Psalm 32:1 <A Psalm of David. A Contemplation.> Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah 6 For this cause everyone who is godly shall
pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him. 7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. 9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you. 10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him. 11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
This is a beautiful Psalm about the power of repentance. When we repent of our sins, they are forgiven by God, and they are covered. The idea of them being covered means they are no longer seen and will never be seen again, which is why God does not impute our sin. In other words, once we repent of a sin, God will treat it as if it never existed in the first place and that should bring us comfort because that means we will not have to give account for those sins that have been forgiven.
David had tried to hide his sins, and he tells us that his bones grew old through his groaning all day. While we may hide our sins from others, we cannot hide our sins from ourselves or from God. If we truly love God, then our sins are going to convict us through guilt because we know what we did was wrong. The longer we try to ignore it, the more we are going to be bothered by it. We don’t want to be like a horse or a mule without understanding, we should want to realize that we serve a merciful God who will forgive us.
It doesn’t make sense to continue to hide our sins and allow them to eat us up on the inside. Instead, we need to quickly confess our sins to God. He already knows what we did, so we need to swallow our pride and repent. When we do, we will be glad because we can know that our sins have been forgiven. Now, this does not mean that you will not have to face the consequences of your sins because if you robbed someone or killed someone, you will still go to jail or maybe put to death, but you will not have to suffer the eternal consequences because your sins have been forgiven.
You and I are so blessed because we have a God who is willing to forgive us that we should shout for joy. So, never forget how wonderful our God is and what a privilege it is to be able to repent and confess our sins to God.