What A Guilty Conscience Can Do

Psalm 38

A guilty conscience can be a heavy burden to bear.  That has been the theme of a number of older novels and movies.  When someone hesitates to confess and forsake a sin it can eat away at one’s conscience, even to the point of making one ill.  This is especially true of believers. Our psalm today was written from just such a state.

Today’s psalm was written by King David.  David loved the Lord God and desired to follow Him, but like all of us, he occasionally fell into sin.  Psalm 38 was written following one such occasion, though we don’t know the exact circumstances. Whatever this particular sin was in David’s life, he didn’t immediately go to God with it and make it right.  Instead David kept it covered up, unconfessed, beginning to fester in his soul. At first this probably didn’t bother David. He was able to go about his usual daily routine and life as if nothing was wrong.  That is the same with us. Sometimes we just want to ignore a sin we’ve committed. We want to just forget about it, thinking it is no big deal. However sin is a big deal with God, and He won’t forget about it in the life of one of His children.

David’s unconfessed sins led to health problems (vs. 1-8), and separated him from God and others, causing loneliness (vs. 9-14).  After this, David then confessed and repented of his sin (vs. 15-22). The burden of unconfessed sins can be a very heavy one. If a believer lets this condition go on and on it can sometimes make one sick.  Don’t misunderstand, not every illness is caused because of sin.  Most illnesses have absolutely no connection to any sin whatsoever.  However occasionally it does. We see this in Acts 12:21-23, when King Herod Agrippa was struck down by God with an intestinal affliction due to his pride when he did not contradict the crowds as they proclaimed him a god following a speech he gave.  Paul also mentions that some of the Corinthians had become sick when they received the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sins (I Corinthians 11:27-32). Indiscriminately sleeping around can sometimes bring diseases. Getting into a drunken brawl can sometimes leave a person crippled.  Our sins can have physical or mental side effects that cause suffering. Sometimes God has to punish His children in order to bring them back to Himself (Hebrews 12:5-11). When we confess God does forgive, but He doesn’t always undo all of sin’s earthly consequences.

As we read through this psalm we see a man who is in distress and agony, both physically and mentally.  Unconfessed sin can weigh us down and become an unbearable burden to carry. The torment David was suffering felt like arrows piercing through him (vs. 2).  He felt sick right down to his bones (vs. 3). It was possibly even causing a festering rash on his skin (vs. 5, 7). David had no more physical strength, and he was very depressed (vs. 10).  This also caused his family and friends to turn away from David, which further increased his depression (vs. 11).

This is not a condition that anyone wants to find themselves in, and it is something that we don’t need to go through, either.  David realized that what he needed to do was to confess and repent of his sin (vs. 18). He knew that God would hear him and raise him up again (vs. 15).  Sorrow for sin brings hope. God alone is the true source of healing and protection for those who confess their sins to Him. Since believers still do sin, the easiest way to avoid going through what David did is to make sure we confess and repent of our sins each and every day.  Don’t let them start to pile up. Don’t think that we can ignore them, and that God won’t bother about them. Keep a clear conscience.