“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
– Psalm 32:1–2
Oh, would you just let Psalm 32:1-2 soak in? It is blessed. Talk about an understatement. It is a blessing to have your transgression before God totally forgiven. Blessed is the one whose sin is completely covered by the grace of God. Blessed is the man, the woman against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. How is that possible? I sin, you sin, we all sin. We are sinners against a holy God. How is it possible that our sin would be totally covered. That the Lord who is perfect, who knows all things, who is holy, who is pure in every way, who is just in every way, how is it possible for the Lord to count no iniquity when he looks at me or you? Well, this is only possible by the grace of God.
When we fall into sin, we ought to run to the Lord for He will forgive us.
Psalm 31:1-2 Reminds Us of the Importance of Confession
And we know this picture in the Old Testament is pointing forward to the one who makes this possible, Jesus, who atones for our sins, who covers over our sins. Second Corinthians five says, “He who had no sin became sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God.” And so the rest of this Psalm in Psalm 32 just goes on to confess sin. Look at verse five.
It says, “I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Of course. Of course, we would confess our sins. We wouldn’t try to cover our inequity when we’re praying to the God who has said, “I will cover it all by my grace,” through what Jesus did on the cross, for all who trust in him.
And so as followers of Jesus, assuming you’re a follower of Jesus … if you’re not, let today be the day where you confess your need for God’s grace to cover over your sin in your life. Let this be the moment where you put your trust in Jesus to atone for, cover over all your sin, bring you into relationship with God, and then when you do, and for all who have, let us be quick to confess sin in prayer. So let us spend concentrated time examining our hearts, our minds, our lives, asking God to reveal sin that we may not see, to bring us to humble honesty before him and to confess our sins knowing that God by his grace forgives us, covers over our sin and by the blood of Jesus shed for our sin, he counts no iniquity toward us.
A Prayer Based on Psalm 31:1-2
Oh God, we praise you for this reality of Psalm 31:1-2. We praise you for your forgiveness. God, we praise you for your blessing in our lives. In fact. we count ourselves more than blessed. It doesn’t seem like an adequate word, oh, God. Blessed our way whose transgression is forgiven by you, whose sin is covered by your grace. Blessed are we against whom you count no inequity. All glory be to your name, Jesus, for taking all of our sins and upon yourself, for dying on the cross in our place, and for you taking the judgment and condemnation we deserve.
All glory be to your name that we now have no condemnation as we are in you, that our transgressions are forgiven and our sins are covered by your blood. So oh God, we praise you for this reality, and so we pray that we would be quick to confess our sin knowing just what first John 1:9 says, that you’re faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God, help us not to hide sin, not to try to cover over sin, to be quick to confess a sin. God, even as we praise you for this blessing, God, we pray. For people around us who don’t know this blessing, God, we pray that you would use us to proclaim the gospel today to somebody that their transgressions might be forgiven and their sin might be covered by the blood of Jesus. God, we pray, use us to make this gospel known, right around us and far from us.
Prayer for the Jat People of Pakistan
God, we pray today for the Jat people of Pakistan, 33 million of them, hardly any, if any, followers of Jesus. Among 33 million people, God, none of them have their transgressions forgiven right now. None of them, out of 33 million people. None of them know this blessing of having their sins covered. Right now, you count their inequity towards them. They need the good news of your son. They need the good news of your love.
God, we pray that you would cause the gospel to go to the Jat of Pakistan. Please, God, wake up your church to get the gospel to 33 million people among the Jat in Pakistan. It’s a Muslim people group. They need the good news of your love in Christ. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Jat in Pakistan and the thousands of other people groups like the that.
We pray, help us to steward this blessing of Psalm 31:1-2 that you’ve poured out on us as we enjoy this blessing, unhindered access to you, forgiven of our sins, counted with the righteousness Christ, not with our sin. So God, we praise you for this and we pray, spend our lives and our families and our churches making this good news known among the nations we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Secret Church
Even as I pray about Psalm 31:1-2, I want to encourage you. Secret Church is in just two nights. Let me encourage you to be a part of Secret Church on April 23rd. We’re going to be talking about how our lives can be spent and our families can be spent, our churches can be and must be spent for the spread of this good news among the nations, particularly when we think about millions.
We’ll talk at Secret Church about billions of people who have still not heard this news. And how our lives can be a part of making it known among them. So go to secretchurch.org if you are not already signed up to be a part. I’m praying that this night will bring about a tectonic shift in the way we view our lives. And our families and our churches. And light of God’s love and God’s purpose in the world. Again, it’s secretchurch.org.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
