Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Reflecting on the Psalms: Chapter 32

Psalm 32

A Psalm of David, Maschil.

1Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
 
2Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
 
3When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
 
4For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
 
5I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
 
 6For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
 
7Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
 
8I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
 
9Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
 
10Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

11Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

Chapter 32

The way I see it, I am blessed by God with eternal life since I came to repentance (v. 1). I see eternal life as a blessing because I get to live for God ever after I die. Since I asked Him to forgive my sins, I don't have to worry about being separated from Him for eternity. It reminds of Romans 6:23, where Paul writes, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Since I am redeemed through Christ, I see eternal life -- which started as soon as I came to Him -- as a blessing. Since I am in Christ, He does not count sin against me (v. 2). I am thankful that His forgiveness stretches far because I've done things in the past that I don't feel good about. Matthew Henry talks about the first two verses by stating the following: "Sin is the cause of our misery; but the true believer's transgressions of the Divine law are all forgiven, being covered with the atonement. Christ bare his sins, therefore they are not imputed to him." He goes on to say, "And to the man whose iniquity is forgiven, all manner of blessings are promised." I think it's neat that because my sin is forgiven, God's blessings are promised to me. I imagine if I rebelled against God, I'd miss out on His blessings. Verses 3-4 seem to be dealing how David feels about the affect his sin had on him. I can't really relate to what he dealt with because I don't share the struggle as he did, but Henry writes about it by stating the following: "It is very difficult to bring sinful man humbly to accept free mercy, with a full confession of his sins and self-condemnation. But the true and only way to peace of conscience, is, to confess our sins, that they may be forgiven; to declare them that we may be justified. Although repentance and confession do not merit the pardon of transgression, they are needful to the real enjoyment of forgiving mercy." Sometimes I screw up so much that I don't feel God will be merciful to me yet He manages to. I repent daily, in prayer, to ask God to forgive me (v. 5) so I'll have a clean slate for the next day. Even if I just committed one sin that day, I know that even though I may feel bad about it, God will forgive me, which is really cool. If I truly repent of a sin -- that is, if I change my heart to when I don't commit it anymore, I don't have to have that burden over my shoulders since God helped me to change. I may step out of line and (involuntarily) commit a sin I've changed my heart about again yet I am thankful that God doesn't count that against me. "Floods of great waters," (v. 6) which appears to be a figure of speech means to me that God will protect from great troubles, which is continued in thought in verse 7. I am thankful for God's instruction and teaching (v. 8) and since He guides me with His eye, He knows where I'm gonna go and what I'm gonna do (for Him) before I go there, which I find to be another simple yet strong theological truth. It's kind of a reiteration about what I talked about in the last entry about how since God knows His plan for my life, I can trust Him to direct and guide me concerning that. I look to God for understanding so I will not be as a horse (v. 9) and I am thankful that since I trust in Him, He is merciful towards me (v. 10). As I said earlier, I've done some bad things and I thankful that God forgave me of them. If, however, I lived in sin and enjoyed it, I would not get to expereince His mercy, which I would miss out on. I can be glad in God due to His mercy and I shout and worship Him because He's been so good to me. He's helped me through tough times, like my darkest moment, and I will continue to praise Him for that (v. 11). Being upright in heart means to me that my character is pleasing to Him and not used to impress man. I try and use my humor in a way that please Him, like if I have a funny story where He's done something, even just something small, in my life. I can tell those those kinds of stories to other Christians to display how I reacted in a situation and how my reaction was pleasing to Him and not centered on myself and my worries.  Although I may not intend for a story to be funny where He's done something good in my life, it's OK if others wanna laugh about it because I think it makes them see God's sense of humor in the situation.

                                                     Source used:

Henry, Matthew. "Concise Commentary on Psalms 32". "Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
on the Whole Bible". <http://www.searchgodsword.org/com/mhc-con/view.cgi?book=ps&chapter=032>. 

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