Forgiven

Psalm 32

David is recounting a time when he experienced the Lord's forgiveness for a sin that David wanted to keep hidden but eventually acknowledged and confessed. The pslam includes a section where it seems as if David is writing from God's perspective (v8-9) and ends with a section where David is instructing the congregation but the rest of the psalm is addressed to the Lord.. I think we've all heard prayers where the pray-er is instructing us more than she is talking to the Lord. There is definitely an element of that here as well.
The basic message of the psalm is that even though you are afraid to come before the Lord and acknowledge your sin, don't wait to be led like a horse on a bit and bridle. Come to the Lord, acknowledge your sin and you will experience the hilarity (to borrow a phrase form Marva Dawn) of God's forgiveness. You will be surrounded by songs of deliverance and unfailing love, not punishment or vengeance.
There is a phrase that strikes me right at the beginning of the psalm. I'm not sure how much theology we are to take at face value from the psalms because I believe we have to leave room for the artistic poetic language of the psalmist. However, having said that, David makes a comparison between being forgiven and having no deceit in my spirit. If I am interpretting this correctly, David is saying that when we confess our sin and the Lord forgives our sin, no longer counting it against us, we are not only forgiven but we are made clean. This meshes completely with the teaching of the NT, especially 1 John 1:9. However, I am not sure that I always believe this. I think I have a wrong concept of forgiveness because I believe, as seen through the way I act and relate to God, that I can be forgiven of my sins but still have to make amends somehow for my sinfulness. I believe that somehow God can overlook my sinful actions but that the stain remains on my soul and spirit. David says that this is not true. When I am forgiven by the Lord, there is no stain that remains. My spirit contains no deceit. I think this may be why I have not ever really experienced the fullness of Christ's forgiveness. First, I know my propensity to wander and believe whole-heartedly that I will fall into that sin again. I know that to some extent, I enjoy sin. Second, while Christ may have dealt with the particular sinful action, I don't believe that he has dealt with the fatal flaw itself and so I confess the symptom knowing that the root cause remains. Of course I know theologically that this is not true but I am not convicted or convinced of the truth of this and so I continue to live under the weight of my sinfulness. I long to know, to experience the full freedom of being not just forgiven (to split hairs) but cleansed and made new by Christ. Having said that, I also know that the pattern of my life has been to see Christ working gradually and inevitably rather than dramatically and spontaneously.