THE JOY OF FORGIVENESS

As a father to his children, David instructs from experience what he felt like when his sin had overtaken him and he was filled with grief.  Called a "Maschil," Psalm 32 is a psalm of instruction.  No greater responsibility can be undertaken than for a father to let his children know, at the proper time in their lives, that he is but a flawed man living under the mantel of God's grace.
Little children often see their parents, and especially their fathers, through a colored lens of hero-worship.  If our children continue to keep their parents on pedestals, they will miss the greatest lesson of life.  Their parents are sinners who have come to know the peace of God through salvation.  The will begin to know that with sin come guilt and with confession comes freedom.  They must come to know the grace and loving forgiveness of God if they are to ever experience salvation for themselves.  
A good case of guilt is a healthy thing when we have sinned. Someone said, “Guilt is a gift that keeps on giving.” Those who appreciate most the gift of God’s forgiveness are those who have felt most deeply the guilt of their sins. Charles Spurgeon went through five years as a child of feeling intense guilt before he was saved. He goes on for a whole chapter in his autobiography describing the agony of those years. Here is a brief excerpt:

When but young in years, I felt with much sorrow the evil of sin. My bones waxed old with my roaring all the day long. Day and night God’s hand was heavy upon me. I hungered for deliverance, for my soul fainted within me. I feared lest the very skies should fall upon me, and crush my guilty soul. God’s law had laid hold upon me, and was showing me my sins. If I slept at night, I dreamed of the bottomless pit, and when I awoke, I seemed to feel the misery I had dreamed. Up to God’s house I went; my song was but a sigh. To my chamber I retired, and there, with tears and groans, I offered up my prayer, without a hope and without a refuge, for God’s law was flogging me with its ten-thonged whip, and then rubbing me with brine afterwards, so that I did shake and quiver with pain and anguish, and my soul chose strangling rather than life, for I was exceeding sorrowful. (C. H. Spurgeon Autobiography [Banner of Truth], 1:58.)

In Psalm 32, David shared four basic facts about sin and forgiveness that need to be understood by every believer:
1. The Blessing of Acceptance (1-2)
2. The Folly of Impenitence (3-4)
3. The Way of Deliverance (5-7), and
4. The Joy of Obedience (8-11)

Warren Wiersbe wrote, "When he gazed at Bathsheba, lusted after her, and then committed adultery, and when he plotted to kill her husband, David saw himself acting like a free man; but God saw him acting like an animal!"

"Like the horse, David rushed ahead impetuously, and like the mule, he was stubborn and tried to cover his sins."  Rather than being harsh with His servant David, God, in love, chose to teach him His Word and keep His eye upon him, surrounding him with mercy.

When he joined the assembly at the sanctuary of God, David began his song with the joyful announcement that God had forgiven him.  He closed the psalm by exhorting the other worshippers to join him in celebrating the joy of the Lord!  "Be glad! Rejoice! Shout for joy!"

Years later, David's son Solomon wrote, "People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy." (Prov. 28:13)