During our Central Prayer time last night, we read Psalm 32. Reading the Psalm challenged me to think about confession. For several reasons, 2023 has caused me to ponder my relationship with God. I believe with a deeper sense of clarity; I am more aware that I need the Lord. That is true across my different roles and in my personal life. Reading Psalm 32, written by David, the man after God’s heart, challenged me to consider confession’s place in my life. The opening verses of the Psalm took me there. Psalm 32:1-4 read:
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.
We believe David may have written Psalm 32 after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12. David had been living in serious sin. A sin that created consequences that marked David and his family. We do not know from the story in 2 Samuel what David experienced before Nathan confronted him, but Psalm 32 suggested that David knew an extreme level of anguish. I would be tempted to say that we would want to get away from anguish, but it seems like David stayed there. After all, he had to be confronted to be moved to confession. That unsettles me. I do not know why it took confrontation to move David to confess.
But if I consider my soul, I struggle with confession. Maybe it is because of pride, thinking that I am smart and do good things, I do not sin. Maybe it is because of believing the lies of the enemy that God could not forgive me for that sin. At different times, my struggle is probably sparked by various matches. But those are not fires that I should be playing with.
As has been said and Psalm 32 makes clear, confession is good for the soul. Instead of struggling with confession, I need to embrace confession. Confession brings the blessing of the Lord into my life. What an amazing gift God gives us in confession. I pray with me, you will embrace this gift for the good of our souls.