Sermon Tone Analysis

March 5, 2012

By John Barnett

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Psalm 32 will forever be recorded in Heaven as a song about the day David’s soul was set free from the prison house of guilt and anguish over his un-confessed and un-forsaken sin.

As we open to this Psalm, imagine with me the events surrounding the day that David was finally set free from his emotional bondage.

Here are his words that overflowed from the depths of his soul:

Psalm 32:1-2

1 /"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,/

/Whose sin is covered./

2 /Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity/

/And in whose spirit there is no deceit."/

*The Day David Was Set Free*

One day the generals of King David’s cabinet made their way to the palace , winding their way up those cobbled streets to the palace, just as they did each morning.

Arriving at the huge stone citadel they expected to be dismissed again by the frustrated and depressed King of Israel.

His chambers were usually shuttered and silent, unlike the old days when he was up at the dawn; but before they could get any further—the sound of the sweet songs of David stunned them.

One by one with incredulous faces they looked at each other and then up.

There he was.

The sweet psalmist of Israel, perched on the steps of his throne, harp in hand, his face tilted reverently upward, the tears streaming down his face.

*David’s Song Had Returned*

He was back.

The real David was back, and so was his song.

Like a spring gushing up in a parched desert, the generals dropped to the floor to drink from the river of worship again flowing from David’s heart.

Like the days of old their hearts began to burn again with adoring love to God.

Work was set aside, worship was their passion.

Soon workers, servants, aides, guests, nobles, all took their places in the court of God's anointed king.

David got his song back.

God has told us that when He lives within us by His Spirit—some outward evidences will begin to be seen.

Paul describes one of those evidences twice in his epistles to the church.

One of those evidences of God within is mentioned in both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. Remember what Paul said? Please ope4n there to:

Ephesians 5:19 /"speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, *singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,*"/ NKJV

Colossians 3:16/" Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, *singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord*."/

NKJV

Wonderful as the Spirit flowing through us may be, when grieved or quenched—the spring of our soul and the song that results, dries up.

Ephesians 4:30 "/And *do not grieve* the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."/

NKJV

1 Thessalonians 5:19/ "*Do not quench* the Spirit."/

NKJV

That is what we saw happened when David was hiding his sin.

The consequence David experienced because of the Lord’s displeasure at his sin in II Samuel 11:27, was that he lost his song.

God was grieved with David’s sin.

The Spirit of God was quenched, snuffed out and doused with the deadening effects of David’s sin.

But David’s heart, touched by God’s grace—responds with confession and repentance.

And what a song it must have been.

It was the song of a soul set free.

This Psalm may capture that initial gratitude of liberation David must have felt.

Psalm 32 is his testimony at the relief of forgiveness.

But before David could get there:

*Confrontation was Needed*

But to really experience the wonder of David’s deliverance from the vice grip of sin open with me to that climactic moment when God gave back to David His joy, His peace and His new song!

Turn again to II Samuel 11:27.

Swollen with the putrid puss of sin David’s wounded soul throbbed with the long incubated infection of self-righteousness.

One day when that crushing weight of sin brought David to near collapse, God sent his word to confront David.

In walked the prophet Nathan who said what God told him to say.

Read with me the report in 2 Samuel 12:7-14.

2 Samuel 12:7-14 (NKJV) /"Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah.

And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!

9 Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight?

You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’

11 Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”/

What a horrible thing sin is.

It deceives with all those glittering promises.

It destroys with deadly accuracy.

When you have been defeated David is inspired of God to tell us steps we can take to come back to God.

Let’s look at what happens when David confessed and forsook his sins the way God wanted him to.

This is what will happen in our lives when we look at sin the way God wants us to look at sin.

That record is in Psalm 32 our focus for this message.

David has just repented of the horrible pit of sin he had been covering up for weeks and months.

That is where we find him in Psalm 32.

He writes the song about what it means to return to God and receive and experience and to possess His forgiveness- “The Song of a soul set free”

Before we examine the details of Psalm 32, we are looking at the song the marked the return of the rivers of living water to the soul David.

The man after God’s own heart has returned.

The joy is back, the peace is back, the fellowship is renewed, and the songs begin to flow again.

But we must never forget—the consequences continued.

Look at the divisions of this Psalm; if you haven’t marked them down let me remind you of them again.

First of all-

*1.

First, David sings with DELIGHT

When his SINS WERE Forgiven.*

v.1-2 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

*2.

David sings of his DESPAIR when he remembers the pain when his SINS WERE CONCEALED.

*

v. 3-4 /"When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the daylong.

4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

Selah"/