The Blessed Man

 

 

 


[Psalm 32]

 

 

In the Bible, in Jeremiah 17:7-8, we can see similarities with the message of Psalm 1. The similarity lies in the fact that both passages describe who the blessed man is. The prophet Jeremiah says that the blessed man is the one who "trusts in the Lord." And he describes this blessed man as follows: "He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit" (Jeremiah 17:8). When meditating on Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:7-8 together, we can come to the conclusion: "The blessed man is the one who trusts in the Lord and meditates on His word day and night." In a sense, trusting in God means trusting in His word. To believe in God's promises is to trust in God.

In today's Scripture, Psalm 32:1-2, the phrase "blessed is he" is repeated twice. The psalmist David tells us who the blessed man is in this passage. Based on this passage, I want to meditate on three aspects of who the blessed man is and humbly receive the grace that God gives us.

First, the blessed man is the one who has been forgiven (vv. 1-5).

Look at Psalm 32:1: "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Here, the phrase "whose transgressions are forgiven" means "to be removed," and "whose sins are covered" means "to be made invisible even to God's eyes" (according to Park Yun-sun). In other words, the blessed man is one whose sins have been completely removed in God's sight.

In my house, I have three children, so it gets messy often. But last week, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came over and cleaned the house, and I was amazed at how clean it looked. However, there was one thing that hadn’t been cleaned—the trash bin outside the house. So, on Monday morning this week, after the garbage truck came and took away the trash, I washed the bin with water, set it aside, and let it dry. It no longer smelled, and it was much cleaner. In our Christian life, there are things, like the smell of trash, that are decaying—sins that stink inside us. We know we should display the fragrance of Christ, but because of unrepented sins, we are unable to show that fragrance, and each of us struggles with our own issues of sin. We know we should confess and repent of our sins, but sometimes, when we realize that we can't even repent, we feel frustrated. This is because we understand that without God's grace, repentance is impossible.

So, what should we do about our sin?
There are a few things we can consider:

(1) We must confess our sins to God.

In other words, we must acknowledge our sins as sins before the holy God. If we do not do this, we will need to groan all day long, just like David (v. 3). How painful must it have been for David when he did not confess his sin, to the point that his bones were wasting away from groaning all day? We cannot even imagine it. Dr. Park Yun-sun spoke about unrepented sin in this way: "Sin is this poisonous. If we lock it inside, it will destroy life from within."

(2) We must long for the 'hand of the Lord' that presses upon us.

Look at Psalm 32:4: "For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah." Here, the Hebrew word for "presses" literally means "heavy" (according to Park Yun-sun). This refers to how the Lord makes our hearts heavy when we are not confessing our sins. After committing sin, we need to feel that heaviness in our hearts. Personally, when I look at myself, I find that I take sin too lightly, so I don’t feel much heaviness or psychological distress. Even though I see this in myself, I confess that, like David, when I fail to confess my sin, I need to long for the grace of the Lord, who "presses upon me day and night." Eventually, David, after not confessing his sin, when the Lord's hand pressed upon him, he could no longer hide his sin and confessed it to God: "I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah" (v. 5). Here, we see God's grace and love that ultimately reveals our sins, making us confess and repent. What an amazing blessing from God!

So, what does it mean to confess our sins? We can think of it in two ways (according to Park Yun-sun):

  1. It means acknowledging our misdeeds before God.

This is not just trying to impress others or put on a façade in front of people. When a sinner truly admits his sins, God is pleased with that attitude.

  1. The act of confession is an act of faith in God's love.

Therefore, the faithful God will not allow this faith to fail or be in vain. So, we must confess our sins to the holy God. We must not have deceit in our hearts (v. 2). The one who has no deceit in his heart is the one who does not hide his sin but repents. Therefore, such a person will not be condemned by God. In other words, this person is considered not to have sin accounted against him (according to Park Yun-sun). And the one who is forgiven and does not have his sin counted as sin is not only a blessed person but also a happy one (Romans 4:6).

Secondly, the blessed person is a godly person (Psalm 32:6-9).

Look at Psalm 32:6 in the Bible: "Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they will not come near him." According to God, the blessed person is the godly one. Who is the godly person? Does the godly person refer to someone who has never sinned? No, it does not. A godly person is someone who confesses their sins to God and receives forgiveness. To speak more theologically, the godly person is the one whom God declares righteous, in other words, the "just." This godly person takes the opportunities God gives to pray and seeks the Lord (v. 6). For David, the opportunity to meet with the Lord in prayer was during times when he had not yet repented (vv. 3-4). In other words, the moment when he was not repenting and the Lord’s hand was pressing upon him was exactly when he had the opportunity to meet with the Lord. In those moments, we too should confess our sins like David and offer prayers of repentance to God.

What was the outcome when David confessed his sins and repented? In other words, what was the answer to David's prayer?

(1) The first answer to prayer was the forgiveness of his sins (vv. 1-2).
(2) The second answer to David's prayer was salvation from trouble (v. 6b).
That is, God grants the grace of salvation even in the midst of our troubles (Park Yun-sun).

(3) The third answer to prayer was that David received God's protection (v. 7).
David was no longer under God's wrath (v. 4), but now the Lord became his refuge, and David was confident that he would receive help in the day of trouble, so he praised God (v. 7, Park Yun-sun). Therefore, like David, we should seize the opportunities to meet with the Lord and pray to Him. When we do not confess our sins, that is exactly when the Lord's hand presses upon us, and that is the moment we have the chance to meet with the Lord. At that time, we must cry out to the Lord. And we should receive answers to our prayers. We must be forgiven of our sins, and even in the midst of our troubles, we must be saved and receive God's protection, who is our refuge.

Lastly, in third place, the blessed person is the one who trusts in God (vv. 10-11).

Look at Psalm 32:10: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him." In other words, the wicked who do not repent will face many sorrows, but the one who trusts in God and repents of their sins will experience God's mercy. David, who had experienced God’s mercy, decided to teach others (v. 8). What did he decide to teach? He decided to teach repentance. After experiencing the happiness of forgiveness through his own repentance, David had the courage to exhort others to repent (Psalm 51:13, Park Yun-sun).

What did David exhort others about repentance? Look at Psalm 32:9: "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." Here, the message of "do not be like the horse or the mule" is an exhortation to not be people who do not submit unless they are forced to (Park Yun-sun). We must not harden our hearts. When we have sins to confess, we must repent before the Lord. We must not be like the horse or the mule, where God has to force us to repent, nor should we be those who refuse to repent.

David, who confessed and repented of his sins, says this: “Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!” (v. 11). Here, the "righteous" and the "upright in heart" refer to those who repent (Park Yun-sun). David exhorts those who repent to rejoice and be glad in the Lord. He also encourages them to praise God with joy. When we truly repent before God, we must be forgiven of our sins and also be declared righteous. Therefore, as those who trust fully in God, may we all rejoice and be glad in Him.

 

 

 

Thinking of my blessed mother-in-law,

 

 

Pastor James's Sharing
(Entrusting my mother-in-law, who is enjoying freedom from sin, into God's hands.)