How To Be Happy, Though Harried, in 2011 - Psalm 32

A man by the name of Garrison Keillor (some of you are familiar with him) has told stories for decades about his fictitious hometown in Minnesota that goes by the name of Lake Woebegone.  The word “woebegone” is an archaic English word which used to mean “afflicted with woe”.  Today we use the word to refer to someone who is sorrowful or sad in appearance. 1  If you were to take someone who was morbid and oppressive, and you asked him to live in a town named Lake Woebegone, you’d probably have a very severely depressed individual.

I think I’ve been living in Lake Woebegone as of late.

I will not burden you with a recap of the big, and depressing events of 2010.  Let’s just say goodbye and be grateful it’s over.  The last few weeks have been particularly discouraging for many of us.  Peggy’s departure from us was quite sad.  And as I talk with others of you, I’m constantly reminded of the ongoing struggles and difficulties we all face.  It seems, from my very limited perspective, that if God were to grant one of us the miraculous gift of healing for a week or two, that would be an incredibly wonderful thing.  How happy would we be if the Lord Jesus saw fit to instantly deliver a number of us from the various diseases and afflictions with which we suffer so often?  If the Lord gave me the gift of healing for a weekend, I’d wear it out.

Or, suppose the Lord were to pour out His Spirit upon some of our loved ones and grant them the miracle of the new birth.  That would not only be magnificent for them, it would also solve a lot of serious problems for many of the rest of us.  How happy would we be if He heard our prayers for those unsaved family members for whom we pray so often, and He suddenly brought them from darkness into His marvelous light?  We’re constantly surrounded by loved ones who don’t know the Lord, and we grieve for them.

But then, what about the world around us?  North and South Korea are ready to start a new war (or just pick up where they left off on the old one).  Terrorism is still alive and well, even if some of the suicide bombers aren’t.  The economy is up.  And down.  And up.  And down.  The President is leading us all in the way in which he thinks we should go, which is not the way we think we should be going.  

Haiti isn’t much better off now than it was before the earthquake a year ago [Jan. 12^th].  Global warming really is a farce after all, even though Congress is still passing legislation to eliminate greenhouse gases and incandescent light bulbs.  And we had an exploding oil well in the Gulf of Mexico which didn’t kill half the global fish population like we were led to believe it would.  Sometimes I think we live on Planet Woebegone.

But then what about the church in America?  Well, there are some very bright spots in the darkness.  Reformed thinking is stronger, and Reformed preaching is more prevalent than it has been since the 1700s.  There is a multitude of good biblical preaching and teaching available to the entire world through the Internet.  And of course, God is building His Church one soul at a time, which not even Hell itself can stop.  But in other quarters, the visible church is chasing apostasy at light speed.  

My good friend, Al Mohler, has been having an online exchange with a man who claims to be an “evolutionary evangelist.”  His name is Michael Dowd.  Michael wrote a book entitled Thank God for Evolution.  And, wonder of wonders, he has a very large following, mostly among 30-somethings.  He hold seminars and prints study guides in order to teach “evolutionary spirituality”.  Reverend Dowd is convinced that, 

“Biblical Christianity is bankrupt.  The Church is not bankrupt because it has run out of things to say or do.  Rather, it is bankrupt because the otherworldly product it has sold for centuries now lacks wide appeal.  Biblical Christianity that does not integrate our best evidential understanding of the universe and human nature is doomed precisely because it is wedded to unchanging scripture.  It suffers from what I call “idolatry of the written word.”  

He also makes this observation:

“. . . [W]e moderns come to the Bible with a culturally evolved moral compass by which we carefully pick and choose which passages to preach and study and teach our children.  We do not get our morality from the Bible.” 

And one more:

“. . . [A]s a science-honoring, evolution-celebrating Christian naturalist I experience and exhibit far more of what the Apostle Paul called “the fruit of the Spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, than I ever did when I was a God-fearing, Bible-believing un-naturalist.”  2

And it pretty much goes straight over the edge of the cliff from there.  When I read such things and I hear of large numbers of people longing for someone like Rev. Dowd to help them make sense of their hatred of God and their rejection of the truth of the Scriptures, while simultaneously maintaining that they are Christians with “a culturally evolved moral compass”, it makes me long for the days when we were concerned with whether a kid with hair touching his ears could really be saved.

So, on the one hand, as the darkness gets darker by the day, the light has an opportunity to shine brighter and brighter.  As the world races after more and more profoundly godless thinking and living, the truly godly followers of the Lord Jesus have more and more occasions to profoundly display their faith.  And it is as simple as being remarkably happy in the midst of all this mess around us for one fundamental doctrine of biblical Christianity: the forgiveness of our sins.

Turn with me to the book of Psalms, and let’s read Psalm 32 together.

[32:1] Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

  [2] Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

[3] For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

  [4] For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

[5] I acknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

[6] Therefore let everyone who is godly

offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;

surely in the rush of great waters,

they shall not reach him.

  [7] You are a hiding place for me;

you preserve me from trouble;

you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

[8] I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

  [9] Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you.

[10] Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.

  [11] Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous,

and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!  (Psalm 32 ESV)

 Forget evolution.  Thank God for forgiveness!

We really do live on a planet that could rightfully be referred to as Planet Woebegone.  There is no rest for our souls here.  Trouble is all around because sin is all around.  Evil men in high places and positions of authority hate God.  Terrorists murder people on a daily basis in the name of their god.  Atheism, polytheism, pantheism and every other pagan-ism imaginable is on the rise. 

But even worse than living in a world of woe, is living a life of woe.  The source of genuine personal woe is personal sin.  The evidence of that woe is guilt.  Guilt produces feelings of fear, sadness, sorrow, remorse, shame, worthlessness, and hopelessness.  It is a cancer of the soul.  However, while guilt is the most terrible of spiritual and mental conditions, it is simultaneously the very best thing that can happen to a person.  Unconfessed sin is self-destructive.  Recognition of sin and guilt, and the confession of it, produces sheer joy.

Look again at verses 3 & 4.  David tells us there that ignoring our sin leads to debilitating, life-crushing guilt: 

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away, through my groaning all day long. [4] For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. 

Unconfessed sin produces spiritual zombies.  David speaks here as though his body was deteriorating, disintegrating before his eyes.  When the Spirit of God brings the guilt of sin to bear upon a conscience, it is unbearable.  And that, beloved, is the greatest mercy God ever grants to a person.  When God’s hand is so heavy upon someone that they feel the loathsomeness of their own sin are compelled to confess it, that person has received the greatest blessing known to man.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. [2] Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.  

While the rest of the world may seem to be going to hell in a handbasket, as they say, even in the midst of such extensive and pervasive spiritual darkness, when God moves upon the heart in such a way that sin is confessed and repented of, that person is a happy man (or woman).  This is a description of salvation.

The word “blessed” is often understood to mean “happy” but it means much more than that.  Unbelievers often appear to be happy, especially five minutes before midnight on New Years Eve in Times Square, or in Cancun during Spring Break.  We read that an “evangelist for evolution” who vehemently rejects the Bible and the God of the Bible, is now happier than he ever was back when he wasn’t so modern and progressive and enlightened and he supposedly believed the Scriptures.  So even the most guilty of people can be superficially happy or give the impression they are quite satisfied with their wicked, godless life.

But the word “blessed” runs much deeper than merely being happy.  It is likely I have corrected all of you for using the word “lucky”.  Most people confuse luck with blessing.  But there is a profound difference between the two.  Luck doesn’t require the existence or the acknowledgment of God.  In fact, it is a denial of God when a person ascribes his blessings to luck.  The definition of “luck” is “the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities”. 3  Luck is impersonal.  It is capricious.  It is a substitute for God’s sovereignty over all things.  Luck doesn’t even exist.  

That is why when someone, especially a Christian, uses the word “luck” around me, I feel compelled to tell them that if things are going well, it is because of God’s kind provision toward them.  We are to be constantly thankful to God for His kind providences in our lives.  It is demeaning to God when we ascribe His blessings to some nameless, powerless, non-existent entity called “luck”.

But it is also demeaning to God when things are going rather poorly for us and He is the first Person to whom we assign blame.  “Why is God doing this to me?”  Or some might say they are having bad luck.  Either way, it is a slap in the face of God when we complain about the less-than-optimal circumstances in our lives as believers in the Lord Jesus, when we have been forgiven all our sins.  All of them.

Whatever our outward circumstances, regardless of how badly unbelievers behave around us, no matter how sinful Planet Woebegone gets, the Christian always has reason to rejoice.   His sins are no longer held against Him by God!  No matter how we feel, or how we may suffer from serious bodily afflictions, none of these things can affect the blessedness that comes from God because of His forgiveness of our sins.

[5] I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity;  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

 We stand on day number 2 of a new year.  There are 364 days left of 2011 assuming we all make it alive to January of 2012.  We have no idea what the coming year holds for us.  It may be that the Lord has great plans for Grace Fellowship.  There may be twice as many of us meeting here this time next year.  Nothing is impossible for God.  On the other hand, none of us may be here a year from now.  We don’t know.  We don’t know if we’ll be blessed financially or if we’ll suffer monetary loss in the days ahead.  Not only is the coming year a closed book for us, TOMORROW is unknown to us.  We have no way of knowing what may take place an hour from now.

But whatever comes, first of all, we know it comes from God.  It isn’t luck and it isn’t merely an impersonal force of nature or evolution that causes the circumstances in our lives.  God rules over all the affairs of our lives and everyone else’s.  If the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord and He directs it wherever He chooses, then everyone else’s is as well.  So all of 2011, every single moment of it, regardless of what it may contain for us, comes to us from God’s hand. 

Secondly, whether God chooses to send weal or woe, as believers in Christ, we are happy.  We are the most blessed people in all the world.  In fact, I am so blessed that I truly feel sorry for someone like Michael Dowd.  I feel sorry for people that are not as blessed as I am, who still live under the heavy burden of their sin and guilt, who have never experienced the gladness of being relieved of the great burden of condemnation.  If our sins have been blotted out by the blood of Christ, we are the recipients of the greatest blessing a fallen human being can ever know, and nothing can change that.

Let me suggest another scenario that helps us with this concept.  The word “happy” simply does not fit as a definition for “blessed” because as a Christian, I am blessed even when I’m not happy.  We have experienced some very unhappy things in recent days.  We live in generally unhappy times.  The bad news is so plentiful it must be difficult to decide what to report on TV every night.  So while our circumstances are often discouraging and frustrating and depressing, none of that has any bearing whatsoever on our blessed state as Christians.

Turn with me to the book of Romans, chapter 4, please.  The apostle Paul speaks of our text today and explains it is very clear terms:

[4:1] What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? [2] For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. [3] For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” [4] Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. [5] And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, [6] just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 

[7] “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered;

  [8] blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” 

 

What does it mean when the Bible tells us we are the blessed ones?  For reasons that will probably remain a mystery to us for eternity, God has chosen to bless us with Himself.  

• • Because He has drawn us to Himself by His Spirit, 

• • Because He has convicted us of our sins by His grace, 

• • Because He sent his Son to be our Divine Substitute, 

• • Because He made us to understand our lost and condemned condition, 

• • Because He has granted us the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,

• • Because He has adopted us as His very own children,

• • Because we have been made to be the Bride of Christ,

• • Because He has granted us life from the dead,

• • Because we will never perish but have been granted eternal life,

• • Because He no longer holds our sins against us,

Every Christian, whether rich or poor, sick or healthy, living in freedom or being persecuted and murdered for his faith, . . . even if he lives in Lake Woebegone among a bunch of evangelists of evolution, . . . the Christian, EVERY Christian, is the most blessed person on the face of the earth because our transgressions are forgiven, and our sin is covered.

[10] Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. [11] Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! 

Are you happy?  Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t.  But are you blessed?  If your faith is in Christ, then the answer is, “Oh yes!”  God’s STEADFAST love surrounds you.  So be glad, rejoice, and shout for joy.  2011 and every year is a good year for the righteous, for those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  

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1. "woebegone." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 30 Dec. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/woebegone>.

2. http://thankgodforevolution.com/node/2070

3. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/luck