Psalms series

Psalm 32, of David, a maskil. Blessard is the 1 whose transgressions are forgiven. Whose sins are covered. Bless is the 1 whose sin, the lord does not count against them. And in whose spirit is no deceit, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Therefore, let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found. Surely the rising of the mighty waters will not tea will not reach them. You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding, but must be controlled by bits and bridle, or they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, but the lord's unfailing love surrounds the 1 who trusts in him. Rejoice in the lord and be glad you righteous, sing all you who are upright in heart. Tom.

Thanks, Chris. Well, as I said, as I said last week, in between other things, this summer, we're doing this kind of mini mini series in these Psalms of repentance. And, you might remember that a couple of weeks ago, 3 weeks. No, I think now. Pete was helping us to think through Psalm 51, and, preach that to us.

And, last week we started, a 2 parter in, in Psalm 32. So, if you could keep that open, that would be really good. And, last week, we were having a think mainly about verses 1 to 5 and David's own story or his testimony and, what he experienced in his life both of his sin and of god's grace. And then this week, as Chris said, we're gonna focus on 6 to 11 and his sermons. We've heard his story, and then he gives his sermon in the second half of the song.

So let's pray together as we, as we get into that. Father, we do thank you, for this new day, for this new Sunday, where we can gather here together as your people. And, we know that we come as as children of your grace, who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. And, we know that we would have absolutely no hope of finding favor with you if it wasn't for your grace. We thank you that you are so kind to cover over our sin.

And, we pray that as we read again a bit about David's story and, some of the lessons that he drew out of his experience for us. That you would help us to learn. We pray that you as our heavenly father might speak, a clear word to each 1 of us here this morning. And we ask it in Jesus name. Oh, man.

Now c s CS Lewis, who's a, is a fake what was a famous or and is is probably quoted every single week, in churches all over the world, for for his wise things that he said. He wrote a little book called reflections on the Psalms. And, in it, he discusses this idea of praising God. Which at first he thought was a really, really strange idea that we should be told to praise god. And, he says in the book, hopefully this will, come up.

When I first began to draw near to belief in god, and even for some time after it had been given to me, I found a stumbling block in the demand to praise god Still more in the suggestion that god himself demanded it, gratitude to god, reverence to him, obedience to him, I thought I could understand not this perpetual praise. It was hideously like saying What I most want is to be told that I am good and I am great. And nobody, as we know, likes that kind of person, who just wants to be told they're good and great all the time. So he had this sort of real stumbling block in his mind. Why would god command us to praise him when we sort of hate that characteristic in, in other people.

But then he had this, he had this light bulb moment, and, he, he says this. But I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. The world rings with praise, lovers praising their partners, readers, their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game, praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, maybe. Even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, They also spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it.

Isn't she beautiful? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that's magnificent? Well, the Psalmists in telling everyone to praise god are just doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. And I've used that quote a number of times in different places, because I just love it, and I think it's so true.

I mean, you think of something, think of something, that you've really enjoyed, some experience that you've had, maybe a place that you've been, or a place that you visited or a film that you've watched or something, when when you've seen something wonderful, something that's really gripped you, you just can't keep it to yourself. I mean, we know when a child has found something interesting, maybe they've been out in the garden and they found something interesting, they need to come in and share the discovery immediately. It's look, daddy. Look. Look.

Look. Look. Look. I am looking. You're not looking.

Daddy. Look. Look. Stop what you're doing. Look, I've seen it.

It's lovely. Don't lie, daddy. You told me not to lie. Look at it. Look, look, I want you to see, I want you to they they they want everything else to go on hold while they share this experience with you because they want you to feel it as deeply as they have felt it.

They want you to be excited about it in the same way that they have. When, Stevy Wanda wrote his song, Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she precious less than a minute old? He wrote that after the birth of his daughter and he did it because he couldn't not share the experience with other people.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she precious? Isn't she beautiful? Just a minute old? He wanted to kind of immortalize his excitement in his daughter for for everybody to for everybody to share and for everybody to sing across the ages.

Well, the Psalmists in telling everyone to praise god are doing what all men do. When they speak of something that they care about, they want you to share in their joy. And I think that perfectly sums up what's going on in this psalm. In verses 1 to 5, David has shared his story. As I said, it's the experience that he's had.

He was nearly destroyed by this unconfessed sin that he refused to bring to the lord, but then he stopped covering up, and he was honest about it before the lord and the lord took up his guilt and took it away from him carried it away from him. And in verse 6 to 11, he's basically saying, look, people of god Isn't that lovely? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that precious? Will you delight with me?

Listen to me, share with me. And most importantly, here's an experience that I've had, and it's for you too. I want you to experience it for yourself. In the same way that I have. They're doing what all men do when they speak of something they care about.

They just wanna they just wanna share it. And by the way, before we just get into what he actually says, this is the only qualification you actually need to share the gospel. You don't need a degree or a certificate or any kind of formal qualification or even years of experience you only need your own story of god's grace and what he's achieved for you and a desire to share it with others. That's basically all evangelism is. Here's what god's done for me.

Let me tell you about it. Let me tell you about it. That's what this sum is all about. That's the pattern it follows. And actually, that is the word, what the word masculine means at the start there.

It's a kind of just the little subheading under Psalm 32. The word maskil comes from the word to understand or to comprehend And so lots of people think that a masculine means the act of understanding. It's a Psalm for understanding, a Psalm to be understood, a teaching Psalm. Which makes perfect sense again. David wants us to understand the experience.

He's trying to teach us about his experience so that we would that we would share in it as well. And he begins with this therefore in verse 6. So you've heard my story therefore hear my sermon. You've heard my story, therefore hear my sermon. And in that sermon, there's 4 main points he makes.

He obviously doesn't know that all sermons must have 3 points and, so if he ever asks me for feedback 1 day, you know, maybe so. But there we go. There's 4 main points he makes And, firstly, he says be prayerful. So have a look at, verse 5 again. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. Now other versions have that, not let all the faithful pray to you, but let all who are godly pray to you, but it kind of means the the same thing. So so first and foremost, David is talking to god's people, and he's encouraging them then and us now to do what he did, to uncover our sin before the lord and to know his forgiveness.

But it's kind of weird because why would he actually say that to the faithful and, to who he considers to be the godly. Isn't that something that they've already done? In fact, doesn't that really define them as the godly because they've done that. Well, yeah, it does. But repentance is not just a 1 time thing.

We saw that a bit last week. It's it's a whole life thing. Because we all probably know from our own experiences. It's very possible for a Christian to have trusted in the lord Jesus and to have submitted to him as lord, but then to go through these long periods of kind of guilt and shame, where instead of bringing things to the lord in repentance, we try to we try to cover up. But David is saying, no, no, look, that's not how you learned about god.

Just don't do that. L listen to what happened to me. It nearly killed me. Don't make the same mistake. Don't make that a feature of your life, you pray to him while he may be found.

Pray to him while he may be found. In other words, he's saying, look, these these are the days of grace. The faithful, no god is their father. Jesus has taught us to pray every day. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

He's put that pattern of confession and repentance into our daily prayers. And it's wonderful news because it means that the faithful, the godly, We have this open door to the father, a father who is always ready to rush in and to cover over our sins, to come to the rescue. No matter how long we've been battling with it, and no matter how long we've actually been a Christian, he's ready. Now is the time when he may be found, we can come to him. And he will cover over.

And David is saying, look, if that's true and we have this kind of access to god, Why would we hold on on cover up when right now is the time when he can be found? Why would we die of first when there's a fountain around the corner we can drink from free of charge? Why would we suffer and die of this virus when there's a doctor around the corner who's got the cure and he wants to give it to us. Let all the faithful pray while he may be found. But clearly that offer isn't just for those who are already faithful.

It's also true if you're if you're not a Christian. So 2 Corinthians 6 in the new testament tells us that right now is the time of god's favor. And now is the day of salvation. As the gospel goes out around the world, Jesus may be found as savior. When he comes again, he comes in judgment, and the days of salvation will be passed.

But now, and by now, I mean, today, today, right now, he may be found. He may be found because these are the days of salvation, so we can bring our sin to Jesus and let him carry it away. And if we will seek him while he may be found, David is saying, that not only will that prayer be heard, it will be effective. It will actually work. You see what he says in verse 6?

Therefore, let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found. Surely, the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them or definitely, or this is a hundred percent true, the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. I'm sure you've, I was looking this week at those old images of the 2004 boxing day tsunami, and that's amazing to think that that's sort of 14 years ago now when that when that happened. And just watching those kind of videos and images of the moment when that wave collided with the coast, and, it just swept through all the towns and villages and tourist resorts that that were there. And, you know, when, when, when water is coming at you like that, nothing, nothing can stand against it.

It's hopeless. And of course, David would actually know something of this. We talked about drought last week, and that was something that they would experience in those kind of climates. They would have these long seasons of drought without any rain, like the 8 weeks or so that we've just endured. But when when the when the rains come, they really come.

Like they are today. It's like living in a middle eastern climate here at the moment, isn't it? They don't just come in drips and drabs. They come. There are these surging waters as the heavens finally open after months, and, the floodwaters would be racing all over the land.

And that is the kind of image he uses here. Floodwaters, in this particular psalm, are a picture of the overwhelming trouble that we will face if we hold onto our sin. The floodwaters are a picture of the overwhelming trouble we will face if we hold onto our sin, not only in this life, but on the day when that wave of judgment finally comes to the coast. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 28, so on page 711, Isaiah 28, and we're gonna look at verse 2 and verse 17 to see some similar, imagery here. So it's on page 7 11 and the Isiah 28.

And if you have a look at verse verse 2, it says, see the lord has 1 who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour. He will throw it forcefully to the ground. And then verse 17, he says I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line, hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. So you see the same kind of language, water, and flood, and downpour, and overflow describe the lord's response to sin.

It's that kind of language, and that's exactly what we have in Psalm 32. David is saying, if we look to the lord while he may be found, if we take the opportunity, while he may be found, Not only will we know the blessing of forgiveness, but we won't be swept away. In the waters of judgment. Not only will we rejoice in our righteousness, but we'll know for sure that when the wave comes in, we won't be taken up with it. All of that security we can have if we will bring our sins to the lord.

Charles Wesley, the hymn writer was so inspired by the imagery in this Psalm, he wrote a song called Jesus lover of my soul, and he based the opening, verse on this. While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high, hide me, oh my saviour, hide. Till the storm of life is passed, safe into the haven guide, oh, receive my soul at last. While you can, while you can, while you have the opportunity, as long as today is called today, draw near to the lord so that those waters will never draw near to you. Draw near to the lord so those waters will never draw near to you.

His first point in this sermon based on his own experiences, be prayerful. But secondly, He says, we need to be hidden. So be prayerful. Firstly, secondly be hidden. Have a look at verse 7.

Of, back in Psalm32. You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Now in lots of the psalms, when that when god is described as a hiding place, it means that he's going to protect you from your enemies. So they will search you.

They will seek you out. They might even try to get your life off you, but god won't let them. He will be a hiding place from your enemies. But here, the trouble he's talking about seems to be the guilt of sin, that kind of trouble, and the waters of judgment, that kind of trouble. So not physical enemies, Exactly, but these kind of spiritual enemies as we battle with sin.

Now how does the lord hide us from those kind of troubles? How does that work? Well, it means that when when you're aware of sin and you feel weighed down with guilt, or maybe when Satan is opening his mouth to accuse you. When you're going through those kind of troubles, you run to the lord and let him surround you with songs of deliverance. Such a lovely picture, isn't it?

Being surrounded with songs of deliverance. I was trying to think about how I could illustrate it, and, I can think of a negative example to prove the positive 1. You you know sometimes what it's like at home when you're trying to have a conversation with someone between different rooms and, maybe you're downstairs cooking and somebody shouting at you from upstairs, trying to communicate something to you, and there's all kinds of appliances on, which make the conversation impossible. So the extractor fan is on and the washing machine might be on and the window might be open and the radio might be on. And they're trying to actually get you to hear something from upstairs, and you say, I can't hear you, I can't hit you.

No, I can't hear you. You know when the washing machine is on, I can't hear you. So why are you shouting me from you need to come down. Yeah? Because the sounds all around you are drowning out any other kind of voice, making it impossible to hear it.

Well, I think in in a similar way, when guilt speaks, when guilt is shouting at you, and when Satan is trying to accuse you, David is saying bring it to Jesus, and he will surround you with songs of redemption, and he will be singing so loudly about your salvation, the noise will be so great that the noise of guilt and shame will be drowned away. So how does god protect his people? Does he promise that we won't suffer from physical enemies? No? Does he promise that we're not gonna lose our lives for the sake of the gospel, no, but does he save us from the weight of guilt and sin?

Does he promise to hide us in the waters of judgment. Yes. Yes. He does. He he saves us from those kind of troubles.

He is our hiding place. 1 commentator on this says, the mercy of the lord puts a wall of fire around the righteous. Imagine that wall of fire around the righteous, a cloud of goodness over him, a bow of promise before him the god of mercy is his god. So we need to be prayerful in light of David's experience, we need to be hidden like he was in the love of Christ, but thirdly, we need to be not like the horse. We need to not be like the horse.

Okay? I I didn't. I've been forgetting to click this on. There we go. Don't be a horse.

Verse 8 He says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bitten bridle. Or they will not come near to you. So now he kind of changes tune a little bit. We've had a lot of positives.

We can we can pray We can be protected. We can be surrounded. We can be hidden in the love of god, but now we should not be like the horse or the mule. Now most of us, I guess, are not tempted to act like horses. Most of the time.

But spiritually, it can be very easy for us to do that. In what way? Well, if we're honest, sometimes we only do the right things because we're forced to or we only do the right things out of self interest. So we work really hard to be kind if we know people will repay our kindness. We give gifts in the hope of gifts returned.

We obeyed god just for kind of any recognition it would bring. We do something because we have to do it because we've been trained and we've been tamed by force to act in the right kind of way. But but all of that way of thinking is to obey god like a horse. It's just learning patterns of behavior. If I do this, then I'm gonna get a carrot.

If I don't do this, then I'm gonna get a whack. I always wanna go my own way and plow my own course, but god is constantly pulling my stubborn head back to his path so I do what he says. That that that's the kind of image here. A wild animal will not just run up to you and enjoy relationship with you. It must be controlled by force.

Several years ago, now we went to, we went over to my cousin's wedding in South Africa, and we were treated to a few days in this wild game park And, 1 of the offers in the park, was this nighttime tour of the savannah that we could go on, which sounded very exciting. Or so we thought it would be. And when we actually turned up in the middle of the night, we were going to be driving around in this huge open top truck, which made the most incredible racket. So it was already spitting diesel fumes out into the air. They had these huge spot lights on the top of the truck, which untrained tourists like myself, I didn't know what they were looking for.

Could, you know, sort of 10000 candle light power things shiny. And the engine just made it had no silencer on it at all. And the question I kind of had then and still have is is what animal in its right mind is going to come within 5 kilometers of this truck. Everything about this experience screams to wildlife run. Okay.

Look, I'm anywhere near. And lo and behold, we saw nothing worth reporting, apart from sort of moth which we could have seen if we'd stayed at home. And it's fair enough, isn't it on those animals? I'm not criticizing the animals. They they're wild.

They're not gonna come anywhere near something like that. They don't naturally wanna come and sort of lick lick your hand and walk beside the truck. Now at the zoo, they have very little choice. They don't come and perform by the glass. They don't wanna get fed.

Simple as that, you know, you you've gotta come and perform because they've been tamed. That's how it goes, isn't it? Whatever else you can do with a wild animal, you can't tame it unless you constantly steer it against its will. God's people are not to be neither. Once we know god's forgiveness, we come to him freely because we love him love to walk by him and walk according to his work.

Now does that mean we don't need training in godliness and overdoing the training? Doesn't mean we don't need the equivalent of a spiritual whack when we go wrong. No, we do need that. But we don't act like a wild animal, which must be caught and pulled back all the time, like taking a grumpy cat to the vet. You know, his claws are in the in the doorway refusing to be pushed in.

You know, it's all they're dragging along the wall as it's being pulled by his hind legs towards, you know, towards the back. That's that's that's not god's vision for his people. And so David is pleading with us, but you're you're the faithful. God has rescued you into his covenant. Your sin has been wiped away, don't don't be like a horse.

That'd be stubborn, then hold on to the sin and need to have your head constantly ripped back because you wanna go your own way. Listen to your father's word. It's a lamp for your feet, and it's a light for your path. And he wants to guide you and he wants to enjoy walking with you and that's that's what he wants for his people. So David is saying in his sermon, look prayer for be hidden, but also don't be like a horse, walk with god, because of the joy of knowing him.

And fourthly, he says be glad in the lord. Be glad in the lord. Let's put that on. Be glad. And in this time, as you've probably seen, we we've been on a bit of a journey from this kind of weary, drained, sacked, David to the moment where he confessed, then he knew the lord's forgiveness, and, then he moved on to his sermon.

And so with all of that behind us, this last command is to rejoice in the lord. Let's have a look at verse 10 where he says that. Many are the foes of the wicked but the lord's unfailing love surrounds the 1 who trusts in him. Rejoice in the lord and be glad you righteous. Sing all you who are upright in heart.

Let every person surrounded by the unfailing love of god that every person who is counted righteous by their god, rejoice and be glad. Now last week, we touched on this a little bit because in some ways, it ought to make our head scratch because, in what sense can we actually join in with that? It doesn't feel like it's for us, does it? In what sense can we honestly count ourselves righteous? Because we've seen all along that we're we're sinners and we cover up and we cover over and we run and hide.

How can we legitimately rejoice with all of that going on in my own heart, even this week. How can I sing that in verse 11? And this is where unbelief kind of kicks in, isn't and we start saying, well, it's okay for David to say that, and it's okay for so and so over there. He can probably sing that, but but I can't. I can't I can't I can't reply to me.

I can't rejoice in the lord you righteous because it's not who I am. Well, just look at how Paul uses this very Psalm in Romans's chapter 4. It's amazing that this is the sum he goes to. Here I hope that's not too small up there. It says now to the 1 who worked swages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.

However, to the 1 who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the 1 to whom god credits righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose transgression forgiven whose sins are covered, blessed is the 1 whose sin the lord does not account against them. So this righteousness is by faith If it was by works, we definitely could not rejoice and be glad. If it was by works, we couldn't obey verse 11. We couldn't rejoice, but if it comes by faith in Jesus, then we can.

And the reason I think this cross reference is so useful is because it shows us that righteousness by faith was not Paul's idea. He didn't come up with that doctrine. He's saying when you read Psalm 32, that's what David meant. That's what David was saying. He was talking about the righteousness which comes apart from works and by faith.

David had that in mind. He was saying That in Psalm 32, which is exactly what Paul said in Romans for. And that means for you and I, we've repented of our sin and we're leaning on Jesus, the cross of Jesus, and his perfect life. And it's not just David and Paul and a few select others. Who can rejoice, we are righteous, and we can rejoice.

I think no matter how many times we hear that, it ought to make us smile at least on the inside. What what what better feeling is there in all the world than to know at the end of the day, you can put your head down on the pillow and know that whatever has come before the lord will not count your sin against you. You are righteous in Christ. We can rejoice. But here's the thing, if we are going to enjoy a lifetime of rejoicing we will actually need to look beyond just the blessing of being forgiven, just that experience of being forgiven.

John Piper is an American writer and used to be a pastor in 1 of his, writings in this app, he has good solid joys. He talks about this relationship between forgiveness and joy. And I found it really useful. He he he says, nits, I put the quote on the screen. He says faith in god's forgiveness does not merely mean a persuasion that I'm off the hook.

It means savoring the truth that a forgiving god is the most precious reality in all the universe. I have been forced to go deeper into what true faith is. It's not just a relief that I'm off the hook. But also a profound satisfaction with all that God is for me and Jesus. This faith looks back not merely to discover that we're off the hook, but also to see and savor the kind of god who offers us a future of endless reconciled tomorrows.

In fellowship with him. If we think faith is just looking back and wiping our brow with a Not guilty anymore. I don't think we can really delight in the lord like David says. Now, of course, being forgiven is wonderful. It is a wonderful experience, but this song doesn't just celebrate the blessing of being forgiven it celebrates the god who loves to forgive.

That's the difference. It's not just a sum about the happy feeling of being forgiven, but a song about the wonder of a god who would delight to forgive. And there is a difference there and that is gotta be the key to our joy in every season of life. The blood of Jesus Christ covers all that's behind us and the blood of Jesus Christ means that every day in the future will be a reconciled day. Before every Christian is this endless stretch of tomorrows, and all of them are reconciled tomorrows.

Because our father is the sort of father who delights to forgive his children. That's why verse 11 says rejoice where? Where do you rejoice? In verse 11 where do you rejoice in the lord? Not just in the blessing of forgiveness, but in the lord who gives the blessing.

And so what wonderful way to end his sermon? Here's my story. It's all true. So pray while you can. Be surrounded and hidden in the love of god, don't be like a horse, and be glad in the lord.

Which of those is the lord perhaps speaking to you about this morning. Is there something that needs confessing still? Take the opportunity while he may be found take the opportunity while he may be found. Do you need reminding, just simply reminding of your security in Jesus Christ? David says surely the rising of the mighty waters will never reach you.

Never reach you. Do we need to be reminded not to act like a horse stubbornly putting our heads away from god and his word. We don't don't need to be like that. Or is it this delight in the lord which we want to feel? All over again.

Well, we know what to do. All of us know what to do. Let all who are godly pray to him while he may be found. Let's just have a moment and give you an opportunity to do that, and then, then we'll close and put it together.