The Bible Study Podcast, episode 373. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the book of Psalms with Psalm 32.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. This week we have yet another Psalm of David. This one starts in a little more positive place than some of the other Psalms of David. And it goes like this. Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them, in whose

spirit there is no deceit. And it's nice to find David in a good mood this time. And David is

looking back on a time when he was guilty, but he's looking at it from a time where he feels

the loving forgiveness of God. And so in this particular Psalm, unlike some of the others,

the forgiveness is past tense. His transgressions are forgiven and his sin is covered. And when we say

covered, I want you to think of two particular things in terms of that terminology. One is that

in the tabernacle, and that would be where worship happened

during the time of David before the temple was built, and then also in the temple, in the holiest of

holies, the sacrifice happens on the day of atonement, where they kill the animal and then they

sprinkle the blood of the offering on the people, and they are covered by that blood, and that is the symbol,

then, of atonement between them and God, that they are covered by that blood because the wages

of sin or death, and in this case, an animal has died in the place of the people.

And so their sins are literally covered with this blood.

And, of course, that's the same

symbol that we'll have as we go forwards into Romans. And we talk about the effectiveness of the

death of Jesus as it covers over our sins. So that's one thing. But then I also want you to think

about it in terms of covering a debt. If I was in debt to you and someone else were to come cover that

debt for me, they were to make good on it. And that's also what's going on here is that there was a

payment that needed to be made that was made. Blessed of the one whose sins the Lord does not

count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. Now, it's interesting because that's two

different thoughts. One is the thought that this is a person who has sinned. They have done something

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