During yesterday’s Bible reading I ran across this Psalm again.  It is familiar to me, but in this day it echoes in the depths of my soul.

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!  How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! (Psalm 32.1-2, NASB)

So often I succumb to the idea that in order to be “blessed” my life needs to be one of affluence, or at very least, ease.  When days are difficult, it is easy for me to become grouchy and depressed, to focus on my perceived lack.  How shameful!

Long before the revelation of God’s love in the person of Jesus Christ, the Jewish King David knew enough of God’s character to loudly proclaim where true blessing is found: being forgiven.  When I look at the landscape of my life and see the scars of all the self-choices I have made, and then consider God not only forgave but also covers those wounds with His grace, I am in speechless awe.

How can this be?  How is it that a man who willfully followed his own drives and desires to his own hurt and hurt to others can possibly be cleared?  How can a spirit that so quickly self-justifies wickedness be transformed to be a spirit without deceit?

I shout with David, “O how blessed!”

I live in a world full to troubles.  In my line of work, I am more aware than most of what kind of trouble people are facing.  How wonderful it would be if my day began shouting the blessing of forgiveness and if my ears heard in reply the shouts of neighbors, coworkers and friends likewise proclaiming God’s forbearance.

A world where blessing begins with forgiveness would be a blessed world indeed.