This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Psalms” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 22, 1987.

Tonight we are looking once more at Psalm 32. We will be concluding our messages on this psalm this evening. 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.

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to thee, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to thee in a time when thou mayest be found Surely in the flood of great waters they shall not reach him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou dost preserve me from trouble. Thou dost surround me with songs of deliverance. 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, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord’s loving kindness shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. psalmist’s expressions may well envelop us, that we in our lives may understand our affinity with him, and even beyond that, Lord, to marvel that this spokesman is also a spokesman for you, and that you are revealing here the truth about yourself and your ways. with your people. Therefore, Lord, may we be attentive to your word, and may those who preach your word be a witness to that word and the life that is found nowhere else but in you. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

We have pointed out in our study of this psalm how important it was to Martin Luther. You may recall in your own perusing of the life of Luther that there were those years before the ninety-five theses in which he was engaged in Bible study and exegesis very painstaking reflection upon, yes, the epistle to the Romans, the epistle to the Galatians, but no less upon the psalms.

And in reflecting upon the psalms, this psalm in particular stood out. Now, it may well stand out in many regards, for as we pointed out One of the forerunners of Luther, a man with whom he had much in common, was Augustine of Hippo, North Africa. And this psalm, of all the psalms, was Augustine’s favorite. He loved this psalm above all others. But not only for that reason, did this psalm commend itself to Luther. For as he was working through the psalms, he was also working through, as we’ve said, Galatians and Romans.

And in Romans, especially the fourth chapter, he noted Paul’s quotation of this psalm. touchstone for him in his approach to the Old Testament, that even in the Old Testament there was the proclamation of the doctrine of justification by faith, which he saw at the heart of this psalm. A man, through faith in God’s forgiving grace and God’s forgiving activity, then viewed as one blessed or justified in the sight of God, and that, as we have contended throughout our exegesis of this psalm, and that, as Paul makes the point in the fourth chapter of Romans, without the works of the law. So then, Luther comes before our eyes. as we think about this psalm, and that somewhat naturally.

But the question may well be asked, as we consider Luther in relationship to this psalm, the question may well be asked of Luther and of the psalm, is there life after justification? Is there a life, that is, a life to be lived after the wonderful experience and the communication of certainties with regard to that experience, after the experience and those certainties of the experience of God’s justification of sins? Is there a future? for the justified person, which in itself is worthy of our attention, worthy of the believer’s attention, that the believer neglects only to the detriment of his view of the gospel and the obligation that is laid upon him because he is a follower of Jesus Christ.

Now, that charge has in the history of the Church and in the history of theology been laid at the doorstep of Luther. It has been suggested that Luther was a man, after all, for whom there was only that single focus for Christian life and experience. The experience of justification when then one is declared to be righteous before God by faith, and all other matters are only of relative importance. While that has been said of Luther, and to a degree rightly, it is not altogether fair For, of course, Luther is the one who was responsible, according to the testimony of many, for the development of the German home, for the revival of the Church, for the development of a catechism, for the instruction of children, and also for adults.

So it wasn’t a matter of supreme indifference to Luther how one lived after he was justified. A part of that catechism, which he wrote in its child version and in its adult version, was an exposition, contained an exposition of the law of God. Luther, yes, did have in view a life, a living of the life for that person who was justified. There was then a future for the justified person.

Yet at the same time, those reflecting upon Luther’s position have been uncomfortable and uncomfortable with reason. For you see, Luther then concentrated in his approach to the gospel upon those sections of scripture where he could perceive the most clear and direct way, the doctrine of justification by faith. For that reason, Luther exalted the epistle to the Romans.

He exalted the epistle to the Galatians, but he had seemingly little regard for the epistle of James. or the official to the Hebrews, because in them he perceived little of that testament to the doctrine of justification by faith. It was then concluded by many, and not without reason, that Luther had not given adequate attention to the life that follows the experience of justification, that life of holiness. that life that is then filled with wisdom. It is pointed out repeatedly, Luther’s inability to deal with the epistle of James, an epistle which he called the epistle of straw. And it is pointed out that he had little ability to deal with the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, because he could not perceive in that a clear affirmation of declaration of justification by faith.

Those who perceived this inadequacy in Luther invariably became Calvinists. They were the ones who were insisting that yes, There is a life to be lived after justification, and you simply cannot concentrate on that initial experience of grace to an extent that you neglect that life of holiness, that life which is to be an expression of wisdom. The Calvinist came along and he recoiled at Luther’s statements with regard to the epistle of James, with regard to the epistle to the Hebrews. It was the Calvinist who delved into the wisdom literature of the Old Testament and practically made that an exalted portion of his Bible. and the problem of Luther, we come to Psalm 32.

We could ask the question that we have already asked of Luther of this psalm in this way. Rather than, is there a life after justification, is there a life that is to be lived by the The question may well be, is there a life to be lived after forgiveness? Is there a life to be lived after sin? The psalm speaks about wrestling with sin. The psalm, in an incomparable fashion, depicts the effect of sin upon the conscience. Recall what the psalmist says in verses three and four.

It’s almost as if you’re getting a blow-by-blow account of his wrestlings with this whole matter. I kept silent about it, and as I did, My life was being expended. I was being given over unto death. My groanings were actually roaring, these consuming all of my energy, and not just for a moment, all day long. And if that wasn’t bad enough, day and night, again perpetually, Your hand, O God, was heavy upon me. I felt its effect and its weight to such an extent that my life, my vitality, was being drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”

The description here then given of sin and its effect upon the conscience truly unparalleled, it would seem, in Scripture, and thus calling attention to it itself rightly. At the same time, with regard to this, related to it, there is that marvelous accounting by David of his confession and the experience of forgiveness given us in verse 5. how he comes to himself, as it were, no longer silent about his sin, openly acknowledging it to God. His iniquity, his perversity, if you will, the crookedness of his nature, he doesn’t hide. He is exposed before his God and he says, I will confess my transgressions, my waywardness, The fact that I have trespassed the boundaries of your law and your will, I will confess these to you. I will agree with you in your assessment of my condition.” And that’s the impact and the effect of confession. The result of that is this affirmation of faith.

How else does he know he is forgiven but by faith, yet he says it, thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin, I cannot emphasize that line too much in the dealings of pastors with people. As people come to him with their problems, as they are fighting through the difficulties of their lives and their past and present sins, the thing that the pastor invariably finds is the inability on the part of those people to grasp sufficiently the significance of forgiveness. This line should be indelibly impressed upon your consciousness and upon your heart, for it will be in the end not just the sin, you see, but the guilt of that sin that will lay you waste and take its toll upon you. It is not without significance, then, that David expresses himself as he does.

I cannot emphasize this too much, and you would do well to rehearse it day by day, as if that line from that verse in this psalm were your motto. Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. And now my conscience cleansed and my spirit freed. We have here then in this psalm truly a magnificent accounting of the effect of sin upon the conscience, and also of the effect of confession and the experience of forgiveness.

And you note that as the psalm then goes on, and we have pointed this out, it issues in this wonderful invitation, in view of the experience that the psalmist has had, and in light of the coming deluge, verse six, there is an invitation that goes out because of what the psalmist himself has experienced. He knows intimately sin. He knows just as intimately the remedy for sin and the effect and the impact of God’s graciousness upon his life, and as a result now there are issues from him that invitation let everyone who is godly. Those who are godly are those in the end whose consciences are alive to sin those who are preparing to God to find solution to that sin.

Let everyone who is godly pray to thee in a time when Thou mayest be found.” Then that great line, “…surely in the flood of great waters.” Passing before the eyes of David is not just some sort of temporary judgment that may well arise within his life, or even within the life of the nation of Israel, passing before his eyes, in the language that he uses here, is the final judgment of God. Surely in that final judgment, the ravages of that judgment shall not touch the Godly One who prays in a time when you may be found.

Verse seven, the wonderful testimony of the believer’s ultimate security. In the time of the flood of great waters, you are my hiding place. You preserve me from all trouble and from the trouble that is destined to overcome this world. You have surrounded me with songs of deliverance, songs of joy.”

Alright, there you have the depiction of sin and the experience of that one who is now justified with regard to that sin. But is there a life to be lived by that one who has been justified? Is there now subsequently a life to be lived by that one who has been forgiven? Is it a leap for us from our experience of forgiveness into the lap of eternal glory? As if in the next moment After our justification, life ceases and there’s no more living for us in this world? Is there then this quantum leap forward from that point of my justification out of my offense into the regions of eternal rest, or is there a life to be lived?

That is the question, and I might add, that is the Calvinist question. In responding to that question, is there life after forgiveness, life to be lived in this world after forgiveness? We can say, well, no. In one sense, no. For there is that sense in which life has been concluded and all issues have been resolved.

And that’s precisely what Paul sees in the experience of justification. Luther understands that about Paul’s gospel, for justification positions you before God’s tribunal, and it is as if the sentence is being read out and your acquittal is being declared, and that for the benefit of your soul and your well-being. Why, it’s as if the last judgment has already taken place and you have actually been positioned in your eternal inheritance in the eternal regions of glory forever. Is that not then what the Apostle Paul is telling you as he speaks to the Ephesian church? for God has indeed blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So in one sense, you see, there is that leap from justification into the regions of glory as if there were no further life to be lived by us here in this world. But, at the same time, The answer to that question about a leap from our offense and our justification into the regions of eternal rest demands that we respond, no, we don’t leap from that moment of our justification. into the lap of God. Yes, there is a life to be lived here in the world. Think of that.

Abraham was justified. You have that verse out of Genesis 15 that speaks about Abraham’s justification. He believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. But does Abraham’s life end there? Is he whisked away to heaven? No! We go through a number of more chapters in the story of Abraham, specifically moving on to Genesis chapter twenty-two, and the testing of Abraham’s faith there. After that test, God says with regard to Abraham, now I know that you fear me. Israel is in a sense justified.

She is rescued from her oppression in Egypt. A type of the bondage that exists with regard to sin. She is liberated. But is she then whisked away? Is she even positioned in the land of promise immediately? No, there is a life to be lived. There is a path to be traversed. There is the experience of the temptation, the trial in the wilderness. For is I was hoping that Mark would bring me some water tonight.

And what of the Old Testament people of God as a whole? Again, as it was for Abraham and as it was for that generation which was in Egypt, so it is for the Old Testament people of God as a whole. They experienced the favor of the Lord. They experience his forgiving love and his graciousness.

But is there a life to be lived unto the revelation of the kingdom that is promised, that only comes when Jesus Christ arrives? Yes. And what of the New Testament Church? Christ’s death and resurrection, the ground of our justification, is in the background. But with Christ’s death and resurrection, are we all who are in him whisked away immediately out of the world so that the life in this world becomes inconsequential or unnecessary? Not at all.

We live in a period when, grounded in that justifying work of Jesus Christ, we must live out the life of the justified until he comes. Is there then a life to be lived after forgiveness? How many in the church have been deceived at this point, thinking that with the coming of that experience of forgiveness, everything has been resolved in such a way that they need not give life a thought or their obedience to God a thought? There is, then, that life to be lived by the forgiven, and Psalm 32 goes on to speak about that life in a number of ways.

With regard to the verses that immediately follow them, verse 8, God himself here speaks He is the eye of this eighth verse. His voice interjects itself into the flow of the psalm, and that for a reason. That it may be apparent to us, clear to all, that the forgiven are those, then, those who are subjecting themselves to God, who is the teacher, the instructor, the counselor. This One, who is our teacher, instructor, and counselor, gives us great, glorious promise. His presence with us, He becoming our companion in our journey in this life that is to be lived subsequent to our forgiveness. I, says the Lord, will instruct you. After forgiveness, is there a life to be lived? Yes. How will I live? How then shall I live?

I will live with the Lord as my instructor and as my teacher, and he has promised to be with me to instruct, to teach, to counsel me. with his all-seeing eye upon his presence. Verse nine, as with verse eight, pushes us in the direction of the heart of all of the wisdom literature from the Old Testament and how that might touch us out of the New Testament based or in a New Testament context. Verse nine becomes a warning and an expression of that wisdom that is found in God alone with regard to the life of those justified, forgiven.

Don’t be as the horse or as the mule. They have no understanding. They’re held in with bit and bridle otherwise they will come nearer to you. Your disposition, as those who are the forgiven ones, your disposition is that of willing acceptance of the Lord’s direction.

Willing acceptance of His instruction, His teaching, His counsel. As I said, this pushes us on to the heart of the wisdom literature of Scripture. It is by wisdom, then, that the building activities of the people of God, it is by wisdom that those building activities take place. And not only the building activities, but the inhabiting activities as well. You see, after you are justified, after you are forgiven, you do not sit upon your hands. You work. and in your working you build, and you build by wisdom, and you build in order that you might inhabit.

That is why the statement to Timothy by Paul in 1 Timothy 3.15 is to the point with regard to New Testament wisdom.

I write to you these things so that you know how you ought to be bathed in the household of God, how you ought to inhabit the house of God. That’s wisdom, and that’s what James is all about. How are you going to live? How are you going to inhabit the new temple that God has erected in Jesus Christ?

Well, certainly not by disregarding the instruction, the teaching, and the counsel of that one who speaks. We move from verse eight, and the promise and the provision of God, to verse nine, the warning and the wisdom will be to you if you do not build, if you do not inhabit according to the wisdom of the Lord.

To verse ten, and the expression then of judgment, but as well of grace. sorrows for the wicked. That is sorrows for those who ignore this plea. Yes, there may be many who claim to be forgiven. There may be many who claim to be justified. But then they go off and they live as they wish without any regard to the instruction, teaching, and counsel of the Lord. Ignoring the specifications for building and inhabiting the house of God, the sorrows of the witness, but the one who trusts in the Lord.

Don’t misunderstand what David says here in that 10th verse, but he who trusts in the Lord. Oftentimes the trust is focused upon that moment of justification and forgiveness. Not so, you see, for trust is a perpetual, ongoing attitude of life. You don’t trust just to be forgiven and then forget about it, nor to ignore that faith, nor the life of trust, that attitude of heart and mind that should characterize you.

Isn’t that what Habakkuk 2.4 is suggesting to us? The just shall live by faith.

And what of the man in the parable of Jesus? There was the Pharisee who was righteous in himself and thanked God that he wasn’t like other men, especially the Pharisee. But there was the publican who beat upon his breast and wouldn’t look up to heaven and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus says that man went down to his house justified. But only as he maintained that spirit only as he want, as one trusting in God.

The life of trust, indispensable to the experience of justification and forgiveness, and it is only that life of trust that issues in the conclusion of that 10th verse, your loving kindness shall surround him. From grace unto grace, that’s what lovingkindness is, enveloped in the arms of God’s grace in the end.

Well, there you have it. the exposition of the psalm in terms of the experience of sin, its forgiveness, and David’s justification, and the impact and effect of that justification in that it touches eternal matters and resolves those matters before our eyes. to the extent that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. But having said that, have we said all that needs to be said? The psalm says no. For there is a life to be lived for those justified. There is a life to be lived by those forgiven.

It is a life that is given to God. who instructs, teaches, who is present with us. Christ himself is the fulfillment of that teaching and instruction and wisdom. He is the one who is with us now, counseling us as to how we ought to live. And the form of our life is the form of our Savior. Wisdom is found in service. Wisdom is found in sacrifice. Wisdom is found in imitation of God.

It may appear to be weakness to the world, and unimportant to all that look on with scorn and derision, but it is the truth. the everlasting and eternal truth, that those who trust in the Lord know, those who have been blessed, who have been blessed in the forgiving activity of God, those who have been blessed in that way, know for sure.

Let joy be glad in the Lord. Rejoice, ye righteous ones. Who are these righteous ones? Those who can boast in their own merits, their own works. Those things that can command them to God? Not at all. The righteous ones are those who trust, whose lives are built upon the forgiving activity of God. Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is utter sincerity.

Father, there may be weaknesses In the thought of those we hold in highest regard, there may be things that they overlooked, but surely when your word is heard in its fullness, we are impressed with even those things that have been forgotten or ignored. Truly, Lord, we who have been forgiven have, as it were, been catapulted into the presence of our God, declared righteous, secured.

Yet at the same time, there is a life to be lived for us, by us, in this world. And how then shall we live? By your instruction. And what is your instruction but Christ? Lord, we would trust and in trusting know ultimately that enveloping in your loving kindness, your mercy, your grace and that forever. Hear us Lord as we traverse this wilderness with our eye focused upon you knowing that your

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