um Psalm 32 takes us to the next era of David's life. The 32nd Psalm is a part of a sacred trio of psalms that we will look at. Each one has a different aspect of how God dealt with David's sin. The 32nd Psalm, the key to this psalm, is looking at how God forgives the sin. What does God do with sin? And what it says in verse 1 is, Blessed is he whose transgression Now, David described his sin with Bathsheba as a transgression. So first, he identifies the sin. Transgression means rebellion. Do you remember that David should have gone with the army? But he didn't. David should have heeded the servant that said, isn't that Uriah's wife? But he didn't. Do you know why? All of us down deep are rebels. Do you know how Isaiah 53 says it? All we like sheep have gone astray. We've each turned to our own way." You know what, going my way? Do you remember Frank Sinatra's famous song, I Did It My Way? You know what he was singing about? We're all rebels at heart. So David said, I'm a rebel. I transgressed. I rebelled. I defied God's rule. Rebellion is defying God's rule. We know what God wants. We don't do it. It's like a child. The parent goes, no. And the child looks at him. and thinks about the cost and then does it anyway. That's what we're all like in our hearts. We're sinners. But look what David says about that. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, 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 upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer that I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity, I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave me the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found. Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble, surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you and watch over you. You will not be like the horse or the mule which have no understanding, but must be controlled by a bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, But the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, ye righteous. Sing, all you who are upright in heart. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. This Hebrew word that David uses to describe what God did to his sin is a beautiful word of having the sin lifted up off of him. What he was saying is, when I rebelled against God, what happened, I didn't count on. I got crushed. This heavy load of my sin crushed the life out of me. And God, when I confessed my sin, when I said, be merciful to me, He said, God reached down and lifted the boulder that was crushing me of my sin. So, David, in a picturesque way, calls his sin like a boulder that's crushing him. And he said, when I confessed my sins, He was faithful and just to forgive me. And the word, the Hebrew word is, He lifted up the load off of me. Now keep reading. This is just the first of three word pictures he uses. Secondly, he said, my sin, the second part of verse 1, was covered. He uses the word for the atonement. Now think about this. If my Bible is all the tablets, the stone tablets of Moses come down from Mount Sinai, those tablets were put inside the Ark of the Covenant. That represented God's unchangeable holiness in his law. When the tabernacle construction was given, the Ark of the Covenant had a lid. And on top of the lid, there was a place that was called the Mercy Seat. And the Mercy Seat, on top of the Ark, inside the Ark, if you opened it, had those tablets of the Law. But on the top of the Ark, there were the two cherubim that were looking down on this Mercy Seat. And when, once a year, the high priest came in on Yom Ha-Kippurim, we call it the Day of Atonement, when He came in on that day and poured the blood on the mercy seat, think about this, that formed a barrier through which the law, which would require wrath of God against sin, was shielded. And so, this Word, whose sins are covered, shielded by the mercy seat is actually the word that's there. That the mercy seat, the blood, kept the wrath of God from breaking out onto the people. You know what David said? What he's saying is, my rebellion should have had an immediate response. You know how we call retaliation? That goes on. We're in Israel right now. There's a lot of retaliation. You know, they send a rocket over into one of the communities out there, the Jewish communities, and so you know, a few minutes later, some F-16s go and they drop a few bombs. That's called retaliation. Retaliation, I mean, we do it too. Someone's mean to us and honks, we slow down. To make a matter, right? Or, you know what? We retaliate. We have little responses to people. David said, God should have retaliated, but my sins were, the end of verse 1, second Hebrew word for forgiveness, my sins were covered That means the blood shielded, now look at this, those cherubim were looking down. Those two cherubim on both sides of the mercy seat, which represented hovering between the cherubim, upward was the Shekinah glory. So here's God, here's inside the box, the law that's crying out, judge, judge, judge, retaliate for that sin. Between the two comes the blood. David said, I'm so glad that my sins are covered by blood. We know the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. Here's the last word from the 32nd Psalm. And there's just a lifetime of learning from what David went through. But let me give you the last one. Verse 2. He's already said my sins are lifted off, verse 1. He said my sins are covered at the end of verse 1. Now he uses the third picturesque word. He said this, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. Now, this word, iniquity, is an interesting word for sin. In fact, David uses almost every word in Hebrew for sin in the 32nd Psalm. We're looking at the words for forgiveness, but he uses all the words for sin. This one means being warped and twisted. He said, when I did that with Bathsheba, I was warped. I was twisting. I was taking something beautiful and twisting and warping it. He says, marital love, God designed, is beautiful, but I went outside the bounds. You see, love and sexual things are like a river. It's wonderful when it's inside the channel that it's supposed to be in, but when it floods over and goes outside the boundaries, it's very destructive. David said, I was warped when I did that. But look at what God did. He said, God did not impute my iniquity." The word there is an accounting word. It means he cleared the debts. He cleared the record of the debt. In the New Testament, we call this justification. David was here saying, God justified me. He cleared the record of my ever sinning. Now, it's written down. Did you know in heaven we're going to know that David committed adultery with Bathsheba because it's in the Bible and the Bible's forever settled in heaven. But did you know when we look at David and see him up there, you know what we're going to think about? There's a forgiven servant of God. It's wonderful when God removes the penalty of our sin. It becomes a trophy of God's grace. That's why Psalm 32 means God is the God of new beginnings. The God of the second chance. The God who gave David a fresh start. And he said, I got my fresh start when God took the boulder off of me. That was the first word. When God poured the blood to cover over so my sins couldn't be seen. And then when God reached down and said, I'm taking the whole debt and I'm taking it on myself. Thirty-second Psalm. Great blessing from David's sin with Bathsheba. Let's bow before our great forgiving God. Thank you, dear Father, for the privilege of worshiping you on this spot. The God who lifts the boulder of our sins, who takes us, warped as we are, and covers us with blood so that our twisted sin is not retaliated or punished. And then you're the one that clears out the record that we even did it. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Who can take a poor, vile sinner, lift him from the miry clay, and set him free. We praise you with your servant, David. In your precious name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.