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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you notice the difference between Psalm 32, the Penitential Psalm we prayed earlier tonight, and Psalms 51 and 6, the Penitential Psalms we prayed the last two Wednesdays this Lent? Psalm 32 is said to be markedly different also from the four remaining Penitential Psalms that we will pray and reflect on during the remaining three Midweek Lenten Vespers and Maundy Thursday services, as we continue this special sermon series on the Penitential Psalms. In Psalm 32, the psalmist, David, does not seem to be confessing his sin as much as thanking God for the blessing of God’s forgiveness that David personally experienced when he previously confessed his sin (Wiser, 281). That blessedness of forgiveness runs through the whole of Psalm 32, to which you may wish to re-open your hymnal, as we reflect on it.
Psalm 32 is a pious meditation on the way confession leads to absolution (Keil-Delitzsch, 393-394; confer/compare CSSB, 816; TLSB, 873), in other words, to forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself (Small Catechism V:15). The psalm is thought to have been inspired by the Holy Spirit through David some time after David was delivered from the state of anguish connected to his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite (Keil-Delitzsch, 393), as the fruit of further reflection (Leupold, 269). Although not strictly necessary to regard it as such (Weiser, 282), the psalm may be a liturgical exchange at the Sanctuary between David and God, Whose words would have been voiced by a priest, and some of David’s words may have been directed to the other worshipers present (CSSB, 816; Leupold, 268; compare Keil-Deltizsch, 398; Weiser, 286).
Regardless, at both the beginning of the psalm and again about midway through, David speaks of transgression, sin, and iniquity. David may not have needed to go into detail for the people of his kingdom to know what he had done (Leupold, 267; compare Neale and Littledale, 498), and we certainly know of David’s misdeeds, even as we know of our own. By nature, everyone—including you and me—rebels against God collectively and individually, breaking God’s Commandments and so their relationship with Him (Livingston, TWOT II:741-742). In our state of rebellion against God, we also miss the mark with one another (Livingston, TWOT I:278). And, our rebellion against God and missing the mark with one another leave us guilty (Schultz, TWOT II:651). No matter what the form of the transgression or sin (Leupold, 266)—whether original or actual sin, sins of commission or omission, venial or mortal sins (Neale and Littledale, 495, 498-499)—each of us is guilty.
Of course, not one of us needs to remain guilty, because Jesus died for all of us. In a sense what determines whether or not we remain guilty is whether or not we confess our sin. In Psalm 32, the person is blessed in whose spirit there is no deceit—deceit as in denying or hiding one’s transgression, sin, and iniquity, justifying or otherwise making excuses for them (confer 1 John 1:8-9). David knew from personal experience that when he failed to confess his sins, there were physical, mental, and spiritual consequences for him, which consequences were intended to lead him to repent of his sins—turn in sorrow from and trust God to forgive his sins. When David acknowledged his sin to God, did not cover up his iniquity, and confessed his transgressions to the Lord, then the Lord forgave the iniquity of David’s sin. So, the Lord through David calls all people—including you and me—likewise to offer prayer to the Lord at a time when He may be found, for when judgment comes, such as the flood in the time of Noah, it is too late.
People in whose spirits there is no deceit concealing sin are blessed, because their transgression is forgiven, their sin is covered, and their iniquity the Lord does not count. Just as David used three different words for his and our sin, so he uses three different words for God’s forgiveness, underscoring and illuminating the significance of God’s forgiveness. Transgression is lifted up or taken away. Sin is obliterated as if it had never taken place. And the guilt by an official and effective verdict is not imputed. No one is capable of meriting such forgiveness, but such forgiveness is the Lord’s free gift, through faith, by grace for the sake of His Son, the God-man Jesus Christ. Psalm 32 says the Lord’s “steadfast love”, His “mercy”, surrounds the one who trusts in Him. And, verses from Psalm 32 are quoted by St. Paul in Romans, as they agree with and support his claim there that righteousness is given only on account of God’s grace through faith (Romans 4:6-8; confer Leupold, 267). When we are sorry for our sin, we confess it to God, Whom we trust to forgive it for Jesus’s sake, and then God does just that: God forgives our transgressions, covers our sin, and does not count our iniquity against us.
As I prepared to preach this sermon, I read one author who said that Old Testament Jews regularly would confess privately to their priests at least certain sins, for the sake of individual absolution (Neale and Littledale, 499). We know David confessed privately to the prophet Nathan, who forgave David individually on God’s behalf. And, we know that such private confession and individual absolution are available to each of us, who hold sacred and do not despise God’s Word and Sacraments, His means of giving us the grace Jesus won for us on the cross. In a sense, such individual absolution moves the baptized from the Font, where they become God’s children, to the Altar, from which they eat the family meal—bread that is Christ’s Body and wine that is Christ’s blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. We believe, teach, and confess that no one is to be admitted to the Rail unless, among other things, they are so individually absolved (Augsburg Confession XXV:1; Apology to the Augsburg Confession XV:40; XXIV:1).
Blessed with forgiveness through God’s Word and sacraments of his day, David in his psalm either hears or speaks words of exhortation about the change that should follow such forgiveness. The psalm’s words of exhortation use a parable about animals, such as horses and mules, that lack understanding and so have to be curbed with bit and bridle in order to stay near the person trying to use them. As sinners blessed with forgiveness through God’s Word and Sacraments of our day, we should not so lack understanding and have to be so curbed. Rather, the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments gives us understanding and a will that both tries to stay near the Lord and, with repentance and faith, lives in the forgiveness of sins when it fails.
Such are the blessings of God made clear to us in Psalm 32! We have realized that Psalm 32 is a penitential psalm different from the others but nevertheless clear about both our sinfulness and God’s merciful forgiveness. I do not know about you, but I know that I am being blessed by our use of and reflection on the Seven Penitential Psalms this Lent. Tonight I leave you with this psalm’s final verse, which essentially is a call for the forgiven to give thanks to the Lord in the community of believers: “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +