for every blessing flows into the soul as the consequence of divine forgiveness.  The word in the Hebrew rendered “Blessed” is in the plural number, to show that there is not one blessing only, but multiplied blessings and multiplied mercies, all springing from this one source, the forgiveness of sin.  When David wrote these words he felt the truth of them.  He spoke of a gift which he had himself experienced.  He had found mercy, so he proclaimed its richness.  We know how grievously he fell in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, and we remember Nathan’s visit.  It was after that visit that, according to the general belief, this Psalm was written.  He had struggled with the agonies of unforgiven sin, till at length the message was delivered to him by the prophet, “The Lord, also, hath put away thy sin.” [5]  No wonder, then, that he poured out his heart in this hymn of thanksgiving, commencing with the words, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

But it is not merely a Psalm of thanksgiving, for according to the title it was a Maschil, a Psalm giving instruction.  When David was pleading for mercy in Psalm li., he said that when he had found forgiveness himself, he would make it known for the good of others, “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.” [6]  So now, having been forgiven, he wrote this Psalm of instruction for others.

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”  These were the words with which David commenced his Psalm, and in these words he said that to which every forgiven soul will most heartily add, “Amen.”

What was the peculiar character of that blessedness?  We learn from verses 3 and 4 the awful misery of sin unrepented and unforgiven.  We find how David’s tears were dried up by the burning heat of a guilty conscience, and how the dreadful burden weighed day and night upon his soul.  Then in the next verse we are taught the secret of the great transition from misery to peace.  We find how he made up his mind to make no further efforts to conceal his guilt.  He resolved to confess it before God, and no longer attempt to hide it from man.  The result was a complete, assured, and most merciful forgiveness.  “Thou forgavest,” he said, “the iniquity of my sin.”  He was assured of the gift, but what was the unspeakable blessedness to which, when forgiven, he was admitted?

This we learn from the words of our text in which we find the peaceful intercourse of the forgiven soul with God.  It is that peaceful intercourse which constitutes the real test of forgiveness, Christ died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God: so those who are made partakers of that atoning work are actually brought to God and made what the Psalmist calls “a people near unto Him.” [7]  So it was in the case of David.  There was nothing to keep him any longer at a distance, and in the full peace of complete reconciliation he enjoyed the unspeakable privilege of communion with God.  The account of this communion is given us in the verses of our text, in the first of which we have the language of the forgiven sinner to God, in the second the reply from God Himself.

I.  The Language of the Forgiven Soul addressing God.

He that was afar off without any shelter from the rough storm of an accusing conscience, is now able to look up to the God who has forgiven him and say, “Thou art my hiding-place.”  He finds his shelter and his safety in the presence of that very God whose law he had broken.  He does not say, “Thou hast provided a hiding-place,” but “Thou art my hiding-place.”  He who had been exposed without protection to the sore buffetings of his own conscience, confirmed as it was by the just sentence of God’s holy law, had been so completely restored that he had found in God Himself a hiding-place.

In that sacred hiding-place he realized two results, safety and praise.  When hidden there he was safe, just as our own life is safe when hidden with Christ in God, and therefore he could say, “Thou shalt preserve me,” and when hidden there he would live in the very atmosphere of thanksgiving, so he said, “Thou shalt compass me about (or surround me) with songs of deliverance.”  A song of deliverance is a song of praise from one that has been delivered.  The Song of Moses was a song of deliverance when he stood on the shores of the Red Sea after he had seen the hosts of Egypt overwhelmed in the flood. [8a]  David’s was a song of deliverance when God had brought him up out of the horrible pit and established his goings, and had put a new song in his mouth. [8b]  The song of the great multitude before the throne is a song of deliverance, when, brought out of great tribulation, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, they sing, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”  [8c]

Observe the connection between this safety and these songs of deliverance.  The songs are not merely the consequence of the safety, but a part of it.  Hidden in the Lord, we are compassed, or surrounded, by them.  Whichever way we look, whether forward in hope, or backward in memory, or upwards in trust, there is in every direction something to call forth the praise, and the spirit of thanksgiving is in itself a protection against assault.

There is just the same connection between praise and safety in the description of the restored Zion: “Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” [8d]  Praise is there represented as part of the defence.  The enemy cannot enter because the gateway is filled by praise.  The song of deliverance is so hearty and so loud that the voice of the tempter is not heard.  And thus it is that the forgiven man, hidden in Christ Jesus, praises God, because he has been saved, and confirms his safety by the very act of praising Him.  Does not this teach us a lesson as to our own communion with God?  Whatever it is that weighs on the heart and disturbs the spirit, whatever the storm be that beats upon us, whether it be care from without or conscience within, whether it be the pain of trouble or the still greater pain of the sense of sin, the forgiven man may go straight to Him and say, “I flee unto Thee to hide me.”