READ
Psalm 32 has a familiar theme of sin. The weight of sin, the confession of sin and the forgiveness of sin. The overwhelming weight of guilt, the worry of being found out – sweating like on a hot summer’s day. All very familiar emotions to those who have been entangled in thoughts, words and actions that were clearly not right.
REFLECT
One of the thrills of being by the sea as a youngster was to find a stall selling sticks of rock!! They seemed to last forever, they tasted good and they had a miracle inside them – a message that seemed to run all the way through. However you ate the rock it still had the word clearly visible. What would that word be if you were a stick of rock?
RESTORE
Psalm 32 holds the key to this question. We would not want to be weighed with “guilt” as the word through our stick of rock. Groaning, sweating, deceit, trouble are all words used by the Psalmist. If we come and confess our sin to God we discover the word that is written through every Christian’s stick of rock – forgiven, FORGIVEN, loud and clear say it again – forgiven.
That’s so strange, I am reading a book by Eugene Peterson at the moment and he specifically mentioned the penitential Psalms, of which Psalm 32 is one! A timely and excellent article, thank you.
A lady said to me Sunday morning, “Kathy, God is greater than your heart.” Which of course speaks to His great forgiveness that is ‘greater’ then our own self-condemnation. Thanks for re-inforcing that for me a second time this week.
Let us go to the Holy Sacrament of reconciliation
To feel at peace the sinner shall pray to God for forgiveness of sins. Excellent post about sin, forgiveness and prayer, thank you.
I applaud your blog and the daring it takes to share your faith in such a world as this. Enjoyed reading your daily inspiration!