Let God Choose Your Clothing

Text: Psalm 32:1-11 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Trinity Passages: Psalm 32:1-11

Psalm 32:1-11

Clothes were given in the beginning to hide our sin and our shame.  We forget that don’t we? We forget that and we spend endless hours and large amounts of money on clothing. Not only that but in our sinfulness, we have also learned how to use our clothing to flaunt our sinfulness rather than to hide it. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t dress nicely. We should. But we ought to remember why clothing was given to us, in order to cover our nakedness, our sinfulness, and our shame.

If you remember in the garden after the first sin, Adam and Eve attempted at first to make their own clothes in order to hide their shame from the Lord but that didn’t work very well. Then the Lord killed an innocent animal and made clothes for man in order to cover our sin and our shame. Adam and Eve couldn’t cover their own shame, but God did it for them.

In this case what is true of the physical is even more true of the spiritual. Our psalm this morning points out how useless it is when people attempt to hide their own sin, and on the other hand how merciful God is when we acknowledge our sin and allow Him to take care of it. 

¹ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.  ² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. 

How do you hide a dead body? Lye can conceal the smell of a dead body, but not for long. You must add more lye, and in the end even that won’t stop the smell. So also, those whose desire to cover their sin. You can try to cover your sin with lies but it won’t work for long.

How much more impossible is it to ever come before God and pretend that there is any good within us. Indeed the psalmist tell us that the man is blessed whose sin is covered, but he also makes it very clear that man can not accomplish this. It is only God who can cover our sins

When we attempt to cover our sins, God uncovers them. When we uncover our sins, God covers them and indeed does not count them against us. “For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.”

David professes a truth here that we all know, but which at the same time we have none of us learned. We all know that if we confess our sins God will forgive them, and yet we still attempt to hide our sins from ourselves, from our neighbors and from God. We are like little kids who no matter how many times we burn our fingers still keep sticking them in the fire.

Think about someone whom you do not think highly of, think of someone whom you could easily name all their faults. Now consider that others think that way about you. They can probably name as many or more faults about you.

You can try and lie and bluster and make excuses, but you will always need increasingly more to cover the stench of your sin.

Blessed is the man in whose heart there is no deceit, who does not try to lie to himself, his neighbors, but most especially to God. Do not deceive yourself. Open your heart and do not try to conceal your sins from God. As long as you attempt to conceal you remain open to God, but when you open yourself to God he will conceal your sin.

 ³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.  ⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.

There are two skills which every human since Adam has learned to an expert degree. The first is lying to ourselves so that we do not have to see the ugliness of our own heart. The second is making excuses and blaming others. There is nothing that humans excel at more than these two arts, lying and excuses.

We know that we ought to confess. We ought to confess to our spouse. We ought to confess to our parents. We ought to confess to our pastor. But mostly we ought to confess to our God. We know that we ought to but we always have a good excuse not to.

It’s like when you wake up late at night and you have to use the restroom, but you are tired and your bed is so soft and comfortable and warm, so you keep putting it off. Eventually you will have to get out of bed, and once you do you know you will feel so much better. So too we often find excuses to avoid confessing our sin and guilt, and instead we toss and turn unwilling to do what we know we should.

This is what David did. He had so many sleepless nights because he wouldn’t confess his sins. This is what happens when we attempt to hide our sins from God by lying to ourselves and to God or by making excuses. This is the hideous clothing we end up when we choose our own clothing.

Now the psalmist goes on to describe how wonderful it is when we confess our sins to God and allow him to cover them, and we hide in Him rather than hiding from Him. Now, on the other hand, listen to all the wonderful blessings that are ours when confessing our sins instead of making excuses, blaming others and lying.

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.

The writer of the psalm was himself slow to confess his sin, but having learned what a great opportunity it is, he now must do it again right away. He interrupts the psalm to confess to the Lord again. And the response of the Lord is immediate. Our sins are forgiven by His grace because of Christ.

⁶ 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.  ⁷ You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

When you have the right clothing, you can enter the fanciest ball, just like Cinderella.

Now that the Psalmist is dressed in the clothing that God gave us, we can walk in his blessing. Now that he no longer needs to fear and run and hide from the Lord, now he can walk into the presence of the Lord and what does he find? A hiding place from all the troubles and evils of this world.

If in a flood of great waters, that is even in the greatest storm when the sea waves are pounding against the rocks, those who take refuge in the Lord are far above them. As you see on the front of the bulletin. Two birds safe in the rocks from the violent waves, so are those who learn to hide in the Lord. We are safely surrounded by his great might.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.  ⁹ 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. 

When we are clothed badly, we might be embarrassed to be seen, but clothed in God’s righteousness we don’t need to be ashamed that he is watching us.

That second phrase of verse 8 means, I will guide with my eye always upon you. He will never take His eye off us our whole lives. He will watch our every step and when we are about to step off His love, He will call us back. When we are about to step in a trap, He will turn us around. We can walk forward boldy into the future knowing that God’s eye is always on every step we take.

¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.  ¹¹ Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

This safe place, this hiding place of the Lord, it is described here again as “surrounded by the Lord’s mercy.” That is the Chesed, the steadfast unfailing love of God. The wicked has many sorrows on every side, but the one how trusts the lord is surrounded by His unending love.

Notice that you would expect as opposite the wicked, “the righteous.” But that is not the case. The opposite of the wicked are still sinners, but sinners who have open their hearts to the Lord and confessed their sins, those who trust in Him.

The one who has learned to stop trying to hide from God, the one who opens his heart wide and confesses his sin, this one is hidden in God and surrounded by His love.

Just like Adam and Eve when we attempt to make our own spiritual clothing, that is when we attempt to cover our sins, it does not work.  But when we acknowledge our sin, God covers us with the righteousness which is from Christ. When we acknowledge our sin God becomes our safe and secure hiding place.

Amen