Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindnesses; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.

        Psalm 51:1-4

Another restorative activity in which we can participate is confession. Unfortunately, when some hear the word “confession,” they might equate that to visiting a clergyman, such as a priest, and following some prescribed format for confession. But biblical confession is completely different. First, biblical confession doesn’t involve the confessor doing anything to resolve the sin issue, that, simply, is not consistent with the Word of God. Secondly, as born again believers in Jesus, we have no need for an earthly mediator between God and ourselves (1 Timothy 2:5). We can approach the throne of God with confidence and make our confession directly to a God who cares, understands, and is willing to forgive (Hebrews 4:14-16). So, when we hear the word confession, we should think about the process of talking directly to God about the situation. But before we can ever do that, there has to be the convicting work of the Holy Sprit living within us. When people sin, who are outside of Christ, they can do so freely and without remorse because there is nothing to pull them back in the other direction. But for those of us living in the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God acts as a kind of checkpoint or safeguard, keeping us from comfortably living in ways that are destructive and sure to bring spiritual defeat (Galatians 5:17). Of course, we can still make bad, sinful, and destructive decisions, but the Spirit of God will keep us in a state of uneasiness so that the sin doesn’t overcome us. In other words, Christians can sin, but we won’t do it comfortably. But when we do sin, so enters the restorative act of confession. 

Confession is all about the heart. It’s not something we do to impress others rather it is a conversation that we must have with God in order to see the restoration that we need and that is available to us in Christ. Today’s passage is not merely teaching us about the importance of confession rather it is taking us into the very heart of a man broken over his sin. That man is David. And his sin? David was living on the other side of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11-12). So when God sent a messenger to confront him, David had a choice. He could either run, attempt to hide the sin, and try and escape the consequences of his actions or he could go to God and confess. To his benefit and restoration, David choose the latter. 

What we find in Psalm 51 are the very words that David was praying to God as he dealt with his spiritual and moral failure. At this point, it would help us to remember that David was a man of God, a man who recognized the power, protection, and provision of God in his life (1 Samuel 17:37). He was a man who endured ridicule from his own family yet moved out in faith to face a challenger named Goliath (1 Samuel 17). A good reminder to all of us…godly people sometimes make horrible decisions and have to move into a mode of confession. But the good news is that God, in Christ, will forgive us every time that we approach him with our sin in humble and sincere confession. God’s forgiveness may not necessarily take away the earthly consequences for our sinful decisions, but God can certainly deliver us from the eternal consequences, paving the way for us to continue to run the race that He has set before us…even after sin (Hebrews 12:1-2). 

So, David approaches God with his sin. Consider each phrase that David offers up as a prayer of confession. “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindnesses; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.” David’s cry was for God’s mercy and he appealed to two of God’s attributes…His lovingkindness and the greatness of His compassion. God’s lovingkindness points to the reality that God is always willing to keep His promises, even when we do not (Lamentations 3:22-23). 

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Washing and cleansing had ceremonial, ritualistic, and symbolic meanings but David just wanted to be “clean.” It’s been said by criminal experts that, sometimes, when a perpetrator commits a heinous crime, such as murder, the suspect will take a shower or physically clean up by washing their hands and such. This may be an attempt to hide incriminating evidence but there is a deeper, psychological, and spiritual reason for this behavior. The guilty want to be clean from their actions. And of course, taking a shower doesn’t erase a heinous crime but it does point to the human need to be free from horrible things that we have done. Those same experts will also tell of suspects that finally break down and confess their guilt after repeated attempts to hide the truth. And as they yield to that confession, a huge weight is lifted off of them, at least figuratively. That’s because we were never intended to carry that kind of guilt and shame. David experienced that. Consider his words in another Psalm:

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your (God’s) hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You (God), and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You (God) forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You (God) in a time when You (God) may be found. 

Psalm 32:3-6a

Selah is a term in the Psalms that means “pause.” It means that we should take some time to read a phrase and then pause and meditate on what is being said. David knew a thing or two about guilt and shame. He knew what it was like to have tremendous faith, that his family members and even the king and the army of Israel didn’t have. Yet, he finds himself desperate to be clean from the sin that he has committed. 

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” This phrase is an admission that David could not stop thinking about what he had done. He’s appealing to God’s attributes of mercy and grace, God’s compassion, and His willingness to keep His promises even when we fail miserably. David is longing to be clean and set free from this sin and its debilitating effects. He knows what he has done and more importantly, he knows that God knows. We can fool others and we can even deceive ourselves at times, but what we cannot do, and will never be able to do, is escape God’s acknowledgement of our sin. That’s why confession is so vital to restoration. But this last phrase of David’s prayer really gets to the point of the matter.

“Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” David knows that the sin affected others but ultimately the sin was against God. That’s the perspective that we, as Christians, have regarding our own sin. While we might need to go and reconcile with another person, our sin, ultimately, is a sin against God. “Evil in Your sight,” isn’t just a reference to the reality that God saw the sin, meaning that it was done while God was watching. “Evil in Your sight,” is a reference to the fact that God ultimately decides right from wrong. If God declares an activity sin, making it inappropriate for us as believers, then it is sin. Mankind, in our depravity, want to make the rules, constantly defining and redefining what we deem appropriate and acceptable. Of course, the futility of this exercise is obvious. We didn’t create this world nor are we in charge. No matter how much we want to be in that position (so that we can do what we want, void of any consequences), that simply is not the reality. David’s sin was against God and he knew it. That’s why he concludes this portion of the passage with, “You (God) are justified when You speak and blameless when You (God) judge.” When God speaks, He’s always right. When God’s speaks, He’s always justified. And when God speaks, He’s always blameless. Something for us all to remember. 

When we sin, and we will, we can hide from it, drink it away, indulge ourselves in every form of depravity in order to ease the pain, but when all of our efforts are exhausted, the sin will still be there. The superior way to handle sin, and it’s essential for Christians to handle it this way, it to confess it to God, receive His forgiveness, forgive yourself, and then move on in the restoration that true confession brings into our lives.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me; the one who wants to do good. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:18-21,24-25a