“DAVID’S CONFESSION – GOD’S FORGIVENESS”
PSALMS 32 AND 51

I. Introduction
Do you remember the first Bible verse you memorized? Or maybe should I ask, do you remember the second Bible verse you memorized, after John 3:16? I think mine was, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous (or just) to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That’s 1 John 1:9, and it is familiar to most Bible-believing Christians. In fact, in some discipleship programs, it’s one of the very first memory verses.

But, as is the case with so many of the most basic biblical truths, 1 John 1:9 is often misun-derstood. Is God saying that you must confess every single sin you’ve ever committed or you won’t be forgiven? And don’t you need to be forgiven to be saved and go to heaven?

Well, 1 John 1:9 does say, “If we confess…God forgives,” doesn’t it? So it must follow that, “If we don’t confess, God doesn’t forgive,” right? Wrong! But isn’t that biblical double-talk? No, it isn’t. John is not talking about our eternal relationship to God. That can never change. What John is talking about is our temporal relationship with God.

If you are a Christian, your sins have been forgiven. Period! But the point of 1 John 1:9 is that when we confess our sins, our fellowship with God will be restored. We will know for-giveness and we will sense the removal of our guilt. And in that we will recognize, we will renew, and we will refresh the joy of our relationship with our heavenly Father.

The “we” in 1 John 1:9 means Christians. John is speaking to the church. This letter is not addressed to the lost world. So, Christian, for which of your sins have you already been for-given? How many? The ones you’ve remembered to confess? Did Jesus die on the cross for the sins you have remembered to confess, but not the ones you have forgotten to confess? You can see the problem, can’t you?

John is referring to our attitude about our sin. He is saying we must agree with God that we really are sinners. If we don’t, we are only kidding ourselves; we have no fellowship with God, and in fact, we are saying that He is wrong. Therefore, we need to “be on the same page” with God when it comes to our sin. We need to confess our sin. This is especially true when we come to the communion table as we do this morning.
*Romans 10:9-10
9 …if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

In Romans 10:9-10 we find a word that doesn’t mean what most people think it does.
In English the word is “confess.” In Greek it is “hŏmŏlŏgĕō.” It is a compound word derived from “hŏmŏu,” meaning “the same,” and “lŏgŏs,” meaning, “spoken words.” So “hŏmŏlŏgĕō” means “the same spoken words,” or “to say the same thing.”

The words “confess” in v. 9 and “confesses” in v. 10 mean that we are to say the same thing about the Lord Jesus Christ that the Scriptures say about Him. That is, we must come into agreement with God about who Jesus really is.

So confession of sin is far more than simply saying, “Yes, I did it.” With regard to our sin, admission is a part of what we must do to be saved, but it’s only a part. Listen, you won’t agree with God – say the same thing about your sin that He says about it – if you haven’t already agreed with Him about His Son. Therefore, the question is, “Do you agree with God that Jesus is Lord, and do you say so?” That is Romans 10:9-10. We must begin by con-fessing Jesus.
*Philippians 2:10-11
10 …that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess (agree with God) that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Biblical confession of sin means that we hear what God says about us, and we acknowledge and admit that what He says about us is truth. Furthermore, we agree with God when He says that we are sinners. That is true confession as the apostle uses the word in 1 John 1:9.

John’s point here is that one way to know for sure that you are a Christian is that you are willing to confess your sin. You agree with God and you admit you’re a sinner. Merely agreeing with God about your sin is not how you obtain salvation, but it is about how you enhance and enjoy your relationship with God.

If, as Paul says in Romans 10:9, you do not believe in Christ and His resurrection from the dead, you cannot be saved. But when you do believe, you will agree with God, by saying the same thing He says about Him. You will confess Christ.

Romans 10:10 says, “…for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. So confession is one of the primary ways you demonstrate, to God and to others, that you, in fact, are a Christian.

But confession alone – confession without belief, without saving faith – does not save. In Philippians 2 Paul says, “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (vv. 10-11).” He’s saying the day will come when all the living – believers and unbelievers alike – all the dead – believers and unbelievers alike – all the holy angels, all the demons, and even Satan himself, will all bow down, acknow-ledge, admit, and agree with God that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In doing so they will all confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, but they will not all be saved, will they? By the way, someone has asked the question, “Will there be any believers in hell?” The answer is, “Yes, every one of them.” They will all believe, but they will all believe too late.

The outcome of confessing our sins is this: It clears our conscience and removes our guilt. And in doing so it restores our fellowship with the God who has saved us and given us eter-nal life. This is a relationship and a joy that no unbeliever can ever know. Conversely, it is a relationship and a joy that every believer should and can know. It is that relationship and that joy that we’ll look into this morning.
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II. Text
King David was already one of God’s children when he wrote Psalms 32 and 51. It is most likely that Psalm 51 was written first and Psalm 32 was the sequel.
*Psalm 51:1-17
1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak, and blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15 O LORD, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

King David was a man of prayer. Today we might call him a “prayer warrior.” And even though the Bible tells us that David was “a man after God’s own heart,” his problem was that he was also a man of sin. This is not a contradiction. It is the reality of every single one of God’s children. While our hearts have been turned toward God, we are still in the flesh and our bent toward sin remains.

This bent toward sin certainly remained for David. He was the king of Israel. He had power and wealth and fame and he knew he could have pretty much anything he wanted. And that was David’s problem. So one night, during the war with the Ammonites, David is walking on his palace roof. He sees Bathsheba, the wife of one of his loyal soldiers, Uriah the Hit-tite, bathing on a lower rooftop. David knows Uriah is away fighting the Ammonites so He has Bathsheba brought to himself and, to make a long story short, she conceives a child.

When David learns of the pregnancy he tries to hide his sin by having Uriah called home to “spend time with his wife.” And so, one sin follows another. Hopefully, Uriah will think the child is his own. But Uriah is a man of character and he refuses to enjoy the pleasures of his marriage while his comrades are off fighting Israel’s enemy. And so, one sin follows another. In desperation, David has Uriah sent back to battle with the following order to Joab, Uriah’s superior officer. There’s nothing subtle about the order.
2 Samuel 11:15
15 “…Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”

With that David’s sin of adultery is compounded by intrigue, conspiracy, and murder.
2 Samuel 11:26-27
26 Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27 When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. (“I got away with it. Everything is working out just fine.”) But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

But God, through the prophet Nathan, confronts David.
2 Samuel 12:9 (Nathan speaking.)
9 “Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.”

Finally, inescapably, David is faced with the truth. He is a man after God’s own heart, yet he is a man who has sinned grievously.
Now he recognizes his own sin, sees it for what it is, repents of it, confesses, and finds out what God is going to do about it.
2 Samuel 12:13-14
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has taken away your sin; you
shall not die.
14 “However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”

Listen carefully, please. If you don’t think your sin affects others, you’re just not paying attention. These two verses in 2 Samuel should have a profound impact on all of God’s children. David is one of God’s own. His sin will not cause him to lose his salvation, but a price will be paid, and a steep price it will be. With the child’s death the consequences of David’s sin begin to play out.

But David’s repentance is real and his confession is genuine. And we see that God’s grace is amazing. It’s recorded in Psalm 51. When you seek forgiveness it is one of the best places to look in all of Scripture to guide you in your prayers.
*Psalm 51:1-4
1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.

David begins by pleading for forgiveness. In v. 1 “transgressions” means willful disobedi-ence. In v. 2 “iniquity” means twisting and perverting the truth, and “sins” speaks of mis-sing the mark of God’s standard of perfection. David is pulling no punches. He is speaking truth. In v. 4 he is confessing – agreeing with God that what he has done is evil.

Can you relate to what David says in v. 3 – “…my sin is ever before me.”? I can! Until you deal with it, your sin hangs around your neck like a millstone, doesn’t it? (That’s why we’re here today – to deal with it.) In v. 4 he says something that surprises us the first time we come upon it. He says, “Against You, You only, have I sinned.” What about Bathsheba? What about Uriah? What about the dead child? What about the rest of David’s family?

“Against You, You only, have I sinned,” states a fundamental truth that we often miss. We miss it because we underestimate the seriousness, the gravity, and the enormity of our sin and who is really offended by it. Of course, David’s sin had profound ramifications for all those I’ve mentioned. But the ultimate crime was not against them. It was against God. It is only when we begin to grasp that truth, that we begin to see our sin as God sees it.

*Psalm 51:5-6
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

Then in v. 5 David admits he has had a sin nature since the moment of his conception. By the way, “…in sin did my mother conceive me” does not mean that David’s conception in his mother’s womb was sin. It means that, like all of us, David’s mother was a sinner by nature. She, like us, suffered from the curse of original sin. Original sin is one of the core biblical truths that so many liberal theologians deny and what so many modern preachers either refuse to talk about or attempt to minimize.
*Psalm 51:7-12
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.

David asks God to, “Make me pure, wash me, make me glad and joyful, don’t look at my sins, erase them all, clean out my heart, renew my spirit, don’t send me away, don’t go away from me, restore me, and sustain me – that’s all I ask.” David is asking for a lot, isn’t he? Does he deserve any of it? Of course not! Do you and I deserve it? Of course not!

But David and you and I get it all, if we will go before God, humble and broken in spirit and agree with Him about what our sin really is. We need to understand that we have no right to forgiveness, but God gives it anyway. That’s called GRACE!
*Psalm 51:13-17
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, You of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
15 O LORD, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

When he speaks of “bloodguiltiness” in v. 14, he is referring to capital punishment.
Isn’t capital punishment the just penalty for his murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah?

Finally, in vv. 16-17, David acknowledges God’s gift of grace by saying that if he could do a good work, or offer up some religious ritual, or sacrifice anything at all to please God, he would do it. But he knows he can’t. He knows that his only hope begins with his confession and ends with God’s forgiveness.

Sometime later, David having already experienced God’s forgiveness for his sins, writes…
*Psalm 32:1-11
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!
3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
5 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 did forgive the guilt of my sin.
6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place; You do preserve me from trouble; You do surround me with songs of deliverance.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9 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.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked; but he who trusts in the LORD, loving-kindness shall surround him.
11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice you righteous ones, and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart.

David, a sinner saved by grace, knew full well how painful it could be, and how ultimately futile it was, to try to hide his sin. It took a while, but he eventually learned of the blessings of confession and the blessings that God poured out upon him because of his agreeing with God about his sin. He confessed his sin in Psalm 51.

Now, in Psalm 32, he reaps the benefits of that confession. Consider David’s words and how they apply to you as you prepare your hearts to receive communion. Think about how his words will encourage you to confess your sin, to say the same thing about it that God says about it. You’ll be able to do this because, as a Christian, you’ve already confessed (said the same thing about) His Son that He has said, haven’t you?
*Psalm 32:1-2
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!

David speaks of the joy of knowing his sins are forgiven. Jesus had not yet gone to the cross to pay the price for David’s sin. But David believed God’s promise that the price would be paid. By faith, he looked into the future, and saw his redemption. And by faith, you and I believe God, look back through history at the cross, and see our redemption as well.
*Psalm 32:3-4
3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.

Who among us does not know this pain? Why do we put ourselves through it? Let me sug-gest that we do it because of stubbornness and pride. We seem to think it will go away if we ignore it. But like a disease, if we ignore it, it only gets worse.

That is our condition before God saves us and removes the penalty of our sin. David has been forgiven and he revels in the joy that accompanies his forgiveness. But no one knew better than David the anguish of trying to hide his sin from God and the broken fellowship that went with it. How descriptive he is! Look again at v. 4. But what happened when he confessed his sin?
*Psalm 32:5
5 I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity (willful disobedience) I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions (perversion of the truth) to the LORD”; and You did forgive the guilt of my sin (falling short of God’s standard).

David acknowledged all of his sin and called it what it was. He admitted he was in rebel-lion against God, that he had broken God’s Law like a common criminal breaks any law, and that he was a habitual sinner. In other words, in his confession, he agreed with God. Instantly, God forgave him and in doing so, their relationship was restored. The beauty and the benefits of this spiritual restoration become immediately apparent.
*Psalm 32:6-7
6 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him.
7 You are my hiding place; You do preserve me from trouble; You do surround me with songs of deliverance.

David rejoices and praises God for His grace and spiritual protection. He encourages all of us to draw near to God and find refuge in Him. God is always faithful to His children.
There is a lesson for us in vv. 6-7. We should never put off confession. When we do we not only presume upon His grace, but we allow ourselves to suffer needlessly.

In the rest of the psalm David admonishes us to take these things to heart and submit our-selves to the Lord. He tells us that we should neither be like the horse, which is often impe-tuous and tends to run wild, nor the mule, which is often stubborn and must be prodded to do what is expected of it. Both animals are controlled by the bit and bridle. The question for us is – “Is that the way we want God to control us?” He will if He has to.

But if we will trust Him, go to Him when we sin, humble ourselves before Him, and say the same thing about it He says – confess it – “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” As such, our relationship to our Lord and Savior will be restored and we will be able to “Be glad…and shout for joy.”
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III. Conclusion
As you come to the table imagine there is no one here but you and your Lord. We come to the table together, but we come to the Lord by ourselves. He already knows everything you have done. And He will cleanse you and make you whole the moment you confess.

King David learned that very well. If he were worshipping here with us this morning, he could come to the table and freely, joyfully, and guiltlessly join us in Communion with his Lord and Savior. That’s the lesson for you and for me as we partake in these elements.

Is there anything you need to “get off your chest,” as it were? If so, let me urge you to confess your sins. Agree with God about them. Let Him remove the guilt that wears away at you. Let Him restore your soul.

Lastly, let me urge you to write down the following references in your Bibles, or on a sheet of paper you can keep with your Bibles, or somewhere. They will help you to keep a right frame of mind about confession and forgiveness.
Numbers 32:23b
23b …you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Galatians 6:7
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Psalm 32:1
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

Please join me at the table.