, “Hey, you have sin, specifically you, and you need to confess that sin to God.”
We’re fine when the spotlight is on a mob, but when the spotlight is on just me or just you, then we start to self-justify ourselves.
And we cannot do that if we want to restore our relationship with God.
Do not be deceived.
SEARCH YOUR OWN SOUL
So what this Psalm teaches us is that we must first voice our own sins. We must be specific with ourselves about these things. This requires great courage, but with Christ we can do this.
[2-APP No. 2] VOICE THE CONFESSION TO GOD
So with that wound open and bare, we begin the process of healing. And that is by going to the great physician who heals all wounds.
In Psalm 32, David acknowledges his sin before God, and he does not hide it.
There is some irony here of trying to hide our sins before God, because after all, God already knows our sins. But when we do not freely confess our sins before God, that hurts our relationship with Him.
And so what is helpful for us to know is that God already knows our sins So it’s not like we’re hiding anything from him that He does not already know.
But what we are hiding from God is our heart.
Which is the one thing he desires most from us.
Confess Sins On Your Terms
There’s a difference between confessing sin voluntarily and confessing a sin when you’re found out
Think of Achen or David.
How much sweeter is the confession of the Prodigal Son or Zaccheus?
Do no be like the horse or mule that needs to be pushed to confess. God doesn’t want to play good cop bad cop with you. He doesn’t want to trick or force you into confession.
He wants your heart that will freely confess your sins to him.
GETTING SIN IN THE OPEN FOR GOD
Once G.K. Chesterton responded to a paper, the paper was asking the question, “What is wrong with the world?”
He simply responded, “Dear sirs, I am”
–G.K. Chesterton
LETTING GOD FORGIVE YOU
Confession sins is a Christian practice.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
[2-APP No. 3] VOICE THE JOY IN GOD
Much of our sins are to protect ourselves. We get angry and lash out because we get what we want through that, otherwise we go without when we don’t get angry.
We gossip to find satisfaction in the comradery of others, but to keep others faults secret, we don’t build that relationship. The purpose of acknowledging God as our protector and hiding place is to one, declare it to be trust, but also realize it has the effect of rooting our the temptation to sin in our own hearts.
It is to say, “Sin you may promise comfort and protect, but in God I have all the protection I need, so go away and bother someone else.”
Joy Roots Out Temptation and False Pleasures
Psalm 16:11
You have made known to me the path of life;
You will fill me with joy in Your presence,
with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.
Matthew 13:44
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.
[4-CON]
Whether you realize it or not, you have dragons in your soul. These creatures will grow if left unacknowledged and unconfessed. But God is gracious. He desires you to confess your sins day. And in that confession, he freely forgives your sins.
How wonderful is our God!