“Blessed is the man”

[Psalms 32]

If we look at Jeremiah 17:7-8, we can see something similar to Psalms 1.  The similarity is that both passages tell us who the blessed person is.  Prophet Jeremiah says that a person who is blessed is a person who trusts in the Lord.  And this is how he describes the blessed man who trusts in Him: “"For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit” (Jere. 17:8).  We can come to this conclusion when we meditate on Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:7-8 together: ‘Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, who meditates on His Word day and night.’  In a way, trust in the Lord means trust in His Word.  And trusting in His Word can mean trusting in the Lord.

In Psalms 32:1–2, the word “blessed” is repeated twice.  The psalmist David tells us who the blessed person is.  I want to receive God’s grace humbly as I meditate on three things about who the blessed man is based on Psalms 32.

First, the blessed man is he whose sin in forgiven (Ps. 32:1-5).

                Look at Psalms 32:1 – “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!”  Here, “is forgiven” means ‘to be taken away, and “is covered” means ‘to be invisible to God's eyes’ (Park).  In other words, the person who is blessed is the person whose sin has been put away in the sight of God.  Since there are three children in my house, our house is often messy.  But last week, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law came and cleaned the house.  I was surprised to see how clean it was.  But there was one that wasn't removed, it was a trash bin outside the house.  So, this Monday morning, after a garbage truck came and took the garbage, I washed it all with water and dried it.  Then it didn’t seem to smell, and it was very clean.  Even in our spiritual lives, there are things in us that smell like rotten stuff in the trash can, that is there are truly stinking sins in us.  Although we know that we must smell like the fragrance of Christ, but we aren’t able to do so because of our unrepentant sins.  So we have our own sin problems.  We know that we have to confess our sins and repent, and there are many times when we are frustrated by seeing ourselves unable to repentant.  The reason is because we have realized that without God’s grace we cannot repent our sins.  What should we do with our sin problem?  We can think of it in two ways:

(1)   We must confess our sins to God. 

It means that we must admit and acknowledge our sins to our holy God.  If not, we need to groan all day long like David (v. 3).  How painful it would have been if David had not confessed his sins, so that he would groan all day long and his body wasted away?  We can't imagine.  This is what Dr. Yoon-sun Park said regarding unrepent sins: ‘Sin is so strong.  If we keep it in us, it will destroy life in us there.’

(2)   We must yearn for the Lord’s hand that is heavy upon us.

Look at Psalms 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.”  When we don’t confess our sins to God, the Lord makes our hearts heavy.  Our hearts should be heavy after we sinned against God.  Personally, when I look at myself, I feel light regarding my sins that I have little heaviness in my heart and less psychological pain.  When I look at myself like this and don't even confess my sins to God like David, I confess that I need to beg for the grace of the Lord's hand to be heavy upon me “day and night” (v. 4).  Eventually, David confessed his sins to God when the Lord's hand was heavy upon him.  He no longer hid his sins but confessed them to God: “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah” (v. 5).  Here we see the grace and love of God, who ultimately exposes our sins and enables us to confess and repent them.  What an amazing blessing of God?

Then, what is confession of sin?  We can think of it in two ways (Park):

(1)     Confessing of sin is to acknowledge our wrongdoing before God. 

It isn’t just trying to blindfold our sins in order to keep our appearance in front of other people.  When we truly acknowledges our sins, God will be pleased with our attitude.

(2)   Confessing of sin is to trust God’s love.

Therefore, our faithful God doesn’t fail that faith and doesn’t waste it.  Therefore, we must confess our sins to our holy God.  There should be no deceit in our spirits (v. 2).  Those whose spirits don’t have deceit don’t cover up their sins but repent.  Therefore the Lord doesn’t impute iniquity (v. 2).  In other words, they are the ones whose sins aren’t regarded as sins (Park).  And they are the ones whose sins are forgiven and thus they are the blessed people (Rom. 4:6).

Second, the blessed man is godly (Ps. 32:6-9).

                Look at Psalms 32:6 – “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 reach him.”  Those who are blessed in the sight of God are godly.  Who is a godly person?  Does the godly person refer to a person who never sin?  It isn’t.  The godly person is a person whose sins are forgiven by confessing his sins to God.  More theologically speaking, the godly person refers to a person who is justified by God, the “righteous”.  This godly man prays to God in a time when God may be found (v. 6).  The prayer opportunity to meet the Lord refer to times when David wasn’t repenting (vv. 3-4).  In other words, it was an opportunity to meet the Lord when the Lord's hand was heavy upon his unrepentant heart.  At this time, like David, we must confess our sins and pray to God for repentance.  What was the result of David's confession and repentance?  In other words, what was David's answer to prayer?

(1)     The answer to the prayer was forgiveness of his sins (vv. 1-2).

(2)     The answer to the prayer was to be saved in trouble (v. 6).

In other words, God gives us the grace of salvation even during our trouble (Park).

(3) David was preserved by God in response to the prayer (v. 7).

David was no longer in the wrath of God (v. 4), and he was now convinced to praise God because God would become his hiding place and because God would preserve him from trouble (v. 7, Park).  Therefore, like David, we must take the opportunity to meet the Lord and pray to Him.  It is the opportunity to meet the Lord when the Lord's hand is heavy upon us because we keep silent about our sins.  At this time, we should pray to the Lord.  And we must receive our prayer answers from the Lord.  Because we are forgiven of our sins and are saved even in the midst of our trouble, we need to be preserved by the Lord who is our hiding place.

Third and last, the blessed man trusts in the Lord (vv. 10-11).

                Look at Psalms 32:10 – “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.”  In other words, the wicked who don’t repent have a lot of sorrow, but he who trusts in the Lord repents his sins, and God's lovingkindness is with him.  David, who has experienced God's lovingkindness, decides to teach others (v. 8).  What did he determine to teach?  It was repentance.  David himself had the courage to teach repentance to others after experiencing the happiness of receiving forgiveness through his own repentance (51:13) (Park).  What was David's instruction about repentance?  Look at Psalms 32:9 – “Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.”  Here, the words “Do not be as the horse or as the mule” is an exhortation not to be a person who doesn’t obey unless he is forced to be dominated (Park).  We must not harden our hearts.  We must repent to the Lord when we have sin to repent.  We must not become people like “the horse” and “the mule” who don’t repent our sins unless God forcefully makes us to do so.

David, who confessed his sins and repented, says: “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart” (v. 11).  Here, “the righteous” and “the upright” refer to the repentant (Park).  David encourages repentants to be glad and rejoice in the Lord.  And he encourages them to praise God in joy.  We must be forgiven of our sins and justified by truly repenting our sins to God.  Therefore, I hope and pray that we who are glad in the Lord and rejoice in Him as we fully trusts in the Lord.

Thinking of my mother-in-law who is a blessed woman,

Sharing Pastor James

(By entrusting my mother-in-law who enjoys freedom from sin to God)