Psalm 32: Day 7

Psalm 32: Day 7 of our 10-day devotional journey through the Psalms, you'll gain fresh insights and spiritual strength each morning.  This series encourages you to offer your shortcomings to God, trusting in His ability to turn them into sources of strength and glory. Whether you're a morning go-getter or a lover of the snooze button, these reflections aim to imbue your day with peace and purpose found in His Word. Join us for an enriching experience that promises to renew your spirit and ignite your faith.

Chapters

• 0:19 Walking in Forgiveness and Grace
• 6:59 Guidance and Mercy in God

Transcript

Julie: 0:19

Kia ora and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for women to be encouraged by God's holy word. I'm your host, julie Colbeth, and I am overjoyed to dig into the Bible with you today. Growing up, I loved to build forts, sometimes inside with furniture and blankets or under my bed, sometimes inside with furniture and blankets or under my bed, but most often in the woods. My brother and I loved to make little shelters with sticks and build fires and just settle into the woods for the day, sitting there surrounded by birdsong and covered by the journey of transgression, forgiveness and restoration, and praises God for being his hiding place. True to the heart of the Psalms, david honestly expresses his misery and lifelessness under the hand of God while he was in his sin. But after his confession and God's forgiveness, david is liberated back into his joyful relationship with the Lord. God is recognized as his hiding place once more, the place where he runs to be safe and find deliverance, peace and joy.

Julie: 1:54

Let's read verse 1 and 2 of Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. This psalm is for all of us who have transgressed. A transgression is to willfully and intentionally sin. You knew that it was wrong, but you did it anyway. A transgression is to willfully and intentionally sin. You knew that it was wrong, but you did it anyway. Right here, at the beginning of this psalm, we're encouraged not to let deceit take hold of our spirit. It is only through confessing our deepest, darkest sins that we can enjoy an honest relationship with God and experience his forgiveness.

Julie: 2:51

Spurgeon put it like this Blessedness is not in this case ascribed to the man who has been a diligent lawkeeper for then it would never come to us but rather to a lawbreaker who, by grace to a lawbreaker, who by grace most rich and free, has been forgiven. Self-righteous Pharisees have no portion in this blessedness. Over the returning prodigal the word of welcome is here pronounced and the music and dancing begin he goes on to say in a little bit. He who is pardoned has in every case been taught to deal honestly with himself, his sin and his God. Forgiveness is no sham, and the peace which it brings is not caused by playing tricks with conscience. Self-deception and hypocrisy bring no blessedness. Self-deception and hypocrisy bring no blessedness. They may drug the soul into hell with pleasant dreams, but into the heaven of true peace. They cannot conduct their victim Free from guilt, free from guile. Those who are justified from fault are sanctified from falsehood. A liar is not a forgiven soul. Spurgeon points out that we must come to God as we are Honest about all the deep, dark, hidden places in us is the only way that we can be free from our guilt and experience true forgiveness. And this is where David begins this psalm.

Julie: 4:26

Now we're going to move into David's personal confession in verses three through five. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin, selah.

Julie: 5:05

When we try to hide from God the darkest parts of ourselves and continue to walk in the sin we have surrounded ourselves in, we are miserable and lonely. Only when we confess our sins and fling ourselves upon the grace and mercy of God can we find freedom and life. David continues to give an application for all the things that he's learned through this sin. In verse six through seven he says for this cause, because of this forgiveness, everyone who is godly shall pray to you. In a time when you may be found, surely, in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near you. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah, true repentance causes others to look to God as well. David calls others to pray to the Lord and call upon his name while he may be found. He says that even in a rushing tide of great waters, you can't be touched. When you are found in the safety of prayer, in fact, instead of a torrent of dangerous waters, you'll be surrounded with songs, sweetly sung, of deliverance.

Julie: 6:33

The next two verses switch to God's voice, spoken in response to the prayer of this forgiven one. God says I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.

Julie: 6:59

God now gives some direction to the repentant sinner. He says to listen closely for instruction from the Lord and to heed it. A good servant doesn't need to be told what to do. They watch their master very closely and pick up the subtlest of signals for changes. God wants willing hearts that are watching for his guidance and don't need a shout or a catastrophe to move us along. He desires deep fellowship that births a loving and intimate oneness with the Lord, not an arrogant, self-sufficient heart that petitions the Lord simply as an afterthought.

Julie: 7:48

David brings this psalm of joy to an ending with these words Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. I love what Spurgeon wrote about this verse. Faith in God is the great charmer of life's cares, and he who possesses it dwells in an atmosphere of grace, surrounded with the bodyguard of mercies. May it be given to us of the Lord, at all times, to believe in the mercy of God, even when we cannot see traces of its working. For to the believer, believer mercy is as all surrounding, as omniscience, and every thought and act of God is perfumed with it. The wicked have a hive of wasps around them many sorrows, but we have a swarm of bees storing honey for us. We can choose gladness and intimacy through honest confession. As we step into a new day, let's remember God is our fort in the woods. He is our hiding place. Thank you.