SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/23/2012 8:12:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1“Sin & Forgiveness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Psalm
32:1-11
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 am not worthy of 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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