The Blessing of Forgiveness

As we read through this Psalm, we see the beauty and blessedness that forgiveness brings, the way in which we should seek forgiveness, and ultimately what forgiveness ought to produce in the life of the believer. Psalm 32.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, and as I was thinking and even just kind of reading over this uh text this week, you know, I just thought about the fact that in a few weeks, I'm gonna really be looking for a lot of different bonds with people. And there are a lot of things that honestly bond us. So at the beginning of the fall, it's inevitable for a person like me that I'm gonna meet about 200 incoming freshmen. And the second that I meet those freshmen, I'm immediately looking for how can I have a conversation with them? And in a lot of ways, I'm terrible at it. Like, I will jump from the furthest stretch of, hey, we have this thing in common, so let's be unified in this thing, whether it's a taste or whether it's an interest or whether it's just the fact that we both happen to be in Murray, Kentucky at the exact same moment. Like, whatever it is, I'm just trying to create relationships with these students, ultimately, just so I can invite them in and bring them into church. And there are things in our lives that bond us to one another. I mean, think, maybe for you it's it's you're bonded by a team that you support with a friend. Or maybe it's just a certain restaurant that you enjoy that you'll always go to together, or a certain type of food, or a type of music, or whatever that may be. There are a lot of things that can bond us. But perhaps maybe the best thing that bonds us together with other people is hardship. We know this to be true. Whenever you walk through a hard season with someone and you make it through the other side, so often that relationship is deeper. That relationship is stronger. I think one of the best movies that portrays this, and even one of my favorite movies as a kid, was the movie Remember the Titans, the classic football film, where this high school team, in the midst of desegregation of the high school, uh, these students were forced to be on the same football team together. So there are black students and white students who hated one another and their culture and all of those things, and they were forced to basically serve on the same team. And a way in which they walked through to create a unity was their coach took them away for a training camp before their season ever started at Gettysburg College. And basically the coach tried to unite them around one common enemy, himself. And he made the two weeks miserable for them. As you've ever, if you've ever been through any type of training for a sport or anything like that, it's miserable enough without people wanting it to be miserable, let alone whenever a person really seeks to push you there. But we see that it ultimately works. That as they make their way through the camp and as they continue to become unified, just in the midst of the hardship that they walk through together. And as the movie even progresses, as hardship continues to come, there creates this bond amongst the team as ultimately they seek to be unified as one. In a Christian sense, we often experience this in mission trips. Whether you've done a short or long term, a lot of times the people in which you serve with, you walk away with a specific bond with them. Because you've entered into a culture that's vastly different than your own, or perhaps it's just an extremely taxing week or month or season or year, whatever it is. Because for the moments that you're walking into something uncomfortable, you have to rely on one another. You have to be strengthened by one another, and ultimately you're closer because of it. But what happens whenever that bond happens, or what happens whenever the friction happens because something of our own doing. What happens whenever our sin is the hardship that is brought? And specifically, even in this psalm, what happens whenever our sin is brought before our Creator? Can that be really something that bonds us? This is the Psalm that we're looking at this morning. As we look at this Psalm of David, as he walks through a particularly hard season in his life and reflecting on it, we see that this is ultimately because of his own sin. That's something that he put himself in. But as he's come out of it, we see that because of the Lord's kindness and faithfulness to David, his relationship with the Lord is strengthened, and the trust that he has in the Lord is solidified. The title of our sermon this morning is The Blessing of Forgiveness. And as we read through this psalm, we see the beauty and the blessedness that forgiveness can bring, the way in which we ought to seek that forgiveness, and ultimately, what forgiveness ought to produce in the life of the believer and in our relationship with the Lord. So, what I want to do this morning is I want to walk through our entire psalm as we begin reading the entire passage. And then I'm just going to ask questions of this text. Ask questions that I think it leads us to, and ultimately, as we continue to build on itself to the application that I believe that this text has for us this morning. So would you read with me, starting in verse one and reading through verse 11? God's word says this Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and whom his spirit is no deceit. For whenever I kept silent, my bones wasted away. Through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me, and my strength was dried up as in the heat of the summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity, and I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time whenever you 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 the shouts of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way in which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed by bit and bridle, or it will not stay near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. So as we ask questions of this text that I think it continually helps us answer, the first question that I think this text shows us and that it answers for us is this What is our greatest need? What is our greatest need? See, I think this is a question that we often ask. What do we ultimately need? It's a question that must be asked in order for us to really meet people's expectations of us. And we have a lot of needs, sure. We need shelter, we need relationships, we need food, we need water, we need these things, but ultimately, above all of those things, what is something that is of greater need to us? I think David explains from the onset. In verses one and two, he says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. What is our greatest need? It's simple, it's forgiveness. It's forgiveness. The entire psalm begins with a truth that I think a lot of us know. That in our core, our greatest need is to be in relationship with our Creator. To be in the relationship with the one who created us, who sought to have relationship with us from the beginning. And it's funny that as David continues on from here, as he talks about a personal example of where he did not trust in the Lord, as he begins to seek to walk through practically in a way in which we should respond in all of these things, all of this and rooted in the subsequent praise, is frankly the whole reason we're here is because David did not believe the truth of what his ultimate need was. The truth that the need more than anything else was a relationship with God the Father. And it was that sin that really bore the reality of the rest of this text that shows us the beautiful picture of what forgiveness is. And yet, out of this failure, we see a Lord who is loving, a God who is gracious and who wants to offer us forgiveness. Look again at these verses as it starts. It says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, and the man who the Lord counts no iniquity. There's very intentional terms used here. We get three different terms used for sin here, and it's intentional. It's not just that the writer or the translators wanted to make this seem interesting and using different terminology so that we stay engaged with the text. No, David is intentional as he's writing this because he's giving an all-encompassing picture of what is the reality of the forgiveness that the Lord offers us. This term transgression is a blatant act of rebellion and disloyalty to denounce what God desires and yet choose to go after your own desires. Sin is often what we've seen and what we maybe have heard before. Sin is a wandering from the right path, a missing of God's standard, a missing of the mark of what his perfection is. Iniquity is an intentional crooked or wrong act. It's our depravity on full display, taking God's good gifts and misusing them. In these beginning verses, we see a complete picture of the brokenness that is ours. Not just an unintentional wandering, but a blatant breaking of God's word. And yet we ultimately see what has been done about this. What has been done about this for David, but ultimately what has been done about this in general. He says first that these sins are forgiven, and then they are covered, and he does not count them against us. Forgiven is the removal of sin and guilt, the literal taking them off. Imagine it like via a dirty garment, whenever a stain is lifted from it. It's removed. We've all seen the commercials of the molecules that act as we spray shouts on this grass stain, which never happens. I mean, it's they're just, I have a kid and like their clothes are permanently stained. But it's this beautiful picture of it being lifted, like it's being taken from them and put away. To be covered is this picture of atonement for sin. That these sins that have been removed no longer cry out for the punishment, but rather they have been covered. Not being counted means it's not being reckoned to us, being justified. The best picture of this is as we know, if you ever went through college or school or a teacher in which they said, Hey, I'm not gonna count your worst text grade, a term that I coined in college was comebackable. So whenever you made a really bad grade, but by the grace of a teacher, hey, I can still come back from this. Like, hey, this 40 that begins on my online transcript does not stay because the teacher says, Hey, I drop your lowest test grade. And out of complete grace and a common grace to us, it's gone forever. It's not remembered. You know that, and it's in the back of your head, well, if I make this grade and I do this and he drops that or he doubles my last test, whatever it is, it's comebackable. That's the picture of this. It's like it never happened, it's completely removed. This full picture of beauty showing us our grand need. Do you see that in this text? That in all of us, from the onset, what David is showing us is the need that we all have: a need for forgiveness. Because in the beginning, God created man and woman to be in complete union with himself. However, whenever sin entered the picture, something intentional happened. Whenever sin entered the picture, we see, we see that God sought to cover them, even though they struck to cover their shame in their own way. In Genesis 3:7, it says this Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loincloths. Whenever they entered into sin, Adam and Eve understood and saw that they were exposed before the Lord. So they sought to take matters into their own hands, to create for themselves a covering, but ultimately it was a covering that was insufficient. So we see the Lord act. The Lord intervenes and makes a better covering for them. And in verse 21 of the same chapter, it says, And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of sin and clothed them. He created for them by the shedding of blood something that reality could cover them. Not just uh findings of scrubs on the bath on the garden floor, but true clothing made for them that covered their nakedness, covered their shame. But ultimately, they didn't need to be covered from the ever elements, they needed to be covered before the Lord. And instinctually they knew this. They couldn't stand before the Lord exposed. That's why they ran and hid. And God showing all of us that our greatest need is to be covered before him. And this is what David is saying. In all of these cases, there's an acting agent apart from himself. The Lord is the one who is doing the forgiving. The Lord is the one who is doing the covering, the Lord is the one who is not counting. Isaiah talks about this in Isaiah 61, 10. He says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my shoals shall exalt in him, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as the bride adorns himself with jewels. See, this blessing comes from the Lord, who is the one who adorns, the one who clothes, the one who ultimately covers. The New Testament shows us this in the way of whenever Christ died for us on the cross, it said something happened. That what was put on him was our shame, our nakedness, our sin. And what was put on us was his righteousness. Like a cloak of salvation or a garment of righteousness that covered us completely. Friends, our greatest need in this world is forgiveness. And because of the work and person of Jesus Christ, that forgiveness is offered to us. But David even alludes to here, there's a way in which we seek this type of forgiveness. Look back in verse 2. It says, Bless is the man whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. See, there is a qualifier for this. Forgiveness comes whenever it's sought correctly. We see a shift in focus from what God has done for us to now what must be done to pave the way for forgiveness. See, we can have grand words of forgiveness, but oftentimes we seek them out of hypocrisy or piety or pride or some other means. Look at the Pharisees, whom Jesus often dealt with. They sought in which a way in which he called them whitewashed tombs. Why? Because on the outward signs they were seemingly seeking good things, but ultimately they were doing so with wrong motives, in which it ultimately forgiveness was not coming to them from the way in which they sought it. So what David does from here is he shows us, and it leads us to the next question that I think we should ask of this text, and it's this how do we seek forgiveness? And how do we seek it rightly? David, as he begins to walk through a personal example and then practical application, he shows us what it looks like to seek forgiveness in the correct sense. Reading onward in verses 3 through 5, it says this for whenever I kept silent, my bones wasted away, through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your right hand was heavy upon me, and my strength dried up as in the heat of the summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity, and I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. The first way that we see that we ought to seek forgiveness is this it's vulnerably. We seek it vulnerably. David's letting us into a very personal season of his life. Most scholars believe that Psalm 32 is David reflecting on the year in which he spent in the midst of his sin after sleeping with Bathsheba and killing her husband. We know from the Old Testament that he committed this grand act, this heinous act, and about a year later he was called to the carpet by a prophet named Nathan. And Nathan tells him to repent and turn, and we get the beauty of his confession before the Lord in Psalm 51. But in this Psalm, we see what was it like whenever he chose to remain silent. Whenever he didn't come to the Lord with confession, he didn't come to the Lord in seeking repentance, but ultimately he sought to remain in his sin. And through this, we see a picture of what happens whenever we do the same. In verses three and four again, it says, For whenever I kept silent, my bones wasted away. Physically, morally, psychologically, he was being drained. My bones wasted away through my groaning all of the day long. There's a paradox here. He's silent, but yet he's groaning. And I think this is often what happens whenever we're seeking and choosing to remain in our sin. See, we're not talking about the thing we ought to be talking about, but rather we're grumbling about the things that are around us. Christopher Ash puts it this way: it's easy to groan, to complain about our lot into life, to grumble about our sufferings, or to murmur about the faults of others, and yet to remain silent about our own sins before God. Whenever it comes to the thing that we actually need to say, we don't say it. So what was the result we see in verse 4? Your heavy hand was upon me. I don't know if you've ever been there, but if you have, you know what this feels like. To be in the midst of sin and just feel a burden of it. Friends, one of the most gracious things God can do for us is allow us to feel the burden that our sin puts on us. Whether we know the Lord or rather we don't. To feel what it feels like to be in a place where our sin is on us. I vividly remember whenever I surrendered to the Lord. I vividly remember the Lord who allowed me to see my sin for the first time. No matter my morality, no matter my understanding of God's word, or my knowledge of the black and white in which it was, to understand the reality of Braden, you are a sinner. That there is nothing you can do that can ultimately remove the sin from you. Only I can do this whenever you surrender to me. I remember the feeling of what felt like drowning, of gasping for air, of flailing in water, just thinking I will never get out of this. And then the feeling of the grace of a Lord who stuck his hands in the midst of that water and pulled me out. Friends, this is what we need to feel to realize our need for him. And after we've come to know him, too often we jump back in the same pool of filth and we seek to remain in the midst of our sin and it burdens us again. Can you imagine, David, to spend about a year in the midst of his sin? Can you imagine the depression, the anxiety, the helplessness, the hopelessness that was weighed upon him? This is where we see David feels this, and ultimately, as we you can read the entire Psalm 51 of he calls out to the Lord to save him, to remove this iniquity from him, to take away the sin and guilt and shame. He begs the Lord not to take the Holy Spirit from him, but rather to restore him. We see ultimately what the burden of his sin did for him was lead him to what he says in verse 5. He says, I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity, and I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave me. You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Notice the completeness of his confession. He mentions every aspect of sin as he's done before. To sin, the iniquity, the transgressions, he completely makes himself vulnerable before the Lord. He doesn't seek to write off by just good motive or circumstance, good intention or even naivety, but rather he is standing before the Lord saying, God, whatever must be done to remove this burden from me, you have to do it. I cannot make a covering for myself that is good enough. And do you see what happens? In an instant, he says, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. And a simple open-handedness of God, please lift this for me. The Lord God. So matter of fact, you did what you said that you would do. First John talks about this. In first John 1, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is what God promises us, and we'll do it if we come to Him. My daughter's at an age where she loves the game hide and seek. Abigail is three, almost four next month, and she's terrible at it. I mean, she is just horrible at the game of hide and seek for multiple reasons. So whenever we play, we always count to 20 because that's the highest that she can count to. So it just works out. And it's so fun because, like, we'll start and always she'll hide in wherever you hid the round before. Doesn't matter. She gets on the couch, she puts a blanket over, and you see this giggling blanket to where it's like, hmm, I wonder where Abigail's at. Or she gets behind this curtain and there's just this big lump in the curtain and she's just wiggling. Or there's this obvious door that's obvious that a small child is behind it, and she's just peering through the crack at you, thinking that you can't see her. I mean, she's terrible at hiding. But what's worse, isn't that just that she hides poorly? Because you can play along with that, right? Like you can say, Well, I wonder where Abigail is. And that's what I try to do. You know, you want to make it fun. No, the second you walk past her, she immediately will jump out and say, Here I am, Dad. I mean, you you can't last a minute without her just exposing herself. And if you don't even walk close, she'll run to you and she'll show you, hey, here I am. Because ultimately, what is the point of the game? She doesn't necessarily want to remain hidden. This game's less fun if she sits under a blanket for two hours. She wants to spend time with her dad. She wants the joy of relationship with me. She doesn't ultimately want to hide herself. She wants to come into unity with me. See, often, friends, I feel like we act like ignorant children. Where we think that a mere blanket can cover the reality of our sin. And we sit under there removed from relationship with the Father for hours, for days, for years. Whenever all the Lord wants is for you to say, Here I am. Remove the covering. Remove whatever it is that we think really hides us, and come to a Lord who wants nothing but relationship with us. And quickly, this is what he does. In an instant, you forgave the iniquity of my sin. God will do what he says he'll do. We just have to come to him and come to him vulnerably. But as David continues, we see even other ways in which we ought to approach forgiveness before the Lord. In verses 6 and 7, he says, Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time in which you may be found. Surely in the grush of great waters, you shall not reach him, for you are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with the shouts of deliverance. We ought to seek forgiveness vulnerably, but we ought to seek forgiveness intentionally. Intentionally. David has moved from something deeply personal to now something incredibly practical. David tells us to offer a prayer to the Lord at a time in which he may be found. What's interesting is, you know, I think we struggle with this sometimes because we think, is the Lord not always able to be found? Like, is yet not always ready and willing to receive us? And in a lot of ways, yes. Like, yes, the Lord is kind and his love towards us is abundant. I mean, Peter tells us that he's not slow ultimately because he's laxadaisical, he's slow that he wishes all of us come into repentance to him. All of us come to him for forgiveness. But Scripture also tells us that there is a time where it is too late. The picture that we see at the end of Matthew 7, whenever the Lord tells us that you have to walk away from me. It doesn't matter anymore. The works that you've done. Or the parable that Jesus says of the bridegroom who closes the door to the wedding and all who are left outside that door, it is too late. See, there is a time, and friends, that time is now in which we can come to the Lord, in which we can offer up a time of prayer whenever the Lord is wanting to be found, whenever He desires to come and to forgive you. There is a realistic urgency from David here. He says, don't wait, because what happens whenever you do? You gradually become more numb to the burden that you're under and to the sin that you're in. The more you push down the feeling of conviction, the more you seek to run to other aspects of hiding yourself, the less, the less likely you are to realize your need in the first place. Friends, again, I'm maybe the best picture of this for 18 years, what it looked like to create my own piety or my own pride in the fact that I knew a lot about the things of the Lord, but I never knew him personally. It's easy for us to run somewhere else and to become blind to our own sinfulness. But then in the time of great waters, it overwhelms us because we haven't come to Him. As the hymn that we've probably sung many times before, that if we tarry until we're better, then we never come at all. See, because that's what we try to do. Well, let me just try to clean myself up or let me try to get a hold of this in the midst of my sin. Let me try to beat these few things, but slowly do we realize that I can't. I don't have hands big enough. Slowly we realize the cancer that I've neglected has grown into a place where it's too late. See, God says instead, David is trying to tell us the opposite. Intentionally choose to run to him from the beginning. David, in a way, saying, Learn from my mistakes, and rather running to other things for hiding, run to the Lord. You are a hiding place to me. See, the psalmists throughout are realists. They don't ever seek to glaze over the fact that hardship will come, that sin in their life will come, but what they rather show is what does our response in the midst of that hardship, in the midst of our sin, how should we respond? What does that look like? To run to the Lord for hiding. Being a college pastor, I do a lot of weddings. I enjoy it. It's a good time. All of these students just get so smitten over one another and they marry off and you know they ask me to marry them. But always in that, I don't only try to do premarital counseling with these students because I mean every married person in the room knows you have no idea what you're doing whenever you walk into marriage, so, and I don't either, so I just try to show them a little bit more than what they already know. But one of the major things we talk about throughout is how you begin with the small things, ultimately can play with the big things. You know, hey, start a budget at the beginning because it's easier to start with a budget than to implement one whenever you realize I'm drowning. Or start bringing up small issues so that you can get comfortable to know, hey, I can address something and my spouse still loves me. I can be real with something that's bothering me, and then they answer, they respond in a gracious way. Because if we come in the small things, whenever big things come up, it's easier to create those conversations to speak truth and kindness to our spouse. See, what David is trying to show us here is see, I should have come to him in the small things. You think back even to this sin, this all began because he was at a place that he shouldn't be. He was home whenever king should be at war. That should have been the sense in which he came to the Lord in forgiveness. But instead, he lets it snowball to ultimately adultery and murder. He says, we can choose to do the opposite. We can offer our prayers, we can seek the Lord in the midst of our small things as well as the big. See, because the world tells us to run elsewhere. The world tells us to hide our fears of inadequacy in the midst of destructive behaviors and alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual compulsion, eating disorders, gambling addictions, things that we feel that I can't control this aspect of my life, but I think I can control these things, and ultimately they begin to dominate us. Or maybe in a more politically correct way, we we seek to hide our fears and our brokenness by the facade of a smile, by the lie that everything is okay, that I can't really expose myself to these people. We're ignorantly independent. And we let debt arise as we try to keep up with the Joneses. No, look, things are fine. What David says is rather do the opposite. Hide yourself in the Lord, because that is the only place that true freedom is found. That is the only place where burdens are ultimately lifted. Whenever we find ourselves and we place our yoke under that of Christ, he lifts the pain from us. And we can understand the truth in which he tells us that in our weakness we can boast because it just makes more of his strength. We come to him intentionally, seeking his face intentionally, knowing that he is the one who ultimately can forgive and lift our burden. But he even continues in verses eight and onward. He says this, and I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. See, be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it'll stay not near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. How should we seek forgiveness? Vulnerably, intentionally, but ultimately sincerely. We must be seeking it sincerely. Verses eight and nine are a little bit debated of who David is trying to say is talking here. Is this the Lord's response to David and how he responded to him as he sought to hide himself in him? Or is this David now seeking to teach people of Israel a reality and a truth and instruction in which he has experienced and learned himself? I think both are honestly valid ways in which we can interpret this text, ways in which we can we can walk through it. I don't think either one really takes away its proper meaning, but I think both show us the beautiful aspect of what God wants us to see in this. Yes, the Lord wanting to instruct us, but I think also in the reality of David. If this is David teaching his own people, do we realize the power that can happen whenever we're honest about hardships that we've walked through and the ability to instruct people who are maybe walking through the same situation? That the Lord in his kindness is the one person who can make masterpieces out of messes. That sin that you found yourself entrenched in is ultimately the way in which you can help a person walk out of that sin that they're in now. The vulnerability of that even before people. I mean, David, even as he writes this psalm, a song for his people to sing, exposing the reality of he chose to hide before the Lord. He chose to ignore these things, he chose to continue on in sin, and yet that left him burdened. Trying to teach his own people. Look what happens whenever we come openly, vulnerably, intentionally and sincerely before the Lord, that we're forgiven. He talks of horse and mules, which is interesting. Oftentimes I've been called a mule in my life. And I think oftentimes I even act in the same way that mules do here. See, horses and mules can't have understanding or wisdom. Rather, you break them in an intentional way. Whenever you're breaking a horse or trying to teach them where to go, they're not understanding, they're not discerning wisdom and wise judgment of, okay, now I go this way this way. Rather, they're just seeking to avoid pain inflicted on them. You know, as you want a horse to go left, what you do is you kick it on the right hand side. Whenever you kick it on the right hand side, it feels pain there and it wants to move away from it. So what does it do? It goes left. Whenever we want to go right, you kick it on the left-hand side. It's not, it's not ultimately knowing that right is the right way for me to go, but rather left is the wrong one. It's just seeking to avoid pain. So bit and bridle are guiding it, not ultimately because it's seeking true wisdom, rather, it's just avoiding consequence. See, often this is how we come to the Lord. Not ultimately because we're we're grieved for our sin before him, but we're grieving the consequences that it's brought to us. Tim Keller tells a story of how he he was counseling a young couple whose husband was intentionally vile. He abused his wife, never physically, but often verbally, made her feel small and less than. And ultimately the wife met, was just fed up with it, so she left. She left him. And as he came home to an empty apartment, he was broken and he realized the reality of what happened. Like he lost his wife. So what does he do? He runs with his wife and he says, I'm gonna change. And he begins to change action. And in grace, she comes back and lives with him again. And weeks go on where he's loving and he's kind and he's generous, but eventually he realized, hey, she's back. She's here. So inevitably he reverts back to his old ways. His reality is depravity shows again. He's vile once more. Because the consequence of his sin had been removed, ultimately he went back to the person which he was because he didn't care that he sinned, he cared that he had to pay for it. This so often is how we come to the Lord. That we've spit on Christ's sacrifice for us, but more so that we found ourselves in hardship because of our own destructive behaviors, because of our own ignorance. What would it look like if we chose the steadfast love of the Lord instead? Regardless of whether or not our consequences are lifted, but understanding that the love of the Lord is the one in which we can ultimately be surrounded by. See, many are the sorrows of the wicked. This is what he says. Many are the people who just are sad because of the situations happening to them, but joy-filled are the ones who trust that the Lord, even if the consequences remain, they can remain joyful. This is how forgiveness ought to be sought. Coming before the Lord completely vulnerable. Lord, unless you do something, I know I can't be covered. Coming to him intentionally. And coming to him sincerely. And where David ends is this ultimate truth. What does forgiveness produce? What happens whenever we come to the Lord in this way? He tells us so in verse 11. He says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you in up heart all you upright in heart. What type of what is produced by this type of forgiveness? It's simple. Praise and joy. An exclamation of praise and joy is how David has to end this psalm because of what the Lord has done for him. Do you see what even he's he's getting to call himself now here? Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous. You upright in heart, is this mean that they no longer sinned? Does this mean that now sin is no longer a part of his life? No, of course not. Like we know this side of perfection, sin will always remain for a believer. Until the Lord makes us whole and wipes away the pain of sin and death, we'll still struggle with it. But we can be called righteous. Why? We can be deemed righteous because the one whom we come to has allowed us to be. Gerald Wilson says though in his commentary on this text. He says, These are righteous because they have trusted Yahweh and been willing to confess their sins openly and completely to him. Such righteousness is not earned by blameless human comportment, but granted by a gracious God in response to human trust and surrender. See, there is freedom here. Whenever we come to the Lord, he tells us that the blessing of true joy comes to us. The blessing of what it means and what it feels like to have a burden lifted from us. We read a bit of this passage earlier, but let's read it in its entirety. In 1 John 1, as John seeks to show us what it looks like, what happens whenever we really step away from sin and into the light. He says this if we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice truth. Ultimately, we cannot be continuing on in sin and say we have a relationship with the Lord. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say naively that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we think foolishly that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. See the care that John has for his people. He says, My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does, ultimately when you do, see the beauty that you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the one who is ultimately righteous. He is the propitiation, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He lifts the burdens from us. And not only ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. See, it's this that leads us into true joy. It's in this light where sin no longer has power over us. Rather, it's removed. It's through the person and the work of Jesus that shame and heartache are removed, and gladness, joy, and praise are replacing it. David is telling us to rejoice and be joyous in the Lord. The most joy-filled person is the one who understands the amount of forgiveness that God has offered them, that sees the reality of their broken condition and sees that God has done everything necessary so that it can be removed from us. Friends, this ought to be the mark of the church, of people who are joyous in light of their circumstance. No matter even what hardship they may be walking through, they can sing praises to their God. Why? Because they know their ultimate need has been met, their need for forgiveness. And this ought to be the praise and the words on the forefront of our tongues. Making known this forgiveness in his world. David walking in through a hardship to a song of praise because of the forgiveness that has been offered to him. One of the best pictures that I see of this is whenever I get to meet a student in the depths of their depravity. And God in his kindness reveals to them the burden of their sin and they choose to follow Christ. And the life that they live, trying to fulfill their pleasures with just the things of this world, and then to finally taste Christ and see that this is better. You know, the best part of that relationship is that all they want to do is go to the people in the same state that they were once in and say, this will never satisfy you. But I have tasted of something that finally can. This ought to be the gospel that we make known. That forgiveness is available for us because of the work and worse, the person and work of Jesus Christ. I think this psalm leads us to a lot of points of application. The first should be examination. Whenever I talk of the heavy hand of the Lord, I know and I believe that that is on some of us here in this room. Whether it's in the midst of our lostness where you feel like you're drowning and there's nothing that you can do, or maybe even like David, you're choosing to remain in a state of sin whenever the Lord wants you to confess. And repent. Will you let sin be lifted from you? Will you feel its burden? And then will you be comforted by this same text, knowing that in an instant your iniquity can be forgiven? See, this is where we often struggle, that we let shame stay because we don't ultimately believe that God really can forgive us. That we really can continue on in the relationship with Him. Because what the devil wants us to do is to be crippled by that shame. But how could you ever run or be stuck in a sin like this? God wants nothing for you or nothing of you. David, after this point, he was called a man after God's own heart. He let the Lord lift his burden and he believed him whenever he said he was forgiven. Maybe in reality, we just need to be a people who seek confession. Honestly, something that Protestantism or even Baptist practice is very minimal. Rarely do we have relationships with people that we ultimately come to people and confess our brokenness to. Being real, saying, I'm struggling here. Will you help me? This is the point of the church. This is the point of why we step into the light because we're walking alongside others who have stepped in the light. So this is why we have discipleship or small groups or Sunday school classes or ways in which we can form relationships so that we can have a people around us that we can carry one another's burdens with. Or maybe ultimately our response to this is we ought to be a people who make the forgiveness of God known. That we see the purpose of our lives is to share the truth of this forgiveness. The beauty of this psalm is it tells us that we are blessed because we have been forgiven. And now we get to be advocates. We get to be people who bring this type of forgiveness to the lost in this world. Church, will we be about it? Would you pray with me? Father, I pray that you help us see. Lord, help us see how you're calling us to respond here. Lord, I ask. Lord, help us realize. For the rest of our days, we get to be messengers of this forgiveness. Ambassadors of this reconciliation. Let us see. Let us see how you're calling us to respond, and let us walk in that response rightly.