Hearing the Psalms: Forgiveness for Sins (Psalm 32)

Vicar Josiah R. Armstrong

Zion Lutheran Church and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

The First Sunday of Lent

8 March 2014

Hearing the Psalms: Forgiveness for Sins

Psalm 32

Grace, Mercy and Peace are yours in the Name of the Crucified Jesus Christ. Amen.

            Milliwanga Sandy is a charismatic Elder from the Beswick communtiy in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is also a devoted and charismatic Christian pastor. Milliwanga, or “Milli,” spent over 30 years translating the Bible in Creole for her community. Around the time that Milli was working on translating the Psalms, her first-born son died. He had committed suicide as a young adult.  Milli said in a recent interview with Travis Reed of The Work of the People, that in the aftermath of her son’s suicide, “God had me well-equipped,” she says, “through His Word.” Milli says her daughters came to her and encouraged her to read and pray the Psalms, the same Psalms she had been so dutifully and carefully translating. Milli says that the God used the Psalms to bring her such great comfort. For once, there was a voice she could relate to. Milli’s story of pain and grief sounds almost identical to the third verse of today’s Psalm: “While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long.” (Pause)

            So begins our Lenten series on Hearing the Psalms. According to Old Testament scholar and pastor, Walter Brueggemann, the typical Christian congregation is not very good at “hearing” the Psalms. The average American Christian knows only 6 Psalms, and guess what, folks? There are 150 of them! So, how do we, as gathered Christian people, approach the Psalms together? What ARE the Psalms? Are they poems? Songs? Prayers? Well…yes. ALL OF THE ABOVE. The Revised Common Lectionary includes a Psalm in the Readings every Sunday morning because the Church has been praying the Psalms together for hundreds and hundreds of years. There is something remarkably HUMAN about the Psalms! I will contend that there is NO OTHER book within the entire Canon of Scripture that speaks so directly to the human experience than the Psalms. King David and a handful of other writers lend their most vulnerable moments, the good, the bad, and the ugly, to the songs and poetry of the Psalms. It is almost as if we get to peek into a private journal. We have been given the distinct privilege, to be strengthened by the Word of God as spoken through the human confessions of the Psalms.

            Walter Breuggemann says that we need to start letting the Bible “do some of the work.” Just like Milli, translating the Psalms into Creole as her son dies of suicide, we have the opportunity to let the Psalms speak life into our death, speak comfort into our pain, speak forgiveness into our sin, and speak refreshing honesty into the deceit of the world. (Pause)

            So, why Preach on the Psalms during Lent? I think that it will be good practice for those of us at Zion/St. John’s to take the very human journey WITH the Psalmist as he and/or she writes about the experiences of this world. Often times, the Psalmist is taking a difficult journey, absolutely littered with EVERY conceivable human emotion! Our Lenten journey mirrors the journey of Jesus in the desert: 40 days of human longing and waiting, absolutely YEARNING for deliverance. Remember that Jesus is the Incarnate God. Jesus IS human. Luther calls all Christian people to read the Bible “Christocentrically,” in other words, read the Scriptures as if Jesus is speaking in all of it, yes, even the Old Testament. Yes, historically speaking, Jesus of Nazareth did not walk the Earth during Old Testament times. But, Jesus is the Word of God and The Word of God has been in existence from the beginning, don’t forget. Make no mistake, my friends, our Christ is ALL throughout the Scriptures. As pertains to the Psalms, in the very HUMAN voice of the Psalmist, you can hear the VERY human voice of Jesus Christ. (Pause) If Christ is ALL throughout our Scriptures, then when the lector reads “Today’s Readings” out loud, the Scriptures are, literally, “DOING Jesus TO us.” The Psalms are NO different, and yet we tend to frequently ignore them. We read them responsively, and then we move on. Well, I believe that Christ is preaching the Gospel message to us in these Psalms. There is deliverance and truth here for such as Time as THIS and for such a Church as THIS. (Pause)

            Walter Breuggeman tells present-day Christians to ask the following question of the Psalms: “Who would you imagine could TALK LIKE THAT!?” So, as we proceed with this new preaching series on Hearing the Psalms, we need to ask TWO questions: 1. Who would you imagine could talk like that? And 2. Where is Jesus Christ in the text? (Pause)

            Our Psalm for today, Psalm 32, is a psalm of thanksgiving for forgiveness of sins. The Psalmist begins by describing the very nature of sin. Good and evil rages within the Psalmist. He paints a familiar picture for us: Sin is heavy. When we have wronged our neighbor, our loved one, our co-worker, or even someone we consider an enemy, we are filled with guilt. The Psalmist says it feels like his bones are withering away. He compares the heaviness of sin with dehydration. He is groaning in his bed all night long! Then, the opportunity to confess his sin comes along, and he experiences SWEET RELIEF. It’s as if the FEVER of GUILT has FINALLY broken, and the Psalmist can live FREE again! He concludes the Psalm by saying, “Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; shout for joy, all who are true of heart.” (Pause)    

            Now, who would you imagine could talk LIKE THAT!? Is there ANYONE?? Anyone on this Earth who talks like the Psalmist? Anyone who has experienced what he is experiencing? (Pause) How about you? How about me? How about ALL of us? We have ALL experienced sin, have we not? We have all wronged SOMEONE in ways that we know and in ways that we do NOT know. Psalm 32 reminds us that we are ALL sinners, but we are also ALL capable of being forgiven.

            Now, where is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in this Psalm? First, I would say that Jesus shows up in the very human JOURNEY of the Psalmist. Jesus has experienced everything we have experienced, including the temptation to sin. Jesus has experienced the harsh realities of sin around him. He is NO stranger to our sufferings and to our struggles. Just like in our Gospel reading, right? (Pause) Jesus journeys into a desert, where he is faced with his MOST human limitations. He is tempted by the Devil to think only of himself and to sin. So, when you think our Christ has NOT been where you have been, I would encourage you to take some time and think again.

            Secondly, and most importantly (in THIS preacher’s opinion), Jesus is MOST CLEARLY in the confession and forgiveness of sins! What is the VERY FIRST thing we do EVERY Sunday morning? We confess our sins before God TOGETHER. And then, we are FORGIVEN, in the name of Jesus Christ, TOGETHER. We declare our confession and God, in turn, declares us forgiven AND declares us righteous because of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we take communion together, we remember that Jesus said when he passed the cup of wine to his disciples that, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood shed for you and for ALL people for the FORGIVENESS OF SINS.” Jesus Christ, in his Cross and Resurrection, is VERY present in our world, in our Lenten journey through the wildernesses of life, hearing our confessions and forgiving our sins before we EVEN KNOW we have done anything wrong.

            When I was in high school, I had a friend named Phillip. Phillip was the leader of a youth Bible study group that met every Monday night. He had this incredible wisdom and charisma about him that really spoke to my soul. I trusted Phillip and I felt totally comfortable going to him with anything. Well, one Monday night, I came to Bible study early so I could speak to Phillip alone. I told Phillip that I had totally wronged a friend of mine. And boy, had I! I had REALLY let a dear friend of mine down and I felt just awful. I had sinned and I felt terribly guilty. I felt like if I didn’t make it right with God, I wouldn’t be forgiven and God might send me to Hell! I ran to Phillip for council. After I confessed my sin to Phillip, Phillip said words which changed the way I looked at God forever. “You do realize that God has already forgiven you, before you have even asked for forgiveness, right? That’s the point of the Cross. Because Jesus died on the Cross for your sins, that means that ALL of your sins are forgiven. ALL of them! When God looks at you, Josiah, all He sees is blood. The blood of Jesus Christ covering ALL of your sins.” I protested! This simply could NOT be! Surely not THIS sin! But Phillip gently repeated, “Yes, Josiah. ALL of them. Even this one.”

            Zion Lutheran Church/St. John’s, God is journeying with you this Lent. God is revealing Himself in the Psalms and in all of the dark corners and light-filled rooms of our day-to-day life. We do NOT journey alone and we are forgiven of our sins! When God looks at you, ALL he sees is blood, the blood of Christ. Now, “be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; shout for joy, all who are true of heart.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.