David & Bathsheba IV: Psalm 32

I. Introduction
A. David and Bathsheba is a story about conscious, deliberate sin, the kind of sin you know well you’re committing. There is another large category of sin: unconscious sin which we are blind to and perhaps even think is righteous (e.g. pride, self-righteousness), the kind of sins we will be talking about in our August series, Religion 101.
B. Again, we don’t know for sure when Psalm 32 was written or who wrote it. All indications are that it was written by David and there is no historical situation in David’s life as we know it in which this could have been written.
C. I ended last week’s sermon on Psalm 51 talking about how real repentance ends with a celebration. Well, that’s what Psalm 32 is. Psalm 32 is the celebration part of the story. And that’s why I saved this for last.
II. Review of the story from 2Samuel 11-12:
A. It was the time of war but David stayed home to relax.
B. Waking from his afternoon nap on the roof of his palace, he looked out and saw a neighbor woman bathing. Inquiring, he found out she was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, one of his loyal soldiers.
C. He sent for her, slept with her, and sent her home.
D. Thinking the story was over, he was alarmed a few weeks later by a message from her. She was pregnant.
E. Craftily, he sends for Uriah, wines and dines him, hoping he will go home and sleep with his wife and end up thinking the baby is his. But Uriah refuses to indulge in such pleasures while his fellow soldiers are at battle.
F. So David resorts to more drastic measures to cover up his sin, sending a message to his general Joab to arrange for Uriah to be in a situation where he is likely to be killed. This proves successful and Bathsheba grieves for her fallen husband.
G. After the time of her grieving is over, David takes Bathsheba to be one of his wives, and again David thinks the story is over.
H. However, God has been watching and sends His prophet Nathan to confront David and foretell dire consequences.
I. David repents (Psalm 51) and is assured by the prophet of God’s forgiveness.
J. However, one of the consequences of his sin is that the baby dies, in spite of David’s earnest prayer.
III. Explanation of Psalm 32
A. I am going to go through the psalm verse by verse, but this time not in order. We’re going to go through it chronologically instead.
B. The timeline of the story goes like this:
1. Sin committed
2. Uriah called and then killed
3. David marries Bathsheba
4. Nathan confronts, David repents
5. Baby dies
C. Well, after David sinned but before Nathan confronted him, he was living in unrepentant sin. So what was that like? What was it like for one of the godliest men of the Bible who committed one of the worst sins of the Bible to live with himself before he returned to God?
1. Psalm 51 gave us a few indications last week.
a. Loss of a clear conscience and a right heart: v.10, 12b
b. Joylessness: v.8, 12a
c. Loss of praise: v.15-17
d. Damage to his usefulness in ministry: v.12-13
2. But v.3-4 of Psalm 32 give us an even more vivid picture: “For when I kept silent, my bones 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.”
a. Think about David during those months. His kingdom was booming. His fame in the world and favor with the people was better than ever. But he was dying inside. He was wasting away. There may even have been a smile on his face, but in his heart he was groaning in pain.
(1) Why? Because of his sin? Well, it was because, in response to his sin, God was pressing on him.
b. There are two images being used here:
(1) Heavy hand (Usually we talk about being pushed down by life’s difficulties and being held up by God, but there are times when God Himself pushes us down.)
(2) Oppressive sun (If we were in the middle of a 100 degree heat wave, we’d get this one better.)
3. This pressure is arduous and grueling, but it is a blessing from God. And not something He gives to everyone.
a. What a curse it is when God allows someone to run off in sin without experiencing any consequences, without feeling any guilt, without anything to alert them to the danger ahead.
b. It’s what the Living Bible calls, “the wide and pleasant road, which seems right, but ends in death” (Prov.14:12, 16:25).
c. God’s heavy hand in times like this is such a blessing!
D. Then comes the breakthrough: Nathan’s confrontation, David’s repentance, followed by God’s forgiveness: 5 “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
1. It proves that just because a person gets caught before they come clean, it doesn’t mean the repentance is not sincere.
2. There’s a connection between confession and forgiveness. Repentance is necessary.
a. Granted, there is a sense in which our future sin is already forgiven. But there is another sense in which our sins are forgiven as they are repented of. And neither of these should drown out the other. In Psalm 32 we are focusing on a forgiveness which is dependent on repentance.
b. 1John 1:8–9 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive 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.”
3. But let’s not miss the power and importance of the glory of these verses!
a. As believers we have a precious treasure: we know that if we humble ourselves before God, if we repent of our sin before Him, we will ALWAYS be met with grace and forgiveness.
E. And then comes the celebration: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (v.1-2)
1. Three thanks for God’s forgiveness (followed by one thank for the escape from and freedom from a lifestyle of deception).
2. Three time repetitions are a literary technique for expressing maximum emphasis.
a. “Holy holy holy” in Isaiah 6
b. Jesus’ thrice repeated question to Peter in John 21: Do you love me? and thrice repeated exhortation to feed His sheep
c. Peter’s thrice-repeated vision of the sheet in Acts 10
3. So the volume is turned all the way up here: how supremely blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.
4. Notice that even though David has some heavy things to say about the weight of his sin, his strongest words are reserved for glorying in the forgiveness of God.
a. Even our moral outrage over our own sin must never be as loud as our exhilaration over the atoning work of Christ to cleanse us from that sin.
5. It must be noted: the basis for David’s forgiveness is not that he never sinned or that his sins are light compared to others, or that his good deeds overshadow his sins.
a. “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.”
6. This is the gospel, the good news!
a. The gospel is not: ‘you can be better’ or even ‘you can start over.’ But: ‘you can be forgiven!’
7. The basis for our forgiveness, of course, is that our sins are covered by the blood of Christ.
8. As I prepared this sermon, I thought, “The only part of the gospel which isn’t in this story is the one dying for the sins of another. And then I thought, “Wait a minute! What if the baby is a picture of Christ in this story? The baby IS the son of David. And he does die for the sins of others. And by the death of his son, David is given a taste of what God will have to go through in order to pay for David’s sins.” Maybe.
9. Psalm 32 is a happy psalm. It’s a psalm of glorying in forgiveness. It’s a gospel psalm. It’s a psalm about how sinful people can find forgiveness in a gracious God.
10. Listen to 1Corinthians 6:9–11: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
11. This is what all the shouting is about in v.11 “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
12. And yet who is the man who is forgiven?
a. V.2b - “How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”
b. The forgiven person is the one in whose spirit there is not deceit, who does not hide his sin.
c. The man who hides his sin and lives in denial is not free! He lives in a prison of guilt: (v.3-4)
13. Freedom and forgiveness come only to the ones who acknowledge their sin: “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.” (v.5)
F. And then come David’s conclusions from the whole experience, the lessons he’s learned from it all.
G. The first lesson is about prayer: 6 “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.”
1. After all he’s done, David includes himself among the godly? He obviously doesn’t mean the sinless. He means those who put their trust in God, those who love God.
a. Is this consistent with sin?
b. Well, the two don’t belong together, but they often end up together, don’t they?
2. Let them “offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.” This implies that there is a deadline, a time when the door is permanently closed. (Cf. Rev.3:1-3)
a. The Bible talks about this a lot. God has opened the door of His forgiveness, but it will not stay open forever. There is a time coming when the door will be closed and there will be no second chance. E.g. Matt.25:1ff.
3. “The rush of great waters shall not reach him.” What? David got pretty wet!
a. Yes, but he didn’t drown. He didn’t get taken away by the flash flood never to be seen again.
H. The second lesson is about who God is for His children. V.7 “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.”
1. God’s child has a refuge even when he has sinned.
2. He protects us even from the just consequences of our own sin.
3. But who’s hunting David that he needs a place to hide? Who is troubling him that he needs a protector? Who has he been delivered from that he is found shouting in celebration?
a. The answer to these question might sound very strange. It’s not what we might expect to hear.
b. David has been protected by God from God. This is so important for us to understand.
c. David has been delivered from God’s wrath by God’s grace.
d. By grace God has shielded His children from His wrath.
e. That’s what salvation is all about.
f. Our biggest danger is not the world, it’s not even the devil. Our biggest danger is the wrath of the holy, just God.
I. Then God speaks. Verses 8-9 are God’s words to David and to us through him. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.” In these verses God is saying:
1. “I’m in these situations to teach you. I have my eye on you and I’m showing you things you need to see. David needed to learn about his weakness, his corruption, his need. So I showed him.”
2. “Don’t be like a mule who won’t come unless you put a bit and bridle in his mouth and pull it.”
3. “Be a wise person, be a person who understands that I am God, that I know what I’m doing, that I love you and always have your best in mind.”
J. And then comes David’s final conclusion in v.10-11: “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
1. He can think of himself as righteous again — and upright in heart, in spite of his past, in spite of his sin. God had forgiven his sin and renewed his heart!
2. And he sees a stark contrast between those who trust in the Lord and those who don’t. Those who don’t have no place to go with their sin. They are left to dwell in the misery of their wickedness, and many are their sorrows. But those who trust in the Lord have a loving Father whose love is not cancelled by sin. God’s love for them is steadfast, enduring, and surrounds the believer even when he stumbles into sin.
IV. One last question before we end: Why didn’t God just sweep this whole story under the carpet? This story is so dirty, so embarrassing, so negative. Why didn’t God just fill the Bible with positive stories, like our Christian radio stations fill their airwaves with “positive hits”? I’d like to answer that question by answering another question:
A. The Bible makes it very clear that on the last day, there will be a full and complete exposing of all sins and secrets.
1. Luke 12:2–3 “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”
2. 1Corinthians 4:5 The Lord will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. (Cf.1Timothy 5:25)
B. Why in the world does God do this? Why will He make all our sins to be recited and broadcast on the last day? Won’t this be incredibly humiliating for each and every one of us? What possible benefit could there be?
1. The purpose of this is to glorify God's grace.
2. In Psalm 32 David is keenly aware of the preciousness of God’s forgiveness because he is keenly aware of the stinkiness of the sins he’s committed.
3. And that, I believe, is why God will rehash all of our ugly sins on the last day.
4. It won’t end with that vile revelation. It will end with an intense, euphoric celebration of the cross like we can’t even imagine.
C. That’s the same reason this story is in the Bible. The Bible isn’t a whitewashed book filled with happy stories. The Bible paints a very honest picture of mankind in all its corruption. It can do that boldly because it also paints a vivid picture of an even more poignant power — the power of divine grace.
V. I’m actually going to preach one more sermon on this story of David and Bathsheba, after I return from vacation on August 3. I’m going to preach from this story on the subject of pornography.