Of David. A Maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.By David. A contemplative psalm. Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.A Psalm of David. Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
5 sermons cite this verse
… it's a command Psalm 32 verse 1 be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous ones shout for joy all who are upright in heart. That's a command. Psalm 67 verse 4, let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Isn't it wonderful that world missions means going to tell the nations to be happy? It's just wonderful. It may cost you your life. I mean, I do funerals for missionaries. I know this will cost you your life. I promise my people there will be martyrs in this church. Come on, let's do this. The Great Commission won't be finished without blood. It says so in Revelation. The martyrs are up there waiting, and Jesus says, the full number of the martyrs isn't in yet. I can't end history. This is serious business. But what we're doing is saying, let the nations be glad. We're telling the best news in the world. …
When the Law gets thoroughly into a man's heart, it drives him to despair of himself ' 'Oh," he says, "I cannot keep that Law!" Once he thought that he was as good as other people and a little better than most—and he did not know but that with a little polishing and a little help, he might be good enough to win the favor of God and go to Heaven! But when the Law entered his heart, it soon smashed his idol to atoms! The Dagon of self-righteousness speedily falls before the Ten Commandments of God and is so broken that it can never be mended. Men try to set the stump of it up on its pedestal again, but as long as the Law of the Lord is in the same temple with self-righteousness, self-righteousness can never be exalted again! To some people it seems to be a dreadful thing to give a man such a bad opinion of himself, but, indeed, it is the greatest blessing that could come to him, for when he despairs of himself, he will fly to Christ to save him! When the last crust is gone from his cupboard, he will cry to the great Giver of the Bread of Life, whereof if a man eats, he shall live forever! You must starve the sinner's self-righteousness to make him willing to feed on Christ—and thus the very depths of his despair, when he thinks that he must be lost forever—will only lead him, by God's abundant love, to a fuller appreciation of the heights of God's Grace! …
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon concerning the man sick of the palsy are as follows—#2337, Volume 39—THE PHYSICIAN PARDONS HIS PALSIED PATIENT; #2417, Volume 41—FIRST FORGIVENESS, THEN HEALING and #3016, Volume52—GOOD CHEER FROM FORGIVEN SIN.] OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST did not say to the palsied man, "Be of good cheer, your palsied limbs shall be made strong and well again." But before He had cured that terrible malady, He bade him be comforted because his sins were forgiven—as if that would be a sufficient reason for rejoicing even if he should remain palsied! If he should be carried away from the Presence of Christ upon his bed just as helpless as when he was let down from the roof into the middle of the crowded room, that would be quite a secondary matter compared with the all-important fact that his sins had been forgiven. David truly wrote, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered," and he is blessed even though he is sick of the palsy, or suffering from all the diseases to which flesh is heir! You remember, too, how the Prophet Isaiah wrote, under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "Comfort, you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her"—what? What shall be the special cause of comfort to the Church of God?—"that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." She might be in great trouble and distress. Her land might be trodden under the feet of invaders. Her sons and daughters might be fainting in her streets, but as her iniquity was pardoned, she had good ground for comfort! To quote another instance that is a close parallel to our text, our Lord said to the woman in the city who was a sinner—who had washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed them, and anointed them with ointment—"Your sins are forgiven...Go in peace." And, truly, when sin is forgiven, we may go in peace! …
"He has lifted me out of the miry clay, And set my feet on the King's Highway"— but, perhaps, instead of doing so, he bows himself before the Lord in solemn silence, feeling that he could never express the gratitude he feels for such amazing mercy. Or, possibly, he finds David's words just suited to his experience and, therefore, he says, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and forget not all His benefits who forgives all your iniquities." He realizes, as David did, that all his iniquities are forgiven and with the royal Psalmist he sings, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Nor is this all, for this pardon is one that is never reversed. O Sinner, if you really repent of your sin and believe in Jesus, the sinner's Savior, you are saved with an everlasting salvation! Remember that you have to deal with a God who never changes—He gives to the guilty penitent full and free forgiveness, not a reprieve or a respite! Once washed in the precious blood of Jesus, you shall never go back to your sin so as to live in it, and to die in it and perish. If you are truly trusting in Jesus, you are saved, not merely for today, tomorrow and next week, but forever. What says the Lord Jesus Christ Himself? "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." Were you, my dear Hearer, ever pardoned by God for Christ's sake? Then you are pardoned forever! But if not, I pray that you may repent and believe the Gospel this very hour. …
"Blessed is he who transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered." Psalm 32:1. MEN have, all of them, their own ideals of blessedness. Those ideals are often altogether contrary to the sayings which our Savior uttered in His Sermon on the Mount. They count those to be blessed who are strong in health, who are abundant in riches, who are honored with fame, who are entrusted with command, who exercise power—those, in fact, who are distinguished in the eyes of their fellow creatures! Yet I find not such persons called, "blessed," in God's Word, but oftentimes humble souls who might excite pity rather than envy, are congratulated upon the blessings which they are heirs to and which they shall soon enjoy. To the penitent there is no voice so pleasant as that of pardon! God, who cannot lie—who cannot err—tells us what it is to be blessed. Here He declares that, "blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered." This is an oracle not to be disputed. Forgiven sin is better than accumulated wealth The remission of sin is infinitely to be preferred before all the glitter and the glare of this world's prosperity. The gratification of creature passions and earthly desires is illusive—a shadow and a fiction—but the blessedness of the justified, the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness is substantial and true! How apt we are to say in our hearts, "Would God Adam had never fallen, for blessed must be the man who never sinned!" Could any man have attained to a perfect life which deserved commendation at God's hands, blessedness would surely glow around him like a halo! At his feet the earth would blossom! In his nostrils the air would breathe sweet odors and his ears would be regaled with the sweet singing of birds—"content, indeed, to sojourn while he must, below the skies, but having there his home." Such a man would feel and find the beams of brightness playing over the entire expanse of life and the thrill of gladness filling his heart with unbroken peace! The mountains and hills would break forth into singing and all the trees of the field would clap their hands, to multiply his inlets to happiness. But it is not of such imaginary bliss that our sacred Psalmist loves to sing, because, however true, it would be a mere mockery to tell us, who are so deeply fallen, of sweet delights that those, alone, could know who never fell! Our time of probation is over. We of mortal race were proved, tried and condemned long ago. It is not possible, now, for us to have the blessedness of uncorrupted innocence. And yet, thank God, blessedness is still possible to us, sinners though we are! We may hear the voice of the Ever Blessed of God pronouncing us to be blessed! His mercy can secure to us what our merit could never have earned, for so it is written, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered." May everyone of us partake of this blessedness and know and rejoice in the full assurance of it! …