Psalm 32 New American Standard Bible 1995
Blessedness of Forgiveness and of Trust in God.
A Psalm of David. A [a]Maskil.
32 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
3 When I kept silent about my sin, my [b]body wasted away
Through my [c]groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My [d]vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. [e]Selah.
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the [f]guilt of my sin. Selah.
6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You [g]in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with [h]songs of deliverance. Selah.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.
11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s book The Brothers Karamazov, one of the characters gives another this advice: “Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.”[1]
1 Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts with Epilogue, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (1990; reprinted Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002), p 44.
Nearly three millennia before, David also described the potential effects of self-deceit about what we are really like.
3 When I kept silent about my sin, my [b]body wasted away
Through my [c]groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My [d]vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. [e]Selah.
Honesty with self is vital to the discovery of happiness. Joyful, contented people do not lie to themselves or to anybody else. We cannot deceive ourselves and enjoy genuine happiness too; deceit and happiness don’t sleep in the same bed.
The Bible calls us to be as honest about ourselves as it is repentance. (Psalm 51)
It directs a great searchlight straight onto our hearts and minds, revealing the hardcore truth of the seriousness our impossibly sinful human predicament.
We are told that we live in iniquity, which results in an internal bias towards wrongdoing and a nature corrupted by sin.
We’re perpetual transgressors, going where we shouldn’t go. We’re sinners, failing to live up to our own standards, let alone the standard God has set.
I believe that the surprise of this verse is that David starts off with the word “blessed” or “happy,” but then immediately introduces such hard realities as our iniquity and our impossible capacity for lying to ourselves and God about it.
But the reason he can do that is because the predicament(s) he faces is more than outmatched by the cure God offers.
32 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
Notice that David doesn’t say, Blessed is the individual whose iniquity the Lord does not count.
He says, “Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.”
Because God is holy, He must count sin—but He counts it against someone else.
He counts it against His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We find in David’s words the amazing doctrine of justification by faith, which we first see in God’s relationship with Abraham, who “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
Genesis 15:4-7 New American Standard Bible 1995
4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own [a]body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your [b] descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to [c]possess it.”
The moment we honestly truly believe that our sins have been counted against our Savior, Psalm 32 says we’ll be blessed; we will be happier than ever before.
So the path to blessing starts with honesty.
We are not good people who make the odd mistake.
We are not wonderful individuals with a few flaws that can be blamed on our upbringing, our environment, or our lack of sleep last night.
We are sinners with impossibly deceitful hearts, who fall far short of God’s glorious standards and by nature stand to inherit only wrath (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3).
We are trying to be more like our Savior Jesus Christ, better imitators of the life lessons Jesus revealed in, throughout, His Gospel Narratives and we are failing.
Social Media wreaks severest havoc on what is said is truth and is to be the truth according to “fact checkers” who are themselves being fact checked against all that someone else with a secretive financial and politically motivated agenda.
That someone with “authority” declares the lie “The truth is what I say it is!”
Then Social Media flies in every which direction imaginable to “make it so.”
Then it becomes a jumbled mass of every kind of confusion and chaos possible.
Then who is going to be the “believable one” to dig in both heals and sort it out?
That is the significantly complex, deeply conflicted situation in which we each find our hearts and souls in right now and who is going to show us the path out?
Who do we send shipwrecked people to if we ourselves are just as shipwrecked?
Psalm 51 New American Standard Bible 1995
A Contrite Sinner’s Prayer for Pardon.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when [a]Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
51 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For [b]I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You [c]are justified [d]when You speak
And [e]blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the [f]innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
7 [g]Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
[h]Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 [i]Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create [j]in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew [k]a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will [l]be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, [m]open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
18 By Your favor do good to Zion;
[n]Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You will delight in [o]righteous sacrifices,
In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then [p]young bulls will be offered on Your altar.
Be honest about who you are. Be specific about how you have sinned against the Lord. Then you will be ready to embrace the most joyful news in the world: that each day, though the magnitude of our sins they are much, His mercy is more.
Finding True Honest Happiness in What We Do
Psalm 119:89-112 New American Standard Bible 1995
Lamedh.
89 Forever, O Lord,
Your word [a]is settled in heaven.
90 Your faithfulness continues [b]throughout all generations;
You established the earth, and it stands.
91 They stand this day according to Your ordinances,
For all things are Your servants.
92 If Your law had not been my delight,
Then I would have perished in my affliction.
93 I will never forget Your precepts,
For by them You have [c]revived me.
94 I am Yours, save me;
For I have sought Your precepts.
95 The wicked wait for me to destroy me;
I shall diligently consider Your testimonies.
96 I have seen [d]a limit to all perfection;
Your commandment is exceedingly broad.
Mem.
97 O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever [e]mine.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.
102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are Your [f]words to my [g]taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
Nun.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
106 I have sworn and I will confirm it,
That I will keep Your righteous ordinances.
107 I am exceedingly afflicted;
[h]Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word.
108 O accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord,
And teach me Your ordinances.
109 My [i]life is continually [j]in my hand,
Yet I do not forget Your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,
Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts.
111 I have inherited Your testimonies forever,
For they are the joy of my heart.
112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes
Forever, even to the end.
True, Honest Happiness is not just about avoiding the way of wickedness and folly. And it’s definitely not about staying away from people. The life of the monk, the hermit is not the ideal of the Christian faith, as some early Christians believed. Christianity is distinguished by a lifestyle in tune with the will of God.
How can we know what God’s will is for our lives?
Psalm 1:1-2 answers, “Blessed is the one . . . whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.”
The Word of God is our source of joy and happiness.
We are encouraged to meditate on it daily. We must fill our minds with God’s truth. We must feed our hearts with the promises that come from the Word of God. His Word is infinitely better than all refined gold and sweeter than honey.
Honestly, all of God’s Word restores the soul and gives wisdom to the simple.
2 Timothy 3:10-17 New American Standard Bible 1995
10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, [a] perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is [b]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for [c] training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
In this time when so much garbage circulates in local and national news, on the internet and other media, the Word of God is bread that nourishes, water that purifies. Through it we keep our hearts pure, and we triumph over the enemy.
Today, every day, remember to feed honesty with the truth God’s Word and to enjoy the nourishment that sustains us, heart and soul, on the way to full life.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Luke 8:14-15 New American Standard Bible 1995
14 The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with [a]perseverance.
Psalm 139:23-24 New American Standard Bible 1995
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any [a]hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 