How To Confess & Restore!
"Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
according to the multitude of Your
tender mercies, blot out my
transgressions."
Psalm 51: 1
People are often heard to say,
“Oh, that is just perfect!” when referring
to a gorgeous vista in nature, a beautiful
painted or photographed portrait, or a
delicious
dessert.
As often as we use the word perfect,
we know there's no such thing. That's
definitely true of human beings. Scripture
says, “For all have sinned” (Romans 3:23).
Even godly characters like David, a man after
God’s own heart, who wrote psalms of
worship
to God, didn't live a perfect life. His adulterous
affair with Bathsheba, complicity in the death
of
Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, and concealing of
his sins marred an otherwise imitable life.
But the redeeming part of David’s imperfect life
is the mercy and forgiveness he found
when he
confessed his sins to God. He wrote the entire
psalm 51 about his confession and restoration.
This ls the lesson from David’s imperfection
for us.
First
John 1:9 is the one-verse summary
of Psalm
51: When we confess our sins,
God is faithful to forgive us and cleanse
us. Don’t imitate
David’s failures;
do imitate his
response.
"The beginning of repentance
is the confession of guilt."
John Calvin