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.
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 acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions 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.
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 my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay 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, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Since January 1, I have been reading a psalm a day, along with others in my church. That means that today, Sunday, February 1, I arrived at Psalm 32. This psalm is like an old friend to me. I became a Christian at 14 years old, in the midst of a minor teenage crisis. I was at that time pretty squeaky clean as a youth, except for my problems with anger and disrespect toward my parents. I don’t think I had a deep understanding of how wonderful a blessing it was to be forgiven all my sins, but I did feel convicted about my angry speech towards my parents and I began with God’s help to make a change.
At 17, I got mad at God and took control of my own life for about three years. In the summer of 1978, I was motivated to return to Him. Part of it was my fear of dying. But a huge part of it was also seeing clearly what an unloving person I had become on my own. I had violated not only God’s commands, but even my own code of ethics with my selfish disregard for people. Thus, my fear of dying and coming before my Maker! So I came back in time for my senior year at college, joined a wonderful Christian fellowship on campus (Princeton Christian Fellowship) and grew emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. In the spring, the seniors gave testimonies to the rest of the fellowship of what God had done in their lives. My testimony focused on Psalm 32. I now felt deeply how blessed I was to be forgiven, surrounded by his steadfast love and instructed in the way I should live. At age 68, I feel that even more profoundly. There’s a song with the line “I have lived in the goodness of God.” (“Goodness of God” by Bethel Music and Jenn Johnson) I truly have. Thank you, Jesus!
In a sense the Christian life begins with the message of forgiveness of sins. I recognized my personal sinfulness and received the offered gift of forgiveness and Christ’s own righteousness in exchange for my many failures. I became a child of God, and I entered a family of love. That love is first and foremost the love of God himself for me, but also amazingly, the love of other Christians. They constitute one of the ways I have been surrounded by the steadfast love of the Lord. This is an amazing gift, in which I still stand in awe. The saints of the Lord are an amazing inheritance! (Ephesians 1:18)
But one of the most amazing things about the Christian life is the ongoing counsel of God, which I receive every time I open my Bible, but also in mysterious ways throughout my days. He is always bringing his truth to mind, sometimes to correct me, sometimes to encourage and strengthen my conscience. I truly love the times when I feel his correction, which is one sign that I am his child for real and forever (Hebrews 12:5-11). I remember one example of God’s loving correction quite vividly: I was angry about something a friend had done, and was thinking of storming out of the room, but God brought to mind the verse in James (1:20) to tell me that my anger did not achieve his righteous purposes. So I stayed in the room and simmered down and marveled at how wonderful it was to have a loving, disciplining Father. Yes, we are forgiven a multitude of sins, but that doesn’t mean that we should continue to live in those sinful patterns. You have probably discerned that one of my lifelong sin patterns has been anger. God has significantly “gentled” me, like someone might tame a horse. “Do not be like a horse or a mule, … which must be curbed with a bit and bridle.” How blessed it is to not only be forgiven, but to experience growth because of his powerful love. How blessed it is to trust and obey him more and more as my life goes on.
As the psalm urges me at its conclusion, I want to be a person who shouts this message with joy! He has changed me, he has loved me, he has forgiven me. How blessed it is to be able to testify to what He has done, and to invite others to call to him while he may be found!