Psalm 51:1 (NET) “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts!”
I know full well how it feels to cry out to God for mercy upon the stupid things that I have done in my life! When I read the words from the Psalmist here, my heart completely resonates with his desire for God to wipe away those sinful acts and have mercy on him.
It really is a horrible feeling to be confronted with the wretched nature that is within each of us. Even though it is not fun to do, we each must give an honest examination of our lives and come to grips with our sins. It is tempting to just gloss over things and say that it isn’t really that big a deal, right? I know that I am forgiven, so why do I have to even worry about that anymore? I will tell you why.
Later in Psalm 51:17 it states that, “The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit— O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.” Coming to God with honesty and confession is humble, and it is something that God doesn’t reject. In James 4:6, it tells us what God values and what He rejects; “But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” So, the reason it is important to come before God with humble hearts ready to confess our sins to Him is because we know that He accepts this as a pleasing sacrifice of worship! He not only accepts it, He responds to it by offering us the very thing that we are seeking, forgiveness and restoration. It says in 1 John 1:9, “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.” That is simply amazing! The Psalmist reiterates this again in Psalm 32:5 when he says, “Then I confessed my sin; I no longer covered up my wrongdoing. I said, “I will confess my rebellious acts to the Lord.” And then you forgave my sins.”
I believe that if we understood the value of being forgiven, then we would no longer try to justify the absence of humility in our lives displayed by a lack of confession, or even acknowledgement, of sins. We would be running to the Lord each and every time that we sin, in order to receive the mercy needed from God to get our fellowship restored with Him and the blessing of closeness with Him restored. We would be crying out to God with the Psalmist, “Create for me a pure heart, O God! Renew a resolute spirit within me!” (Ps. 51:10)
Confession is a huge part of having a heart of worship. We understand that we are forgiven completely in Christ, and that yes we do not have to worry about our sins ever keeping us from a life forever with God because of Jesus’ complete work of atonement, but we also recognize the need to keep a short “sin account” with God in order to remain in close fellowship with the God who is repulsed by pride and sin. I also know that the effects of sin in my life are detrimental to my relationships with not only God, but people around me too. So, if our horizontal relationships are not right because of sin, God says that we need to leave our offering of worship at the altar and go make it right with them (Matt. 5:23-24), then come back and worship Him. God takes unconfessed sins very seriously.
We tell our children this too, don’t we? When a child does something that offends another, we tell them to go to that person they have offended and apologize. They will most likely go to them with their heads hung low, and utter a pathetic mumble under their breath – “sorry”. Then, we parents tell our child to look at the person and tell them you are sorry so they can hear it. The child then raises their voice again with another pathetic attempt to get the whole word out with the proper decibel level, all while keeping their head pointed away from the subject of their “abuse” (maybe with one eye pointed towards the victim). We then tell them to look at the other person, tell them that you are sorry. So they do it, finally – then we proceed to say, “For what?”. It wasn’t enough to just say “sorry”, but we want them to acknowledge the actual reason for this apology so they don’t just get caught up in the “act” of apology, but that they might humble themselves completely by admitting to the offense they committed. Somehow or another, this actually works, in most cases, to restore the relationship. Eventually, maybe even begrudgingly, they will start to play together again and laugh together again! Reminds me of the Psalmist in Psalm 51:8 (a), “Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven!”
We need to understand that unconfessed sin sucks the life out of us (Ps. 32:3-4) and distances us from God. So, if we are trying to get close to God through worship we will inevitably be frustrated with the results if we are refusing to be authentic and truthful with Him about our sins. Start today, confess your sins to God and allow the refreshing water of forgiveness to bless you and restore you. Humility before God is a sweet thing that will always be received and honored by God. Isn’t that what we want? So, let’s do it!
