How many of you are familiar with Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart? Very briefly the story tells the tale of a man who kills the old man who lives with him, and hides his body under the floorboards. However, his guilty conscience keeps attacking him, making him think that he can hear the heartbeat of the dead man’s heart under the floor. His sense of guilt grows so strong, as the sound of the heartbeat gets louder and louder, and he eventually confesses his crime. Our psalm for today tells of a similar attack of guilty conscience when one doesn’t confess one’s sins. Let’s take a look.
Psalm 32 is a companion psalm to that of Psalm 51. Both psalms were written in response to King David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed. As we recall this incident in Scripture, David committed adultery with the wife of one of his military officers. Then when they find out she is pregnant, he deliberately orders her husband, Uriah, put in a dangerous spot in the battle, and then has the other soldiers withdraw, leaving him to die. David then took her as one of his wives. That was a horrible and grievous sin. About a year passed and David did nothing about confessing this sin, and getting his life right with God. Yet, we know that his conscience must have been greatly bothering him, as God will not let one of his children go unconvicted of their sins.
After he took Bathsheba as his wife, month after month passed, and David refused to confess the sin. This guilt that lay upon him, though, started to take its toll on his health (vs. 3-4). An unforgiven conscience can be just as unrelenting as the pounding and maddening heartbeat in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. David was in just such a situation. The longer he refused to confess his sins, the more he became physically ill and emotionally distraught. Only God’s forgiveness can remove that.
No load is heavier to bear than that of unconfessed sin. The longer we wait, the heavier it gets. Old wrongs have a way of catching up with us, and old sins that have not been dealt with can lead to serious consequences. Through confession, though, we can enjoy God’s forgiveness. When Nathan the prophet came to King David and strongly confronted him about these grievous sins, David humbly and honestly confessed them.
We are sometimes reluctant to confess our sins to God because it makes us feel like a failure. However, confession is an expression of faith. Confessing sin is agreeing with God, acknowledging that He is right to declare what we have done is sinful, and that we were wrong to do it. It is to affirm our intention of abandoning that sin, and following Him more faithfully. When we confess we find the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds us.
Though a lot of our mistakes can never be undone, such as the sins David committed by having Uriah killed after committing adultery with his wife, God can, and will forgive our sins if we come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Although we are guilty, the Lord will not impute iniquity to us, providing our faith is in Jesus Christ, because He took the guilt of penalty upon Himself on the cross. Then, in God’s eyes, it is as if those sins had never been done.
We all commit sin throughout our life. Some may be quite serious, like David’s, and many may not be. However, all sin is an affront against God, and they all need to be dealt with. The best thing is not to prolong our confessing those sins. Don’t carry the burden around till it affects our walk with the Lord, till it affects our health, till the pounding of the heartbeat drives us mad. Come to Jesus for forgiveness, and He will cleanse us from every sin.
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