Listen

The one whose wrongdoing is forgiven, whose sin is covered over, is truly happy! The one the Lord doesn’t consider guilty— in whose spirit there is no dishonesty— that one is truly happy!

When I kept quiet, my bones wore out; I was groaning all day long— every day, every night!— because your hand was heavy upon me. My energy was sapped as if in a summer drought. Selah

So I admitted my sin to you; I didn’t conceal my guilt. “I’ll confess my sins to the Lord,” is what I said. Then you removed the guilt of my sin. Selah

That’s why all the faithful should pray to you during troubled times, so that a great flood of water won’t reach them. You are my secret hideout! You protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of rescue! Selah

Psalm 32:1-7

Think

For years I ran regularly despite having a really bad right knee. As long as I ran in a straight line my knee was fine. Then one day my left heel started to hurt. The pain would not go away regardless of what I tried. Finally, a physical therapist told me that my years of running to compensate for a bum knee had finally caught up with me in another part of my body.

Many of us compensate for our guilt by trying to mask it until one day we simply cannot take it anymore. The psalmist makes no such error. They sing praises to God for hearing their confessions. They implore the faithful to pray, to confess, and be made well by God through the act.

When we seek forgiveness from God, we also have to let go of the guilt of sin. This is our part of trusting God and allowing God to surround us with a song of rescue. Sometimes that rescue is even from ourselves.

Brian Foreman

Pray

Forgive me, God, when I embrace the messages that tell me I should lead a life of guilt and shame.

Forgive me when I don’t trust that you do forgive me.

Be my place of refuge in hard times and open my ears to hear your song of rescue.

Amen.

Go

O God, who does not condemn us to death as a sinner
but who wants for us to be whole,
sense our repentance, forgive our sins,
and bring us back to the fullness of life with you. Amen.