St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - Weekly Talks

This is the 4th talk in the series, The Psalter, the Prayer Book of the Bible. This talk focuses on a special type of lament psalm called penitential, a psalm expressing confession of sin and receiving forgiveness. The seven penitential psalms are 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 & 143. Psalm 32 provides core Gospel material for Paul's 4th chapter of Romans 4. Therefore, Romans 4 tells us how to interpret this Psalm. Christians are not justified before God by a correct and meticulous observance of the Mosaic Law, but by receiving, in faith, God’s gracious justification of us for the sake of Christ our Redeemer. Patrick Henry Reardon, in his wonderful work on the Psalter, Christ in the Psalms, says, "Psalm 32 then is the prayer of those standing at the foot of the Cross and forswearing all righteousness of their own, commit their lives and entrust their destinies entirely to God’s forgiving mercy richly and abundantly poured out in the saving, sacrificial blood of His Son, because “God was in Christ reconciling the