“The Need for Confession”

“The Need for Confession”

Psalm 32:3-5: When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.  For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.  I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Selah.

Introduction to Psalm 32

            As we approach Psalm 32, we will proceed according to themes in the Psalm, and thus the verses will not be in numerical order.

We were created to walk with God.  We were to be with God always, but sin entered the world.  We wanted to be the lord of our own lives.  We convinced ourselves that if we could be God instead of letting God be God, we would be better off.  So we rebelled against God.  We separated ourselves from God.  We ran, and we hid from God.

            God never gave up on the human race.  He never gave up on you.  He did not give up on this dream to be with his people.  All throughout the Bible, we find this little phrase of hope: with God.  God is with Abraham.  God is with Moses.  God is with David.  Then one day we are told a baby is born.  His name is Immanuel, which means “God with us.”  The apostle Paul says God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

            In other words, the great news of the gospel is that God was paving a way into His presence.  In light of this truth, Paul says, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:20-21). Because of Jesus, it is now possible to plunge ourselves into God’s love, to plunge ourselves in His grace, to plunge ourselves into His mercy, and to plunge ourselves into His presence.

Now, let's first consider "The Need for Confession"

            The pivotal element as we look at verses is the need for confession.  In verse 5, David said that he did not cover up his iniquity, but instead confessed it.  Psalm 32 is  one of the seven penitential Psalms.  It is so pivotal, because confession is the doorway into the presence of God. 

            Look back at verses 3-4 (read).  David is essentially saying: There is something wrong, God.  I am trying to get into your presence, but I can’t.  What is wrong?

            The answer is found in verse 5—acknowledgment of sin and a stop to covering up iniquity.  When I was a teen, there was the Watergate Cover-up.  Watergate itself was an attempt by people in the Nixon administration to find out what the enemy—the anti-Vietnam War Democrats—were doing. A war was in process, and it seemed to many to be a patriotic necessity to preserve national security. They put listening devices just like the government did with many subversive organizations. The F.B.I. under Director Hoover had large files on many that were wire-tapped for various reasons--John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Frank Sinatra, and even Richard Nixon. It was common in that day to do things such as that, and thus ordering a wiretap was not a big offence.  The big offence became the cover-up.  The lack of acknowledging that an ill-advised illegal activity had taken place brought the nation through one of its darkest times.

            Now back to David—everything in his life was pointless until he dealt with his guilt and sin.  He was going about his life, he was going about his duties, but his bones were wasting away.  He was groaning all day long.  He felt God’s hand was heavy upon him, and he felt his strength was sapped. 

            Thinking of Psalm 32—and you know that this psalm was written in response to God’s dealing with David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite—perhaps you say that your sins are tiny in comparison with David.  The problem is that more people die from tiny microscopic viruses—very few are executed for murder or adultery.  Small sins are the most deadly. 

            C.S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters has a senior devil named Screwtape giving advice to a junior devil named Wormwood on how to tempt people, how to lead them astray from God.  Screwtape advises Wormwood not to just tempt people into the big sins but to understand the power of little sins.  Screwtape says:  You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness.  But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God).  It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into Nothing.  Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.  Indeed, the safest road to hell is a gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

 Beware of small sins.  We need to deal with those as well.  The need for confession is pivotal.