Truth Or Consequences

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Scripture

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
~Psalm 32:3-4, NASB

Quote

God will not permit His Children to sin successfully.
~Charles Spurgeon

The problem with hiding or covering our sin is guilt. Guilt is an acid that eats away at our conscience. David tried to keep his transgression a secret but his conscience was torturing him day and night. He wasn’t sleeping, he was losing weight and his vitality was drained. He was sick physically, emotionally and spiritually and it all stemmed from his sin. David was unhealthy, unhappy and unholy and the guilt he felt for taking an innocent man’s life weighed heavy upon him. Humans were not designed to carry such loads of guilt. I drive a mid-size pick up; it has a hauling capacity of 1,500 pounds. You can put more on it than it is designed to handle but if you do, it will eventually break the truck down. We are not designed to carry guilt. The best thing we can do when we sin, is get rid of the sin and guilt as soon as possible and we do this through repentance and confession. After stealing a man’s wife and then taking his life, David tried to pretend that everything was fine and this went on for almost two years.

There are two fascinating Hebrew words in Psalm 32 that are related to this process of confession and forgiveness. In verse 5 David said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” The word confess is yada which means to throw or cast off. It is used in the context of praise, thanksgiving and confession. It means a verbal exclamation, to speak aloud in public. It is a very popular word in the OT, used 944 times. Here it means to make a full disclosure of that which one has an intimate knowledge. The second word is nasa which means to raise, lift up or lift off. It is found in Psalm 32:5, where David said,  “And You forgave the guilt of my sin.” David’s guilt had become a huge burden that was literally crushing him. When David repented and confessed, God’s grace lifted this burden off of David. We are very familiar with NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and I thought it was a bit ironic that the phrase ‘lift off’ is used by them. 

Three scriptures come to mind:

  • Psalm 38:4…For my iniquities are gone over my head; As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.
  • Psalm 55:22…Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you;
    He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
  • Psalm 68:19…Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation.

We have an epidemic of flu. I thought perhaps we had seen the worse of it but no so, hundreds of students across the county were sent home from school yesterday. I think I will be 100% today but I stayed in yesterday just in case. I don’t have the flu. I had some kind of stomach bug. I will be glad to get back into circulation. 

 

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