No Remiyyah
Psalm 32
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
The word sin means "to miss the mark."
It's the idea of an archer shooting an arrow and missing the bullseye.
Believer or not, we have all experienced the feeling that we are missing the mark
.
At night, when we lie down to sleep, as we are forced to encounter the silence with nothing left to distract us, we are confronted with our shortcomings.
We are not the parents, the partners, the friends, the members of society that we should be.
Blessed is the one who is forgiven for this.
Blessed is the one who can be confronted with the consequences of their actions yet not be crushed by them, knowing that in the morning, they have an opportunity to try again.
Blessed is the one whose sin is covered.
The Hebrew word for "covered" is "kāsāh" (כסה), which means "to cover, conceal, or hide". This word is used to describe the "propitiatory cover" or "mercy seat" over the Ark of the Covenant.
The "mercy seat" is the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. Made of pure gold and topped with two cherubim, the cover was where the high priest would sprinkle the blood of animal sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. This act symbolized the "covering over" or atonement for the sins of the people.
The gold cover was not just a physical lid, but the symbolic place where God's presence would appear and where, through sacrificial blood, His wrath against sin was appeased and sins were covered or forgiven.
Blessed is the one whose sin is covered, not by alms or the blood of animal sacrifices but by the very presence of God through Jesus's shed blood on the cross.
Blessed is the one to whom The Lord does not impute iniquity.
To impute is to assign a value to something by inference from the value of that product.
2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
If you were to lay out the actions of my life (or your life) and assign it a value, you would see a product that is worse than worthless.
You would see a product that does not deserve to exist!
If tonight, on the nightly news, they were to show my picture (or your picture) and list out the things I have done and the thoughts I have entertained in secret, I would not be able to show my face the next day. I would be completely mortified, as would you.
The consensus would be that I am not a person deserving of love, mercy, or forgiveness. That I (and you) are a monster that needs to be punished, locked away, eradicated...
In contrast, if you were to assign a worth to Jesus's life, with its fullness of works which "If they were all written down, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written", you would see a product of the absolute highest value.
You would see a life that is "more precious than rubies". A life that is of more value than anything you could even think to desire.
2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
On the cross, God imputed, or assigned value, to Jesus, the value that you earned.
On the cross, God imputed, or assigned value, to you, the value that Jesus earned.
Blessed is the man to whom The Lord does not impute iniquity.
In whose spirit there is no deceit.
Ask any person on the street what is written in John 3:16 and there is a good chance they can tell you.
Regardless of their relationship with God or the state of their salvation, they have the info.
Even demons believe the info and tremble!
This info and their belief do them no good.
Hell was created for satan and his demons, and it is where they will spend eternity, separated from God, along with anyone not found in Jesus.
The Hebrew word, from which we get the translation of "deceit," is remiyyah.
Having "no remiyyah" means being truthful, transparent, and honest, not trying to conceal sin or live with double standards. This points to someone straightforward with God, not hiding guilt or living hypocritically.
The God who can impute can see your sin.
All of it!
He sees every action, every thought, every posture of your heart.
He sees the effect that your actions have on a scale unimaginable to you! Actions that you may think only affect you actually have a cascading effect that ripples throughout eternity...
Blessed is the man in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Blessed is the man who doesn't excuse, bury, or hide the reality of the sin in his life.
It is only when we are honest and straightforward with God that we are able to step into the light of His presence.
Jesus explains this in John 3:19-21: "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
Anyone who tries to bury or hide their sin does so out of fear and commits evil!
Even children of God, in following the example of their former master, the devil, fall into this old habit.
They mess up, as we all do. They "miss the mark".
Instead of being "truthful, straightforward and honest", they try to conceal their sin!
This behavior takes many forms... all of them futile.
It may appear as making promises to God, such as "I am not doing this anymore."
Sometimes it looks like shedding tears and trying to convince God how much you regret the action... Though we need to repent, sometimes repentance becomes a theatrical act where we believe the persuasiveness of our performance is the determining factor of our forgiveness rather than the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
Similar to the hypocrite in a Greek play, we put on the mask of the "repentant sinner".
Sometimes we behave as those people in the future that Jesus prophesied of in Luke 23:30, who "will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ so that they will not have to experience the wrath of God on the day of judgment.
We fall into despair and depression and run from God, choosing to give up and wallow in our sin rather than come into His presence.
Blessed is the man who doesn't do these things!
Blessed is the man who has "no remiyyah"!
Blessed is the man who is straightforward with God! Who says, "You see me. You see my heart. You see what I've done and who I am."
Only this man is the one whom God will accept and welcome into His presence.
Isaiah said, "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD"
These gates are only opened to those who are willing to remove the hypocrite mask, those who are transparent and honest with God, who can not be deceived anyway!
David goes on to explain this process:
When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
He tried the method we all fall into!
He shed the tears, he made the promises, he ran and he hid, and day and night he felt the heaviness of the insufficiency of his effort.
His bones grew old, his strength dried up.
It was only when he took off the mask, when he was straightforward with God, that he was able to enter into the presence of the light and be forgiven.
David experienced the only method of dealing with the sin in our lives, and he went on to give us a charge based on what he learned:
For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You
In a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters
They shall not come near him.
You are my hiding place;
You shall preserve me from trouble;
You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.
God confirmed David’s understanding and endorsed it with a charge of His own:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.
Further He gives a warning and a promise:
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;
But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Blessed is the man who hears and understands these instructions from The Lord. Though flood waters surround this man and nations gather on every side, no danger will come near him. He will be steadfast and able to stand in his hiding place, which is The LORD. He will be glad and rejoice. He will shout for joy in the assembly of the righteous. He will be like a tree planted by the water, yielding its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither. He will prosper in everything he does.
He will see God.