TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Psalm 32 and Psalm 51
We are all sinners (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8), a truth we cannot hide or deny. Yet how many of us, like David, have sinned and tried to cover it up, pretending it never happened (2 Samuel 11–12)? How many of us, like David, have found solace in our “charade of innocence”? How many of us, like David have “kept silent” about our sins, while living a life of guilt and regret? How many of us, like David, have had our sins exposed, causing us to realize our desperate need for God’s mercy (Psalm 51:1, 3)? David characterizes his life of sinful deceptions as “wasting away…groaning all day long…” and his “strength dying up as the heat of summer” (Psalm 32:2-4). However, when he chooses to courageously acknowledge and confess his sin, he finds mercy and experiences God’s forgiveness (Psalm 32:4; 51:3-4, 17). David is not perfect, but because of his “broken and contrite heart” throughout the remainder of his life, God characterizes him as “a man after My heart, who will do all My will” (Acts 13:22).
How many of us are living lives that are “wasting away and groaning all day long” because we are unwilling to acknowledge our sinfulness and too ashamed to confess our sins? Why do we choose to live life in such misery? We do not have to; like David, we too can enjoy and experience the mercy and forgiveness of God (Titus 3:3-7). Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians, God who is “rich in mercy …even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5). The Hebrew writer encourages all Christians to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Today, I will…read Psalm 32 along with Psalm 51, reflecting on my life and my sins in light of God’s love, mercy, and grace realized in Jesus Christ, and I will thank God “for His indescribable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).
