Psalm 32- Confession and Forgiveness
(Justification by Faith)
Psalms 32:1
Psalm 32
By David; a well-written song.
1 How blessed is the one whose rebellious acts are forgiven,
whose sin is pardoned!
2 How blessed is the one whose wrongdoing the LORD does not punish,
in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I refused to confess my sin,
my whole body wasted away,
while I groaned in pain all day long.
4 For day and night you tormented me;
you tried to destroy me in the intense heat of summer. (Selah)
5 Then I confessed my sin;
I no longer covered up my wrongdoing.
I said, “I will confess my rebellious acts to the LORD.”
And then you forgave my sins. (Selah)
6 For this reason every one of your faithful followers should pray to you
while there is a window of opportunity.
Certainly when the surging water rises,
it will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place;
you protect me from distress.
You surround me with shouts of joy from those celebrating deliverance. (Selah)
8 I will instruct and teach you about how you should live.
I will advise you as I look you in the eye.
9 Do not be like an unintelligent horse or mule,
which will not obey you
unless they are controlled by a bridle and bit.
10 An evil person suffers much pain,
but the LORDʼs faithfulness overwhelms the one who trusts in him.
11 Rejoice in the LORD and be happy, you who are godly!
Shout for joy, all you who are morally upright!
In keeping with our theme in this series, we will look to the New Testament to help up interpret this Psalm. In this case, verses 1 and 2 are quoted in Romans 4, so we have the Apostle Paul’s explanation to guide us.
Romans 4:1
Justification by Faith Evidenced in Old Testament
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN,
AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED.
8 “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”
Romans 4:16
16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
Romans 5:1-2
Results of Justification
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
In Psalm 32, the writer begins by stating the blessing of having sin covered, and the physical torment resulting from refusing to confess. But interestingly enough, the psalmist does not refer to the law or the temple sacrifices, but simply talks about confessing his sins to the Lord. In Romans, Paul expounds on this by explaining that this is an example of justification by faith in the Old Testament. He explains how Abraham’s faith and the psalmists confession are examples in the Old Testament of justification by faith and not by works. This was in stark contrast to his theological training as a Pharisee where strict observance of the law was demanded in order to earn the favor of the Lord. Here Paul explains that it is not the law that saves us, but our faith alone. Not that the law was bad, as it was needed to instruct us in what is right and what is wrong, but it was the faith of Abraham that was credited to him as righteousness.
The psalmist likewise was rejoicing that his lawless deeds were forgiven when he confessed his sins.
“Rejoice in the LORD and be happy, you who are godly!
Shout for joy, all you who are morally upright!”
As Paul explained to the Romans, it was the faith of the confession that resulted in his being counted as morally upright. Paul calls this “justified by faith” resulting in “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Paul goes to great lengths in the letter to the Romans to explain justification by faith, and you should study the entire book of Romans to get a thorough understanding of this topic. For our purposes here, this short synopsis will suffice. But there is another question that has been argued for centuries, so I won’t settle the argument here, but let me lay out the problem.
What happens after we confess and are forgiven? Paul says that we are counted as righteous by faith, but is this a permanent condition or can we revert to being an unsaved sinner by continuing to sin? There are some to hold to the position “once saved always saved” that believe that once you confess your faith in Jesus, nothing else really matters. On the other hand, others believe that you only continue to be saved only so long as you continue to not sin. I maintain that neither position is entirely true, but nether is entirely false either.
Paul addresses this issue in Romans 6:
Romans 6:1
Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Romans 6:12-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
As one of my friends recently stated it “you are saved by grace, so act like it!” This is what the Bible calls a mystery. It is a seeming contradiction that we are not saved by works, but once saved we should work at it. How can this be? I’m not adequate to explain it so I won’t belabor it much more. As I said, theologians have argued over this for centuries so we aren’t going to settle the matter here.
So practically, what does this mean for our daily Christian walk? I think it can be stated quite simply. Simple to state, but hard to do!
- Confess your sins and believe in Jesus to be saved.
- God will consider you righteous due to your faith and Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.
- Do your best to do everything that God tells you to do.
- When you mess up, confess and change (repent)
- repeat as often as necessary…
Billy Graham was once asked that if God was so loving, why was there so much evil in the world. His reply was to say, “There is so much soap in the world so why are so many dirty? The gospel is like soap, it must be applied daily to be effective.” I don’t think I can add much wisdom to what Billy Graham said, so that’s all I’ve got to say about that!
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