How Confession Heals the Soul

Transcript

how confession heals the soul thoughts x on Psalm 32 this is going to be based on x Psalm 32 which is a a prayer of David x for forgiveness and we're going to look x carefully at it and its use in Romans 4 x Paul quotes this Psalm in Romans 4 and x we're going to be talking extensively x about that uh usage there x so let's take a look at the psalm here's x a x a book I have which is not the original x it's a reproduction but in the late 19th x century a British architect named Owen x Jones x uh created this beautifully Illustrated x uh x uh Book of Psalms assaulter x with these in I guess they're Engravings x prints x uh Psalm 32 blessed is he whose x unrighteousness is Forgiven and whose x sin is covered x that's the title page for psalm 32. x then he has all 150 Psalms are similarly x printed out and decorated and they're x set out in the the old 18th century x orthography Steve x could I ask you to read that or x sure I'll be happy to yeah x okay x so this is uh starting in the second x first David x the first verse is the title to the x psalm and this is following actually the x Hebrew numbering where the the title of x each Psalm is the first verse okay so we x start the second which would be our x first verse in our English versions x great psalm 32. x blessed is the man unto whom the Lord x imputeth no sin x and in whose Spirit there is no guile x for while I held my tongue my bones x consumed away through my daily x complaining x for thy hand is heavy upon me day and x night x and my Mo my moisture is like the x drought in summer x I will acknowledge my sin unto thee and x mine unrighteousness have I not hid x I said I will confess my sins unto the x Lord and so thou forgavest the x wickedness of my sin x for this shall everyone that is Godly x make his prayer unto thee in a time when x thou mayest be found x but in the great water floods they shall x not come nigh him x thou art a place to hide me in Thou x shalt preserve me from trouble Thou x shalt Compass me about with songs of x Deliverance x I will inform thee and teach thee in the x way wherein Thou shalt go and I will x guide thee with mine eye x be not like to horse and mule which have x no understanding whose mouths must be x held with bit and bridle lest they fall x upon thee x great plagues remain for the ungodly x but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord x Mercy embraceth him on every side x be glad O.E righteous and rejoice in the x Lord and be joyful all ye that are true x of heart x thank you x so in this psalm x we're going to look at the x the beginning and then the end of it and x find out what happens in in between x because there's a huge shift a shift in x mood a shift in Attitude uh say an x emotional shift this is what I would x call the healing of the Soul x at the beginning here x David writes when I kept silence my x bones wasted away through my groaning x all day long for day and night your hand x was Heavy upon me my strength was dried x up as by The Heat Of Summer x and then at the end of the psalm he is x saying be glad in the Lord and be Joy so x righteous and Shout for Joy all you x upright in heart so what's happened x between this statement here which is a x statement of of despair x uh of physical and emotional distress x and here x which is clearly a 180 degrees away from x where I was well I think we we saw that x in the middle x the turning point where he says x his confession I acknowledge my sin to x you and did not cover my iniquity I said x I will confess my transgressions to the x Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my x sin x it was his confession but this is where x we're I this is what caught my attention x to why I'm or when x a little deeper into the subject x thinking about this well how does that x happen x how does x that confession have such power x when and here's who's x when the fact is x God already knows this I acknowledge and x I sent you and did not cover my iniquity x there's nothing really happening here x let's say on God's side as if as if x God didn't know as if David were hiding x if if this were between two people but x this is explicitly uh about David God if x we're between two people you might say x well I gotta I gotta come clean I gotta x tell you something Steve you know I I x was the guy that let all the air out of x your tires you know or something like x that uh x okay yeah I knew you just didn't want me x to get that far ahead of you so you x lowered my air pressure so you could x keep up with me on that big okay x you know between GP but between a human x and God there's there's nothing that x we're telling God x that could x register that type of shift simply x because there's no new information at x least on God's side there may be x something happening on our side but on x God's side it's there is uh x has to be something in my mind there has x to be something more to what confession x might entail x so that you could have x this shift as we were when I kept silent x to be glad and rejoice by bones wasting x away to shouting for Joy that's the huge x shift and there's there's something x going on here it does have to do with x confession x and I think if we take as we are going x to do now for the next half an hour or x so is take take a pretty uh careful look x what is happening here in the psalm and x also in Romans 4 that will get us back x to the point where we say okay if we x understand confession in forgiveness in x that light uh I can see how it's such a x healing a healing thing to do now you x may have noticed here x is in this one I think this is verse x seven uh x you may have noticed that there are x these x three different words that David uses x to express his uh x his shortcomings his problems he calls x it his sin his iniquity and his x transgressions x and then he repeats this in a different x where he used these together the x iniquity of my sin so there's five words x here and if you can see that they form a x uh a small chiasmus sin iniquity x transgression iniquity and sin you have x that there too that's neat x uh I call this the Unholy Trinity x if you know any Hebrew have it the x transgression the Pisha x and iniquity alone x are those three words I'm going to look x at them in two different lights one x uh will come out more at the end of the x class x but for now x I mean x I'd like to consider in this in this at x least in the case of the Psalms in a x Poetic Case we might consider this uh x like Lock Stock and Barrel the whole x thing my sin transgressive my iniquity x the three ways of saying uh kind of the x same thing or the whole package of all x all the things that are bad and wrong x wronged about me are encompassed in x these uh three words x they occur together uh x a lot of places the most notable one is x Psalm 51 which is strongly parallel to x Psalm 32 it is also Psalm of David and x the heading of Psalm 51 explicitly tells x us what this sin is Psalm 32 does not x indicate x what David had in mind what was his x troubles at that point Psalm 51 it says x uh when Nathan came came into him about x the matter of Bathsheba x in that Psalm are these two words that x excuse me these three words occur a x total of 12 times x transgression Thrice in six-fold in x iniquity another three times x Exodus 34 the god declaring his x character forgiving iniquity and x transgressions and sins x Leviticus and the uh the scapegoat when x Aaron puts his hands and sends the goat x all off into the Wilderness carrying x with it what the iniquities of the x children of Israel all the Transmissions x all their sins x so I think in these these areas x uh x it's x the words have the separate nuance and x I'm going to get to that later but for x now just consider this thing this is the x poetic or an idiomatic way of saying the x whole the whole problem x a few more passages where they occur x together or here here and here uh x thank Bill link for helping me find all x these which is kind of neat thing he did x they all curved fairly close together x the one we want to look at is the one in x Romans chapter 4 where Psalm 32 it's not x really a separate citation it's it's x coming back to Psalm 32. but it's quoted x in Romans so that's where we're headed x next so if you do have a a Bible in x front of you turn to Romans 4 because x we're going to spend some time here and x uh x take five different looks that this x passage the passage we're looking at is x Romans chapter four x verses 3 through 11. and we're going to x take five passes through this I'm going x to show you the same text here in five x different ways highlighting five x different features x of that we're looking at x in here with five different key words or x elements there's just uh x what you see here is just text and I'm x going to say so five different looks at x here and we're going to see that this is x more than just text and there's a huge x surprise at the end too there's just x something that is so obviously wrong or x out of place or weird uh x but I think sometimes our familiarity x with things like this we don't see it so x here we are Romans 4. for what the x scriptures say Abraham believed God x and it was counted to him as x righteousness now to the one who works x his wages are not counted as a gift but x this is due and to one who does not work x but believes in him who justifies the x ungodly his faith is counted as x righteousness Justice David also speaks x of the blessing of the one to whom God x counts righteousness apart from works x and here's the quote x blessed are those whose Lawless needs x are forgiven whose sins are covered x blessed is the man again soon the Lord x will not count sin and that's the first x two verses of the beginning of Psalm 32. x is this blessing then only for the x circumcised or also for the x uncircumcised for we say that Faith was x counted to Abraham as righteousness x how then was it counted to him or when x was it was it before or after he was x circumcised it was not after but before x he received the sign of circumcision as x a seal of the righteousness that he had x by faith he might say he already had by x faith while he was still uncircumcised x the purpose x was to make him the father of all who x believe without being circumcised so x that the righteousness would be counted x to them as well x so this part of Romans Paul uh is x demonstrating a kind of a legal x precedence that Abraham was as it said x in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed God x God counted him as righteous that x happened before two two things it had x precedence over two events one was x Abraham's own circumcision and number x two was the giving of the law x that are presidents x it's the point Paul is making we're not x going to be concerned with the part x about this circumcision the part that x Abraham was still an uncircumcised x Gentile when God counted faithful but x that's what Paul is getting at here x what we're going to look at here is x the x quote of Psalm 32 in this context so x we'll take this screen here that's just x the text as we see it but by the way x I think we all know this but in case uh x this maybe someone here is fairly new to x this uh to due to the faith or whatever x now to the one who works this should be x understood is the one who relies in x works of the law x that's what that's a shorthand way of x saying the one who works is the one who x lives under the law who thinks they can x earn righteousness by doing the right x kinds of stuff x if you do that then what you get are x your wages because you earned it it's x not a gift it's what you earned but we x can't earn that so he says no it's x really Faith okay so here's the next x thing we're going to do x is drop out uh just highlight the five x statements that Paul makes x within this argument the pulse making x there are five statements that we want x to look at one Abraham believed God it x was counted him as righteousness two x the one who does not work that the one x who does not rely on the law but x believes x him who justifies the ungodly his faith x is countered his righteousness that's a x second statement about that x number three David also speaks of one to x whom God counts righteousness apart from x works that's his third statement x fourth is almost a repetition of what he x said earlier Faith was counted to x Abraham's righteousness x and an extension of that was the purpose x was to him making the father of all all x here in this contest being Jew and x Gentile because x Abraham or actually Abram at the time x was an uncircumcised Gentile when God x accepted his faith x so there's our five statements x now if you notice some repetition or x notice some x say oh hmm I've seen some patterns here x well you're right so x there's a what I call transitions he's x Shifting the subject of each of these x statements uh first one is about Abraham x the second one is a general statement to x one who does not work that is one who x lives by faith not by law x the third statement is about David he x interjects here's a quote from the psalm x of top topical Psalm psalm 32. x now it's David is the subject here x for statement comes back to Abraham x again x and the fifth statement is another x general statement all who believe that x is Jew and Gentile so we have here's the x five statements that Paul makes inside x of the context or in this section of x Romans transferring the subject to x Abraham to a general statement about x people than to David back then to x Abraham and another general statement x okay x now I'm gonna next slide's gonna I think x this is gonna be our x fourth uh pass of this I'm going to x highlight some more key words in here x and we're going to see even more x patterns x there that's beautiful x absolutely beautiful x what's really beautiful is what's is x like seeing the hidden text and what x Paul just wrote x so we have the red highlighted Words x which is the subject of each statement x this yellow orange color is the faith x word Abraham believed x one who does not work but believes him x Faith there x faith and believe here and of course in x in Greek these are faith and belief are x those from the same same root unlike in x English x we tend to not use the word belief x as a a noun for faith we or the verb uh x we used to believes in faith but anyway x there you have it x and I looked at the blue ones x counted as righteousness counted as x righteousness counts righteousness x counted as righteousness righteousness x would be counted to them so there's five x statements about people whether it's x Abraham David or a general uh populist x of people of Faith all who believe here x this is how we are righteous before God x it's believing God it's not through x doing works of law it is our trust that x God is our trust that God is our creator x and and all the things that are involved x with believing in that the God we x believe in x his promises and everything else x now one more and you maybe you saw this x one coming already x this is a x type of chiastic structure that's called x chiasmus with alternation meaning x Abraham is the first element but it's x not the lasting these first two function x as a two-part unit because it's Abraham x who believed as an example or x in everybody else who is like Abraham x there's a subset or we would say we are x counted along with Abraham and then down x here it's Faith was counted to Abraham x to make him the father of all who x believe x so these two A and B x here are repeated in that same order x here A and B x the key element here Steve when you said x is that the middle elements often the x key and here certainly is or at least x it's something that's that's different x because here's where he puts in psalm x 32. x so we have these five statements about x belief x being counted as Faith excuse me belief x being counted as right God accepts our x faith as righteousness whether it's x Abraham whether it's David or us we x could say that's great company to be in x now x before I go further x does anybody see here I said earlier x there's a surprise coming this is where x it is x and if you don't see it it's not because x you don't know it's because I think it's x just familiarity with something like x this makes it hard to to notice x something's really odd here x this is organized x this is beautiful x but there's something that is just x completely peculiar about this setup x here x there's a we say an expositional x elephant in the room x David's faith is missing x David's faith x you are about x 75 of the way there yeah x I don't have another quarter you don't x have the other quarter okay it doesn't x say anything about David's Faith here x but let me ask you this question then x you'll get it x what is the subject of Psalm 32 is about x forgiveness right x what was Paul's General argument x here x it was about Abraham's faith in God's x promises x so what the question is what does Psalm x 32 have to do with with the argument at x hand x the argument was x was Abraham believing God this is x Genesis 15. x God showed him outside and took him x outside on the hill look up the sky so x shall your CD Abraham believed in God x when he said leave her Abraham believed x God when he said you'll have seed your x seed will inherit the land x everything x that Abraham the God spoke Abraham x believed and trusted God x but there's nothing in the Abraham x account that has anything to do with x forgiveness x and there's nothing in Psalm 32 that has x really anything to do with David's faith x you see it now x it's an odd way if I were giving an x exhortation about trusting God x in about if you believe God and if God x says you know I promise you your seed x will be like this I promise you you'll x inherit the land I promise you you'll x have a resurrection x and to prove that let me quote to you x from Psalm 32 just as David also speaks x of the blessing x of the one to whom God's counts right x says depart from works that's not in x psalm 32. x there's nothing in Psalm 32 that x where David says x I cannot earn your salvation x please accept my faith x so what we see here is x an inter a x blocking of two ideas here's the Abraham x belief statement this is Genesis 15. x God takes Abraham outside says look at x the sky and count the Stars if indeed x you can count them then he said to him x so shall your Offspring be Abram x believed in the Lord and He x credited it to him x that's always a hard thing for me to say x we counted it reckoned is righteousness x accepted that Abraham's belief you know x Abraham's standing up on the hillside x looking at this marvelous x unlike polluted Sky you can imagine what x it might have looked like x without any artificial lights any place x and he looks up and sees the Milky Way x and everything and God says your seed x will be like this and Abraham says I x yeah I I believe you x so that's what Abrams was about x it's not about x I'm not saying God never forgave her x Abram x it's just not in the text it's not about x forgiveness nothing that's about x forgiveness in the in that text x so that leaves this question so how does x Psalm 32 fit in Romans 4. Paul obviously x is inspired he knows what he's doing x he's a an accomplished uh person in x scripture to say the least x but he's putting something that's really x a tangential to his argument in here x well as I just said forgiveness is not a x feature of x the patriarchal it's x sure they made a lot of mistakes Abraham x Isaac and Jacob but there's no place in x here where forgiveness per se is x something that they had faith in x God made a lot of promises but that x wasn't it wasn't about that x likewise Psalm 32 is not about faith at x all it's about x I will confess my sins and then we're x okay but this doesn't say that by faith x I I I I I trust that you will forgive me x even though it seems likely that Psalm x 32 was about David's Monumental sins x so Paul's merging two concepts here and x here's where we're now getting I think x to a a larger understanding of what x confession uh might entail that it can x be x more than telling God what God already x knows x if they're saying x a melding of faith and forgiveness Paul x is here couples x Abraham's trust in God's promises with x David's experience x of God's forgiveness that experience x where David said my bones were dried up x and now I'm shouting for Joy he's x putting these two x it's a different both important the x biblical ideas x but he's he literally x stuck David inside of Abraham x never the David part was the core the x center of the two statements about x Abraham and about the rest of believers x so now we can look at Abraham who has x always been the example of justification x by faith x faith in believing God's promises about x the land and the seed we can also say it x includes his faith in God's forgiveness x so also David x says David's experience x was Abraham's x and likewise if we look at David as the x example of God's forgiveness because it x was the colossally bad behavior with uh x stealing x Bathsheba committing adultery murdering x her ex-husband I mean that's bad x I can't come close to that in anything x I've ever done x so so Dave was a great example of x forgiveness and now by sticking it into x Romans 4 we can see x that forgiveness is an Act of Faith when x we pray for forgiveness we are x exemplifying our faith and trust that x God will forgive us x this is just to me I find this amazingly x I call it totally slick move because x it's it's it's there we've read it x hundreds of times x and you're so easy to pass over and say x well look what Paul just did he took two x extremely important Bible ideas x without any Fanfare without saying oh by x the way this all he just says and so x also David he quotes from Psalm 32. he x pulls this entirely x uh to different a Bible subject and puts x it right in the middle of discussion of x Abraham's justification by faith x now do we have time for this where are x we we're good x I'm good okay there's one more part to x this that really ties us all together uh x any comments questions so far this would x be good time to pause for a minute is x everybody with me does anybody not see x what I think is just so amazing here x okay x so what's this play on words so go back x to the text here in Romans 4. x and x in the uh x the the highlighted words here is this x we're going to focus on for a moment x and watch again the context x what the scripture say x Abraham believed God who has counted him x his righteousness x to one who works and his wages are not x counted as a gift but this is due to be x singular x and the one who does not work but x believes in him who justifies the x ungodly his faith is counted as x righteousness just as David also speaks x to the blessings and then he goes to x David he says one who does not trust x works but believes in him who justifies x the ungodly x that I just said that Abraham believed x God in his counting his righteousness x and now he's saying that he justifies x the ungodly x does that seem like an appropriate x way to talk about Abraham x says Abraham believe God x and then x to anyone who believes in him who x justifies the ungodly well that doesn't x seem x quite quite nice there x but okay let's let's follow this and see x where we're going I wouldn't call x Abraham ungodly x so that's the verse we just read x and go back to Psalm 32. x and right after the verse where it says x David says that I will confess my sins x to the Lord and x uh not cover my transgression so forth x David says x therefore let everyone who is Godly x offer prayer to you at a time when you x may be found x does this seem a little odd it seems odd x to me or did it first x where he used the word ungodly to talk x about Abraham but David talks about The x Godly person when he's just talking x about being the most hideous person of x all these horrible crimes he committed x he says everyone who's Godly should x offer prayer prayer for confessions so x context of Psalm 32 is David asking for x forgiveness his sin is unstated but okay x here we have the Psalm 32 parallels 51 x that hadn't specifies his sin x that's where we see the word Godly x however the word ungodly shows up in x context of Abraham's complete trust in x God to give him the promise seed Genesis x 15. x so what's Paul getting at here and David x it's it seems Seems backwards it seems x David should be saying the ungodly x should pray to you because they need x forgiveness x and the godly people like Abraham x their faith is accepted that these are x turned x uh inverted they're they're reversed x so what's the story x what what is this about say it's another x another one the surprise that Paul has x for us here x uh x well one thing for sure is that x when he writes ungodly he is certainly x alluding back to Psalm 32 to the word x Godly in psalm 32. x so let's go back to our Unholy Trinity x and and put all these x ideas together x as I said earlier I think we might be x able to assign x uh some Nuance we can take these all x three collectively as uh as an idiomatic x phrase to say the whole whole thing x block stop and Barrel or fish line and x no cook Line and Sinker that's how it x goes oh x or it may be I'm really x you know I wouldn't push this I'm not x going to say this is a real type x correspondence but transgression is x probably has to do with breaking x specific laws it's about what you do or x what you don't do you transgress x sin the word for sin is likely mostly x associated with x what I value what I want in other words x I really want Bathsheba it's the kind of x lust that's the the thoughts that that x lie behind the acts and I say value it's x usually it's it's a negative value I x really want something I shouldn't have x something that's not good for me x something that's not right that's the x word the translated stem probably has x that nuance and iniquity might be a more x general term just talking about our x nature our character in general x we are just x Unholy people no matter how we are x limited created beings so we could take x all these three x and say we need x confession to heal us from all of these x not just what we do wrong but all three x parts need need forgiveness do what we x do what we think and for our essential x human x nature we we just have no standing x before God regardless of anything else x confession is much less let's say it's x not we don't get this big release by x telling God what God already knows x and as if God were to say oh really you x did oh x man that's bad but I'll forgive you x thanks for letting me know no that x that's that's now it is it's more of a x large-scale recognition that I say it's x more about telling ourselves x what we need to know about the sinner x forgiver relationship it's about x relationship with God and relationship x with what I call an identity level x function it's not about what we do it's x about Who We Are x God is the Creator and the forgiver we x are the created The Limited and the uh x great example here is in the famous uh x passage in Luke 18 with the Pharisee and x the tax collector the Pharisee said I x fast and I TI he's talked about what he x does and the only mention he makes of x who he is is who he isn't I'm not like x these people I do this the tax x collectors said what x the mercile to meet a sinner he it's x it's a an identity statement I am it's x not I do sin or I think I am a sinner be x merciful that's what I mean by a x uh x identity relationship as we either we x relate to people whether it's Human x Relationships or human Divine it's it's x Who We Are x to who God is and we have to know who we x are and that's this x created limited uh people with Minds x that just don't want to work right x so confession heals the soul x finally getting to x the punch line here x confession heals the soul when we know x that God accepts our faith and his x forgiveness x that this merging of this ideas of faith x and forgiveness in Romans 4 that has x that dimension x when we trust God this is important x because x he I'm sure you've heard this and maybe x you felt this many times or thought this x that you know I've been so bad God can't x forgive me x that our faith is lacking x because we don't know who God is x in our nature it's limited but God's not x saying be perfect he's saying trust me x and I'll make you perfect x that's my job I'll fix that later but x you have to trust me that I know who you x are and if you know who you are and x we'll get to that kind of relationship x with God to me x that's the confession to be merciful to x me I am a sinner that's the healing of x the Soul that's when David can say in x Psalm 32 it's not in there x that's implicit from the beginning to x the end of the psalm that he has x realized that no matter how bad he was x that he still has faith x that God will accept him in his need he x says I need to be right with you again x but I have to acknowledge who I am x before you and who you are x that's the kind of confession that heals x the soul