Our scripture reading this morning is from the book of Psalms, Psalm 32. God's word comes to us through the pen of David, a psalm written many years ago, by which the Holy Spirit still speaks to us. Psalm 32. A Meschiel of David. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit. For 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 dried up as by the heat of summer, Selah. I acknowledge my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin, Selah. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him, for you are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance, Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with mine eye upon you. Be not as the horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle. or it will not stray near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, O righteous. Rejoice and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. This is God's word for us this morning. Do you know, my friends, the blessedness of forgiveness? That's what I want to speak with you about this morning as we meditate on Psalm 32 together, the blessedness of forgiveness. Forgiveness, well, that's when you've been forgiven, when the wrong that you've done is somehow been forgiven and put right again or forgotten. And maybe it would help to think of a time in your life, in my life, when we've been forgiven, when graciously, unexpectedly even perhaps, we've experienced the blessedness of forgiveness. Maybe there was a financial debt that we couldn't pay, too much money, no way, no possibility, and someone just promptly forgave us and said, no problem, consider it forgiven. Or perhaps it was when you've wronged someone, you've said something wrong or done something wrong to a close person, a wife, a family member, and you didn't deserve it, but they promptly forgave you out of love. And well, the feelings of guilt, the feelings of shame even perhaps for doing wrong. Well, they cease to continue because they've been forgiven and they've been replaced and even tried to be forgotten. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful blessing, isn't it? When it does take place and when it's genuine, a blessed experience. It's more than just a fact or an event, it's an experience. And that's what we see in the Psalm as well. David wrote this Psalm, Psalm 32, Many years ago, and he wrote it about forgiveness. It was how his guilt was forgiven, replaced actually, resolved and replaced with joy. Because you see how the Psalm ends with rejoicing and joy. Psalm 32 is a celebration about a spiritual experience that he enjoyed. And really, it's like many other songs, isn't it? Psalm 32. I googled the phrase, songs about forgiveness. And it's interesting. Thousands of songs immediately come up. It's popular songs, big hits today even, are written about this subject of forgiveness, forgiving others and being forgiven and God's gracious forgiveness. Many hymns celebrate this as well because you see our society, our culture is wrestling with this very thing, isn't it? We know when we've done wrong, we need forgiveness and we know that we don't deserve it and yet we still seek it because well, we're sinners and we want to be put right again. And we even extend it to others, and we wrestle with how to extend it to others. Many songs are written, many popular songs are written around this theme. And so this blessed gift, God's forgiveness, that's what we want to focus on from David's song that he wrote many years ago, Psalm 32. And let's learn some lessons from it about how to deal with our own situations that require forgiveness, guilt, sin. and learn how to celebrate God's gracious gift to us that we receive through Christ Jesus. First of all, then, some background about this song. I think it's going to be helpful to kind of unpack it a bit. The title, you see how the title there is listed, A Mesquite of David. And there's actually 12 songs in the collection, 150 songs in the Psalter. There are 12 of them that have this title, Mesquite. Most of them of David, some of Asaph or others. The word mesquite, it's a little unclear, but it seems to be indicative of a contemplative psalm, a song that is full of wisdom, wisdom put to music as it were, kind of like a teaching song. And we have a number of hymns like that as well and other songs. I did Google, like I said, a bunch of forgiveness songs and many songs are like that. There's a teaching element to them as we want to teach others about how we've experienced forgiveness and how then we should share it with others perhaps or witness to others of God's forgiveness. So this song is like that, a mesquite. To give instruction is the idea. A song to teach wisdom, to guide in the right way. And even verse eight and nine imply that, doesn't it? We see there God is teaching us how to live in the right way if we've been forgiven. And we are there instructed not to be stupid like a donkey or a mule or a horse that maybe can be stubborn, but rather to walk in the right way. It's also one of the penitential psalms about repentance. And the first half of the psalm really features a lot of instruction about repentance, to turn from the wrong way and to turn to God in confession. There are actually six sections in the psalm, each two verses, but verse five makes its own section, so it's only one verse, makes 11 total. And as with many psalms, I can get into the details here. There's parallelism, that means the same things sit in two different ways. There's also the refrain, selah, The idea here is a pause or a reflection, so kind of like we might have an interlude in music, or perhaps how we might have a refrain repeat the same major theme. That's what's happening with that word sela, just to kind of cause us to stop and reflect on what has already been sung. And then, of course, I said six sections, the first one being a summary. That's really the outline or the lay of the land when we take a look at these 11 verses together. More importantly, perhaps, is they ask the question, when did David write this psalm? And as we read it carefully, there's no clear indication in the psalm itself when it was written. However, many commentators are saying that it was written not long after he wrote Psalm 51. And we know that Psalm 51 was the song that he wrote as he confessed his sin to God after his great sin, David's great sin. with Bathsheba, you might remember that story. David the king committed a great sin, adultery, immorality with another man's wife, actually his best man's wife, Bathsheba is her name. And then rather than confessing that sin, he covers it up for nine months. He kills her husband, he lies, there's intrigue, there's deceitfulness, and eventually a baby is born and the baby dies, the first child dies. And Nathan, the prophet, comes to David and exposes this. Graciously, God exposes it, and David repents. That's the occasion on which he wrote Psalm 51. And many people then believe that Psalm 32 was written directly after that, days or maybe weeks after that, after he had experienced the joy of God's forgiveness. Because Psalm 51 is about confessing sin, and Psalm 32 is about the joy and blessedness of forgiveness. And so I'm going to assume that may be the case. It's not certain, but I'm going to assume it's the case as I think about what this meant to David, and as we apply it in our own lives as we study it together this morning. Now, I mentioned earlier the top 10 charts for popular songs today. And for many, this Psalm 32 has been quite a popular hit as well, if I can say it that way. The St. Augustine, actually, the great church father from North Africa many years ago, he actually said this was his favorite psalm. He had it written and it was inscribed in the wall next to his bed as he was dying. He wanted to reflect on it. He wanted to meditate on this psalm as he was dying because he said, he said this, he said, the beginning of knowledge. Now, this was a great man, very wise, probably the most influential theologian after the apostle Paul. And this is what he said. He said, the beginning of knowledge is to know oneself, to be a sinner. And so he had Psalm 32. inscribed in the wall next to his bed as he was dying. Now, you may have popular songs as well about forgiveness. This one, I think, certainly merits our attention because it's God's inspired word, and the Holy Spirit instructs us in this way. It's a song of wisdom by which the Spirit instructs us to know ourselves. As Augustine says, to know ourselves to be sinners, but more than that, I think, to know ourselves to be forgiven, forgiven by God through Jesus Christ. Now, listen to David, how he describes his experience. Listen now, verse 1 and 2. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit. Now I want to come back to this idea of being blessed. I'm going to end with that idea. Blessed is the man. Similar to Psalm 1, isn't it? But just notice in these two first verses, These two first verses list sin. Actually, that's the major issue that triggers these verses. Sin. Sin is something we've done or committed that brings guilt. Guilt in God's sight. And David uses three or four different words here for sin. Two of them are closely associated, but at least three words for sin. First he uses this word transgression. And the idea there is rebellion or revolt. Contesting the ownership of is the idea. And certainly David did that with with Uriah's wife Bathsheba. He sinned with this lady who wasn't his wife. Transgression. Against God or perhaps against the community. Could be used either way. A second word David uses is the word iniquity. Iniquity is crookedness. Crookedness. Incurring guilt because of crookedness or wrong in our lives. And then there's another word, deceit. Treachery. An attempt to deceive or to trick is the idea here. Three different words for sin. And it's interesting that David actually uses all three there, and again in verse five, because, well, he's describing the sinfulness of his sin. As I was studying these verses, actually, I asked myself, why is there so many words? Why are there so many words here in this Psalm, but also overall for the problem of sin? I was thinking about that some more. You know, our society, has many words for us, and I was thinking about, actually I did a, I quickly did a thesaurus check on the number of sins for the word lie, to lie or to deceive. Deceit, deception, dishonesty, distortion, defamation, fabrication, falsehood, forgery, falsification, misrepresentation, perjury, slander, backbiting, the list goes on. There's, I could continue here. There are many words just for this one sin about not speaking the truth. And I think it's indicative of our culture, isn't it? That we have so many words for sins of communication, or sins of sexual temptations, or sins of anger and hatred. There are so many words in our culture for sin because, well, it's something that's very common in our culture. And it takes many words to describe it to describe it accurately. Kind of like, kind of like, you know, you probably heard before of how an Eskimo language, um, I don't really know Eskimo language, but I've heard that in that language, there are many different words to describe snow. Here in Africa, we may have one or two words and that's enough to describe snow. But, but Eskimos have many words because, well, there's all different types of snow and there's all different ways it comes and there's different ways to describe it and, you know, intensity and, And maybe, I don't know, whatever, wind speeds and all kinds of other things that might factor in. But you see, there are many different ways to describe it because it's so common. And I think that's what we see here as well. David uses three or four different words just in this one verse or two verse alone because sin is all too common. And we see it in our own culture as well. So David gives us a commentary on what he had done. Not so much the dirty details, but the effects. I've transgressed. My sin is against God. I've done something crooked and that results in guilt, my guilt. And it was deceitful. Acts and words that tried to trick and to cover up. This is how David starts his psalm. But then verses three and four get to the heart of the matter. Really a heart cry in many ways. Verse three and four, David says, for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by heat of summer you know it's one thing to confess or to admit that we're all sinners we've all done something wrong we all not right we don't measure up it's one thing to say that and that's actually kind of easy to say isn't it but verses three and four take us to a deeper level as it were and this is more the self self-conscious level or the the inner workings of a man and a woman. We might not be so quick to say something like this to others, but you know, when we've done wrong, when guilt, the weight of guilt is upon us, well, this is the language of our heart, isn't it? When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. And I think we've probably known times in our lives. If you're like me and like others, there are times when we recognize, when we realize that The weight of our sin, its consequences in our lives are, well, it's a cause for droning. And that's what David's doing here. Satan often tells us we can sin cheaply. We can sin without consequence. We can sin freely. Kind of like the idea of free sex. You know, free sex, everyone can do it. It's fine. It's free. It's your right, your privilege. But not so. Sin never comes for free. There are always consequences, there are always negative outcomes. And we may get away with it for a time or think it's free in part, but there are always consequences. Ask someone else with more experience perhaps, someone older than you. Ask them, what are the consequences of so-called free sex that we saw in the 60s and 70s and 80s? What are the consequences of pornography? We do it all by ourselves maybe and no one knows in secret, but there are consequences. or uncontrolled romantic passions that are fed with entertainment of some sort or other. These things always leave scars, you see. Sin has consequences. And David in verses three and four is dealing with the, well, he's already faced with the consequences. He's suffering under the consequences of sin, isn't he? That's what we see in these verses. He says, this is the result of my sin. Three actually, three words here at least. He's wasting away. The idea is worn out, exhausted, used up, wasting away, kind of like the effects of a sinful disease after someone has lived in licentiousness and immorality for many years, wasting away. That's the picture here. Your hand was heavy upon me. The idea there is the weight of guilt pressing down upon him. My strength is gone. Energy evaporates, kind of like water on the pavement in a hot day. Just vitality drained away, dried up. Because you see, the burden of guilt from past sin always weighs heavy on us. It's interesting, Bunyan, John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress, many of us know that story. Lovely story, if you haven't read it, lovely time to do so. You can download it for free. Actually, there's a movie that's circulating, I believe, that just came out. John Bunyan, the huge burden of sin is depicted as this weight on the sinner's back. Or maybe you think of literature, Edgar Allan Poe, a very dark poet, very dark, somber tones. He often depicts the haunting effects of past sin, skeletons in the closet, really, really dark literature, disturbing even. It's like carrying around a dead body as Poe would have it. The weight of guilt that hangs in our neck that saps our strength, past sin that's not been forgiven. That's what it is. unforgiven sin from the past. Do you know what it's like to carry the burden of guilt, the burden of past sin? Your conscience speaks and the guilt is felt, the responsibility incurred because of breach or a crime that we have done. What is our normal response in such situations? What is our normal response when our conscience convicts us and we feel the weight of guilt? Well, we can sing this song with David, because I think we've all had times like this, haven't we? We've all experienced dealing with the consequences of something we've done that wasn't right. There are two ways to deal with it. By nature, we cover it up. We learned this, well, we didn't learn this from our parents. Children don't need to be taught how to cover up sin, do they? They somehow have it naturally. It comes from Adam. It's in our natures. Adam and Eve were like that, and we've followed them. Our natures are the same. cover-up, suppression of the truth, trying to hide, trying to avoid or escape from the shame and the guilt of sin. And that's a common pattern we see in the world today. Just take, for instance, politicians in America. We don't point fingers at anyone personally because we know we are sinning for ourselves, but just look at what happens when a politician, let's say just generically now, a politician is discovered to have done some public sin that's That's inexcusable. What do they do first? Well, they first deny it, don't they? And then as long as they can, they try to say nothing about it, but then eventually it comes out and there's a story written and the news is presented. And then there's a coverup. There's a rewriting of the story. And then there's open confession, maybe, and whether sincere or not, there's a confession of what they've done in order to get the media off their back. And then we all try to forget it, or at least they do, and redirect the attention to something else. That's the natural way of dealing with sin. But we all know it's futile, because while we can redirect other people's attention, and sometimes we're successful, what about God? God is still watching, and God still knows. And you see, David's song is a lesson of wisdom for us, isn't it? He struggled. He was experiencing the effects of sin, the internal effects of sin in his life, but he dealt with it. He learned how to deal with it, or rather, it was dealt with. and he teaches us wisdom. So what are you doing, my friend? What are we doing with the burden of guilt in our lives for past sin, perhaps? God has seen, God knows, God even allows the results to hound us. Our conscience may accuse us, but God allows that in his mercy. It's like a dog that chases us and will not let us go. His mercy chases after us, reminding us of unresolved issues in our lives. Our conscience speaks by day and by night, as David says. Our conscience convicts us, because God has designed the conscience to do so. And His Word speaks to us too. His Spirit speaks in mercy, saying, you can't deal with sin that way. You cannot continue to cover it up. And so, my friends, if there is something in your life, some skeleton in your closet from long ago even, or more recently, it will consume you. It will consume us. Our sin does. It always does. That's what David confesses in this psalm in the first few verses. But thankfully, the psalm doesn't end there because we know in David's life and the life of so many other people, Augustine too, it seems, there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. Look at verse five with me. A wonderful turning point now in this psalm, a wonderful turning point. Verse five, what does David say? He says, I acknowledged my sin to you. Now he's talking directly to God here. I acknowledge my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity, the guilt of my sin. Selah. There are four beautiful lines here in this verse, two groups of two. What does David not do? Well, he doesn't cover up now. He had been, actually, if this is the incident in his life with Bathsheba, certainly he had been covering up. Nine months of cover-up at least, it seems. But now he doesn't. He stops it all. He gives up on that futile game. Instead, he acknowledges his sin. To cover up means to conceal, to keep hidden, or at least try to keep hidden, to try to obscure from view, you know, someone who's addicted to a particular type of sin. Maybe it's self-abuse through alcohol. And I knew someone some years ago, actually, just come to mind now, many years ago, none of you know him, I'm sure, and alcohol problem. And for a long time, he was successful, or mostly successful, to cover it up. And he hid it from most of us. But eventually it comes out, doesn't it? Eventually it comes out. It cannot be concealed forever. David stops trying to conceal sin. Rather, he acknowledges it. He admits it. He declares it, actually. That's the idea there. He declares it. So there's a confession here, at least to God, and maybe even publicly. In David's life, it had to be public because, well, his sin was public. He acknowledges his sin. He repents by confessing to God. He stopped trying to hide it from others, and he certainly tried to stop hiding it from God. But he opens up, and he confesses it. This is the point, the turning point in his song, where he admits to himself, I am a sinner. And they say, actually, for someone, for instance, who's struggling with some substance abuse, like alcohol, admitting is the first step, isn't it? Or pornography, admitting is the first step. Or some other sin of lying, or deceit, or embezzlement, or whatever it is, admitting is the first step. Often, if we've had the opportunity to be led by God in this way, to confess our sins, maybe you've sinned in the past, You've had a friend you can trust in, and you've gone to your friend, a counselor, a pastor, or someone, and you've said, you know, I need to really talk to you about something that's as hard, it's awkward, it's embarrassing, but I need help. And you confessed, and immediately, what happens? Immediately, we feel as if that burden is off our back, don't we? That's what David experiences here in this verse, verse five. I acknowledge my sin, I did not cover it, I confessed it to the Lord, and immediately, immediately, he says, you forgave the iniquity, the guilt. of my sin. Three things actually happen quickly, quickly, and I want to unpack all three of them. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but this is so important, really, the doctrine of forgiveness, and in back of it, of course, the doctrine of justification. I'll come back to that. Three things happen so quickly. First, God forgives David's sin. God forgives. When David confessed, God forgives. To forgive means to pardon, to cancel the sin, the iniquity, the guilt. That's what God does. David confesses, God forgives. David confesses, God forgives. That's all there is really. There's nothing else to say. When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. My friends, do you know the simplicity of forgiveness? I remember when I first believed in Jesus Christ when I was 14 years old, I believed. It was so simple. It surprised me. The simplicity of it surprised me because there was nothing I had to do. There was nothing I could do. I was guilty. I was sinful. No works of my own could ever put my soul right with God again. I just confessed. Or rather, God taught me to confess and he gave me that confession too. And I believed. David confessed and God forgave. The simplicity of forgiveness. You know, sometimes this surprises us, even in life, doesn't it? Perhaps a husband and wife are fighting. Oh, they're not fighting, they're just exchanging words, right? Just having an issue, and maybe there's tension. Maybe for several days there's tension, and there's something between them, and things aren't right, and everyone, or they certainly know, and maybe others do too, and what's gonna solve this problem? But then suddenly, it's almost too easy, isn't it? One says, I love you, I forgive you. And that's the beginning of the end of the argument and the beginning of a greater solution, working together, hopefully. Or maybe two family members, two brothers that are at odds. Maybe for years they haven't spoken. They've been separated. They've gone their own ways. They will have nothing to do with each other and only through other family members, maybe there can even be communication. There's some strange situations we know, right? They're not too strange. Unfortunately, they're all too common. But for years, tension. brokenness, hurt, pain, suffering. But then suddenly, by God's grace, maybe there's forgiveness. I forgive you. And that's the beginning of the end of the argument. And the simplicity of forgiveness is really amazing. It surprises us. And that's what we see here in this psalm as well. The blessedness of forgiveness. And it starts with this. God forgives when we confess. God forgives when we confess. Blessed is the man who has been forgiven by God. That's the first thing David experiences, God's forgiveness. But secondly, God's covering for sin. You see, God covers David's sin. Now, you have to really dig into this psalm. There's twice this word cover is used. First, actually second, David uses it in verse five. I did not cover my iniquity. Because you see, for many months, David had been covering his iniquity. And this is the default human position, isn't it? We always cover up. That's our first, That's what Adam and Eve did in the garden, and that's what we do too. When we sin, we try to cover up, to look good to others, to hide shame and guilt and fear and such. Cover up. But then David stops his cover up. I did not cover up any longer, he says, my guilt. Verse five, the second line. But that word, that same word is actually used in verse one, in verse one of the psalm as well. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Oh, interesting. David stopped covering his sin, but then he sings in verse one, his sin is covered. How can his sin be covered when he stopped covering it? And that's really a nuance here that's helpful to unpack, I believe. Because you see, as soon as David stopped trying to cover his own sin, as soon as all his efforts to cover it, well, he gave them up, didn't he? Then God himself covered David's sin. This word cover, the idea is propitiation. Very similar to the word mercy seat. In the Old Testament, we have the mercy seat. That was the piece of gold, the large piece of gold that covered the Ark of the Covenant. And it was where God met with his people. In the New Testament, we see this, well, this is the throne of grace and this idea of propitiation or atoning sacrifice. Because you see, God covered David's sin with the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's really the gospel here, isn't it? David stopped trying to cover his own sin and immediately God covers David's sin with the blood of Jesus Christ God covers it the idea is to forget even to lift or to forget and That's what happens. You see God doesn't just forgive our sins He forgets them as it were God Almighty God eternal all-knowing all-wise forgets our sins. Actually, he forgets them because they are fully covered by the blood of Jesus. Picture it this way. Perhaps you've had a stain on your couch in your house, and there's a red stain or a black stain from a marker or from a spill of a coffee or something on your couch. And what do you do with that stain? Well, it's there, and maybe you've tried to get it out, but it doesn't come out. It's there. It's indelible, perhaps. So you cover it over, don't you? You get something to cover it over. And that's the idea in a certain sense. Maybe not fully, but that's the idea. The blood of Christ, or rather Christ's righteousness, covers our sinfulness. God no longer sees our sinfulness because we are covered with the righteousness of Christ. So not only is David's sin forgiven, but it's also forgotten. It's covered by the blood of Christ. Not only is our sin forgiven by God, it's forgotten, it's covered by the blood of Christ. My friends, can you sing this song with David? Even as we think back in our lives and remember the things we've done that are not so pretty, God forgives us. Many people live, they live with past regrets and remorse and such, and certainly sin has consequences, but God covers sin. The blood of Jesus Christ clothes us with righteousness so that when God sees us, he sees not a sinner, a guilty, a dirty sinner, but he sees us covered with the blood of Christ and his righteousness. Are you singing David's song with him, my friend? This blessed forgiveness and covering that David knew. So the forgiveness, the covering, and third, the counting of God. And there's much more I need to unpack here, but there's no time for it. Let me just say it briefly. God does not count David's sin to him. Again, we see that in verse one and two, don't we? Blessed is the man, verse two, blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity or no guilt. So a person who's guilty, I'm guilty of sin, certainly, and yet God doesn't count me. He doesn't consider me or reckon me guilty. It's an accounting term. When all the balances are added up, I'm not guilty in God's books. Because he has taken my guilt and imputed it, put it to Christ. And he has taken Christ's righteousness and imputed it, counted it to me. And this great exchange takes place as a sinner believes in Jesus. And Christ receives the sinner's guilt and has died for it. And we receive Christ's righteousness and we rejoice in it. God counts us no longer guilty. So God forgives David. God covers his sin, or Christ covers his sin, and Christ and God counts him sinless. Now, the doctrine of imputation. Now this is a difficult doctrine in some ways, but it's a beautiful doctrine. Paul actually uses these very verses from Psalm 32. He uses them in Romans chapter four to base and to explain this whole doctrine of justification. So if you want to study it this week, it'd be a wonderful subject. Really something to dig into. Read Romans 4, certainly, after you read this Psalm 32 again. And if you want to, you can text me and I'll send you some articles on the subject, actually. The doctrine of imputation of sin. Beautiful, comforting doctrine it is, certainly. God's forgiveness. So my friend, let me ask this question. Who is covering your sin? Who is covering your sin? You see, by nature, cover up is what we do. We try to cover our own sin. It's a work we do. We attempt anyway. We try to make it right or at least cover over. Like a stain on the couch, a coffee stain, we put something over it, another cloth of some sort or a pillow. But that's futile. We know it's futile. We've tried it many times. The only way that sin can really be covered, can be forgotten by God, is when Christ's righteousness covers it, when his blood has been shed to pay for our sins. Then God not only forgives, but he forgets. And that certainly is something to sing about, is it not? David rejoices in God's forgiveness. So we've looked together at the first five verses of this psalm. Verse six actually begins with a therefore, doesn't it? And I want to have a few closing thoughts on that therefore and what follows it, because that's the pivot point. That's a turning point in this psalm. The therefore. God has forgiven David, and David is now singing about it. He introduces, he confesses publicly his sin and the effects of sin in his life, and then he says, therefore. You see, God's forgiveness motivates David's thankfulness. God's forgiveness motivates David's thankfulness. In the first five verses, we see David's sin and his repentance, God's forgiveness. In verses six through 11, we see the thankful living that results in response to what God has done. Well, let me say it a different way. Let me say it a different way. In the first few verses, we see how David is forgiven. He's declared righteous. We call that justification. God no longer counts or imputes sin to David, rather than righteousness of Christ is counted to him. David is justified. And then after the therefore in verse six, We see how David responds in thankfulness. He is now becoming upright. He is becoming godly. We see those terms. Verse six, godly. Verse 11, upright. He is becoming upright. He is being sanctified. And so we see as an account of Christ's righteousness and his death on the cross, David is justified, made right with God, declared righteous. And then as a response to that, David is motivated to live in thankful obedience. And God is busy making him righteous, making him upright. teaching him to walk in this new lifestyle of grace. So let's consider this new lifestyle of grace just briefly. Three thoughts, because there are three sections at the end of this psalm, and I'm gonna be brief here. First, verses six and seven. Verses six and seven. Let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you. Let everyone who is becoming godly, like David, offer prayer to God, to the Lord, at a time when he may be found. Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. This is the language of the one who is becoming upright, who has been declared righteous, forgiven, and who is becoming more and more like Christ. God's preservation is keeping us He is busy keeping His people, even though they may face trouble, like the rush of great waters in this case, or the need for a hiding place in trouble. God is keeping His people. He's preserving them. It's an ongoing activity. And in the meantime, we are learning to pray to God, learning to live by faith, to trust Him. You're a hiding place for me. What a beautiful concept, isn't that? When the troubles of life surround us, when the temptations perhaps, Temptations of past addictions come back to us. When we are challenged by things within and things without, perhaps, the rush of great waters, the financial situations, other issues, God is our hiding place. He is busy preserving us, and therefore he is a God to be prayed to. We see in verses six and seven God's preservation in our response of prayer in times of trouble. And then in verses eight and nine, Lovely words as well. David sings, he says, I will instruct you and teach you. This is God speaking to David. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you, but be not like a horse or mule without understanding. What do we see here? Well, briefly, this is the lifestyle of obedience, thankful obedience in response to God's forgiveness. We see, well, learning to follow in God's way. God's guidance God continues to lead and guide through various providences certainly and he promises to instruct That's a wonderful promise to isn't it when we're going through difficulty or we don't know the way the future is uncertain and we don't have Wisdom as to what the next step God promises to instruct us and to teach us in the way that we should go He'll counsel us with his eye upon us. He's he's close to us. And so we see God's continued guidance here And then also an instruction, wisdom in this Psalm, to not choose the way of stubbornness, unteachableness, but rather to walk in the way that's the way of wisdom, to be guided by the Lord. And then third, this life of godliness or piety, verses 10 and 11. David sings, he says, many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, you righteous, Rejoice and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart God will surround us with his steadfast love those whom he has forgiven Those whom he has taught to trust in this forgiveness and his constant keeping he will surround us with his steadfast love Whatever the future holds and we learn to trust him more and more don't we that's the way he's designed it So this psalm and I've spent more time of course with the first part because that's the foundation Really, we could have another sermon on the second part. But this psalm teaches us about the blessedness of forgiveness. It's David's spiritual testimony. It's how he sings likely after Psalm 51, after his affair with Bathsheba. It's how he publicly declares the blessedness of being forgiven. David's testimony. And certainly it's a testimony that we can echo, isn't it? David says, I've confessed my guilt to God, I've experienced God's forgiveness, and he is teaching me in his way of righteousness. And my friends, we have similar testimonies, don't we, when we've been taught to know this joyful sound of the gospel? And sometimes it helps to share them with others, to tell others also about the joy of being forgiven. Share with others who maybe are struggling themselves with some addiction or some temptation. Share with them how God has has helped you fight against that, to know how God has stopped you and how he's changed your heart, how he has put you in right relationship with him, how he has declared you righteous in Christ, how he has forgiven, how he has even forgotten covering you with the blood of Christ, and now how he gives you grace to fight against that temptation. This is our testimony, isn't it, friends? And it's certainly worthy to sing about, and that's why perhaps there are so many Christian songs about forgiveness, because, well, we celebrate what God has done in our lives. We want to tell the world, we want to declare like David, to the world what God has done for us. This is a song that celebrates forgiveness. Forgiveness by God. It celebrates blessedness, doesn't it? Because that's what David is saying in verse one. In verse two, blessed is the one who knows this forgiveness. Ah, here is true wisdom. As the Church Father Augustine has said, to not only know our sinfulness, but to know God's forgiveness. This is blessedness, my friends. This is blessedness. And I think there are many people in the world today, many people who are wrestling with guilt, perhaps, or shame. Some try to deny it. Some try to escape it. Some try to drown it out by more sin and debauchery. But people are wrestling with the weights of sin and the guilt of past sins, perhaps. Certainly regret and remorse and sadness of sorrows from the past. We have the answer, don't we, friends? God gives us the answer. The life of blessedness is the life of those who know the joy of forgiveness. So let's rejoice in this together. Let's remind yourselves of it. Let's resort again back to this glorious truth, God's simple forgiveness. And let's share with others this good news as well, so that they too can come to know this joyful song with us, to sing of the blessedness of forgiveness. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, truly, we confess we are sinners, but we confess our hope and trust is in what Christ has done, dying for our sinfulness and rising again victorious from the grave, perfectly righteous, giving us and clothing us with his righteousness, having taken our sin upon his shoulder. Father, we thank you for this simple gospel exchange that sets us free. and that gives us joy and peace. Father, we pray that each person we speak with may know this joyful sound and that we may join this. Lord, and we pray especially for those maybe who are wrestling with sin even right now, wrestling with the guilt of past sins, regrets, remorse. Lord, they haunt us, but your mercy chases after us and your mercy will not let us rest until we find rest in you, the only place for rest as we confess our sins. May we help others also confess their sins and find this blessed rest. this blessed peace and joy in knowing that we are one with Christ and that he is our God and that we are clothed in his righteousness and that we may worship you forever in glory. These things we pray now, Father, praying that you'll be with us in this week ahead as well. Guide us in it, guide us, help us to be faithful in whatever you call us to do, whatever the circumstances hold, Father, help us to be faithful, to resist sin and to say yes to our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this we ask in Christ's name, amen.