Last Sunday we read Psalm 32 in conjunction with the
Parable of the Prodigal Son. While we focused on Jesus' parable, today
we'll focus on this Old Testament Scripture and what it says about forgiveness.
There is some confusion among those who read the Bible who believe that
the Old Testament is somehow incompatible with the New Testament, or perhaps no
longer relevant after Christ's teachings. But Christ's teachings, in fact
his entire life story, are fully compatible with the Scripture from the Old
Testament. In his day, there was no "New Testament" to speak of
at all, but he taught the Scriptures both in the Temple and to his disciples.
So it's interesting how we as Christians today flock
to the New Testament and the Gospel stories to tell about God's great
forgiveness, about his desire to erase iniquity from our lives. And this
is absolutely true; Christ came to earth for many reasons, one of which was to
offer himself fully as a love-sacrifice for his Father and for all of humanity,
drawing us back to God. But forgiveness is not unique or novel in the New
Testament; God has been in the business of forgiving for a LONG time!
Psalm 32 presents this fact to us in a rather direct way:
"Happy are those whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes
no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept
silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day
and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat
of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my
iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and you forgave
the guilt of my sin. Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to
you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach
them." (Psalm 32:1-6, NRSV)
Does this passage seem familiar to you? Does
the story here sound like anything in our world today? If I didn't know
better, I would have said that this is a brief evangelistic message,
encouraging people to come to God for the first time, bringing all of their
burdens and infirmities with them, all at no cost. This psalm sounds a
lot like an altar call, a beckoning to a broken world, offering peace and
forgiveness to any who call on God's name. It sounds a lot like Jesus'
words, repeated over and over, offering forgiveness for sins to both Jews and
Gentiles, to anyone who is willing to simply accept it. Who says the Old
Testament is irrelevant or outdated for our faith today?!
Interestingly, however, the psalmist is almost
certainly not talking to people outside of the faith. This song would
almost certainly have been sung and/or performed among faithful Jews.
It's a reminder to us that God's message of forgiveness does not end at a
supposed moment of salvation; it is a forgiveness that permeates the rest of
our lives and is offered to us for all of eternity. As human beings, even
though we experience forgiveness one time or two times before, we tend to
forget things quickly and we fall back into our old patterns of living, ideas,
emotions and habits. And one of the most poisonous habits we love is
dwelling in our own guilt.
It's bad enough that we feel pressure from the world
outside, even when the world isn't concerned with us or even aware of what
we're doing. It's like we imagine someone constantly over our shoulders judging
us and due to this pressure we believe that each time we slip away from grace,
we ought to pay for it with some sort of punishment or the like. I'll
tell you the truth, which is that rarely does anyone look over your shoulders
to judge you. (Yes, people are watching you, and your children learn from
you, but rarely are people judging you for those things which lead to your
greatest insecurities.) YOU are your greatest enemy, as the psalmist declares
with poignance in verse 3: "while I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long".
There are even some churches that teach about a God
who is all-judging and constantly filled with anger towards us and our
behavior, demanding a perfectly straight moral path (conveniently compatible
with their specific and narrow interpretation of Scripture). But the
truth is that our God in heaven does no such thing. The pity is that so
many people outside of the church in America have left the church because the
church has taught that God is so hateful and judgmental. The truth is
that the opposite is true: that God loved us long before we even
recognized our sinful depravity, that he forgives us with even the smallest
excuse to do so, and that we are ourselves responsible for perpetuating
judgment, guilt, and holding sin against ourselves. We as Christians
are called to forgive others regardless of their sins; but in order to do this,
we must first begin inside, allowing God's forgiveness to penetrate at the
center of our hardened, broken hearts.
God's heart does not carry a burden of sin like our
hearts do. There is no sin imaginable which God cannot forgive should we
desire forgiveness. God's love is freely given to all without any
condition, but we continue to reject it by clenching so tightly to our
self-loathing and self-pity.
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