Every Sunday when I get to go to church I leave with something from God's word pressing on me. Every time. But I don't always sit down and spend some time chewing on what struck me. Being involved in a community group helps cause every Thursday our group talks about how the sermon impacted each of us. I don't want to wait till Thursday.
Today we heard from Psalm 32. I've read this Psalm before but this time around I discovered treasure that's been right there all along.
If I had to summarize the Psalm in a 140 character or less tweet it would be:
"Godly people sin, run to Christ, confess it and rejoice in his forgiveness. The time between sin and confession crushes. - Click to TWEET
Listening to my pastor Jason preach the truth out of Psalm 32 had me marveling at how we miss the gospel of Jesus Christ with our attempts at covering our own sin. I shouldn't say "we". I do that. My human, broken heart and mind keep trying to avoid the reality of my sin. And not just mine, I want to avoid the reality of other people's sin too. I don't want to take up my cross and follow Jesus and suffer because of other people's sins! I mean, my natural self doesn't want to. But Jesus is in me. And he's moving in me to will and to act like him. God-like. Godly. I'm one of his "godly" ones. I had a hard time typing that. But it's true. I'm one of his godly ones, not because I don't sin, but because I do and I run to Jesus with it and call it what he calls it. And when other people sin, I don't hold it against them. That doesn't mean I don't believe in justice or laws. It just means I don't make myself their personal judge. I don't compare my sin to their sin and condemn them according to my self-made version of righteousness. And when I do, I feel the conviction of being unforgiving and I run to Jesus and confess it.
And that space between sinning and running to Christ to confess it is crushing! The longer I wait and the more I try to hide and cover what I know is sin, the more I feel the crushing weight of the guilt and shame Christ bore for me. I can't bear that. And I can't hide from it. The only way to escape is through the covering of Christ. He bore my guilt and shame in his body so that I could bear his righteousness and joy in mine! What love!
This is what the Psalm says godly people do. It doesn't say they don't drink and don't smoke and don't go with girls who do. It doesn't say they read their Bible a minimum of so many hours a day and wake up before dawn for "quiet time" with God. Godly people run to Christ as the covering for their sin rather than trying to cover it themselves.
My pastor summed it up so well when he said, "We're not meant to hide our sins from God. We're meant to hide ourselves in God."
The wonder of what the God of the Bible has done for those who love Christ is what makes me run to him.
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,"
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
7 You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
-Psalm 32:1-7
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