While travelling, I listened to a singer whose lyrics often touch my soul deeply, leading me to pause and pray. Steve Bell regularly writes his songs based on words from Scripture. On this day, the song Psalm 32 brought me to tears, and when I arrived at my destination, I was prompted to read the Psalm, which has the subheading Blessed Are the Forgiven. This Psalm encourages us to pause (Selah).

When we pause to consider how blessed we are and ponder this truth profoundly, how can our hearts help but be stirred? We are forgiven! Our sins are covered under His blood. As the Psalmist David says, if we do not attempt to hide our transgressions, but freely acknowledge our sin, God, in His graciousness, forgives. I love how Steve Bell uses the phrase, “our darkest side”, that side that we try so desperately to keep hidden, from others and from God. There is no hiding from God, yet we sometimes forget this truth. These are the beautiful words from the first stanza of Steve Bell’s Psalm 32

How blessed are those whose sins are fully forgiven
How blessed are those to whom Yahweh harbours no ill
To whom His spirit is known
I said not a word while my bones they wasted away
From groaning each day and night
Your hand lay heavy upon me
My heart grew thirsty, so I...
Made myself known to You, I did not hide
My shameful soul, my darkest side
And You loved me
And held me
And You forgave my sin

The comfort that comes from the last phrase of this first stanza, “And you loved me and held me, and You forgave my sin.”

What a God we worship. A God of mercy and grace whose sacrificial gift of His only Son meant that we could be declared righteous, loved, and held safe within His arms.

I thank our Canadian brother, Steve Bell, for how he uses his gifts of poetry and music to draw us closer to God, and I thank God for the reminder of how truly blessed I am!

Let us reflect on the last verse from Psalm 32: “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”

Amen and Amen!

Susan Page is the daughter of the King, His beloved child, wonderfully forgiven and blessed! Susan longs to age gracefully, becoming more like Jesus as she seeks the hidden treasures revealed to her through Scripture, literature, the arts, humankind, and nature.