Confessing leads to blessing

Psalm 32 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Blessedness of Forgiveness and of Trust in God.

A Psalm of David.

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
² How 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 about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
⁶ Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
⁷ You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
⁹ Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
¹⁰ Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.
¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

On the cross, Jesus said: “Father,forgive them, forthey do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34)  Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of every sin, even the ones we are unaware of.    The psalmist says:  How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.   If we are forgiven of every sin, then we are blessed, the Lord does not impute iniquity on us. 1 Peter 2:24 says:  He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.   Our sin is no longer imputed to us because Christ bore it on the cross. In our legal system there is a term double jeopardy, which stipulates that a person cannot be tried a second time on the same charges, if they have been acquitted once.  God, in His righteous judgment, will not charge us with the sin that Christ already bore and paid for.  The psalmist though includes an additional caveat. He adds:  And in whose spirit there is no deceit!   So while Jesus paid the price, He bore our sins and God no longer charges us with them or imputes them to us because we are forgiven, even of the sin or sins we were unaware of, still we must not be deceived.

The psalmist continues saying:  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.    Romans 6:23 says:  The wages of sin is death.    The heavy hand of the Lord is not punishment for sin. Rather it is conviction regarding sin. We are forgiven of all sin; even that which we are unaware of, but if we remain silent regarding the sin we are aware of, we are deceived. There will be a price to pay for quietly holding onto sin after we are made aware by the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Guilt and condemnation are not from God. Rather they are the consequence or the wage of unconfessed sin.   The psalmist says:   I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.   The meaning of the word Selah is unclear. It is often used in the psalms as a break or an exclamation. Some people say it means to pause and think about it. We should think about this:  If Christ has already borne our sins on the cross, if God will no longer charge us because Christ has already paid the price for our forgiveness, what should keep us from confessing our sin?    We are deceived and so remain under the heavy hand of conviction if we remain silent.1 John 1:9 says:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  In truth, because He is faithful and just, our sins are already forgiven, we are already cleansed, our confession is really a declaration of what we have been freed from. Why then should we remain silent, under the heavy hand of unconfessed sin? Knowing the truth, we can be free from deceit.  Selah.

The psalmist says:  Many are the sorrows of the wicked,  (the one who remains in the silence of deceit.)  But he who trusts in the Lord, (to confess the sin which has already been forgiven.) Lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.  Amen.  Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. Amen.