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Joy is restored when Sins are confessed

Let’s look at the 32nd Psalm:

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night ‘our hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgression to the Lord’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

There are two conditions here. One is where the person’s sins are covered, are forgiven, where he confesses his transgressions to the Lord. The other is when he keeps silent. David says his bones wasted away through groaning all day long when he kept silent. Have you ever felt like that, like you are just wasting away, that you are groaning all day long, that your strength is sapped as in the heat of summer? Or the King James Version says, “dried up, the drought of summer.” This is because the hand of the Lord is heavy. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. Keeping silent—that is not being willing to admit sin. Simple admission gets forgiveness. The whole 51st Psalm is on confession.

In the 13th verse, David says, Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

That is what we would like. We would like sinners turning back to God. We would like to be able to teach transgressors God’s ways. But verse 13 starts out, Then…well, when is that?

Look at the 12th verse: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then both Psalm 32 and 51 say the person is, blessed whose transgressions are forgiven. The joy of the Lord’s salvation is restored when sins are confessed.


(An excerpt from How to Maintain Joy in your Life, p.2&3)

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