Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
(Psalm 32:1-2, ESV)
We define being blessed wrongly. A few weeks ago in our Threshingfloor community we spent some of the evening talking about Ephesians 1and how God has “blessed us with every Spiritual blessing” through Jesus (Eph. 1:3). We came to the conclusion that most of us don’t live believing that we truly blessed. Instead our emotions and opinions of ourselves are often determined by our circumstances. If we receive a compliment on a job we did then we’re successful. If we’re older than 25 and still single then there must be something wrong with us. If our days goes well and everything aligns and goes smoothly, then we must be blessed. If everything is hectic, we’re late for every appointment, and we have car troubles then we functionally feel, think, and act as if we’re cursed.
How does God define being blessed in his Word? Psalm 32:1 makes the clear statement, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.” Blessedness isn’t about your situation today or tomorrow. It doesn’t relate to your success or failure. If your sins have been covered by Christ’s blood you are blessed. You are blessed abundantly beyond your wildest imagination.
To have gone from under the crushing, eternal wrath of God to being seated in Christ in the heavenly realms is a transition of breathtaking magnitude. Paul likens the power it took do move us there to the power that raised Christ from the dead and gave him authority over everything in existence. (Eph.1:19) Thousands of years earlier the Psalmist experienced the joy of that transition and declared that everyone “against whom the Lord counts no iniquity” is blessed.
When trouble besets us we need to preach our blessedness to ourselves. Remind yourself of how blessed you are by looking at where your sin would have led you. Look at the wrath of God against sinners in passages like 1 Kings 21 where God tells the wicked king Ahab that dogs will lick up his blood from the ground (1 Kings 21:19), Psalm 3:7, which declares that God breaks the teeth of the wicked, God’s bowls of wrath in Revelation 15, 16, and 17, and hundreds of other places throughout scripture. Had your sins not been covered by Christ you would be laid flat before that terrible wrath. But – thanks be to Christ! – our sins have been forgiven. We are blessed indeed. As we learn to believe that our lives will overflow with joy and the people around us will begin to see that it is indeed a good thing to be in Christ. We need to be constantly reminding ourselves, “blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.” Don’t let yourself forget your blessedness.
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