Psalm 32 Confession Is Key

Daily Bible Study for Thursday August 11, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version.

One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

Psalm 119:14

I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Song: God Is Good    By: Lisa Page Brooks

Psalm 32

Confessing Is Key

For the man or woman who wants to walk with God with a clean heart and hands, confession is key. In fact, there is no greater requirement set before us if we want to be right in His sight. It all starts with a humble heart and admitting we have sinned. The good news is that our God is full of mercy and forgiveness. That is a cause for all of God’s people to shout and rejoice! Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for being a God of mercy to the sons of men. Lord, without Your mercy, we would perish without hope. Our end would be doom and our hearts would fail. Father, show each of us today in this lesson what we need to see personally. Every one of us has different things going on. Every one of us depends on Your wonderful mercy. Father, I ask You to send forth Your powerful word into all our hearts today to work Your righteousness. May it go out unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Lord, we desire to be doers of Your word and not forgetful hearers. Thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we trust and obey You. We give You all the glory, honor and praise in Jesus name. Amen.

Why is confession so important? Doesn’t God already know what’s going on in our hearts and lives? Why should we have to say it out loud to Him? What’s the big deal? It is true that God knows the depths of our hearts. He knows when we sin the minute it happens. He even knows when we are thinking about sinning. He literally knows everything about everybody. There is nothing hidden from His sight…

Hebrews 4:13

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

So if He knows we sinned, why do we have to confess? Let’s look at one example…

James 5:16

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Did you notice here that it says to confess so that you may be healed? If we don’t confess, we will remain sick. In these verses today we see one of many examples of how sin dries up our bones. We discussed it a bit in yesterday’s study. Sin will bring physical sickness. Many do not believe this but it’s true. The Bible says it so we must believe it. Let’s look at a couple of verses pertaining to that… 

Psalm 6:2

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

Psalm 31:10

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

Psalm 38:3

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin.

Everything in our lives actually dries up, including our bodies when we are walking around with unconfessed sin. There are countless testimonies of people who have confessed their sin and been healed. I am one of those people. When I acknowledged my sin before the Lord He healed me of that terrible spirit of infirmity that had been on me for so many long years. I have experienced His healing in numerous ways, but getting right with Him brought healing from something that plagued me for a great period of time. It never pays to keep walking in sin. Keeping quiet about it is not the right thing to do at all.

God is a merciful and forgiving God. Let’s look at what His word says about confession…

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We should not only confess our sins, but be willing to have God examine our hearts…

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Someone who is willing to say this is a humble person before the Lord. He is happy to accommodate us.

We must not be stubborn. Our chapter mentions the horse and mule who are stubborn and must be controlled by a bit or bridle. Stubbornness is the same as the sin of witchcraft. We are warned not to be like this…

1 Samuel 15:23a

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

I don’t think any of us would like to have to go to God and say, Lord, I just practice a little witchcraft here and there, but You understand, right? That’s absurd! Well my friends, in His holy eyes, when we are rebellious and unwilling to do what He says, we are acting in the same way as if we were casting a few spells here and there. God said it – don’t look at me – I’m just the messenger. Here is a good prayer to pray…

Psalm 141:3

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.

He will answer this by leading us through Holy Spirit – but we have to choose to listen. If we rebel, He won’t force us like the rider of the horse or mule. He will let us go off the cliff in our rebellion if we choose to – it’s all up to us. The following verse is what the Lord really wants to hear and see in our lives…

Psalm 40:8

I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.”

The truth is that we need to seek God when we have missed it while there is still time. We won’t always have time to do this. And those of us who are living in sin risk having our lives cut short by the enemy and there is not one thing God can do to stop it. It was our choice to keep on sinning, and henceforth, we gave the devil a wide open invitation to come into our lives to steal, kill and destroy – his favorite activity for all mankind. Look at what the word says about seeking God…

Isaiah 26:9

With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Jeremiah 29:13

 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Proverbs 8:17

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.

Zephaniah 2:3

Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

When it says to seek Him early, what it is really saying is that we need to go to Him quickly if we have sinned. We should not wait. There may not be time as I mentioned a minute ago, so we need to remember, the sooner the better.

When there is bad news, God always comes around with the good news. He is a good God – hallelujah! As our Psalmist wrote in today’s chapter, there is mercy all around the person who will trust in the Lord. Let’s look at a man who asked Jesus for mercy and see what he received…

Luke 18:35-43

³⁵ Then it happened, as He was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. ³⁶ And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. ³⁷ So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. ³⁸ And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

³⁹ Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰ So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, ⁴¹ saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”

⁴² Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” ⁴³ And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

We don’t know if this man had sinned, but we do know for sure that He had faith that Jesus could heal him and he cried out for mercy. Jesus never ever says no to a humble cry for help – never! Now look at this example where we know there was sin involved in the man’s sickness…

Matthew 9:1-8

So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. ² Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”

³ And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”

⁴ But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” ⁷ And he arose and departed to his house.

⁸ Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

Now take a look at this…

Daniel 9:9

To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

Friends, we have a merciful, loving forgiving God. We should never be afraid to go to Him and admit we sinned. He would rather we did that than to hold it inside where it will eat away at us like a cancer. In fact, the sin of unforgiveness can bring that awful disease. Cancer eats away at the heart as much as it eats away at our bodies. Eventually something’s gotta give – either our will or our life. You choose.

Now we can start to move more toward the really good news for the person who is right with God – hallelujah! I told you, there is always good news with God. He is the safe hiding place for the righteous man or woman who trusts in Him and walks the right way with Him. He will keep us from trouble. We have been talking about that quite a bit in our study of the Psalms, especially seen in Psalm 91. Look at this…

Psalm 140:1-3

Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their hearts; they continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; the poison of asps is under their lips. 

Psalm 40:11

Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.

In addition to His protection and preservation, we can depend on Him to teach us the right things and guide us in our every step along life’s ever winding trails…

Psalm 143:8-10

Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You.

⁹ Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; in You I take shelter. ¹⁰ Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.

Isn’t that good news? He will teach us – He will guide us. We can rest in that. See, I told you that there was good news – with God, I’ll say it again, there is always good news! Praise His name forever! Finally, let’s remember that people with a right heart will rejoice in the Lord…

Psalm 146…

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!
² While I live I will praise the Lord;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

³ Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
⁴ His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.

⁵ Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
⁶ Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

⁸ The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

As today’s Psalm started off, we are truly blessed when our sins are forgiven. There is nothing like the feeling of knowing that there is no sin between us and our God. Walking with Him, hand in hand with a clean heart brings a merry heart…

Proverbs 17:22

A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.

Questions:

What is the most important thing we need to do according to today’s Psalm?

Why is it so important?

What happens when we do not confess our sins?

What does God do when we confess our sins?

Why is it so important to seek the Lord quickly when we have sinned?

Describe how God views stubbornness?

How can we avoid being stubborn?

Describe the things God does for us when we walk rightly with Him.

What does the Lord show to the person who trusts in Him?

List some of the benefits of having a clean heart before the Lord.

Is there any unconfessed sin in your life right now? If so, just take it to the Lord in prayer and confess it. You’ll be so glad you did!

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

Confession is the key to living a healthy life with the Lord

God is rich in mercy toward those who go to Him for help

A right heart before the Lord is a rejoicing heart

                        Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for showing me today that even if I have sinned or been stubborn, I can come humbly before Your throne of grace and receive mercy, in my time of temptation, and when I need to confess sin. Thank You for Your great mercy toward me Lord. Like the Psalmist said, I ask You to show me if there is anything in my heart that I need to confess and repent for. Father, as You do, I know I can trust You to lead and guide me and show me the right way to live each and every day. I thank You in advance for Your saving grace and mercy and give You all the praise and thanks for the answer to this prayer. I believe I receive my answer now by faith in Jesus name. Amen.

Have you taken the time to allow the Lord to search your heart and answer your prayer?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

                                  

1 Corinthians 4:3

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.