The blessing of divine forgiveness
I have known a few friends who have gone through the pain of personal bankruptcy. This decision was not reached easily. There was a great deal of angst and internal wrestling. Inevitably, there was a sense of personal failure. But if the reader can enter into the emotion of such a dilemma, they, too, will realize that when the creditors are knocking, the interest is piling up, and there seems no possible way out, all that is left is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Although the declaration of bankruptcy is not without consequence, that decision can be a huge weight lifted off one’s shoulders. One awakens the next day as a new man with an opportunity for a fresh start.
It may be a pale comparison, but when David writes, “Blessed is the man whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Ps. 32:1), he writes out of the painful experience of his own sinful decisions and their far-reaching consequences. He rejoices in the forgiveness that only God can offer and the relief that a crushing load has been removed.
The sad context of this psalm is recorded for us in 2 Samuel 10-11. David was guilty on three counts. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba, he was complicit in the murder of her husband, Uriah, and then he actively attempted to conceal the matter. The Scriptures inform us that after Bathsheba had completed the customary period of mourning, David had her brought to his house and “…she became his wife. Then she bore a son.” It might appear that David had gotten away with it, but God was not deceived. “But the thing David had done was evil in the sight of God” (11:27). For at least nine months, while the full extent of David’s actions were known only to himself, his sin festered without confession or repentance.
The burden of sin
In Psalm 32, we have the expression of David’s aching heart. Sin had taken its toll. To the onlooker, everything seemed fine, but, inside, David was dying. “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away” (v. 3). Spiritually, he recognized the hand of God upon him: “For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me” (v. 4). In Psalm 51, David shares that his sin had robbed him of the very “joy of Your salvation” (v. 12) even though God had not forgotten His precious servant. Finally, sin even wreaked its havoc emotionally: “My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer” (v. 4). Sin was leeching the very life from him.
I imagine all of us can relate to David’s experience. It is a sobering reminder that unconfessed sin in our lives will bring pain, as do areas in which we have not been broken or yielded. In a believer’s life, sin can never really be enjoyed. The psalmist speaks with candor of the road of repentance: acknowledgement, not cover-up; confession, not excuses. The glorious result is God’s gracious forgiveness and the celebration of His deliverance.
How grateful we should be for the disciplining hand of the Lord in our lives. “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb 12:5-6).
The two-fold blessing of forgiveness
David wrote Psalm 32 out of the experience of having been restored to the Lord. He describes in it a two-fold blessing. First, David speaks of the blessing of having our sins covered. Psalm 32 is referenced by Paul in Romans 4 in his argument that God’s way of salvation has not changed. He still puts men and women in a right standing with Himself on the basis of faith. Vine, in his commentary, adds that the word used for covered in Romans 4:7 is similar to the Hebrew word atone, “…signifying not merely a covering but the removal of guilt under that covering…the removal of the divine wrath of God.”1 This is a forgiveness that mankind so desperately needs: sin removed, guilt purged, judgment lifted. As believers in Christ, you and I enter into the truth that our transgressions have been forgiven. Hallelujah!
Secondly, in recounting God’s goodness, David speaks of the blessedness of the man “to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” Although not explicitly stated, there is a hint in these words of the truth of justification. God not only offers us forgiveness but credits our accounts with His righteousness. He sees us as if our spirits are without deceit (v. 2).
The precious offering of Christ
If David, under the dispensation of the Law, could celebrate the blessing of enjoying God’s forgiveness, how much more can we, under grace and in Christ, speak of being blessed! “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ…cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13-14). The forgiveness we enjoy today is eternal and complete. To God, how much greater is the value of Christ’s offering than that of the blood of bulls and goats?
David uses a word that is almost always translated blessed in the Old Testament. In his expository dictionary, Vine suggests that it might be translated “prosperity or happiness.”2 He adds that it speaks of favor conferred by a superior. This world offers the believer many pursuits that bring a measure of happiness but always leave us wanting. Can there be any greater happiness to seek than that which only God can provide? As king of the nation of Israel, David considered himself blessed, not because of his riches or power or fame, but because he enjoyed divine forgiveness.
A message of forgiveness for a needy world
In Psalm 51, David, having been restored, expresses his desire to “…teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You” (v. 13). Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the work of Christ on the cross, we have the message of forgiveness. Many have gotten up this morning, and will go to bed tonight, shouldering the great weight of the debt of their sin, unaware of, ignoring, or simply rejecting the desire of the Most High God to forgive them. They have no idea of the extreme to which He has gone to offer the forgiveness their hearts so desperately crave. May the divine blessing we enjoy (and possibly take for granted) grip us in such a way that we desire to share it with them!
1. W.E. Vine, The Collected Writings of W.E. Vine – Volume I, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1996).
2. W.E. Vine et al., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1985).