“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Psalm 32:1-2
Have you ever considered what a blessing it is to have the forgiveness of God? What a blessing to have the LORD not hold your sins and iniquities against you? To be forgiven of the LORD removes all fear of wrath and condemnation and gives us peace with God. To have forgiveness for all our sins gives us the assurance of life everlasting!
Indeed, the one who admits his sin and looks to the LORD for mercy rather than attempting to hide and cover up his sins is blessed because the LORD, for the sake of Jesus’ holy life and His innocent sufferings and death, is merciful and gracious and offers to us forgiveness for all our sins.
The Bible tells us: “For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you” (Psalm 86:5). It tells us “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3,4); and that “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1,2).
So what about you? Do you have God’s forgiveness, or are you attempting to hide and cover up your sins? Are you justified by God, or trying to justify yourself? Are you self-deceived – filled with guile – and attempting to fool others in regard to your sinfulness, or do you admit your utter sinfulness and look to God for mercy and forgiveness?
David wrote in Psalm 32:3-4: “When I kept silence, my bones became old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.”
What happens when we keep silent about our sins? When we are unwilling to admit our sinfulness and look to the LORD for forgiveness? When we are unwilling to give up our sins? God’s hand is heavy upon us. We grow old and weary through our groaning and sighing all day long as we feel the guilt and weight of our sins. Our moisture – our vitality, our joy – is turned into the drought of summer; it evaporates away.
David then wrote the words we speak in our liturgy (v. 5): “I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hid. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
To confess our sins is to say and agree with what God says of us and our sin. John writes in 1 John 1:8-9: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Confession makes no excuses for sin but acknowledges sin as sin and deserving of God’s eternal wrath and punishment. It is as we read in Psalm 51:3-4 (another psalm of David): “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, I have sinned and done this evil in your sight, so that you may be justified when you speak and clear when you judge.”
When we acknowledge our sin unto the LORD and quit attempting to hide it and cover it up, when we confess our transgressions of God’s commandments to the Lord, He graciously forgives our sins for Jesus’ sake. “In [Christ Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7; cf. Psalm 51:1ff.).
David writes (v. 6): “For this everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come near to him.”
For God’s forgiveness, everyone that is godly will pray now, before it’s too late, before the floods of God’s judgment overflow him (alluding to the judgment of the Great Genesis Flood but pointing to the coming judgment of God)!
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:2: “Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.”
So, don’t put off repentance! Don’t wait another day. Acknowledge and confess your sins now and receive God’s forgiveness. Tomorrow may be too late for you. You may never have the opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness again. If you turn to the LORD God now, He will have mercy upon you and save you from the judgment to come!
O LORD God, I have sinned in my thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. I have failed to live in accord with Your holy commandments. Have mercy on me and forgive my sins for the sake of the perfect sacrifice of the Son, Jesus Christ, in my stead. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from the Revised Common Version of the Bible.]
With Broken Heart and Contrite Sigh
1 With broken heart and contrite sigh,
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry.
Thy pard’ning grace is rich and free—
O God, be merciful to me!
2 I smite upon my troubled breast,
With deep and conscious guilt opprest;
Christ and His Cross my only plea—
O God, be merciful to me!
3 Far off I stand with tearful eyes
Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
But Thou dost all my anguish see—
O God, be merciful to me!
4 Nor alms nor deeds that I have done
Can for a single sin atone.
To Calvary alone I flee—
O God, be merciful to me!
5 And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be:
God has been merciful to me. Amen.
Author: Cornelius Elven (1852)