SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/23/2012 8:12:53 AM
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 the first of four important
aspects of this psalm in today’s SD.
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 is 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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