THE HAPPINESS OF THE FORGIVEN

There is a special dimension of blessedness for those who experience the forgiving love of God. This is surely because there is no human misery to be compared with that sense of the awfulness of sin before God. Who can measure the inward agony of a soul tormented by the guilt of unforgiven sin?

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered”, v. 1. This is an utterance of spontaneous gladness that gives expression to sheer relief. Each word used to describe the wrong in the psalmist’s life reveals his evaluation of it. Transgression—rebellion, cutting across God’s ways, breaking away from God. Sin—wandering from the way, missing the mark. Iniquity—depravity, moral distortion, careless unconcern. Thus have these words been interpreted. Having said all this, how can we ever say all that sin really is? Only God knows! The deep consciousness of evil rendered the psalmist sick in body and mind. Silence tore him apart, and he felt the hand of the Lord upon him, vv. 2-4. Such was the consciousness of sin.

We notice that the extremities ofconviction brought him to confession, vv. 5-6. The effects of sin on the human mind and the physical frame can be disastrous. A deep sense of inward guilt concerning committed evil, maybe years ago, can cause disabilities that have no seeming connection with that sin. Many Christian doctors and counsellors have found this as they have sought to deal with the problems of those who seek their help. Yet in confession there is release, and the pathway to blessedness in forgiveness, v. 5.

What shall we learn from the writer’s experience? It is good to know that repentance brought remission, “thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin”. Like the paralytic in Luke 5. 16-26, and the sinful woman in 7. 47-50, the Lord speaks the word, of forgiveness—music to the soul indeed! Instead of the fear of retribution, God becomes a refuge to the soul, vv. 6-7. A regulated pathway is possible, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way”, vv. 8-9. Thus the psalm ends with rejoicing. The justified have joy; remission brings rejoicing, Rom. 5. 1; Eph. 1. 7. Let us realize today that all sin’s distortions can be answered in God’s forgiveness.