Psalm 32 — Psalms 32-33

0:01 I've heard, and this is right, Bob, that this is what? The coldest winter you had in, what, a hundred and three years? A hundred and three years. I think it's gonna make us appreciate spring all the more, though. And in the next few days, we'll get the good taste of that.

0:13 We're going to be, looking at Psalm 32 this morning. Psalm 32. And this is... I have to say it's one of my favorite Psalms. It's a Psalm that has to do with message of forgiveness and also like backsliding, restoration.

0:32 And really David relates some of his experiences. This Psalm I think is closely related to Psalm 51 speaking about the same of in the Jesus. To We're weeks, I think it was Erwin We're Lutzer has made some comments. I'd like to listen in to his program at 11:30, Running to Win. I don't know if anybody here has ever heard that probably have but he says a lot and he was speaking about Psalm Psalm 32.

1:11 Let's read this. It's only 11 verses. Read Psalm 32 together. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the lord imputed not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.

1:28 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moistures turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid.

1:45 I said I will confess my transgressions unto the lord and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.

2:12 Selah, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not as a horse or as a mule which have no understanding whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrow shall be to the wicked but he that trusteth in the lord, mercy shall compass about. Be glad in the lord and rejoice you righteous and shout for joy all you that are upright in heart.

2:40 I just wanted to just share one little quote here of Bill McDonald's book on the Psalms. Just a few sentences here about Psalm 32. Happiness is to be forgiven. It is an emotion that defies description. It is a relief of an enormous burden lifted, of a debt canceled, of a conscience at rest.

3:07 Guilt is gone. Warfare is ended. Peace is enjoyed. To David, it meant the forgiveness of his great transgression, the covering of his sin, the non imputation of his iniquity, and the cleansing of his spirit from deceit. To the believer today, it means more than the mere covering of a sin.

3:26 That was in the Testament concept that was the Old Testament concept of atonement. In this age, the believer knows that his sins have been put away completely and forever buried in the sea of god's forgetfulness. It's amazing really just to think of you know, David is is referred to as a man after god's own heart and we read about many victories of David. We've talked about him here a number of times but then you see, if we turn back to second Samuel, just to touch base here with what was going on. Second Samuel chapter eleven Second Samuel chapter We won't read this whole portion but we'll just hit a few verses here and there.

4:59 She was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And he brought her to his house and and, committed adultery with Bathsheba. First step was, I think that David had a departure really before just seeing Bathsheba. He was probably not where he should have been. The army was out there fighting, and he was just staying around home, I guess, so to speak.

5:23 And, the first thing that led him astray, though, is he saw with his eyes and desired. Now David had a number of wives, but, you know, nothing in this world is ever enough. As far as men are concerned, nothing is ever enough. And so David has a relationship with Bathsheba. And then a little while later, sometime later, tells him pregnant.

5:50 She is with child. So now there's a situation that David's got to figure out what in the world am I going to do about this. Here Uriah has been out on the battlefield. He hasn't even been home. And, I've got to figure out some way to cover this up.

6:05 And so he, sends for Uriah and brings him back over to his house, to David's place, and, you know, feeds him and says, you know, why don't you just go back home and, you know, take a break. Stay with your wife tonight. Anyway, Uriah didn't do that. He thought about the, you know, battle was going on, servants of the king and everything. He said, let's look at a verse right there that says verse 11.

6:34 I'll read verse 10. And when they had told David saying, Uriah went not down to his house, David said to Uriah, came as thou not from my journey? Why then did you not go down into your house? Uriah said that to David, verse 11, the ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents and my lord, Joab, and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and I liveth and as I so liveth, I will not do this thing.

7:03 So then he tries something else. He says, well, maybe if I make him drunk, he'll be... He'll go back to his house because I suppose this was his plan that he could cover up, you know, that they wouldn't know that the child wasn't his. So even when he made Uriah drunk, he... It says he didn't go back to his house.

7:27 So then he's gotta figure out, well, what am I gonna do now? This isn't working. So he's got... Plan a didn't work. He's gotta try plan b, and that was to put Uriah in the heart of the battle and send him to...

7:41 Put him in a place where the valiant men are, it says, and then draw back from him. So, verse 16, came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the valiant men were. And men in the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also. So David might figure in in his heart, well, that solves that situation. And after the period was more...

8:17 Of mourning was done, he took Bathsheba to be his wife. But at the end of this chapter, it says, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Displeased the Lord. It's just we're living in a in a day in which there's... It's so easy for any of us really to fall into to sin, to do that which displeases the Lord.

8:40 We're bombarded all the time. The enemy doesn't give up on us, and he wants to discourage Christians. He wants us to be turned aside. But, you know, God is such a loving God. He wants wants to restore us to himself.

9:13 That's really the way of happiness is to be experiencing the forgiveness of God, to be rejoicing in His forgiveness. And verse two, blessed is a man to whom the lord imputed not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. Now, guile, David was showing his guile to try to come up with this plan to hide this sin. But David wasn't happy. Now, god's put his hand on his life.

9:43 As he says, verse three, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture has turned into a drought of summer. Selah. God knows how to put his hand on our lives.

10:00 You know, many of us, I'm sure you've experienced days where nothing would go right. Nothing would go right. I think the Lord does this sometimes to get our attention. Maybe there's some job you do. I can relate to this working in cars sometimes, putting a simple screw in something, you you can have days where even you can't, you know, do that.

10:22 I think, what in the world? There's something's going on. Mean, it's like... Or it could be anything in your your own experiences that somehow you come to conclusion, God has his hand on my life. Lord is trying to get my attention somehow.

10:34 And he knows how to do it. David was miserable really after he went through this whole plan. And even though he ended up with Bathsheba and she had a son, God had to send Nathan the prophet to him and and tell him what a... You know, how God felt about the situation. Tells him the the account of the man that had a a little, lamb and a wealthy man that had all kinds of things.

11:03 And let... Let's just glance at just a couple of thoughts here if you still have second Samuel there. Nathan is sent to to David and tells him the story. There's two men in one city, one rich and the other poor, and the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb. And he brought it up and nourished him, and he grew up together with him and with his children that did eat of his own eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom was like unto him like a daughter.

11:44 And there came a traveler to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock. And of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man, but he took took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to heaven. David was really angry when he heard this. He said, David's anger was greatly kindled, and he said to Nathan, as the lord live it, the man that had done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing, because he had no pity.

12:12 Nathan said to David, thou art the man. Thou art the man thus saith the lord god of Israel, I anoint the king over Israel and delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, gave thee thy master's house, thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and all and of Judah and if that had been too little, I would have moreover given these such and such things. Wherefore, hast thou despise the commandment of the lord to do evil in his sight. I was killed Uriah, the Hittite with a sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife, slain him with a sword of the children of Amman. And so on.

12:53 Well, she said, what he did was displeasing to god and god was working in David's life. God was working. He just began to feel that god's hand was upon him. And night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture has turned into the drought of summer.

13:16 And sometimes you may have experienced in our life where we just... Maybe we're not rejoicing the Lord like we once did. Maybe we just get distracted. We get so busy, and it can happen. It's just like you go along and all of a sudden you get too busy and then maybe you don't read your bible as much and maybe we don't pray like we should.

13:37 And all of a sudden you just one day think, how did I get here? How did I get to this state of soul? I mean, just... But the Lord is always is faithful. He's always seeking to call us back to himself.

13:49 He's a God of amazing grace, saving grace and restoring grace. And when we are turned aside, when we fall into sin, the Lord wants us to be restored to him, to fellowship with him. So what does David do? Verse five, he says, I acknowledge acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the lord and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin.

14:48 You know, stop and think about what we're reading. I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgave us iniquity of my sin. Well, we have a choice when we've fallen into to sin. We can either try to hide it like David did for some for a while or we can acknowledge it to the lord. Excuse me.

15:11 Proverbs twenty eight thirteen. Proverbs twenty eight thirteen Twenty eight thirteen, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And one, a verse in first John one nine and we've been talking about singing about power in the blood this morning First John one and verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

16:16 If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God wants us to just acknowledge and we can see this all all through the Old Testament when he sent prophets to his people who had gotten so turned aside, and he invited them to turn back. He wanted them to turn back to him just to acknowledge that they had gone the wrong way. And a humbling step to take sometimes. We just...

16:41 We don't want to acknowledge that we've gone the wrong way, that we've done the wrong thing. I'm reminded of the the story, the account that's pretty well known of the prodigal son who took his father's inheritance, went into a far country and wasted his substance with riotous living. And he ended up, you know, he would have eaten the food that the pigs ate. He was just in in a horrible way but it says, he he finally came to himself. Let's look at that for a minute.

17:15 Luke 15. We'll be going back to Psalm 32 but Luke 15 Luke 15. Let's see. I'll start reading verse 17. Luke 15 verse 17.

17:44 And when he came to himself, this is a prodigal son. You know, they said he would have eaten the husk that the swine did eat. When he came to himself, began to really stop and think about his situation. He said, how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, no more worthy to be called thy son.

18:11 Make me as one of thy hired servants. He arose and came to his father when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and he said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven in thy sight. No more worthy to be called thy son. The father received him back joyfully and said, bring forth the fatted calf and and he rejoice over the son that turned back to him. And God will rejoice over us.

18:47 I know that we often use this portion in in speaking to someone who's lost, who's still on the road to destruction. But as believers, sometimes we get we get turned aside like I've been saying, and the Lord wants us to be in fellowship with him. He wants us to enjoy his company. He wants us to be rejoicing every day. And it's been said there's nobody more miserable than a Christian who's not walking with the Lord.

19:17 Just the things that the world can weigh heavily on us and, but we need to it's amazing his grace really and I I say I've experienced this that the lord will restore us to himself. He will cleanse us from all our sins. As it says there in in first John one nine, we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, let's going back to Psalm 32 verse six.

20:20 That is those who are godly will acknowledge, will have... Will make short accounts with god. We'll turn to him when we... When we're aware... When god makes us aware of backsliding backsliding in in our our lives lives or or getting getting turned turned aside, aside.

20:38 The way of restoration is to turn back to the lord as it says right here. This shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee at a time when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. But those that are godly will acknowledge their sins but we need to seek the lord. I'll just read quickly Isaiah fifty five six.

21:07 Isaiah fifty five six ties in with the praying unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Isaiah fifty five six, seek ye the lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Seek the lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he's near.

21:29 It's it's just the lord is working. He's working in this world today. If anybody is still on the broad road headed for destruction, the lord wants you to turn to him. He wants you to be forgiven. He wants you to believe that he died for you.

21:48 He wants you to be cleansed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're walking with the Lord, we will acknowledge when we get turned aside. Now that's the godly way, really, not to cover things up, but to turn to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm headed the wrong way here, or what do you want me to deal with in my life? That's a searching question sometimes. Have we ever asked the Lord, Lord, what are the hindrances in my life?

22:21 Have you ever asked the Lord that? Probably many of you have, and I could probably come up with a list of list of things that may not be totally evil in themselves, but I would put them in a category of hindrances, time wasters maybe or different things. Don't want to be specific right now exactly, but most of you probably know the things that would be hindrances in my life anyway. But, too much time watching things that there's no profit in. I'm not saying that if I didn't watch some sporting event or some TV thing that I would be studying my bible and praying because I can find a lot of other ways to waste time too.

23:06 Anyway, all of us have things that we may allow in our lives. Even God forbid, I don't want to say anything against Facebook, but it can be something. And some of us who are weaker, it can be something that can just take a lot of time. It's neat to I love to look at pictures of the grandkids that get put on Facebook and see some of the other things. But now it's gotten to the point where I'm just overwhelmed and you haven't looked at it in a week or two, you're so far behind, you'd never could get caught up.

23:39 Not saying it's bad. A lot of times I see good bible verses. I know people that put Bible verses up there all the time and use it to share the gospel and that could be a good way of, you know, a blessing to others. But just something that can if we don't control it. It could end up taking a lot of time that we might use, you know, for spending time in the word, you know, especially bothers me if I if I've gone through a day and I haven't spent any time in the word and then I look and I'm, you know, twenty minutes has gone.

24:11 I've been on the computer half hour or whatever and I can grow and grow and grow. It's it shouldn't be out of balance, I guess. We should control it with the lord's help. That's something that we need to pray about. Need to ask the lord's help.

24:55 I think that's a natural outcome. Walking with the Lord will will have a tendency to... Now may not be publicly, but maybe just walking around the house, maybe in to part And we're of the Lord and just confess our sins to Him the when we get turned aside, He can bring back that song. And one of the things, the children of Israel, when they came through the Red Sea, they had a song, the song of deliverance. And so many of the songs really touch our hearts.

25:42 And I know there's some of them I hear every now and then on the radio that that bring tears to my eyes. I don't know why. I mean, I'm not usually known as being a very emotional person, but but these certain songs just remind you of, you know, the Lord will never leave you or forsake you and just... I can't think of the name of the one that I was... I asked Kristen to get me the words for recently, but you don't remember who that was that's saying that's...

26:13 Not for a moment. Not for a moment. Meredith. Meredith. Anyway, that was a...

26:24 You ever hear that not for a moment. It just... The theme of it is that the Lord will never forsake you, not for a moment. But really, and I know some that are sitting here right now that, there are people that are oftentimes singing a song. And I'm not mentioning names, but sometimes they encourage me to sing along with them, you know.

26:50 And I think it's just part of rejoicing in the Lord. I mean, we're we're not always going to be singing, but I think it's a natural outcome of just rejoicing in the Lord and rejoicing in his salvation. Being thankful, we should be a thankful people and those who really are just rejoicing in him. And now in verse eight, we have his promise, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye.

27:22 The last part of some of the other versions might say, will counsel thee with my eye. One of them says, I will counsel thee with my loving eye upon thee. We know the Lord loves us and he will instruct us. I looked up the word instruct and this is, you know, according to what Young's concordance says, the word meaning for instruct here is to cause to act wisely. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.

27:51 Are we seeking the Lord's guidance though? I know a lot of us have had to make major decisions and when you get out of school and different things like that, some of the decisions you make about where to live and their major life decisions. And it's something that you really need to pray about and seek the Lord's guidance. Where does he want you to live? Where does he want you to go to school?

28:17 Where does he want you to... Does he want you to continue with your education? All these things, we can look to the Lord to guide us. That's the most important things, to look to him to guide us, and help us to make the right decisions. And he'll do that.

28:35 He will. That's his promise. But we're not supposed to be like the horse or as a mule. Verse nine says, you know, in reading Bill McDonald's portion on this, he brought up a point. I didn't think about this.

28:49 The horse is the one that's ready to just go. Just go. Get out there and run. Don't stop and think about anything. And a mule is kind of...

28:57 Can be the opposite. I picture a mule just sitting there and they're trying to pull and get a mule to do something and a mule just won't budge. Both of them are are wrong. We need to not be just taken off and running without the Lord's counsel, but not to be so obstinate that we won't do anything. So God may want us to take a step here or a step there.

29:20 It may be applying for some school or it may be, applying at some job. It could be a lot of different things. Whatever the Lord's pathway. I'm so glad that He does have a plan for our lives. And, He wants us to know what that is.

29:36 And He doesn't reveal it all at once, but I think he leads a step by step, one step at a time. But let's not be like the horse just taken off and without any regard or the mule just stubborn and not wanting to do anything. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. Verse 10. But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.

30:37 Starting in verse one, excuse me. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Where in time past, you walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

30:55 Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past and lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature the children of wrath we're that. Going to By grace, we are saved. And And And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I just love that verse about God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Could anybody love us any more than Lord loves us?

31:35 It's impossible. It's impossible. He loved us when we were just dead in trespasses and sins, going the wrong way, and he still loves us. And as I said, He wants us to be walking in fellowship with Him, walking in... Just enjoying His company.

31:54 I say the word fellowship, meaning just like you would walk day by day with a friend when you can seek their counsel and direction. He wants us to be in communion with him. But many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about. This world is a place that's so full of sorrows. And it's just...

32:20 It's amazing. And I just think my heart goes out to the families of those that lost loved ones out in Washington State with this big landslide and, those that were on the plane, flight three seventy, something like that, that still as far as I know had not found any trace of whatever happened. So that plane is... Your heart has to go out. But there's...

32:44 This world is a sorrowful place. But for the believers, we do have sorrows. But we can look to the Lord in those sorrows. We can get strength from Him. When a person leaves this world, we sorrow not like those that have no hope.

33:45 Rejoice in the lord, oh you righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the lord with harp. Sing unto him with a psaltery and instrument of 10 strings. Sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise.

34:07 Just may the lord help us to to keep short accounts with Him to, as I'm just summing up things here, to experience that that forgiveness, that restoring grace, just like David did. The longer we go on, the worse it gets. And so the Lord wants us to stop. Stop the direction we're headed. If you're aware of something in your life that is not right, He wants you to stop.

34:35 He wants me to stop and say... And turn to Him and to... As he says in first Peter, humble ourselves under His mighty hand. What does it mean to humble ourselves? That means we just go before the Lord and say, Lord, I acknowledge I'm going the wrong way and I need your help and grace to change.

34:56 I need to put aside whatever it is that might be breaking fellowship or that communion with Him. And it's our prayer here that this morning you might be encouraged just to just experience more, to be reminded of God's forgiveness, to to be in the word, to be praying. You know, sometimes I have to say that I've been praying more this week because I knew I was speaking this Sunday, but and I've had some special burdens on my heart this week. But sometimes prayer can be something that just gets kind of put aside. We don't mean to, but, you know, if you total up the amount of time you spend in prayer sometimes, speaking for myself, it wouldn't be very much some days.

35:47 So that... That's not good. So I need the lord. I need your prayers that I might spend more time in prayer. But may the Lord help us to rejoice in his word, in his forgiveness because he paid the penalty for our sins on the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ and cleanse us from all sins.

36:08 Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we just thank you for your word and thank you that you desire us to to be rejoicing in your salvation and we think that our mind and how David said, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He had lost that joy because of falling into sin. And and when we get turned aside, Lord, we we lose that joy. We're we're not rejoicing you like we should be.

36:35 So we just thank you for your restoring grace, for your desire that we would turn to you even though we have known you. Many here have known you for quite a few years. Yet still, we can be turned aside. Lord, help us to walk with you to finish our course in this world strong, to be a witness and a light to this dark world around us. We ask your blessing in all these things.

37:01 In Jesus' name, amen.