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God has given us a lot of meaningful holidays. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is one of our most important holidays. It is a yearly reminder that human beings are sinners in need of atonement, and the truth is that we are in the most desperate need of atonement. Atonement, being reconciled to God, making peace with God is so important, so essential, so vital, so beneficial!

King David was one of the greatest men who ever lived, but he did some awful things in his life. He was guilty of adultery and murder. Even though he was a man after God’s heart, he was also aware that he was a sinner who was very much in need of atonement. In Psalm 32, David celebrates the God who provides atonement.

Just as some Eskimo peoples have many words for snow in its various manifestations, because knowing the different kinds of snow can be very important to their well-being, so the Jewish people have many words for sin, because it’s important for us to understand the various aspects of sin. David begins his psalm celebrating God and atonement using three different words for sin.

Blessed is the one whose transgressions (pesha) are forgiven, whose sins (cha-ta-ah) are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin (avon) the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

Now my paraphrase: How very happy, how advantaged, how much better off is that human being who has been rebellious against God (pesha, rebellion, transgression), who has crossed moral and spiritual boundaries that should not be crossed (which includes all of us), and who has sinned (cha-tah-ah) by missing the mark, by falling short, by failing to do what God requires (which includes all of us). How very happy, how advantaged, how much better off is that human being who has sinned by perverting his ways (avon) and the Lord has stopped thinking about the ways that man has twisted things, and is no longer counting his crooked ways against him.

Pesha, chah-tah-ah, avon.

Notice that David is not describing about partial forgiveness, partial atonement, but complete and total forgiveness and complete and total forgiveness atonement. All his sins are forgiven. All his sins are covered. The Lord has stopped thinking about and keeping count of all his sins. God is willing and able to forgive every kind of sin, every aspect of our sins, all of our sins in all their evil manifestations. What a great and merciful God! What amazing atonement He is willing to grace us with.

But there is a pre-condition to atonement, and that is repentance, genuine repentance, real repentance. In the spirit of this forgiven man there can be no deceit. This happy and atoned-for man has turned from his sins and has turned to God and God’s ways in a sincere and heart-felt honest way, not in a shallow, insincere kind of way. His is a repentance that comes from his spirit, the subtle spiritual part of who he is. His repentance is sincere, deep, genuine. If we want atonement, we must make absolutely certain we are really repenting, and really turning to God, and not playing at religion, deceiving ourselves and trying to deceive God that we have turned from our sins and turned to Him and His righteous ways when we haven’t.

Atonement involves repentance, and repentance involves confession. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. God is all powerful and all-knowing, and He is also all-moral. He is a supremely moral being, and this all-moral being created us in His image and designed us with a conscience. Our conscience is there to help us to do right and avoid wrong. When we have done something wrong, and we suspect that we have done something wrong, our conscience begins its work; and God also begins to act on our conscience.

Human beings are weak and fallen creatures, and generally, unless we are unhappy or suffering, we do not change. And so our conscience starts making us unhappy. It begins to suck the life and happiness out of us. My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long … my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. A guilty conscience not only sucks our vitality and joy, it interferes with our desire to be close to God and talk to God and serve God – which adds to our unhappiness.

The wrong ways to deal with a guilty conscience: ignore it; dull it with drugs or alcohol; divert it with entertainments or pleasure. The right way to deal with a guilty conscience: acknowledgment of sin and confession. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”

We must acknowledge our sin. I acknowledged my sin to You.

We must not ignore our sin; deny it; minimize it; justify it: I did not cover my iniquity.

We must confess our sin: I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” Confession must be specific. We must tell the Lord exactly what we have done wrong. We must agree with Him that our sin is sin. It is wrong.

When we do our part – acknowledge and confess, the Lord will do His part. And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. What a great God who is willing and able to atone for our sin and restore us to Himself!

God was gracious to David. He helped him repent while there was still time. David includes a warning for others that the issue of getting right with God should not be delayed. Therefore let all the faithful pray to You while You may be found. There is a time when God can be found, and there is a time when God won’t be found. There is a time when atonement can be found and there is a time when atonement won’t be found because we’ve waited too long.

The Word of God has other similar warnings about not delaying to get right with God:

Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near.

But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, at an acceptable time – a time when God is favorably inclined to answer.

Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Today, not tomorrow is the time to soften our hearts, turn to God, confess, get right with God and receive His atonement. There might not be a tomorrow to receive atonement. How foolish if we wait until it’s too late!

God is kadosh, kadosh, kadosh – infinitely holy. Eventually this Perfect Moral Being, who is offended by sin, rebellion, transgression, and twisting His ways, will judge and reject sin and the one who has not repented. When His judgment comes, and it will come, God’s judgment may be like mighty, rising waters that destroy those caught in them. The faithful man, who has prayed and gotten right with God in that time when God can be found, will be like a man who is high above that deadly flood. Surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach him. Why wouldn’t we want to be that man?

Human beings, who are so easily deceived by sin, often think that sin is fun, and following God is not. The truth is the opposite: it is a close, personal relationship to God based on genuine atonement and right living results in safety and in joy. You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.

And not only protection, victory and happiness, but divine instruction. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you. God loves the individual who is living in a state of forgiveness, repentance and atonement. The channel of communication between the holy God and that repentant individual is unobstructed, and God is able to speak to him, and he is able to hear God speaking to him, instructing him, teaching him, directing him and counseling him.

Why wouldn’t we want this great God to watch over us with a loving eye instead of an offended eye? Why wouldn’t we want to be in the kind of relationship with Him that is so real, and so personal, and so unobstructed by sin that we are able to hear Him instructing us, teaching us, counseling us, and then we are able to go in the way we should go?

Repentance, atonement involves being teachable; being correctable, being responsive to God so He can easily direct us. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Are we like the horse and the mule? Hard to direct? Or, because of our repentance, are we easy for God to direct?

Many are the woes of the wicked (rasha, the sinner as noisy, tumultuous, tossing, restless, not at peace, and therefore disturbs the peace of others), but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him – the one who is loyal to God, faithful to God. Why would we want to experience many woes, miseries and failures when we could be recipients of divine love that can surround us and never fail us?

David’s final encouragement to us: Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart! The righteous, those who are in a right relationship with the All-Moral God because they have turned from their sins and turned to God, who have received His atonement; those who are upright in heart, who are committed, deep within themselves, to live in a way that is straight and true, are the ones who will be truly happy – not the wicked who transgress, rebel, sin, pervert. Why wouldn’t we want to experience the joy that comes from a right relationship with God and living the right way and enjoying the great atonement the Lord has provided? All we need do is genuinely repent.