Would you turn back to Psalm
32? I've entitled this message, What
is true blessedness? I want to know, don't you? What
is true blessedness? I believe the Lord has laid this
psalm upon my heart. Most believe that this psalm
was written, this 32nd Psalm, directly after Psalm 51 was written. And Psalm 51 is David's great
psalm of repentance after that Nathan had come to him. Let me give you the story. David,
the man after God's own heart. What a special title for this
man. David had eased up on what he
should be doing. You can read this story in 1
Samuel chapter 11. At the time when kings were going
out to battle, David stayed home, loitering on his rooftop. And as he was walking in the
evening on his rooftop, he spied a woman by the name of Bathsheba.
The scripture says a very beautiful woman bathing. David, the man
after God's own heart, with a terrible abuse of power, had this woman
brought to him. You see, the king back then could
do whatever he wanted to do, and no one would check them.
And he had this woman brought to him, and he committed adultery
with her, another man's wife. And she became with child. And
she sent to let him know that she had become with child. So
he tried to cover up his sin. He brought Uriah, her husband,
back from battle. Her husband was out fighting
for David. And he brought him back for battle, and he thought
in doing this, that he would go into his wife and he wouldn't
know, no one would know it was David's baby. It was a horrible
cover-up. But Uriah was a fine man and
he wouldn't go in to his wife because he said all of Israel
and Joab and all those guys, they're out in the fields fighting.
You think I'm going to go in and enjoy myself and have a time
of rest while they're out fighting? No. And he just lay at the gate.
And David tried again, he got him drunk, and he still wouldn't
do it. And then David came up with this idea. And this seems so cruel. He sealed
a note, sealed it, and gave it to Uriah and said, give this
note to Joab. Uriah, the fine man that he was,
wouldn't open the king's note. He wasn't, he was going to just
take it there, but in this note, David said, Joab, you have the
troops go up to the wall and have Uriah out in front and then
you withdraw yourself and let them kill Uriah. This is cold-blooded, I mean,
do you think of how cruel that is that he had him carry the
note of his own execution? And he hadn't done anything wrong.
This was cold-blooded, premeditated murder. And this is all what
the man after God's own heart was guilty of. He was guilty
of not doing what he should have been doing. He was guilty of
taking another man's wife. He was guilty of cover-up. He was guilty of implicating
somebody else in his crime, having Joab do this. He was guilty of
cold-blooded, premeditated murder. Now someone may think, can a
true believer do something like that and really have the grace
of God? Now if you ask yourself that
question, you prove how ignorant you are of yourself. There is
nothing that you and I would not do apart from the restraining
grace of God. Do you believe that? It's so. Well, David went on business
as usual for some time. As a matter of fact, I know it
was over a year because his baby was born through Bathsheba during
this time. He went on for quite some time
in a hardened, unremorseful, unrepentant condition. Can a
believer be like that? David was. I've got a lot of
confidence in this man. But God, in his mercy, sent him
a prophet by the name of Nathan. And Nathan came to David with
this story. As a matter of fact, would you
turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12. And the Lord sent Nathan unto
David, And he came unto him and said unto him, there were two
men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich
man had exceeding many flocks and herds. Wealth was demonstrated
by how many sheep you had and what the population of your cattle
was and so on. That's the way of wealth back
then. But the poor man had nothing
save one little ewe lamb. which he brought up and nourished
up and grew up together with him and with his children. It
did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his
bosom and was unto him as a daughter. Now picture this in your mind.
Oh, how this man loved this little lamb. Verse four, and there came
a traveler into the rich man, and he spared to take his own
flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that
was coming to him. He didn't take anything of his own, but
he took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was
coming to him. He took that man's lamb and he killed it, and they
had it for supper for that young person, for that traveler that
came their way. How evil. This man had riches
beyond measure, and yet look what he did. Verse 5, and David's anger was
greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the
Lord liveth, the man that had done this thing shall surely
die. He deserves to die. And I'm going to make sure he
does die. David was righteously indignant at the wickedness of
this man. And he could see clearly how
bad this man was. And you can see clearly how bad
this man was too, can't you? What an act of wickedness. But
the one thing David could not see clearly was he was this man. You know, it's real easy to see
sin in others, isn't it? I can spot it. It's not so easy
to see it in yourself. And then David pronounced this man to die, verse
seven, And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. You are the one that I've been
describing. And what did David say? Look
in verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, I
have sinned against the Lord. upon which David went out and
wrote Psalm 51. Let's read that together. Psalm
51. I think it'll set up for Psalm
32 because Psalm 32 was written after this great psalm of repentance. Now, if anybody wants to know
what repentance is, here it is. Better than any description you
or I could give. Here is true repentance before God. David
says, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. And remember what he was, this
wasn't a general confession of sin. He had premeditated murder
on his mind. Cold blooded. He had adultery
on his mind. He had cover up on his mind.
These were sins he had actually committed. This was no general,
generic confession. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash
me freely from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For
I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that you might
be justified when you speak, and clear when you judge. If
you damn me and condemn me, you're holy and righteous and just as
thy name." Then he talks about what he was. Behold, I was shape
and iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now you
can see that this is his great psalm of repentance. And after
that, He wrote Psalm 32. Now go back to Psalm 32. The
Lord heard his psalm of repentance, and then David says, and here's
where I entitled this message, what is true blessedness? Well,
here it is. David says, blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven. What would you think of a judge
who, if someone did what David did, just said, you're forgiven? That judge would lose his office,
wouldn't he? He'd lose his office. We'd get rid of him. He can no
longer be judge. But we have a judge who can do
this. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man under whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Now remember what David's thinking
of when he writes this psalm. Fresh on his mind is murder. Premeditated, wicked. Heartless murder. When I think
of him handing Uriah that letter and saying, go give this to Joab,
and Uriah didn't even know that this was David sentencing him
to death. How cold-blooded, how heartless. David had this on his mind. All
of a sudden, he knew now. He had taken another man's wife. What an abuse of power that he
demonstrated at this time. What a hypocritical cover-up.
I mean this man is messing me. But now he says, and here's what
true blessedness is, blessed is the man. Now there are two
kinds of people in this world. Those who are blessed of God
and those who are cursed of God. Only two kinds. Those who have
his favor and his blessing and those whom he curses. Two kinds. Well, who is the person
who has his favor? It's the person whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered, whose iniquity is not imputed
to him. Now, transgression means rebellion. You read three words, transgression,
sin, and iniquity. Transgression means rebellion,
rebelling and breaking God's law willfully with your eyes
wide open. Sin means failure. failure to do what God said to
do. Iniquity means perverseness,
inequity, moral perversion. Somebody has suggested, and I
would agree, that transgression is the bad things we do, the
willful breaking of God's law. Iniquity is the good things that
we do. We're warned in Exodus of the
iniquity of the holy things of children, of the children of
Israel. That's the good things we do, the good works and so
on. There's a perversity to them.
Sin is our nature. Sin is why we commit transgression. It's why we have iniquity. You see, you don't become a sinner
when you sin. This is very important. You don't
become a sinner when you sin. There's only one reason you sin.
It's because you are a sinner. David knew something about this
three-headed monster. Sin, my nature. Transgression,
the bad things that I do. Iniquity, the good things that
I do. Charles Spurgeon made this statement.
This is one of the best things I ever heard him say. He said,
when I look at my bad works, and I look at my good works,
I can't tell the difference between the two. And the only safe thing
for me to do is throw them all overboard and come into heaven
on the plank of free grace. You believe that? To have your transgression, your
willful rebellion, forgiven. And remember, David wasn't speaking
of sin in generic terms. He had murder on his heart. He
had adultery on his heart. He had hypocritical cover-up
on his heart. He brought other people into
his own sin and made them guilty as well. And yet he speaks of
the forgiveness. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. Now, I love to think of the forgiveness
of sins. And this I know. You know, when I hear preachers
say, won't you let God forgive you? Won't you let Christ forgive
you? He wants to forgive you. Let
him do it. If you come up to me and say,
I'm going to let you forgive me. If you've done me wrong,
I'm going to let you. Oh, thanks. That's ridiculous, isn't it?
Forgiveness is in God's sovereign prerogative. He forgives because it's His
nature to forgive. Turn with me for a moment. It's
because of who He is. He doesn't forgive you because
you have it coming, or because you're entitled to it, or because
you deserve it, or even because you asked for it. He doesn't
forgive you because you're sorry. He forgives you because of who
He is. Now look in Exodus chapter 34.
This is when the Lord is proclaiming His name. before Moses. And look how he identifies himself
in verse 5. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed. Now this is who the Lord is.
His name is who He is. The Lord. The Lord God. merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. There's those three words together
again, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that
will by no means clear the guilty. Now there's the mystery of the
gospel. He'll by no means clear the guilty.
He ain't going to do it. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? And yet he forgives iniquity and transgression and
sin. How does he do it? Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is what? Covered. And this is what the blood of
Christ is all about. It's about satisfying God. It's
about making a way for God to be just and yet forgive somebody's
sins who's as bad as David. That's the gospel. Covering. Covering. Now, there's something
very unique about the Lord's covering. My wife Lynn has done
a lot of painting over the years. And you've, maybe a wall was
whatever color, beige, and she painted it white. Now that beige
paint was still under there. You just can't see it. See, our
covering makes it to where something cannot be seen. It's covered
up, but it's still there. When God covers something, it's
not there anymore. Let me show you this in the scripture.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter eight. Verse 12, God says, for I will be merciful. And one of the words that I love
that is not there is if. I will be merciful if. Thank
God that word's not there. Now that word merciful in the
original is propitious. I will be propitious. Now somebody says, what in the
world does that word mean? That's not a word we use very
often. Propitious or propitiation. Well the same word is translated
in the book of Hebrews, I will be a mercy seat. I will be a
covering. You remember the mercy seat covered
the ark. Now here's what God does. He
says, I will be a covering. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
covered my sin. That doesn't mean He covered
it and it's still there. That means when His blood washed
away my sin, it is no more. And look what God goes on to
say. Verse 12, Hebrews chapter 8, For I will be propitious,
I will be a covering to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. How? When I think of me being
in heaven and I think of the things that I have done, I'm
not even talking about the things that passed through my mind.
I'm talking about the things that I've done. And God looks
at me and doesn't remember them. He doesn't remember them. He
doesn't Hold me with suspicion or hold me off. He actually didn't
remember him. How can that be? God's got a
perfect memory. The only way he can not remember
something is for there to be nothing there to remember. And that's what the blood of
Jesus Christ does. It washes away sin so there is
nothing there. Blessed is he whose sin is covered,
covered by the blood of Christ to where it is gone, it's washed
away. And God looks at me and he sees
somebody without sin. Look back on our text in Psalm
32. Verse two. Blessed, and I think it's interesting
in the original, the blessed is in the plural. Oh, the blessednesses,
the blessednesses of the man under whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. Now, all these sins were most
real with David. He murdered somebody. He did
it in a horrible way. He committed adultery. He did
these things, but here's his hope. God didn't charge it to
his account. God didn't impute it to him. Doesn't take away from the reality
of them, but here's the hope. God does not impute it. Oh, I find that so attractive.
It's what I want for myself. I want for the Lord to not charge
me with my sin. Hold your finger there in Psalm
32 and turn to Romans 4. Paul quotes this in Romans 4. Beginning in verse 5. To him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man under whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered, Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now here's blessedness. You want
to know what blessedness is? It's for God to forgive you of
your sins. It's for him to cover your sins
so that they're not there. You see the blood of Christ.
Understand this. Ain't going to be anybody in hell that Christ
died for. Not going to happen. Because His blood actually put
away. It washed away sin so that it
is not there. Blessed is He. whom the Lord
doesn't impute his sin to him. Now how can that be? Because
it was imputed to Christ. It became Christ's sin. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. My sin became his sin. He became
guilty of it. God killed him. He was forsaken
by God and his glorious righteousness is mine. Now that's what's called
the gospel. And look at this fourth description
of blessedness in verse two of Psalm 32. And in whose spirit
there is no guile. Now that word guile means deceit. I was listening to a preacher
on the radio one time and he was preaching against smoking.
And he said, You know, the Word of God never tells somebody not
to smoke. He said, oh, it does too. It
says in whose mouth there is no guile. You missed it, bud. That has
absolutely nothing to do with what the Lord is saying here.
In His Spirit, there is no deceit. What kind
of spirit is that? The only kind of spirit that
is, is the new spirit. The new man. The pure heart. Remember when the Lord said,
blessed are the pure in heart? This is talking about that new
heart that God gives. This is what David asked for
in Psalm 51, when he said, create in me a clean heart. Oh God,
my heart's filthy. I can't make it clean. Give me
a new one. a clean heart. It's the honest and good heart
the Lord was speaking of in the parable of the sower, where the
one seed that bore fruit is that seed that bore, that received,
that heart that Christ described as an honest and a good heart,
that received the seed. Now this heart, it's honest before
God. It doesn't claim to be what it's
not. The closest me and you are ever
going to come to honesty before God is we confess that we're
nothing but sin. You read that Romans chapter
7, where Paul talked about what he was. That is an honest heart. That is a non-deceitful heart. Someone who claims to be something
more than that, They're deceitful. They're not honest. I love what
Barnard used to always say, honest people don't go to hell. And
they don't. People who are honest before
God with what they are, they don't go to hell. They've been
given this new heart. Now here's true blessedness.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Whose sin is covered
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. who is not charged with
his iniquity. That doesn't mean he didn't do
it, but he's not charged with it. And he's got a spirit in
which there is no guile. He's honest before God. Now let's
go on reading in this psalm. Verse three. David said, when I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night, thy hand was
heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into a
desert. Now, this certainly refers, first
of all, to the silence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, whenever
you read the Psalms, remember the first application of every
Psalm is it's the word of Christ. You remember how it said of Christ,
he opened not his mouth. He kept silent before Pilate.
And yet while he kept silent, knowing that he was guilty before
God, knowing this, Oh, how he roared in his own soul. How that
roar came out when he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because what I deserve, that's
why. It's what I deserve. And my sin
became his sin. And you can certainly see where
these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ when he said, I
kept silent. Aren't you glad the Lord kept silent? He didn't
say, Todd did that, not me. No, he kept silent because he
was guilty. But these are also the words
of David. And David is talking about that
long season in which he kept silent. He said, that whole time
that I kept silent, that I did not confess my sin before God. He said, I turned into a desert. I turned into a desert. Night and day, thy hand was heavy
upon me. and I turned into a desert. Verse five, that time did not
last. He said in verse five, I acknowledged
my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I'll
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest. the iniquity of my sin. I acknowledge my sin to thee.
I owned it. I didn't try to hide it anymore. I confessed. And you know what you do when
you confess your sin? It's not just admitting to it.
You take sides with God against yourself. That's what the confession
of sin is. You're right. I'm wrong. You take sides with God against
yourself. I confess my sin. He confessed
what he'd done. He confessed who he was. We already
read that. He said, I was shaped in iniquity
and sin my mother conceived me. And you forgave the iniquity.
You forgave the crookedness, the moral perversity of my sin. And look what he says in verse
six. For this, shall everyone that's godly pray unto thee in
a time when thou mayest be found. You know what everybody that's
godly seeks? The forgiveness, the covering,
and the non-imputation of sin. That's what everybody that's
godly seeks. And they seek this spirit, the new spirit, given
by the Holy Spirit, in which there is no guile, no deceit. They are honest before God. That's what everybody that's
godly seeks. That's different from what this
religious world would call godly, isn't it? Very different. But
this is what everybody that's godly seeks. He says, for this
shall everyone that's godly pray unto thee in a time when thou
mayest be found. When's that time? Right now. Get out of the false refuge you've
been hiding in in the past. Your past religious experience.
The past when you learned this and when you did that. Forget
about the future. About what you intend to do.
You intend to straighten things up one of these days. No. The
day of salvation is right now. Look to Christ. Come before God. Just like David did. Right now. Look to Christ right now. And he says in verse six, surely
in the floods of great waters, they shall not come down to him.
That person's not going to have the judgment of God, surely,
because there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Now look what David says next in verse seven. He says, thou
art my hiding place. You remember when Greg Elmquist
was preaching here last fall, and he said, if you're on the
bottom end of the food chain, what are you doing? You're looking
for a hiding place, aren't you? You're looking for a hiding place.
And I got to thinking about this hiding place. What these animals
do, here's their great goal, is they do not want to be seen. Here's my great goal. I do not
want to be seen. I know if I'm seen, I'll be eaten
up. I can't be seen. I have to be
in my hiding place. Hail sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail maxillus free eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who ruled
the sky, I fought with hands uplifted high, despised the mention
of His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. And wrapped in
thick Egyptian night, and fond of darkness more than light,
madly I ran the sinful race, secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty love, arrest that man. I felt the arrow of distress
and found I had no hiding place. Indignant, justice stood in view. To Sinai's fiery mount I flew,
the place of the giving of the law. But justice cried with frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. Ere long, a heavenly voice
I heard. and mercy's angel form appeared
and led me on with gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On him eternal vengeance fell
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race and thus became their hiding place. Should storms of sevenfold
thunder roll and shake the earth from pole to pole, no flaming
bolt can dump my face, for Jesus is my hiding place. A few more
rolling suns at most shall land me safe on Canaan's coast, there
I shall sing of sovereign grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Thou art my hiding place. Look what he says in verse 7
next. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. To be preserved by the Lord.
That means you continue. You don't quit. You continue
looking. And the reason you do it is because
he preserves you. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance, grace pressing on me continually. Now, this
is God speaking in verse eight. He says, I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way thou shalt go. You know, the scripture
says they shall all be taught of God. Every one of them. They
shall all be taught of God. And what does someone who's taught
of God do? Every man that has heard and learned of the Father. cometh to me." You see, the Lord
said, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. And him
that comes to me, I will in no wise, for no reason whatsoever
cast out. If you come to Christ, you will
be received. He promises. You come to him
for mercy, you come to him for grace, you come to him in your
need, he will receive you. He's the way we should go. He
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He said, furthermore,
in verse eight, I will guide thee with mine eye. The word guide is actually counsel. He is the wonderful counselor.
And his eye is his eye of omniscience. He knows all, he sees all. He's
an infallible counselor. And he promises, I will guide
thee with mine eye. Verse nine, he says, be ye not
as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in a bit and a bridle, lest they come
near unto thee. Now, what are these two animals
known for? Stubbornness. You've heard that saying, you
can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You
can't. He's stubborn. You've heard stubborn as a mule. David said,
don't be stubborn. That's so unwise. Don't dig your heels in the ground
and I won't be moved. Don't be stubborn. That's so
foolish. Be not as the horse or as the
mule, which have no understanding. Stubbornness is no understanding. stupid. That's the only word
for it. Don't be like that, whose mouths must be held in with a
bridle and bent lest they come near unto thee. Then he says
in verse 10, many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that
trusteth in the Lord. What's that mean? Am I somebody
who trusts in the Lord? Well, Paul put it this way. He
said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him. against that
day, that day of judgment, when I'm going to be made to stand
before God, I am utterly convinced and persuaded that Christ Jesus
is able to save me, to present me before the Father, faultless,
without fault, without sin, and it didn't have anything to do
with anything I've done, He did it. Are you persuaded of that?
I love when the Lord said to those two blind men, He said,
do you believe I'm able to do this? I love the simplicity of
their answer. Yay, Lord! Do you believe Christ
is able to save you with no help from you? Beloved, that's what
faith is. David says, many sorrows shall
be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord. He's relying
on the Lord. I'm relying on the Lord right
now to save me. I'm relying on him to stand before me in judgment
and say, present and accounted for. He's one of mine. I'm relying
on that. I'm relying on the same thing
the thief did. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. I'm just asking you to remember
me. I'm relying on this. You remembering
me. And David finally says, Be glad
in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that
are upright in heart. Now, notice in that verse a place. Very important. A place. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in your hiding place. Rejoice in Him where your transgression
is forgiven. Rejoice in Him who covers your
sin. Rejoice in Him who doesn't impute
your iniquity to you. Rejoice in the Lord. You reckon
those eight souls in that ark were rejoicing? Oh, there were
things they were sorrowful for, no doubt. They looked at all
the people being destroyed outside. but they were rejoicing to be
in the ark, weren't they? Those people in the houses with
the blood over the door, they were rejoicing to be in those
houses. So we read of a place, rejoice
in the Lord. And then we read of a people. They're described in two ways
in verse 11. They're called ye righteous and
all that are upright in heart. Now here's what a believer is.
He's righteous. He's righteous. He has the righteousness
of Christ. He's justified before God. This
is Christ's work for him. He's righteous. And he's upright
in heart. God's given him a new heart. The work of Christ for
you. You're righteous. The work of Christ in you. You're
upright in heart. You have this spirit in whom
there's no guile, no deceit. It's someone that the Lord has
saved. righteous and upright in heart. And he gives them something to
do. Be glad in the Lord. This is our praise. Be glad.
That means cheer up. Cheer up. Be gleeful. Make merry. Rejoice greatly. Shout for joy. Now is what David
said in this psalm enough to make you shout for joy? I love what Scott Richardson
said. Ever since I heard the good news. I've never heard bad news. Let's pray.