Dealing with the Sin Issue

 

Dealing with the Sin Issue

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.  When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.   For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.  I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him.  You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.   I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.  Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.  Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.  Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Psalm 32

David was a grievous sinner.  Yet he knew well what it meant to have ‘mercy surround’ him.  He found great relief and joy in repentance.  No child of God is without sin in this life.  We rejoice in the blessings of justifying grace whereby Christ’s merits make us accepted in the eyes of God’s law.  We have to say realistically, however, that there is much remaining corruption which sanctifying grace has but partially removed.  Therefore, there are times when we will grievously sin.  When David sinned with Bathsheba, after Nathan had faced him with it, he wrote the 51st Psalm as his prayer of penitence.  The 32nd Psalm is closely related to this low time of David’s spiritual life, although it sounds a brighter note.  We know that we are going to have encounters with sin.  From David’s experience, then, we ought to learn.

David begins the Psalm with the blessing of covering for sin.  No matter what our crime against God’s law, the blessed answer is the atoning blood of Christ.  Have you sinned grievously recently?  Fly to the cleansing blood of Christ.  David speaks in the third and fourth verses of the grief of the conviction of sin.  There is within our experience the necessity of the “godly sorrow” that “worketh repentance.”  If you are grieving for sin, it is a good sign.  It is a good sign because after grief for sin comes confession of sin.  In verse five David declares his clear confession.  We cannot know the blessedness of the final two verses of the Psalm until we have been down the road of verses three through five.  Verses six and seven show us the restoration of communion after sin.  Our God wounds to heal.  He does not leave us in our grief, but forgives us and restores us.  More than this, verses eight through eleven show us how God personally counsels us as to how to avoid sin.  This gives us hope to continue on after we have ourselves been through such an experience as David’s.  Are you today in the valley?  This Psalm offers you a clear path.

O Heavenly Father,

cause us to walk with Thee;

restore and revive us.

We need Thee.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice