This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for day two of our look through Psalm 31 to 35.
That means we're looking at Psalm 32 today. Psalm 32 is the second of the seven,
what are called penitential Psalms, Psalms about God's forgiveness.

And forgiveness in this Psalm is the first of the three things that David prays
about in this Psalm. Psalm, one of the wonderful things about the book of Psalms
is it teaches us many different prayer conversations with God. There's no one
right way to pray, but you can certainly learn from the prayers of others.

And here you can learn from this three-part conversation with God that David has
in Psalm 32. Three parts, first, you express to God the joy of your forgiveness.
That's a good way to start in prayer.

You just start out by telling God how grateful you are for your forgiveness.
Listen to how he prays in verses one down through verse five. Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him, and in whose
spirit there is no deceit. 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 sapped as in the heat of summer, salah. Then I acknowledged my
sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity, and I said, I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. As you look at
these first words of Psalm 32, the joy of our forgiveness, the joy of your
forgiveness is expressed in three words.

First, the word blessed. Verse one, blessed is he whose transgressions are
forgiven. These verses from Psalms are quoted by Paul in Romans four, six to
eight.

And before he quotes them, he says, David says the same thing, Romans four, six.
David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom
God credits righteousness apart from his works. The blessedness of forgiveness.

It is, it's pure blessing. Because it's not based, God's forgiveness is not
based on anything that you have done or that you could do. It's based on what he
has done for you.

And the blessing of forgiveness, that there's something I could never have done
for myself that he did for me because he loved me so much, that is rejoicing in,
expressing to God the joy of your forgiveness. So it's the word blessed. Second
word is the word covered, whose sins are covered.

God covers over our sins. In the Old Testament, the picture of this was the
covering that was over the Ark of the Covenant. Even as God covered that, he
covers over our sins.

It's interesting here. In verse five, David writes and he says, I did not cover
up my iniquity. And then in verse one, he says, our sins are covered by God.

The truth is, we can try to cover over our sins or we can trust God as the one
who covers our sins. And we need to come to the same place of David. I'm not
going to cover my sins.

I'm going to trust God for his covering. I'm going to be open about my sins before
God, even before others. And I'm going to trust God as my covering, not myself.

I'm not going to hide away from my sins. I'm going to bring them to God and then he
will hide them away from even himself. That's the amazing miracle that happens.

Are you trying to cover your sin right now? Are you trusting in God to forgive
and cover your sins? There's this moment of just extreme joy when you realize, I
don't have to cover up anymore.

I can trust in God to cover over all those sins in my life. And then there's a
third thing that we rejoice in when we rejoice in forgiveness. In verse two, he
says, whose sin the Lord does not count against him.

I love that picture. Your sin isn't counted against you anymore. It's like
there's this huge ledger and on one side of the ledger were all of your sins.

And the moment, the other side of the ledger, the moment the blood of Jesus
Christ was entered, all those sins disappeared. They're not even there anymore.
They are not counted against you.

It's like a scales on one side of the scales. The weight, it was weighted down
heavy with your sin. And the moment you put the blood of Jesus Christ, the love
of Jesus Christ on the cross for you, you accepted that and you put it on the
other side of the scale.

Not only did it tip the scales, but it didn't count. Every weight on the other
side of the scale just disappears in God's sight. Now I know we still see our
sins in this world.

I understand we still struggle with our sin, but in God's sight, they're not
counted against you anymore. You can rejoice in that. You can rejoice in the
depth of your forgiveness.

So the prayer begins and sometimes when you're praying, you might just pray this
way. Start by just expressing to God how deeply grateful you are that he has
forgiven you. But then second, the second thing he does in this prayer is he
trusts God with his troubles.

So second, you trust God with your troubles. I want you to notice in verse six,
the first word. The first word is therefore.

When you see the word therefore, it means it relates to everything that was
before it. The word therefore, you always ask, what's it there for? And it's
there to tell you that what came before is what led to this next phrase, this
next sentence.

In verses six and seven, therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you while
you may be found. Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.
You are my hiding place.

You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. So
David is writing and he's saying, because we have this joy of forgiveness, we
constantly turn to God in prayer for our problems. If you don't have joy in your
forgiveness, you're going to want to stay away from God 'cause you feel guilty in his
sight.

But once you recognize how deeply forgiven you are, you like being in his
presence. He's the one who's forgiven you. He's the one who has your sins
covered over.

And while you're in his presence, you bring your troubles to him. Because we are
forgiven, we have an open door to talk to God. And because we are forgiven, we
have this motivation to talk to God.

So you bring your troubles to him. You say, God, I'm struggling with this. I'm
struggling with this.

I need your help here. I need your help here. And then the third part of the
prayer comes.

Third, you look to God for the direction that you need. So first, you begin by
trusting in God and expressing to God the joy of your forgiveness. And then
second, you trust in God with your troubles.

And then third, you look to God for the direction that you need. Verses eight
down to verse 11. I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should
go.

I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, God
says, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle, or
they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's
unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.

Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous. Sing, all of you who are upright
in the Lord. So he's saying, one follows the other.

Out of the joy of forgiveness and the confidence of God's protection as we ask
him to help us in our troubles, now we're ready to look for the direction that
we need. Often, we try to look for direction first. We look to God for direction
out of a heart of anxiety or even out of a heart of guilt.

But when you get your heart to a place of peace and trust, then you're ready to
hear his direction. In verse eight, I will instruct you and teach you in the way
you should go. He gives both wisdom and direction.

He gives us the wisdom of his instruction, but he also teaches us the way that
we should go. You get close to God, he does both. He does both.

Now, how can anyone have confidence about God's will for their lives? Because
God doesn't want to leave us in the dark. He wants to give us his direction.

Here and so many other places in the scripture, he tells us that he does. He
wants to give us his best direction for our lives. You hear people sometimes say
phrases like, God is telling me to or God said to me.

What does that mean? Does being a Christian mean you hear God's audible voice
telling you exactly what to do next? Well, that's never happened to me.

It's not happened to anybody that I know. It could happen that way. But most
often, when you hear someone say, God is telling me to or God is leading me to
or he's saying to me, it means that they've heard from God.

Now, it may be through a flash of inspiration that comes to their heart and
mind. It may be that they've gone through a process that has slowly caused them
to see God's direction. However it's happened, this confidence has grown that
you've heard from God.

It's not necessarily an audible voice, but it's an internal voice that is
actually much more powerful. God is speaking to me. He's got direction for me.

And one of the keys to that direction that God wants to give into my life and
your life today, it's a tough one to hear, is in verse nine. He says, honestly,
don't be like the horse or the mule. He's saying to us, don't be stubborn.

Like the horse or the mule who has to be forced into direction with a bit in
their mouth. God can certainly channel us in one direction or another through
circumstances, through the bit of our circumstances. He does it with unbelievers
all the time.

He does it with nations all the time. But as a follower of Christ, you want to be
guided by his voice, not your circumstances. Circumstances, they can certainly
confirm what you've heard from God, but it begins with a heart to hear from God
and to follow him.

So as we pray together during the next minute or so, let's just take a moment to
do what David taught us, to pray like he taught us. And in prayer right now,
would you just say, Father, I want to just tell you right now how deeply grateful
I am for the forgiveness that you've given to me. And how joyful I am that I am
forgiven, that I stand before you forgiven.

And out of that joy, I trust you for the troubles that I'm facing right now, the
difficulties in my life, because I know you're trustworthy. You took care of the
problem of my sin. You can show up for me.

You can give me strength. You can show me the way out of this trouble that I'm
facing right now. And so I look to you for direction.

I want to hear your voice. I don't know how I'm going to hear it. I'm not telling
you how I need to hear it.

But as you speak to me through your word and through your people and through
circumstances and through what you say in my heart, through your spirit, God, I
want to hear your voice. I need your direction in this decision that I'm facing. I
need your direction in this problem that I'm having.

And so I ask for it right now. In Jesus' name, I ask for it. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at the new song that God gives us.