All right, we're going to be looking at Psalm 32 this morning, but before we go to Psalm 32, I want to give us a little bit of a background, all right, a little bit of a background to Psalm 32. 

If you turn with me to 2 Samuel this morning, the book of 2 Samuel, or excuse me, 1 Samuel, not 2 Samuel, no, 2 Samuel, that's right, 2 Samuel chapter 11. We have something happening in King David's life, and I'm not exactly sure when he wrote Psalm 32, but this is kind of a response to what happened here in 2 Samuel chapter 11. 

And beginning at verse 1, it says, “Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they destroyed the sons of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came, David arose from his bed, and walked around on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.” 

Let me just stop there for a moment. Interestingly, David has been anointed by God. He was a man after God's own heart. And David normally went out to battle. But for some reason this spring, he decided that he was going to stick around the house. And it's kind of interesting to me, it says that in the evening David arose from his bed. So here you have the king, must have been lounging around all day long, bored, whatever. And in the evening, he gets up and starts walking around on his roof. 

And that's when he looks and sees, see, idleness is the playground of the devil, remember that. Whenever you let yourself be idle, you open yourself to temptation, amen? So anyway, David sends and inquires about the woman. We won't read the whole thing, but he goes and inquires about this, and they said, well, this is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So he summons Uriah to his house, and he has relations with her. She conceives a child, and she calls to David and says, you know, tells the king, calls to David and says, “David, I'm with child.” 

Now the king gets a little bit nervous, and so he decides that he's going to try to cover his sin. He's going to hide what he's done. And so he calls back Uriah from the battle with Joab, and has him come and he says, asks how the battle's going, and then tells him that he should go and lay with his wife. 

And Uriah, being a man of righteousness, a good man, a godly man, and a wonderful warrior, says, “God forbid that I should go and take pleasure while my brothers are in the field fighting battles.” And he stayed at the king's house. 

David tried a couple more times to get him to go home, and he just wouldn't do it. And so he gets this idea that, you know, I've got to make this go away somehow, some way this has got to go away. So he sends a note with Uriah, and sends him back to the battle. And the note, it says, that tells Joab to put him at the front of the lines so that he, and then draw back from him so that he would perish, so that he would die in the battle. And that happens. Uriah gets killed in battle. 

And then David goes and takes Bathsheba to his house. And so anyway, you have this scene where David, this wonderful man of God, who really has a heart for God and a desire for God, sins miserably, falls terribly. It's a horrifying picture. I remember one time a few years ago, we were having a Bible study, and a Marine veteran from the Vietnam War was there. And as we were talking about this, he was so utterly abhorred at David, he said he could not for the life of him forgive David for what he had done. 

Because to him, that was such an odious thing, that you would do that to one of your own. You know, you take care of your brothers when you go to battle. You don't put them in harm's way. And he thought that this was such a strange thing, and it is a strange thing. 

Especially when you look in 1 Chronicles 11, Uriah the Hittite is mentioned as one of God's mighty men, or one of David's mighty men, one of his mighty warriors. He's listed in the 30 that are really great in David's army. So you would have thought that David would have had some compassion for him. 

One of the problems that that poor Marine veteran had was that he didn't really understand his own heart. And that's the case with us. We don't always understand our own heart. So we like to compare ourselves with somebody else and say, yeah, look what he did. He did worse than I've ever done. And whenever we do that, we are wrong. 

So anyway, that's the story behind what happens. And then shortly after that, in the next chapter, God sends Nathan the prophet to him. Nathan says to David, he says, you know what, there was a rich man who had a friend come to visit. And instead of taking one of his own lambs and slaughtering it to feed his buddy, he went to his poor neighbor who had only one. 

And that lamb lived with that man and was dear and precious to him. But he took that lamb and slayed it to feed his enemies. And David's anger rises up. And he says, that man needs to repay fourfold what he's done. And just goes into a fit of rage. And Nathan, in all boldness, says to him, “You are the man, David.” David's caught. 

And he recognizes it. And he acknowledges it. And then we have Psalm 51. And let's go to Psalm 51 quickly. Because Psalm 51 is what happened immediately after his time with Nathan the prophet. And understand this, this is so cool. You know, even when we fail, did you know that God's looking for us? He's wanting us. He's desiring fellowship with us. 

And David has, for some reason, we have no idea how long this time went. But David had been absent from God. And God goes looking for him. And then Psalm 51 is the prayer. And we're all familiar with it. 

“Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. This is an interesting thing. Against you, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. 

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make me no wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear the joy of gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare your praise. 

For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. By your favor, do good to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then young bulls will be offered on your altar. 

So that's the background behind as we come to Psalm 32. Pretty bleak, pretty black. One of the things that I appreciate about the Word of God, and one of the things that's always encouraged me, is that God never tries to hide the flaws, the sins, and the outright rebellion of his people. He lets us see it. He lets us look at it. 

Why does that encourage me? Because I'm a rebellious man. I am a rebellious and a stubborn man. And oftentimes I find myself running from God myself, and forgetting the goodness and the kindness and the mercies of God. But God lets us see that there is, with him, there is mercy. And that no matter what happens, there can be grace and forgiveness with us. Amen? 

All right, Psalm 32 is called Amaskel. If you look in the beginning, before the first verse, it says, “A Psalm of David, Amaskel.” Now, Amaskel is a didactic, in other words, a teaching psalm. This is a psalm for teaching. So this is David's teaching, and the Holy Spirit inspired him to do this. But this is what David learned from his experience. This is a teaching. 

And so he's going to give a teaching. And he begins that, and we're going to look at this, and I'm going to bring four points to this. The first one is the blessedness of forgiveness with God. The second one will be, excuse me, the second will be the problem of unconfessed sin. Point three will be the solution, and point four, God's gracious response. 

So as we look at Psalm 32, let's look at verses one and two. It says, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” 

Now he talks about sin in three different ways in this passage. He calls them three different things: transgression, sin, and not imputed, and those three words. And we're going to take a brief look at those three words. 

The first word is transgression. The Hebrew word for transgression is pesha, and it signifies separation or a rending apart or a departure, and expresses the notion of apostasy and rebellion. And this is how David describes what he had done. He had ripped and torn asunder his relationship with God. He had torn and had gone and turned in rebellion and walked away from the Lord. This is why he was able to say in Psalm 51, “Against you and you only have I sinned.” 

What didn't he sin against Bathsheba? Didn't he sin against Uriah? Didn't he sin against the entirety of Israel? But he said, “Against you and you only have I sinned.” Why is that? Because God himself is the holy and the righteous one, and from him comes the command, “Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery.” All of those things come from God himself. 

And so to engage in those things is to walk it away in rebellion to God, and that is the highest and the worst of the sins. Amen? Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 59. And beginning at verse 12 it says this, “For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities, transgressing and denying the Lord and turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and utterly from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. Yes, truth is lacking, and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. 

Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in his sight that there was no justice. And he saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought salvation to him, and his righteousness upheld him.” 

So he says here, he talks about that transgression, that rebellion, that turning away, and the entirety of the house of Israel, and Isaiah brings that out and shows it. There is that apostasy, that rebellion, that is the worst part of sin, that's how he first describes it. All sin is a departure from God, amen? 

All sin is a turning and a walking away from God. What do we do when we sin? What is it that we do when we turn away from God? What is the response that we should have? That word, someone said the other day, we don't talk about it enough in church. That word is repentance. What is repentance? Repentance means to turn around. Basically it means turn around. In the Greek, the word is metanoia, and that is a military term that means to do an about face. That's how it would be said in our military today: about face, that means you turn around. 

What we are doing when we sin is we are walking away from God. We are turning our back to him and we are walking away. And as we're walking away we get further and further away. But repentance means that we turn around. Now we turn around, we change our mind, we turn around and we face God and we walk towards him. That's repentance. Remember John the Baptist, when he was in the wilderness, he cried out and said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. In other words, turn around. Your king is coming and you're walking away from him. You're walking in rebellion against him. Turn around. 

And that same call goes out to each and every one of us. And thank God those of us who are here who love the Lord, we've responded. We've done it. We've heard the call to turn around and we've turned to face him. Isn't it a wonderful thing? When we are walking away from God and we're worried about the damage that we've done to our relationship, that he calls us and tells us to turn around, and when we do, we meet the face of a God smiling at us and saying, “You are forgiven, my son.” Glory to God. 

What a wonderful thing. The next word that he uses for sin is the word sin. And this word corresponds to the Greek word hamartia, which means literally to err or to miss the mark. 

Now, this might not sound too bad. Missing the mark, that doesn't sound too bad, does it? I mean, you know, “Ah, you know what, I missed the mark.” Well, let me tell you something. Every year, people die in the woods in Wisconsin because somebody missed the mark when they were shooting at that deer and didn't realize that somebody was back there and that bullet struck and killed them. They missed the mark. 

People die when the mark is missed. Just think of Nassau when they launch that rocket to go to the moon, and they were off just a little bit. That little microscopic off that they are leads to miles and miles and miles away from when you get that far out. They missed the mark, and that's what he says here concerning sin. Sin is a missing of the mark. God has given us his law, and the law is that mark that he has given us. 

Look at that law and see how far you've fallen, how far you've missed. What's the purpose of the law? Is it to give us righteousness? Is it to make us holy? No, it's to show us that we've missed the mark. That's the only reason the law is given, to show us that we've missed the mark. 

And then that to be a tutor, to lead us to Christ, to lead us to the one who is the answer to us having missed the mark. That's the purpose of the law. Don't ever forget that. Your keeping the law will not get you to heaven. I think about the rich young ruler that walked up to Jesus and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

And Jesus said, “You know the commandments. You know, honor your father and mother, do not steal, do not bear false witness.” And the rich young ruler says, “All of these things I've kept from my youth up, what do I still lack?” Aren't you glad that he understood that there was something still missing? And Jesus laid his finger right on his sin, and his sin was that he did not love God. He had idols in his heart. He said, “Sell all that you possess, give it to the poor, and come follow me.” 

It says that he dropped his head and he walked away sad because he was a man of great riches and he did not want to give up those riches. That was his idol. That was what he was after. That was what he loved more than he loved God. So he missed the mark, right? 

How many of us can stand here this morning and say, “All of these things I've kept from my youth up?” I can't. I can't. I look at each one of these, and I know I've failed miserably in all of them. Thank God that missing the mark, that I have an answer for that. And we'll look at that. 

But now the next word is the word iniquity. The Hebrew word for iniquity is aban, and it means perversity. The Greek equivalent is anomia, or lawlessness. Perversity in the Webster's Dictionary means obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable, and accepted. Isn't that what our sin is? Isn't it an obstinate opposing of what we know is right? It's perversity in its most disgusting form. 

That's what sin is. It's disgusting. It's perverse. It's twisted. It's immoral. Everything about it is disgusting. So there's how David describes, in the beginning of this chapter, he says, “How blessed is the man whose rebellion is forgiven, whose missing the mark has been covered, and whose perverseness the Lord will not impute to him.” Praise God. 

Now, he gives three words to express the words for forgiveness. Those words are forgiveness, covered, and not imputed. Let's look at those for just a minute. Forgiven. The word in Hebrew is nasah, and in the Greek it is afieme. Both mean exactly the same thing: to lift up or away. Now, this is a picture. 

In the Old Testament, as you recall the sacrifices that God commanded the children of Israel, they were to bring for their atonement two goats. And they would bring the two goats, and the priest would cast a lot. And on one, the goat would be taken, and it would be slaughtered, and its blood sprinkled. And the other one, the priest would lay his hands on the head of that goat, and he would confess the sins of Israel over that goat, and then release it into the wilderness. And that's kind of the picture that we have here. 

That first word for forgiven, that nasah, my transgression is forgiven. It is taken away. It's borne away. Jesus has borne our sins in his body on the cross. He's taken them away. He's lifted it up, and he's taken it away. I like that picture of Christian in Paul Bunyan's story of the Pilgrim's Progress. You see Christian as he's fleeing the city of destruction, and he's got this huge burden on his back, and he cannot shake it. It's on him, and nobody can remove it for him until he comes to the cross. 

And as he looks up at the cross, that bundle falls off of his back, rolls down the hill into a hole, and it's covered. Praise God. And that's what God has done with our sins, with our transgressions, with our rebellion. He has taken it. He has lifted it off of us and taken it out of the way. Praise God. 

The second word that he uses for that is, well, first of all, Colossians chapter 2. You don't got to turn there, but Colossians chapter 2, verses 13 to 14 says this: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” 

First John chapter 1, verses 8 and 9, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Glory to God. That is what the Lord Jesus has done for us. 

The second word that he uses for forgiveness is the Hebrew word which means to cover over or to conceal. Sin is so disgusting and so heinous in the eyes of God, it must be covered. It has to be removed from his sight. Have you ever stopped to think about how heinous and disgusting your own sin is? I like the old preacher, Robert Murray McShane, writing to one of his students one time, and he says, “I trust that in your studies you are getting along well, and in all your studies he says, 'Study to know your own heart,' and know that when you have looked into the depths of the blackness of your heart, realize that you have only looked a couple of feet into a fathomless pit.” 

Think about that. Have you ever viewed your sins like that? So he says, “Therefore, for every look you take at yourself, take ten looks at Christ, because he's altogether lovely, he's altogether beautiful.” Amen? But we need to sometimes take a look and realize the depths of the corruption and the heinousness of our own sins. Because until we recognize and understand the heinousness, the disgustingness of our sins, it won't be covered. 

We can try to cover it. How many people try to cover it by doing good religious works? You know what, I sinned, I goofed up, you know what, I'm going to read the Bible more, or I'm going to pray more, or I'm going to witness more. Whatever it is that people try to cover their sins with, it doesn't work. It never will work, because there is only one covering from sin. There is only one covering that can remove that nastiness and that disgustingness from the eyes of God, and that is the blood of the Son of God. Amen. 

The next word is the word not imputed. Not imputed. The word impute means to reckon or to charge to the account. “How blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute?” Iniquity. That twisted perversion. How blessed is that man to whom the Lord will not impute or reckon or charge to the account the perversity of my sin? Praise God. 

Romans chapter 4. You know, John has done such a marvelous job as he's been going through the book of Romans, and I hope that you recognize it too, and I hope that you appreciate the labor that he has put into this book because it has brought it to life for me, and I trust it's done the same for you. 

In Romans chapter 4, beginning at verse 1, it says, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, is found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited or imputed to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited or accounted as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited, accounted, imputed as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from the works of law.” 

And now he quotes Psalm 32, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” Praise God. 

Understand this. This is what David is trying to instruct us and teach us in Psalm 32, that God justifies the ungodly, not those who are doing good works and trying to do something. It says he justifies the ungodly. How many here were ungodly before they came to Christ? Every one of us turned our backs and were running away from God. We weren't running to him, we were running away. And then we heard him call. We stopped and we turned around. And instead of seeing the face of an angry God looking and scowling at us, we turned and we saw the face of Jesus Christ. We saw the face of the love of God facing us and saying, “Welcome home, child. Welcome home.” Praise the Lord. 

Somebody get excited about that. 

2 Corinthians chapter 5. We finish up this first point. The other points won't be as long, I promise you. Chapter 5, beginning of verse 17. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity, perversity. Oh, David was guilty in all of these, was he not? He was guilty of walking away in rebellion. He was guilty of missing the mark. He was guilty of perversion and twistedness. But before we cast stones, look at our own hearts and realize that we have all done the same thing. 

So before we take up a stone and cast it at David and say, what a disgusting man, look at your own hearts and say, oh, you are the man. Let Nathan the prophet stick his finger into your chest and say, you are the man. And then you can understand the blessedness of forgiveness. Amen. 

Praise the Lord. The second point, then, is the problem of unconfessed sin. So he's talking about how blessed it is to be forgiven. And it is such a blessing to be forgiven. Amen. The greatest thing in the world. You know, Jesus said, you know, when he said to the paralytic who was, you know, lowered down before him, he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 

They didn't bring him to hear him say that. They brought him so that he would be healed. But Jesus, see, this is the thing that people don't understand about the gospel. The gospel is all about the removal of our sins. Amen. The forgiveness of our sins. That is what separates us from God. Isaiah says, “Your sins have meant a separation between you and God.” 

What we need is forgiveness. And Jesus, knowing that, when he looked at that paralytic, he said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” That was the healing that he needed, first and foremost. And then to back that up, when they started grumbling, he says, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” So to back up what Jesus said, he said, “Take up your pallet and walk.” Amen. 

Only God can forgive sins. Jesus Christ is God. Amen. The next part, then, the second part, this is where the teaching begins. He starts with how blessed it is to be forgiven, but now he talks about the problem that he had, and that begins in verse number three. Says, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as the fever heat of summer.” 

Here's the problem. David sinned. Have no idea how long it was before Nathan came and stuck his finger into David's chest and said, “You are the man.” But during this time, before Nathan came, David wallowed in misery. In misery. He says, “When I kept silent about my sin, when I tried to hide it, when I would not acknowledge it, when I wouldn't look at it, I, my body wasted away.” 

My body wasted away through my groaning all day long. Can you see that picture? Have you ever done that? Have you ever been in such a state in your relationship with God that you just groaned? “Oh, oh, oh, oh, I can't bear this. Oh.” If you're a believer in Christ Jesus, you've done that. You've groaned. You've looked at your own life and you've groaned. And the scripture says that now, you know, the whole creation groans. And we ourselves groan, longing to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, waiting to be clothed with that new body that's free from sin and temptation. 

Well, oh, we'd long for that. We'd groan for that. But David says, “Oh, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. And if you've experienced this in your life, you know what it means to have the hand of the Lord to be heavy upon you.” 

Oh, there's just no getting away from it. He's called, I can't remember who the man was who called him that in the poem, but he said that the Holy Spirit is the great watchdog, the hound of heaven, he called him, the hound of heaven. Oh, always at the heel, always nipping at the heels to get you to turn around, to get you to stop, to get you to stop. And he says, “For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality, my life juices were drained away as the fever heat of the summer.” 

And that's the picture of the sun coming up on that plant that it's, and there's no moisture, there's nothing, and the sun is beating down on that. And that's life's vitality is drained and it begins to wither and to die. And David said, this is what happened when I kept my sin, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through groaning all day long. Day and night, your hand was heavy upon me and my vitality, my life juices were drained away as the fever heat of the summer. 

So that's point number two, the problem of unconfessed sin. All right? Now here's the solution, verses five through seven, in closing, by the way, because you know that when you say in closing, it means absolutely nothing when a preacher says that, so. And the other thing that means nothing is that when a preacher looks at his watch, that means nothing either, so. The only thing that matters for me is when my wife does this to me, which she does often. 

Verses five through seven, “I acknowledged my sin to you. Here's the solution, I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. My perversity, I didn't hide it. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. 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. You are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with songs of deliverance.” 

Here's the solution. Instead of hiding your sin, instead of acting like it's not there, instead of like in Romans chapter one, it says where they suppress the truth and unrighteousness trying to hold a beach ball down under the water, that's going to come up. Sooner or later, that's going to pop back up. You can't suppress your sin. You can't suppress your unrighteousness. It's going to come back. It's going to come up. And so he says, “I acknowledged my sin.” 

And now notice, this happened after he was caught. All right, he didn't come out. People say, “Didn't count, he got, you caught. You're only repenting because you got caught.” David got caught. His repentance was real and genuine. Amen. Amen. It was real and it was genuine. He says, “I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity, my perversion, I did not hide.” 

Remember in verse two, he says, “In whose spirit there is no deceit, no guile.” That means that he has a frank and open relationship with God. He is not trying to be in front of God somebody who he's not. How many times we try to get God to like us somehow, or we try to sugarcoat whatever's going on. We don't, we're not frank and we're not open and we're not honest with God. You think God's surprised when you sin? You think that that comes out of the blue, somewhere out of the blue and that God's shocked and, “Oh my gosh, I can't believe you did that.”? No, he knows your sin. He knows it. He knew it all along. He knew David's sin all along. 

That's why he went looking for him when David wasn't turning back. When he saw David wasting away and in misery, God sent his prophet to him. And when the word of the Lord comes to you and convicts you of sin, don't run away. Don't try to hide it. Be frank and honest with God and say, “This is what I did.” 

The word confession in the original language, in the Greek language is homo logeo. Homo means same, logeo, to speak. Speak the same thing. Say about your sin what God says about it. What does God say about my sin? He says it's heinous, it's disgusting, it's perverted, it's twisted. Say the same thing. This is the part of the solution when we come to this point in our lives. The solution is to say the same thing that God says about it. 

Don't hide it. Don't sugarcoat it. Don't make excuses for it. You know, David didn't make excuses. In fact, I don't even know that in any of that, that he said, “I'm sorry.” He just said the same thing about his sin. It's horrible. It's disgusting. And this is what my life has been. But that's where forgiveness comes. 

When you begin to say the same thing about it, you look at it like God looks at it. And you say, you know what, God, you're right about my sin. You're right about it. Now let's look at God's gracious response. Point number four. 

So now you can know that we're close to ending. Beginning of verse number eight. Listen to the gracious response of God. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. Not chastisement. It's not beating him up. It's that gracious response of God. I will instruct you. And I will show you the way in which you should go. And I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” 

What a gracious thing. He doesn't forsake us. He doesn't chastise us. He doesn't beat us up. Oh, there are going to be problems that your sin produces. And you can't get away from them. David didn't. The rest of his kingship was riddled with all kinds of bad things as a consequence of this. But he was forgiven. His heart was cleansed. He was restored to a relationship with God. 

So don't think that just because I confessed my sin, therefore there's not ever going to be a consequence of it. I remember a young man in our church in Oconomowoc that he had committed pedophilia with his own children and with some of the other children. And I remember when he came to me and he was in tears and he was like, because he got caught. And he said, “I shouldn't have to go to jail for this. I've repented. I've asked Jesus to forgive me.” 

It's like, well, first of all, it's not true repentance because true repentance would have said, and I told that to him. I said, “If you truly were repentant, you would start talking to me about what you have done to these children and how you have ruined their lives.” That's what you would start with. There's repentance. 

When you start talking about what you've done, what your life and what your deeds have caused to happen in somebody else's life, that will be the place where you know that repentance has taken place. And when that happens, God can forgive anything. He's willing to forgive anything. There are many pedophiles who have repented and turned to the Lord. 

Praise God for that. Before we cast stones, look at your own heart and see how perverse and wicked your own heart is. And then, and then you can have mercy and grace for those around you, amen. 

So God's gracious response is, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding.” 

Now, hear the teacher, David. This is the teacher, David. He's talking about his experience. He's teaching the people how blessed it is to be forgiven, how he got to the place where he was and the solution to that problem. And then God says, “I will instruct you.” And then he says, “Do not be as the horse and the mule, or as the mule, which have no understanding. You have understanding, beloved. That's what makes you different than the beasts. You have understanding.” 

He says, “They have no, whose trapeze include bit and bridle to hold them in check. Otherwise, they'll not come near to you. Don't be like the mule. Don't be like the horse.” He says, “Many are the sorrows of the wicked.” Many are the sorrows of the wicked. And David learned that well. 

And he's explaining to them now. See, you understand from my life, “Many are the sorrows of the wicked.” But listen to this, “He who trusts in the Lord, loving-kindness shall surround him.” He who trusts in the Lord. Amen. 

“Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous one, and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart.” It's okay. This is a glorious psalm. Yeah, there's a lot of wicked, there's a lot of bad, but oh, the glory of being forgiven, the glory of having your sins washed, lifted up off of you, covered, and not imputed to you anymore. That's the glory and the majesty of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

All right, so that's it. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, how blessed it is. How blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom you will not impart iniquity. Thank you, Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the answer, who is the covering, who is the one who has lifted and taken away our sins. We rejoice before you today and say thank you, Lord. 

And Father, I pray that as we go from this place, I pray that whatever any of us needs from this message, Father, I pray that your spirit would apply it to each and every heart. And as we meditate this week, Lord, I pray that you would help us to meditate on the glory and the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name.