Recovering from a Fall into Temptation

We have studied how Jesus was tempted by the Opposer of God in the wilderness and we have learned how Jesus avoided succumbing to the temptation to sin.  Unfortunately we find ourselves falling short of Jesus’ standard and, it seems, we fall into the temptation to sin all too often.  We KNOW that we are secure in our salvation, but what happens when we sin after we have come to Him for salvation? Our human tendency is often to berate or punish ourselves for our failure, but we need only confess our sin, turn from it, and return to walking with Christ.  His forgiveness still applies!

The point of today’s study is to return to God for forgiveness and restoration.  Today we look not at Jesus, but (according to Matthew) Jesus’ great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-father, or something near to that description.  King David was Jesus ancestor.  While David was a great king and his son Solomon was an even greater king, David had his moments of “screw ups” just as all of us do.  Today we look in Psalms 32 verses 1-7 to see David’s perspective on recovering from a fall into temptation.

There are seven penitential psalms that offers repentant believers the assurance of God’s forgiveness.  This one is attributed to David and is commonly speculated that this refers to David’s sin surrounding Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah.  What ever it was referring to, David had “screwed up” and sinned and shares with us his perspective of God’s view.

Psalm 32:1-2

1 How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

2 How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!

The theme of the psalm is simple and straightforward: David sinned, experienced sorrow, confessed, received forgiveness, and then sought refuge in the Lord. The blessing comes to the man who sins and is far from perfect, yet God still forgives him. To emphasize the majesty and scope of the blessing of forgiveness in Psalm 32, David used a single idea repeated multiple times in different ways to emphasize the point.  He placed four phrases together, all of which essentially say the same thing but in different ways in order to cover the scope of what God offers in forgiving sinners. 

There are several words used in the Bible for sin, and David used three of them in the first two verses of this psalm. First, he used transgression, a term to describe acts of rebellion or disloyalty. Second, he chose the word sin, which means “to miss the mark.” We are aiming to follow Christ just as someone takes aim at a target, sometimes we miss the target. This missing the mark could be intentional or unintentional. Either way, we miss living up to God’s standard. Third, he employed the term iniquity. This is a crooked or wrong act, and is usually coupled with the idea of a conscious or deliberate attempt to do wrong. 

Using three of the words for sin, David painted a fairly bleak picture of mankind and our falling short when it comes to following God’s will. The important lesson here is that all sin can be forgiven. The emphasis is on God’s forgiveness. Again, using the parallelism to make the point, David matched each of the three words for sin with a corresponding word for forgiveness. First, he said our transgression is forgiven. The Hebrew verb means to lift or carry away, and implies the removal of sin, its accompanying guilt, and even the remembrance of the sin itself. Second, he told us that our sin is covered. This covering has a strong link with atonement. Through atonement or covering, the sinner is reconciled, and the sin is relegated to the past so that God will never again bring it up as something that made Him angry. Thirdly, David mentioned something that God does not do, namely He does not charge with iniquity. This is a bookkeeping term and brings the idea of charging something to someone’s account. God wipes the slate clean, and the sinner is forgiven. In God’s accounting, He removes the penalties and interest from His ledger sheet and replaces them with blessings, forgiveness, and justification. 

But who receives this blessing from the Lord? Those in whose spirit is no deceit. God knows us God is Emanuel (God with us) and God knows if we are truly repentant when we ask for forgiveness. The word “deceit” here is often used to describe someone who is deliberately and maliciously lying to someone else in order to receive some gain. It refers to the lies we tell ourselves and ultimately the Lord. 

Many of us have a tendency to think we can hide things from God. David reminded the reader in verse 2 that God knows and understands fully the “spirit” of a man. He knows when we are truly repentant and sincerely seeking forgiveness and when we are merely feigning repentance and going through some religious motions. Thus, David gave us two lines of thought: (1) what the blessedness of forgiveness actually means; and (2) what it means to walk in integrity and sincerity. 

Next David walks us through the process.

Psalm 32:3-5

3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

David began this section by giving us a glimpse into his own personal life and struggles. He first admitted his own stubbornness. He recalled when I kept silent, when he did not confess his sins. It was then that he was weakened both physically and mentally. His failure to confess his sin could have come from neglect or desperation, or just an arrogance that assured him he was justified in his actions. In any case, David tried to live his life normally, following God and pretending that everything was alright within him. However, harboring these unconfessed sins proved to be difficult for David. His conscience ate away at him, and the stress began to cause physical problems. Sin, when left unchecked and unresolved, tends to have that effect on a person. 

In these verses we get a sobering reminder of just how miserable it can be to live with unconfessed sin and a guilty conscience. David provided a graphic illustration of psychological, emotional, and physical discomfort. David started his description of the agony he faced by saying that my bones became brittle. The bones of the human body are made up of living cells that need a blood supply providing nourishment and oxygen to stay healthy. When blood flow to part of a bone is disrupted this results in death of bone tissue, and the bone can eventually break down and the joint will collapse.  David notes that without the nourishing spiritual flow of confession and forgiveness the strongest parts of his human constitution began to bother him, sapping his strength and vitality as if he had suddenly aged rapidly. Psychologically, he felt the intensity of this situation (groaning all day long). As fervently as he may have tried, he could find no relief. It consumed his waking thoughts, and when he lay down at night, he could find no peace or rest. 

It may have taken David a while to admit this, but he came to understand that his misery was directly connected to the oppression of his unconfessed sin and rebellion against the Lord. The one thing that separated David from God’s forgiveness, thus ensuring this continued internal torture, was his unconfessed sin.  The beauty of this passage lies in the fact that David was allowed to feel these things by the Lord, indicating he was a true child of God. In His great love, the Lord would not allow His beloved son David to remain comfortable in habitual or unconfessed sin. 

Finally, in a spirit of true repentance, David confessed his sins: then I acknowledged my sin to you. The Lord knew all about them and had always known. He was simply waiting for David to confess them. David was dealing with two problems. He was living a double life, outwardly appearing godly but inwardly having unresolved sin. It was only when he acknowledged and dealt with the second problem that the Lord graciously forgave the first. 

Earlier, David had used three words for sin and three words for forgiveness to make his point. Now he used the same three words for sin, albeit in a different order, coupled with three words for confession. He acknowledged (did not conceal) and confess[ed]. Forgiveness was readily available to David when he agreed with God about what he had done. God was ready to restore his relationship, but only after David came clean with himself. Confession of sin is the pathway to receiving the forgiveness God so desperately wants to give. David ended by acknowledging that the Lord forgave the guilt of my sin. It’s not that his confession earned him anything with the Lord but that he received the gift of forgiveness. As soon as the sin was acknowledged, forgiveness was granted. 

The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden comes to mind.  One may wonder why didn’t God forgive Adam and Eve instead of evicting them from the Garden.  I believe that they had not repented of their sin.  Note the Bible in Genesis 3:8-24 points out the following:

• Adam and Eve hear God in the Garden and answer “I was afraid because I was naked and hid.”  (There was no “I did wrong and I’m sorry” there).
• God asks “did you eat from the tree” and Adam answers, basically, “that woman that YOU gave to me gave me some.”  (Ah…It’s woman’s fault AND God’s fault, but not your own fault, heh?)
• God asks Eve “What did you DOoo”.  The woman, at least honestly, says “the serpent deceived me and I ate.”  (Truthful, but not the WHOLE story.  She “forgot” to mention that she enticed Adam to eat too) 

For whatever the reason, no repentance is indicated on the part of Adam and Eve. Without repentance one cannot be one with God and, as David highlights, such unconfessed sin and unrepentant attitudes leads to eviction, disease and ultimately death, separation from God.  In the next passage David tells us what to DO about it.

Psalm 32:6-7

6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately.  When great floodwaters come,  they will not reach him.

7 You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble.  You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah.

David addressed everyone who is faithful, indicating he had believers in mind as he penned this psalm. David, understanding that God is so great in forgiving mercy, gave fellow believers greater motivation to reach out to the Lord and confess their sins. David urged them to do it immediately. David understood what it was to be so overwhelmed and mired in the guilt and misery of sin that God seemed distant. David knew, too, that God could and would deliver a person from that situation. His concern here was that one can avoid the experience he went through if they confess sooner rather than later. 

Suffering is not a requirement for discipline to have its effect. David’s sage advice is that we should avoid the temptation that he succumbed to, that of staying silent. The temptation when we sin is to remain silent and hope the problem goes away. Whether we are ashamed or angry or too prideful to admit we were wrong, the tendency is to run off and hide, as did Adam and Eve, whenever we hear God approaching. David shared how dangerous and destructive this approach can be from his own personal story. Instead, he encouraged us to call on God and “own up” to what we have done so that we can avoid the unnecessary suffering. Sin can be very deceitful, and if it is left unconfessed, it can harden a person’s heart and open the door to many troubles, like that of rushing floodwaters. 

David praised the Lord for His divine protection as he had now restored David to a right fellowship with the Lord. David’s soul was stirred with the thought of God’s divine protection and care. It’s as if the psalmist was upset with himself that he resisted confessing for so long. He said that God was his hiding place. Unlike Adam and Eve who tried to hide FROM God, David realized that the BEST and most secure place is to hide IN GOD. 

The idea is the same as someone running into their safe room when they find their home under attack. A hiding place is a place that provides safety, and comfort and peace. When in this place, we have no fear, because we feel completely protected. The idea is that David was safe under God’s protection, hidden from sin’s devastating consequences.  David affirmed that God will protect me from trouble. God has a way of sheltering those who trust Him, and He will protect us from every adversary, including ourselves. 

The trouble to which David alluded is that which comes from guilt: the sadness and sorrow we feel over our sin and the fear of sin’s impending consequences. David also found security in joyful shouts of deliverance. These are songs sung in the joy and confidence of victory. David would be surrounded with songs expressive of deliverance or salvation. God would bring them into his world. David would sing the songs with the redeemed around him because they, too, were wonderfully and marvelously forgiven. 

Ultimately, David and others like him will be given ample reason to sing, and songs of praise will become a part of their world. They will hear these songs in nature and within their own hearts. David had now come full circle. He had described himself as being oppressed by the hand of God, but now he found shelter in Him. What a wonderful change that occurs when we come clean before God and admit our sins! Instead of feeling embarrassed or ashamed, we can find peace and shelter.  David wanted us to learn from his mistakes. Forgiveness comes much easier when we confess our sins immediately, and we need to return to God for forgiveness and restoration.