2-23-2023

Good Morning All,

     Psalm 32: 1-3;” Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit, there is no deceit.   For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.”

    Remember the old adage “silence is golden”?  I think most teachers and day care providers still believe and wish some certain little ones would as well.  There is also the one that says, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”  That bit of wisdom gets more valuable the older you get, unless you are talking to your doctor… or your pastor.  There are times when being silent is good advice but there are times when it isn’t.

   Our verses are a portion of David’s absolution Psalm.  We want to look at it from the bottom up.  See where it says, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.”  This is how David describes his life when he was trying to hide his sin of adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.  David even arranged for Uriah to be killed to hide his sin.  Even though he was in the greatest example of denial, sin took its toll.  David said his bones wasted away.

    We probably haven’t arranged the death of anyone, but we still know what David is talking about.  Even if you are a child who stole a candy bar from the concession stand, you know that guilt.  It is this guilt that keeps you up at night.  Even when you sleep you toss and turn and never really rest.  You feel achy like a cold that never goes away.  Sometimes you don’t feel like eating, maybe you even develop an ulcer.  This is what David means when he says his bones wasted away.  The guilt of sin eats away at us, sometimes literally.

    Yet when David was confronted by his sin and it became apparent that it wasn’t “hidden”, David came cleaned and confessed his sin.  We need to see that there are no “hidden” sins where God is concerned.  God sees all our sins and because of Jesus our sins are forgiven by faith.  When we try to hide our sins, we only harm ourselves and give a lot of ammunition to the devil.  The devil loves it when we try to hide from God.  He hammers us with it until we can no longer stand it.  Hopefully, we turn to God and confess our sins and get rid of them.  Unfortunately, many just try to keep on hiding them and they drift farther away from their family, friends, from God himself.

    Blessed is the one, blessed is the man.  We are so blessed by God’s grace; we should be happy.  There is no reason for deceit in our spirit; that only helps the devil.  Confess your sins to God, make amends when you can and confess to your neighbor when you sin against him.  Let them go and live in God’s grace.  There you can be happy.

Dear Father in heaven, we often fail to come to you to free our self from our sin.  We hold them far too much.  Give us the strength; give us the faith, to come to you and to be happy in your holy forgiveness.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret