I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
– Psalm 32:5
Oh, this is such a beautiful Psalm about God’s forgiveness. It starts verse one, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.” Isn’t that true?
Psalm 32:5 Recounts the Psalmist’s Experience with God’s Grace
Romans quotes from this, yes, “Blessed is the one who is forgiven of their transgressions before God, whose sin has been covered. Blessed is the one against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. That God, the Holy God of the universe, would look at any one of us and say, ‘I don’t count any sin against you.'” This is the gospel. This is the reality for all who have put their trust in Jesus.
And verse five, “Acknowledged their sin to God, who did not try to cover their iniquity, who said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ He forgives in response to our confession. He covers over our sin when we don’t try to cover over our sin.” And what this means is, well first and foremost, if you’ve never put your trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin, then do that today. What are you waiting for? God has made a way for you to be reconciled to him, forgiven of all your sin through Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. Put your trust in Jesus. And when you do, for all who have put your faith in Jesus, confession of sin should be a normal, continual part of our communion with God.
Acknowledging our sin to him, not covering our iniquity. I was sharing in our church family this last week, we’ve been having our worship gatherings and subsequent prayer gatherings on different nights, times of confession, and people confessing all kinds of things to God, to each other, addictions, adultery, sexual immorality, lust, greed, materialism, selfishness.
Psalm 32:5 Reminds God is Faithful to Forgive
The list could go on and on. And I’ve been at most every one of these worship gatherings, prayer gatherings where we’ve had times in confession. And there hasn’t been a time yet where I’ve examined my heart in that confession time and concluded, oh, there’s nothing to confess here. Every time I ask God to help me see what he sees that is not pleasing to him in my heart, there’s stuff to see. And it’s going to be that way until I get to heaven, and you get to heaven. So let’s be intentional then, to create that space in our own lives and our own communion with God when we come together and worship to pause and acknowledge our sin to God to do Psalm 32:5, don’t cover over your iniquity. Confess your transgression to Lord and he forgives.
This is first John 1:9. “We confess our sins. He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanses from all in righteousness. God, we praise you for your forgiveness. So we pray that you would help us to be faithful in confessing sins to you.” And I’m compelled just to even stop this podcast episode here in hopes that every person listening right now will spend a moment or two, or five, or 10, or just however long is needed to examine their hearts right now. What do we need to confess to you?
Spirit of God, show us what you see in our lives. Help us to see what you see. Help us hate what you hate. To be broken over what breaks your heart in our lives. And to know that when we confess, we find forgiving, loving, welcoming arms. And God, we pray for people around the world who don’t know the good news of Jesus and forgiveness in Jesus.
Praying for the Semnani People
Just don’t find it a coincidence that the unreached people group we’re praying for today is the Semnani people of Iran as we gather together for Secret Church to plead on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Iran tonight. God, we pray for the Semnani people that they would know your forgiving, loving, welcoming arms in Jesus. That they would know forgiveness of sins, that you would cause this gospel to spread to the Semnani people of Iran. And God, we pray that right now in each of our hearts, you would show us sin we need to confess, according to your word in Psalm 32:5. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
