You don’t have to be perfect in order to be blessed by God. Just listen to the beginning of Psalm 32: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Our Creator is a gracious fountain of amazing blessings to undeserving people.
But Psalm 32 also calls us to consistently look inward. “Blessed is the man… in whose spirit there is no deceit” (32:2). If God is the fountain, deceit is the clog that can lodge in our spirits and block our full enjoyment of his blessings. A clog in a water drain is annoying. A clog in a heart artery is dangerous. A clog in our spirits can cause us to miss out on God’s blessings and cost us our souls.
Listen to David’s description of how it feels when we ignore our consciences and settle with deceit. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away… For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up” (32:3-4). But, when “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity, I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave my sin” (32:5).
Deceit in the spirit—a stubborn unwillingness to be honest—is the nasty obstruction that will limit the flow of God’s amazing grace in our lives. “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found” (32:6). Listen to those words. God wants to be found, and when he is, the finder is never disappointed. “Steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD” (32:10).
The question, then, is simple: Do you trust him? Do you trust him enough to be honest? To acknowledge your sin? To ask for help? To be surrounded by his steadfast love and transformed by his grace? Blessed indeed is the person in whose spirit there is no deceit.