“Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.” Psalm 32:2

A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She said, “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?” There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up. “Sin,” he said.  That is certainly true, but it is not something we must try to do.  It is something we naturally do.  As Paul tells us in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Sin is a burden. Whether it is sin from the past or sin of the present, it loads us up and takes away the joy that we can have in Christ. Some of us spend years dwelling on our past sins, living in regret of those things that cannot be changed. Many of us have hurt others and even ourselves and replay our mistakes over and over and allow them to keep us from accepting the healing that Christ can give us. There is something inside of us that keeps telling us that we do not deserve God’s forgiveness, and we must hang on to our past mistakes to fully pay for them. That, however, is not the way God sees it.

Clara Barton, the wonderful founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. “Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked. “No,” came Barton’s reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.” Many of us can forgive others in that way. We put their offense behind us. We truly do forgive and forget. But then we use a different standard of forgiveness for ourselves. The trifecta enemy, consisting of the world, our flesh, and satan’s minions, happily remind us of our past sins. The remembrance of those sins clings to us like barnacles on a ship, slowing our progress and finally growing to unmanageable proportions.

When we accept Christ He forgives us. We have told Him about our sin and asked Him to pardon us. He did, so why can’t we accept the freedom of His forgiveness? Today’s verse reminds us that it is possible to put our sins behind us. This can be a hard thing to accept for many of us. It sounds all well and good, but in reality, the weight of our sin makes it difficult to believe a perfect God can forgive.  

There are two reasons why it is so hard for us. First of all, we may have accepted Christ without truly understanding the need for Him. The weight of our sin might remain because we don’t recognize that it is our sin that is weighing us down. We don’t realize how our past is affecting our present because we have never truly dealt with our past. We accepted Christ and understood the depth of His forgiveness, but not the depth of our sin. Second of all, we might realize the depth of our sin, but see it as so deep, so dark, that we feel it can never (nor should be) forgiven, thus cannot accept the depth of Christ’s forgiveness. Only when we realize the depth of our sin and the depth of God’s forgiveness can we let go of our pasts and live in the freedom of God’s mercy.

God assures us that He does not count our sin against us, so we must take some intentional steps to make this truth a reality in our lives. So, the first step is to acknowledge our sin: to ourselves and to God. After we have done that, it is time to fill our hearts and minds with truth. Only in the Bible is it revealed how God can soften a hard heart to accept His forgiveness. In the Word, we learn about the freedom from condemnation: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 We learn about the freedom from sin: “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14 We learn about freedom in newness: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 As we look at verses like these, we see our sin, but we also see God’s plan to put that sin behind us.

How can God do this wonderful, miraculous thing of complete restoration? In the book of Isaiah, he makes some very specific promises to us. “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” Isaiah 1:18 and “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25 Okay, but how does He do this? Surely, like a large renovated building, there will still be signs of the old building there. Surely the configuration will be similar, or maybe the number of floors or maybe the outside is changed, but the inside will be the same. But God does not want to renovate us.  He wants to tear down the old and rebuild an entirely new person. He just wants the site.

There is no resemblance to the old. All the flaws have been erased in His eyes. We are finally brand new.  We are finally free.  “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36  God says that if we let Him have us, we will not just be refurbished, we will be totally rebuilt. All those sins of the past are torn down and hauled away out of our sight and the sight of God. If we continue to search for them, we will not be able to enjoy the trueness of our newness. We need to put our sins where God has put them- as far as the east is from the west. We are forgiven! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

“My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.In return for my friendship they accuse me,but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.” Psalm 109:1-5

“But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.” Psalm 109:21,22

“With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.” Psalm 109:30,31

Psalm 109 is about a man who is under attack from rather unscrupulous persons. They care little for the truth, but care greatly about hurting others. They are untrustworthy and deceitful. They do not care about the hurt they are inflicting or about the consequences of their actions. Throughout this Psalm the writer David calls for God to bring the hammer down on his enemies. Whereas some psalms are soothing, such as Psalm 23 and others are comforting like Psalm 91, Psalm 109 is very troubling to most because it is perhaps the strongest imprecatory Psalm that David wrote. The word imprecatory means to call down destruction on someone and much of Psalm 109 does exactly that.

Most of us have had the experience of being the recipient of terrible treatment from someone.  We have been slandered, had our character besmirched, and even had those who have tried to ruin our reputation.  If that has not happened to you that is great, but unfortunately it is not unreasonable to think it could happen.  There are some pretty unjust people populating this world.  Well, if we have even had some of these unjust things happen to us, we can identify with David.

Notice that these people are wholly unjustified in these attacks. David says they do this without a cause and we take him to be an honest man. He sees absolutely no reason for their accusations. They are afflicting him, upsetting him, and attacking him without cause. That very well may have been the case, but what should he do in response?  The writers in the Old Testament and even a few times in the New,   vent their anger to God about their enemies and call for some pretty awful punishment for them. Should we call down curses on our enemies like that (as though we haven’t once in a while already) or are there alternatives?

I think David gives us a pretty good formula for dealing with these kinds of problems. First of all,  David commits the whole matter to the Lord in prayer.  In the first five verses,  he outlines his problems.  It is not as though God does not know them already, but by verbalizing them, David can do a truth check on his own feelings.  Is this really what is going on?  Are these things really unjust?  Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? This is really important to do.  Why?  Because in verbalizing our woes, we may realize that our emotion is unfounded, or maybe we are in the wrong, or that our accusers need mercy.
By talking to God about it, we can decide on step two in the process.

If we decide that we should handle things differently, then we do.  Maybe instead of bringing wrath down upon our accusers, we should pray mercy for them.  Maybe we should confront them.  Maybe we should forgive them.  Whatever it is that we should do, we should do.  In the verses above, David has decided that he wants the hammer dropped down on his enemies.  By the way, with all his flaws, David was a man after God’s own heart.  If we call for God to deal out appropriate discipline to others, we had better be disciplined in our own walk first.  Remember, we are all beggars just pointing other beggars to food. We’d better not be a kettle calling the pot black (old saying, but a goody).  If we are going to wish punishment on others, we’d better be sure we don’t deserve it ourselves.  Someone once said that if we point our finger at someone else, three of our fingers are pointing back at us.

In verses 1-5 David commits the cause to God.  “But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake.”  He understands that the lord has said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” in both the Old and New Testaments.  (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19).  He says that vengeance is His! We shouldn’t try it; leave it up to God and don’t try to ‘get even,’ because if we do, we will only make matters worse. We will end up damaging others and creating all kinds of difficulties both for them and for us. The Lord is the only one who has the wisdom to adequately  handle these kinds of a problems.  David recognizes that and commits the cause to God.

But David also understands that God’s name is involved in all this. When God’s people are being persecuted, then God is also being persecuted. After David thoroughly checks the situation and decides he is not being petty and checks his own heart to make sure he is not outside God’s will, he then calls on God to defend God’s name. When Paul was Saul and was converted on the road to Damascus, Jesus identified Himself by saying “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”  Saul was persecuting the Christians, but when he was persecuting them, he was also persecuting the Lord. God is involved in His people’s tribulations. David understands this, commits the whole cause to God and says, “God, you deal with it. It is Your problem. Your name is involved; you handle it on my behalf for Your name’s sake.”  That is also what we should do.

We should ask God to keep us from striking back when we have been falsely accused.  If we ride into town, guns blazing, there will probably be a lot collateral damage. If God rides into town guns blazing, He will only hit what should be hit.  We must ask Him to help us commit the cause to Him, trusting that He knows how to work these things out.  We might tell God what we think should be done, but in the end, we need to turn the whole thing over to Him.  He will do what He will do, in His own time and in His own way.  And it will be right and good in such a way that our feeble minds could have never done it as well.

While the prayers of David were severe, his personal actions toward his enemies were often gracious and kind.  David talked about Saul a lot in his prayers (Saul was out to get David).  Even though David cried out for God’s justice, David still extended mercy to Saul.  David refused to take personal revenge, even when he had the opportunity to kill Saul, he cut off a piece of his robe instead (1 Sam. 24:1-8) and later he was conscience-stricken for the spirit that had prompted even this small act (v. 5). David may have prayed fiercely, but his actions were absolutely gracious and kind.

We need to do the same as David. At the end of his prayer, he shows the right attitude, the right reaction, and the right way to handle this kind of situation.  Tell God what we think and step away. If God decides correction is necessary, let Him handle it.  If He thinks mercy is necessary, let Him show it.  If He thinks we should be part of it, let Him reveal it.  This kind of thing is way above our pay grade.  Let God take care of it.  There used to be a very popular TV show in the very old days.  It was called “Father Knows Best.”  I have to believe when it comes to the handling of our accusers, our “Father knows best.”  If He knows best, let Him do best!

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”   Joshua 1:8

I read a Christian fiction book a couple years ago that was very good.  It is one by a less-than-well-known author and it was on sale for free, a price I sometimes have a hard time passing up.  The book was intriguing and revolved around about twelve people, all of whom had incredible conflicts going on in their lives.  The way their lives intertwine is fascinating, but what I really like about the book is the writing style.  Some of the characters give wonderful insights and I remember reading a gem that I thought I would share.  One of the characters talked about his grandfather who was a godly man and explained the grandfather’s philosophy of life.  He had what he called a “top-button” view of life.  When someone buttons up his shirt, if the top button’s right, all the other buttons fall right into place.  If the top button is off, no matter how a person tries to get things lined up, it can’t be done.  Our relationship with God is our top button.  If it is right the rest of our life will align.  If it is not, the effort to try to get things right in the rest of our life will be a constant battle.

I think one of the the things that can “get our top button right” is cherishing God’s word.  As we get older, we often see less  need to read the Word because we know so much of what it says. But if we don’t stay in the Word, we will actually lose those memories of what it says and how it can help us.  We can start taking what it says for granted and don’t really feel the need to consult it any longer.  Although the Word never changes, our lives do and we need to stay up with how the Word functions differently for us in different times in our lives.  

As you know, I am not much of fashion aficionado.  I am always about three years behind the latest trends.  My ties are fat when they should be skinny and skinny when everyone else is wearing fat.  Unfortunately, when we stop reading the Bible, we are often pulling out fat ties during a skinny-tie time in our life. In other words, a verse we read in 2005 probably has a different meaning in 2020 not because it has changed, but because the times have changed and because we have changed.  In Joshua 1:8 it says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  The words “for then” presuppose that we are doing the first part of the verse which is reading the word daily.

If we do not stay “current” in the Bible by reading it often, we will not really know how it can serve us and how we can serve God.  The great preacher Alexander White, when he was too old to mount the pulpit, would rise every morning to prepare a sermon, even though he never preached them. He did so until the day he died. He was convinced that study of the Word was essential to living life completely.  We often say that we can’t read because we don’t have enough time to read.  Martin Luther used to say that he was so busy and his upcoming day was so full, that he could not afford not to read the Bible.   We seem to find the time to do less meaningful things, so it makes sense that if we truly believe the Bible is the most precious book in the world and contains value for us every day, we would find time to read it. We all prioritize our daily lives.  Although part of our day is structured, there is much of the time that is left up to us, to use as we please. We decide when we will get up and what we will do with that time; we decide how we will use our empty moments; we decide how we use our breaks, and we decide how late to stay up and what our late night activities are.

George Mueller, after having read the Bible through one hundred times with increasing delight, made this statement: “I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God.  Friends often say, ‘I have so much to do, so many people to see, I cannot find time for Scripture study.’  Perhaps there are not many who have more to do than I. For more than half a century I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 4 years I have had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. Then, as pastor of a church with 1,200 believers, great has been my care. Besides, I have had charge of five immense orphanages; also, at my publishing depot, the printing and circulating of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles; but I have always made it a rule never to begin work until I have had a good season with God and His Word. The blessing I have received has been wonderful.”  

I don’t think any of us can describe our days as full as George Mueller’s, but yet he prioritized his day to include the Bible. When Dr. David Livingstone started his famous trek across Africa, he had three packs of 180 pounds of books. Those carrying the baggage were so fatigued that he was obligated to jettison some of his books.  By the time he finished the journey, he had one left, his Bible.  He had prioritized his bible over all the scientific, medical, and scholarly books he had taken.

If we think we can grow in the Lord just on our past knowledge of the Bible, we are sorely mistaken.  We forget, things change, we age, but if we stay in the Word we will be amazed at how it can stay new.  It doesn’t matter how much we ate this morning, we will eventually have to eat again.  A meal last week does not fill us up today.  Good News Club is not meant to be enough Bible for us for the rest of our lives. There is no better way to “get our top button straight” than to remain in the Word.  If we don’t , we will spend a lot of time trying to get everything else squared away and no matter how much we try, we will still be a mess.

“… give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.  For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”    Proverbs 30:7-8

Years ago after the sad and tragic death of Robin Williams I remember reflecting on the number of celebrities and millionaires who have taken their own lives or lost their lives to drugs or alcohol.  It is ironic to me that a society that elevates riches and fame to such an extraordinary level loses so many of its “success stories” to bouts of depression or self-destruction

In the verses above the writer asks  God to save him from his own dissatisfaction.  He basically says he cannot handle poverty or riches and asks God to keep him from them because of his weaknesses.  But the key to life is not to change our circumstances to fit our strength but to be strengthened to fit our circumstances.  When I first started coaching a long-time head coach told me to always win around 75% of the games each season.  He said that that was enough to keep people satisfied and not too much for them to have expectations. That would give me longevity in coaching.  What a terrible philosophy!  I see a similar philosophy in the verses above.  The attitude of “Don’t give me too little or too much because I can’t handle it” is an effort to be successful without stress.  Striving for mediocrity is not striving at all.  The apostle Paul had the exact opposite approach.

“I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot.  In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content–whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.”  Philippians 4:12

Paul was able to handle both poverty and riches, both want and plenty, both rejection and acceptance.  That is a much better way to live our lives. We cannot control our circumstances and it is a shame to let them control us.  How was Paul able to live in satisfaction in every condition?  He tells us in the next verse.

“I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”   Philippians 4:13

Circumstances change, Christ never does.  If we are going to lean on something, it should be something solid.  Jesus is the Rock, the Cornerstone, the Solid Place because He is foundational and nothing else in this world is.  There is an old hymn that says, “My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.”  Too many build their lives on the sinking sand of riches, fame, and power.  But none of those can bring contentment.  Robin Williams lived to bring happiness to the world, but the world could not bring enough happiness to Robin to make him want to live.  Only one person can do that.

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”    John 10:9-10

To stay strong in this world we must realize that happiness and contentment are not necessarily the same thing although we use the terms causally and interchangeably.  Contentment is the ability to accept our life regardless of where we find ourselves.  It is seeing a fulness in life where others may not see it.  In Christ we can determine to be content without “having it all.”  Happiness is often based on the high points on the roller coaster of life that will be followed, inevitably, by low points.  Paul recognized that.  I am sure that he was not happy about being starved, beaten, and shipwrecked, but within himself could still find contentment in Christ.  He knew that Jesus came to give us abundant life, not by changing the conditions of world to fit our desires, but by changing us to be able to handle the conditions of the world.  As Paul told Timothy…

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”   I Timothy 6:6-7

But no matter how much we try, we will never achieve contentment on our own.  We just aren’t wired that way.

“Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.”  Ecclesiastes 1:7-8

“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!”  Haggai 1:5-7

No truer words depict the condition of the world in which we live. People are never satisfied. No matter what, we can never achieve contentment outside of God.  We will always want more, we will always want different.   We may be rich, but we want to be richer.  One of the richest men in the world was once asked how much is enough and he responded, “It’s never enough.”  That is what the world says but the Word tells us that “Christ is enough.”  Live in abundance; live in Him.

Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. ~Psalm 55:22

When I was teaching our kids (as well as a few grandkids!) to drive, I had the hardest time handing over complete control of a giant vehicle of possible mass destruction to an inexperienced 15 year old.  It was understandable that I was pressing a brake that did not exist on my side of the car or was taking gasping breaths at times on tight corners.  After all, they were rookies and I was the vet.  But what excuse do I have with God.  He is the oldest vet in the universe and I am just an inexperienced rookie.  What can I teach him?