Confession and Forgiveness

Psalm 32

¹ Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
² Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent,
    my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you
    and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
    my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
    the guilt of my sin.

⁶ Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
    while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
    will not reach them.
⁷ You are my hiding place;
    you will protect me from trouble
    and surround me with songs of deliverance.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
⁹ 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.
¹⁰ Many are the woes of the wicked,
    but the Lord’s unfailing love
    surrounds the one who trusts in him.

¹¹ Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
    sing, all you who are upright in heart!

We often sit with our sins in that sense of dread.  Hanging over us as a past that haunts us.  Seen as the things that will keep us forever in God’s “doghouse”.  We dwell on them and hold them, almost cherishing them as our painful reminders of how bad we are. 

Or we think that others hold no sense of sin.  Destroying lives of others around them with no sense of any consequences.  They have no moral compass or sense of guilt for how their actions have affected others.

The Psalmist speaks of each of those views throughout the Psalms.  Here he is focusing on the sense of our guilt and shame.  Released through confession.  But when we hold those sins for ourselves, we spend those restless nights hoping for sleep.  We go through our days with despair as we think that everyone is looking at us through the lens of one sin (or maybe a few sins) which we have committed.  We go with the dread that God is disappointed with us and will soon be finished with us.

But God does not want us to wallow in guilt or pity.  He offers forgiveness.  That has always been his way.  He started in Genesis by telling Adam and Eve that forgiveness was the path to life for them and all who came after them.  He offered it to Cain, both before and after killing Abel.  It was the way he walked with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  How he took the nation from Egypt and to the Promised Land under Moses and then Joshua.  It was the way he worked in the nation with the Judges, then later the prophets during the reign of the kings.  It is the whole point of the Gospel.

God invites us to come to him and receive forgiveness as we confess our sin to him.  God offers us a place with him where we are forgiven, because we are loved, so that we can belong with him.  Sin rears its ugly head, over and over again.  But God’s grace and forgiveness always win out. 

Come to the God of grace with our confession, and receive from him his forgiveness, love and belonging.