Thursday Psalms: You're Covered!

Today we'll look at the first seven verses of Psalm 32, one of several Penitential psalms in the psalter.  As we look first at verses 3-5, all of us will say "Oh yeah, that describes me every day."  Soak in these verses today; I'm sure you'll find them very relevant & personal.

PSALM 32:1-7

¹ Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

     whose sin is covered.

² Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, 

     and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³ For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

     through my groaning all day long.

⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

     my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

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.

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.

⁷ You are a hiding place for me; You preserve me from trouble; 

     You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

Keeping silent, keeping sins unconfessed and hidden is never a good idea.  Doing so harms us and those against whom we've sinned.  We feel God's heavy hand upon us a when our guilty conscience steals our peace.  Unconfessed sins entirely disrupt our relationships with others and especially with God.  David paints vivid pictures of this:  wasting bones, constant groaning, our strength gone.  These are terrible places to be, yet often do we keep going there!

God gives you the solution to these sin results in verse five:  acknowledge, confess, stop covering up.  Our sinful natures hate doing these things, but we know we must.  Then, God does the really hard part:  He forgives your sins, all of them!   This takes us back to the first verse.  Blessed are YOU whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!  

There's another beautiful discovery here for us; consider the word covered in verses one and five.  In verse five, our covering does nothing except prolong our guilty shame and suffering.  Our covering only extends our separation from God, and reinforces the divisions in our relationships.  But in verse one, God the Father covers your sins with the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son!  Jesus covers your sins, having redeemed you, paid your debt and taken your punishment on Calvary's horrid cross!  God covers your sins with the white robe of righteousness which will be given to you and is described in Revelation 7:14.

O, how blessed we are, that God covers our sins!  Give thanks, you're covered!

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, LCMS    Burton, Michigan

     We are Pilgrims with a Purpose:  

        sharing God’s love & mercy with each other and the world.

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pilgrim Website

Pilgrim Facebook page

Soli Deo Gloria

"My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."  Psalm 121:2 

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Mark

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, LCMS    Burton, Michigan

     We are Pilgrims with a Purpose:  

        sharing God’s love & mercy with each other and the world.

office:  810.744.1188

mobile:  248.881.7627

Pilgrim Website

Pilgrim Facebook page

Soli Deo Gloria

"My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."  Psalm 121:2