The following video is from the YouTube site, Ligonier Ministries
Video-page link: https://www.youtube.com/@LigonierMinistries/videos
“Everyone who truly repents of his or her sins receives the grace of God’s forgiveness and enjoys the delight of restored fellowship with Him. In this message, R.C. Sproul shows how Psalm 32 helps us grasp the unspeakable joy of forgiveness in Christ.” [Ligonier’s description]
Psalm 32: The Joy of Forgiveness – Psalm 51 with R.C. Sproul
Lesson HIGHLIGHTS [NOTE: the following highlights do not convey R C Sproul’s expertise in clarifying the concepts herein, all the things he said brought much clarity, only the high points are noted below. If you want to understand these essential and foundational Christian doctrines, please read and listen. Much of the church today does not speak of repentance, or of essential doctrines…]:
- The only cure for guilt is forgiveness
- The only necessity for forgiveness is repentance
- There is an inseparable relationship between guilt, repentance, and forgiveness
- Anyone who knows the pain of genuine repentance will also know the joy of forgiveness
- In this lesson, we will look at the goal of repentance – the restoration of the soul to fellowship with God, and to the experience of the joy of forgiveness
- In Psalm 32, David gives us his feelings of forgiveness: Psalm 32:1 A Maskil of David. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered
- The apostle uses these words of David’s in Romans 4:7ff
- R C explains ‘oracles:’ two types; oracle of woe which speaks of cursing; and oracle of weal which speaks of blessing
- Isaiah 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
- Romans 4:6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
- Every Christian is a person whose sins have been forgiven
- That is, to enter into that reconciled relationship with God wherein one’s sins have been forgiven, is to enter into a state of blessedness [so declared by God, as did Jesus in the beatitudes, e.g.]
- That is, we’re blessed, not because we’re righteous, but because we’re forgiven
- In our study of Psalm 51, we’ve learned two metaphors for REDEMPTION from the Bible: 1) the blotting out of sin; and 2) the covering of one’s guilt by the righteousness of Christ, wherein we have our sins covered, or hidden by God
- The 1st covering [in the Bible] was when God gave clothes to Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness, after they had hidden to conceal themselves from the gaze of God
- The ‘covering’ can be seen at the day of atonement [Leviticus 16] via the blood of the sacrifice being sprinkled on the mercy seat
- Ultimately, the covering of our nakedness by the righteous garments of Christ
- The above examples = the blessing of forgiveness
- Psalm 32:2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
- At the heart of the gospel is the concept of IMPUTATION
- IMPUTATION: a legal transfer of accounts
- At the cross, we see our sin transferred to Christ, who is our substitute
- That is, our sins were imputed to Him, legally
- When God looked down from heaven [at the cross], He saw one who is covered with our guilt and iniquity, via imputation
- The other part of the gospel is the reverse transfer wherein God imputes Christ’s righteousness to our account
- Psalm 32:3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 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
- When reading of the saints that went before us, we often read of the ‘dark night of the soul,’ a time when God seemed far away
- Also, those saints, the nearer they drew to God, the more clearly they became aware of their unworthiness before God; that it, as one progresses in sanctification, he becomes more aware of how much work remains to be done [by God the Holy Spirit as He conforms us to the image of Christ; and as we struggle to trust and obey; it seems that the work of sanctification is done by God by subjecting us to trials, testing…]
- David described his ‘dark night of the soul’ in terms of dryness in the midst of drought [R C explained the concepts of wadi, dry gulches, arroyos – just after the 9 minute mark in the video]
- When he kept silent (did not confess sin) his bones ached
- Verse 5 above, is a prayer of thanksgiving for having received forgiveness from God
- Verse 5 is also the prayer of EVERY Christian who has stood at the foot of the cross, confessed their sin and experienced pardon and the remission of those sins from the hand of God
- Psalm 32:6 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
- R C referred to a song from his youth wherein God was said to abundantly pardon those who sought His mercy
- He explained drought – floods [in the desert], cisterns dug by Jews at Masada to collect flood waters so they could survive there
- After a person has experienced the forgiveness of God, they have come into a safe hiding place
- Verses 6-9 explained: Psa 32:6 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. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 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
- In verses 8 and 9, God is telling David to not be like a horse or mule; R C noted that God has to bridle us in; He has to yank our reigns to get our attention at those times we have fallen into sin
- Psa 32:10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. 11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
- Those who trust in the Lord will be surrounded by His mercy
- R C used verse 11 in referring to numerous examples of David ‘shouting’ out to the Lord in repentance, Psalm 6 alluded to; he finished by explaining that we do so when we feel the weight of repentance
- David, however, shouted out in joy in verse 11
Link to Psalm 51, 8-part series, of which the above video is part 8: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/psalm
This message is from Dr. Sproul’s 8-part teaching series Psalm 51. Learn more [to all series]: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series…