Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 32-37.
There is no greater blessing than to have our sins forgiven, however we cannot experience forgiveness until we acknowledge our sins. We will continue to suffer for our sins until we admit to ourselves and to God that we did wrong, when we confess our sins, when we admit that they were indeed sins, God will forgive us and give us healing. Then He will instruct us in how we should behave and direct our way to bring glory to Him and thus happiness to ourselves. As we learn to do His will joy will fall upon us and we will rejoice in Him. I read these psalms and I try to communicate the message they speak to me, but I find myself falling short of doing so. Then I come to this phrase in Psalm 34, “Taste and see that the Lord is good:”. Reading that I realize that no matter how eloquently I speak of Him, you will not understand the message until you experience it for yourself. So, I strive to convince those I know to take that leap of faith to put their trust in God. Sometimes I lose hope of those for whom I care deeply ever accepting His love, but this psalm contains a message of hope there as well:
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
This reminds me that I came to Him because His Spirit called me, when His Spirit calls them, they will also answer. I know that I will never bring my friends to the Lord, but perhaps His Spirit will move through me to bring them to Himself.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 32-37.
The first psalm in today’s passage starts off by reminding us that God’s forgiveness is the greatest blessing we may receive. Only by acknowledging our sins can we be forgiven. We must recognize that we have done things which have created some, or perhaps all, of the problems in our lives. We must recognize that our sins were mistakes, that they were things we wish we had not done. In Psalm 36, the psalmist tells us that the wicked have no fear of God. This results in them flattering themselves too much for them to be able to detect, let alone regret, their own sin. If we truly fear the Lord, we will listen to His instruction and avoid taking the actions which we will later regret.
There is much more in these psalms, but I think this is a good place to stop.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 32-37.
Psalm 32 tells us that those whose sins are forgiven are truly blessed. The psalmist follows that up bu reminding us that in order for our sins to be forgiven we must acknowledge those sins and confess them to God. This is very closely related to one of my favorite verses about faith is in this set of psalms. Psalms 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” It really sums up what we need to do to know God, to know that He exists and is as wonderful as those who put their faith in Him say that He is. We cannot truly know that God exists, we cannot witness the evidence for His existence until we admit that we have sinned and choose to follow His commands. In Psalm 36 the psalmist tells us that the wicked are unable to detect their own sins. This should strike close to home if we think that we are better than others. Perhaps we think we are better than those others because we are too proud, and too wicked, to see our own sins.
Acknowledge your sins, your failures, your wickedness, confess those sins to God, repent of those sins, turn from your wickedness and do good, and taste the wonderfulness of God’s forgiveness.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 32-37.
Psalm 32 provides an important counterpoint to the Book of Job. While the Book of Job teaches us that we should not assume that someone else’s suffering is a result of some sin of which we are unaware, Psalms 32 reminds us that unconfessed sin will often cause us to suffer. If you are suffering, examine your life for sins which you may be harboring, confess them to God and repent of them. Sometimes God sends suffering into our lives as part of His efforts to guide us to the path which we should follow. Instead of trying to hide our sins, let us confess them and praise God. That will bring joy to our lives. If we, in our desperation, choose to praise God and act according to His will, we will find joy. The psalmist sums that up in Psalms 34 when he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The only way to discover the joy of serving God is to try it our for yourself.
The psalmist goes on to make an important point. The wicked do not know how wicked they truly are. Which means that we do not know how wicked we truly are. Sin whispers deep in our hearts and tries to convince us not to fear God. So, do not worry about the wickedness of others, whether to fret that they do not receive punishment or to envy them what they have. Instead, examine our own lives for sin, trust in the Lord, and do good. If we commit everything we do to serving the Lord, we will never fail and He will give us our heart’s desires. Turn from our rage, and maintain control of our tempers. The wicked may seem to prosper, but they will soon disappear. Instead of being angry at the wickedness of others, let us strive to do good and not be like them. Then we will experience true joy.
When I first read today’s psalms my thought was that each one stands alone, how do I write a blog entry on them that isn’t longer than they are? Then I re-read them and saw a sort of progression from one to the next. So, I am going to try to write about that progression. I do really hope you are not reading my words in place of reading the psalms.
So, the progression begins with the psalmist writing about the joy which we have when our sin is forgiven. First he tells us about the suffering which comes from sin in our lives, from pretending that the sins we committed were not wrong. In order to experience the joy of forgiveness, we must admit that we have done wrong (probably repeatedly). Then God will forgive us, but the joy truly comes when we follow the path which He shows us. We cannot be follow God’s path until we have been forgiven for our sins, and we cannot be forgiven until we admit that we have done wrong. If I do not follow the path which God shows me it indicates that I do not trust Him to know what is best for me.
When we follow the path which God lays before us it leads us to praise Him in word, song, and deed. We see His unfailing love all around us and feel compelled to tell all we meet of the love He has for us, and for them. If we rely on our own strength, wisdom, and wealth our plans will not succeed, but if we make God’s plans our plans and rely on His strength and power, we cannot fail. In the next psalm we come to the best answer for those who doubt God: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself. I can never show you what it is like to trust in God. From my own experience I can tell you that the psalmist got it exactly right. You will never know what God can do until you choose to act as if you believe in Him. If you think you believe, you must act according to those beliefs. If you do not believe, I beg of you, give it a try, act as if you believe. If you act as if you believe the God of the Bible is real, soon you will KNOW that He is real. You will experience God rescuing you from trouble when you cry to Him.
The life of trusting in God and serving Him is not easy. You will be attacked by those who do not want to admit that they do wrong, those who deny that they are wicked. They will tell lies about you. They will malign you as committing the sins which they themselves commit, all the while denying that they are doing wrong when they do those things. But if we continue to do what God desires, they will be humiliated and disgraced. Even then they will not turn from their sin, nor acknowledge even to themselves that they do anything wrong. Nevertheless, we should not worry about them, or envy them. Let us commit our every action to God and not give in to anger against the wicked. God will bring them down to death and destruction, but we must not give in to the anger which their sin provokes within us. Instead, let us love them with God’s love and think of the joy they will have, and will bring to us, if they allow God’s Spirit to touch their lives and transform them so that they turn from their sins!
Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 32-37.
The psalmist begins today’s psalms by reminding us of the joy which comes from God forgiving our sins. In fact that sets the stage for a theme which runs through today’s psalms: how to obtain joy. One of the sources of depression and unhappiness is unconfessed sin. I want to be careful here. I am not saying that everyone who suffers from depression has sins to which they are not admitting. However, if you are suffering from depression, examine your life for any unconfessed sins and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any such sins. I also want to add that even if your depression is caused by unconfessed sins, that does not make you any worse than I. I am certainly no better than you. Perhaps I am even worse. Perhaps the fact that I do not suffer from depression is an indication that I am not as bothered by my sin as you are by yours. I am quite confident that I am no less of a sinner than you. I want to repeat that I am not saying that everyone suffering from depression has sin which they are not admitting. I do not even know that most people suffering from depression have such sins. I am just saying that some people suffer from depression because of unconfessed sin.
I did not intend to spend that much time on that because the main focus of these psalms is joy. God offers to guide us along the best pathway for our lives. That will not be the same for each of us. It will not even be the same for any two of us. The greatest joy will come to us if we readily and willingly follow the guidance which God gives us. Part of that path is recognizing God’s greatness and praising Him for it. There is joy in praising the Lord and in boasting about His power. In the middle of explaining how God will save us from our troubles if we call out to Him the psalmist has one of those lines which, for me, sum up making the case for believing in God.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
I can, and will, make every argument I can think of for why you should put your faith in God. But until you actually do so you will not understand just how wonderful faith in God is. Until you put your faith in Him, you will not truly know that He is. When I was younger I struggled looking for evidence of God’s existence. I wanted proof that He existed. Finally one day I was contemplating my life and its utter meaninglessness. The thought went through my head, “If there is no God, I may as well kill myself.” My very next thought was, “I cannot do that to my mother.” At that moment, I realized that I could not live with the idea that the God of the Bible was not real. So, I decided from that moment on to live my life as if He was indeed real, even though I had no proof. By the end of the following week, I had the proof I had been so desperately seeking. I cannot prove to you that God exists, that can only happen when you put your faith in Him, but it has been proven to me that He exists.
I was going to stop with the last, but as is usually the case, I skimmed over the passage for today one last time and found more advice for long-term joy and happiness in our lives. There is no reason to be envious of the wicked. They may have things we do not, and they may experience pleasures we do not, but in the end they will face suffering we would not wish on our worst enemies. There is more pleasure and joy to be found in doing the good which God calls us to do than in any of the things which the wicked may obtain. Commit our actions to God and leave our anger at others go. If your anger is justified, those it is directed against will face God’s judgment soon enough. If it is not, you may allow it to cause you to do wrong to another. Let you anger go and do the good to which God directs you.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Psalms 32-37.
I am not sure that my title quite captures the theme I want to talk about from today’s Psalms, but it is close. If we are feeling depression and despair the first step is to confess our sins to God. There may be exceptions, but the source of much depression in this world is unconfessed sin. Refusing to admit that we have sinned can send us into a spiral of despair and depression. Giving in and admitting that we have sinned, and repenting of that sin will allow us to discover God’s forgiveness. When we receive and understand God’s forgiveness, we will be filled with joy.
Our response to that joy should be to sing praises to the Lord, but even if we do not feel the joy we should praise the Lord. This is a second tool which God provides us to fight depression and despair. Praising the Lord will fill us with joy. There is a progression involved. In order to praise God, we must recognize the power and majesty of God: He merely spoke and the Universe came into existence. That leads us to fear the Lord, to hold Him in awe(a mixture of reverence, respect, and dread). When we hold the Lord in fear and awe we do as He instructs, which leads us to discover that He loves what is just and true. We learn that His love is unfailing. When we sense and experience God’s love we are filled with joy, which leads us to praise Him.
These psalms fill me with a sense of wonder that I have completely failed to convey in what I have written in the previous two paragraphs. In order to try and capture those thoughts I am going to pull a few things the psalmist says out and highlight them.
Then keep your tongue from speaking evil
and your lips from telling lies!
Turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
From there the psalmist goes on to tell us that the righteous will face many troubles, but God will come to their rescue. Related to my theme about turning to God to overcome depression is this statement by the psalmist:
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
That is something important to remember, God is close to those suffering depression and despair. He will rescue them.
It is a bit of a stretch to connect this last bit to overcoming depression and obtaining joy, but I am going to go there anyway. The psalmist calls on the Lord to fight his enemies. He outlines what our behavior needs to be if we want God to take on our enemies for us. First, we must do them no wrong to justify their attack against us, but that is not of itself enough. When they are suffering let us grieve for them. Let us fast and pray for them. Let us think of them and treat them as if they were our own family. We need to give up our anger and our rage. Losing our temper will benefit no one. It is only when we have done all of these things that we can know that WE are not the ones against whom God will be fighting.
I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I have been trying to write my blogs on the Psalms with some thread that ties together my thoughts and comments on the Psalms I am reading each day. I do not think I am going to succeed in doing that today.
When we refuse to acknowledge our sins to ourselves and confess them to God we suffer. If we acknowledge our sin and wrongdoing, turning away from them, God will forgive us. Then He will guide us along the best pathway for us to follow. When we look at the world around us, God’s power is clear (at least for those who are willing to see). Considering the state of the world today, Psalms 33 contains a phrase which does indeed cause me to sing for joy to the Lord:
The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations
and thwarts all their schemes.
But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever;
his intentions can never be shaken.
As terrible as the state of the world looks, as bad as I believe things would turn out if the declared plans of many nations came to fruition, I know that God is in control and it is HIS plans which will come to fruition. He sees what is going on and He understands mankind. Despite how powerful the many forces of evil in this world appear, their strength and power will serve them not at all when their plans run counter to God’s. On the other hand, no matter how weak you may think that you are, if you fear the Lord and do His will He will rescue you and bring you safely home.
Psalm 34 speaks to me every time I read it. I constantly seek to apply my intellect to the problems I see around me. When I discuss with people I try to use logic to show them the right thing to do (my logic is not always right, but I have found that trying to use logic to make a case for what I believe will reveal where I have failed in doing so). Yet this psalm reminds me of the limits to using logic to convince people about God. Ultimately, people will only truly come to know and understand God by experiencing Him for themselves. Or as the psalmist puts it, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” It is only through your own experience that you can come to understand God. No matter how eloquent and convincing I may be, or you may be, it is only when people experience God for themselves that they receive the joy He has to offer. Then, when we have experienced God, we learn to do right, want to do right, and find joy in doing right (even when it scares us before we do it).
Psalm 35 also reminds me of what is going on in the world today. Just listen to the news, or go on social media, and it will not be long before you hear someone accuse Christians of a crime they did not commit, or impute to all Christians the sins of a single individual. I will not spell it all out, read verse 11-16 for yourself. Have you not seen this for yourself? Yet, despite these things let us not fail to continue doing the things for which the psalmist claims credit. Let us fast and pray when they face trouble. Let us do what we are able to assist them when they are in need. Let us grieve for them when they suffer hardship. The wicked do not believe that they are wicked and nothing we can say or do will change that (except to pray that the Holy Spirit will touch their hearts and bring about change). So, let us not worry about the wicked and what they do. God will bring them judgment in His time. Rather let us seek to do what we know is right. We must guard against losing our temper over the seeming success of the wicked. Our anger will not help if it leads us to bring harm. It is better to be godly and have little than to be evil and rich.
