This Psalm stirs within me very vivid memories. I remember a time when I was sitting on my couch and just thinking, “How did I get to this point?” This feeling of anxiety and restlessness all over me. This feeling of helplessness, despair. Feeling disgusted with myself, with my sin. Not able to dive into the Word. Not able to pray, but also so desiring that I could. Feeling cut off. Like God could not hear my prayers, like I was completely abandoned and no one would or could understand.

Feeling at one and the same time as if God was so far away, yet his hand was pressing down upon me.

When I read this Psalm, I feel like I can relate. God’s hand has come down on David. There is no soundness in his flesh—he is restless. He feels overwhelmed by his sin, his iniquities go over his head. The arrows of the Lord have gone into him, and now the wounds stink and fester—his sin is odious to him.

All he can do is bow down and groan. He doesn’t have words. He struggles to pray.

Can you relate to this? Have you ever known a time like this in your life? I think as believers we all have. When we come to faith, we are not made instantly perfect. We are awaiting the day of Christ’s return, when he will make all things right and there will be no more sin. The Christian life is not defined by perfection, but by repentance and the one who is faithful and just to forgive us when we confess. Just as John read earlier, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Confession is a vital aspect of the Christian life. This Psalm teaches us about confession. Specifically, this Psalm shows us that those who hope in God can confidently pray for deliverance when they confess their sin. And this Psalm walks us through confession. So, this morning I want to walk through some key aspects of confession that we see in this Psalm so that we can confidently turn to God for deliverance in times of repentance. I want us to see how David, led by the Holy Spirit, teaches us how to confess from first hand experience.

First, in confession, we must recognize the seriousness of sin (1-8).

Intellectually, I don’t think there is a Christian here who would object to the fact that sin is serious. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). We know that. Sin is no light matter. Yet, we so often convince ourselves that it is. Just as the serpent said, “you will not surely die” (Gen 3:4) if you eat of the fruit of the tree, in moments of temptation, we either do not think of the cost of sin or we say, “sin really isn’t that bad.” We are willing to accept sin in comfortable doses, so to speak. In our mind there are big sins and little sins, and though we may not think of it this way or express it like that, often we live as if God doesn’t mind the little sins. The “white” lie. The quick glance that no one else notices. The fantasy of what life would be like with that man, or that woman. Viewing sin as okay as long as the end justifies the means.

But it is never just one sin. Sin left unchecked snowballs. And this is the first way we see the seriousness of sin in this passage. Look with me at verse 4. David writes, “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.”

The language of iniquity calls to mind the image of a flood. David confesses that he is drowning in his sin. Like floodwaters cover the land, he is completely covered by his sin.

Although the incident to which this Psalm corresponds is unknown, we know of an incident in David’s life where one sin led to another, and another, and another (2 Sam 11). First David let his eyes wander where they should not have been, a glance at Bathsheba led to adultery, which led to a lies and a cover up, which led to murder.

You may say, “I would never do that.” But I assure you that David did not wake up that morning and think to himself, “I want to start down a series of events that leads to lies, adultery, and murder!” In fact, whenever we find ourselves in sin, none of us would say that this is where we intended to be. We need to take sin seriously because sin is deceptive and its desire is against us (Gen 4:7). There is no “little” sin. There is no harmless sin. When we sin, we are playing with death.

Secondly, we see the seriousness of sin through the Lord’s discipline.

We know David is under God’s discipline from the first 2 verses, ”O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.”

The Lord’s hand of discipline has come down on David. He is suffering. What he is saying in these first two verses is that he recognizes that the Lord is disciplining him, he is pleading that it will stop. As we see later on in this Psalm, David is repentant. He is sorry for his sin. He is pleading with the Lord, saying that if his discipline continues it will be a discipline of wrath. There is no need for it to continue because he now sees his sin and repents of it. That was the purpose of discipline, to show David the true nature and dangers of sin. God disciplines his children in order to develop them, to grow them, and to change them for their good.

That is why the Lord disciplines David on account of his sin. In verse 3, David acknowledges that his sin has brought on God’s discipline. He writes in verse 3, “There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin.” The parallelism here shows us that God’s indignation, his chastening hand, is on David because of David’s sin. David sees this connection clearly. His suffering at God’s hand is linked to his sin.

And God’s discipline on David has run its intended course. David now sees sin for what it is. The discipline of the Lord has shown David the true nature of sin, as he says in verse 5, “my wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness.” These are the wounds inflicted by God’s arrows mentioned in verse 2. Because of God’s discipline, David now recognizes or is reminded, that seeking satisfaction and fulfillment through sin is a fool’s errand. The wages of sin is death, and that is why we must take it seriously—and that is exactly why God disciplines his children.

But that is only half of it. Just because sin is serious, God does not have to act in such as way as to save us from it. He does, though, because he loves his children. As we read in Hebrews 12, God disciplines those he loves. Hebrews chapter 12:7b-11, “God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they discipline us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Parents train and discipline their children for and to do many things, especially discipline that saves their lives. I think a great example of this is my little sister Molly. As soon as she was able to walk, she was a wanderer. Not only would she wander all over the house, but she became and expert escape artist. She learned how to unlock doors, would push chairs up to unlock locks that we put in to be out of her reach. I even recall a time when she climbed out of a ground level window. If you took your eye off of her for a second, she would try to escape because she loved to be outside and to explore. But she ignored or was ignorant of the many dangers that the outside world presented. She wanted to wander freely, but we lived just a block away from a highway. She wanted to wander freely, but the reality of deranged and sick people had not yet dawned on her. So, as my parents disciplined her for her escape attempts and added more and more precautions to keep her from escaping, what seemed to her at the time as unpleasant and even unloving, was really loving and for her good. Through discipline she was being developed into one who understood what was safe and what was dangerous.

If my parents had let Molly roam free at her own accord, it could have meant her death. Out of love they sought to protect her from the dangers she desired. She had to learn to take the dangers of the world seriously.

God’s discipline teaches us to take the dangers of sin seriously. Just as no loving parent would allow their child to drink poison, God will not allow his children to continue in sin without discipline. The Shepherd will reach out his staff and painfully yank us back by the neck if necessary, but he will not lose one of his sheep.

We struggle with discipline, though. We struggle with discipline because we are prone to legalism. We recognize that we do not live up to the standard of God’s law. When we sin, we equate God’s discipline in our lives with God’s wrath. The moment suffering begins we think that God hates us. He has abandoned us. We think that if we live “good” lives, then God will love us, but if we sin then God is angry at us. But discipline from the Lord is not his wrath. Discipline is a grace. Discipline is an act of love. It is not to be confused with his wrath. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him” (1 Thess 5:9-10). God disciplines his children because he wants them to endure. He wants them to have eternal life. This is why he sent his Son. This is why God the Son took on flesh and laid down his life, “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Christ laid down his life so that whoever believes in him may be saved. Believers in Christ, do not confuse God’s wrath with his discipline. Wrath destroys, discipline develops. Christian, if you are in sin and thinking, “How could I come to God like this? I’ve thrown his grace in his face. Does he even want me to come?” Yes! He uses discipline to shout at you, STOP PURSUING SIN. Return to the fold. He wants you to return.

In the depths of sin, you may fear turning to God, thinking that he is displeased and does not want you. His discipline calls you back because it reveals the depth of his love for you.

Whereas wrath reveals to us the seriousness of sin, discipline shows us the seriousness of sin as well as God’s great love for his children. He will do whatever it takes to keep us faithful, and we should pray that he will do whatever it takes to keep us faithful.

In confession, we must recognize the seriousness of our sin, and acknowledge that it has brought on the unpleasantness of discipline, but also remember that God disciplines those he loves.

2. Next in our confession, we must look and trust in God for vindication (9-16).

In verses 1-14, David is describing his suffering. In verse 9, however, he makes an interjection of hope. “O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.” Even though David feels overwhelmed by his suffering, even though he is “feeble and crushed” and can only “groan because of the tumult” of his heart, he trusts that the Lord knows what he is going through.

Even though, as we see in verse 11, all his friends and family have abandoned him in his suffering, and even though his enemies plot against him, hoping to take advantage of his weakened state, David knows that all of his longing is before the Lord. Though everyone else leaves him, David’s sighing, his need, is not hidden from God. This hope and trust in God has a very tangible outcome. It inspires his response to his enemies. Verse 12 describes these enemies. They lay traps, speak against him, constantly think of ways to trip him up. How does David respond? Like a deaf man who cannot hear them. Like a mute man, in whose mouth there is no rebuke. He doesn’t listen to their baiting. He doesn’t speak against what they say. He is being assailed by enemies, and he is choosing not to listen to them or respond to them, and he chooses to do so because he trusts in the Lord. Look with me at verse 15, “But for you, O LORD, do I wait; is it you, O Lord my God, who will answer.” David won’t answer. He will trust in the Lord and let the Lord answer.

There are two things we need to see in this. First, Why did David want God to answer for him?

And second, why did David so confidently think God would answer for him?

First, David wanted God to answer for him because on his own, David had no answer. He was weakened by the Lord’s discipline, and the snares laid out by his enemies were probably temptations to further sin. They were taking advantage of his weakened state to draw him into further sin.

David’s silence and trust in the Lord to answer is very applicable to us because sometimes people know our sin. This may result in backbiting and gossip against you. People may malign you. They may speak of your ruin and even rejoice in your pain. This is sin on their part. Even though they may speak true things about you, they do it sinfully. The temptation may be to fight back, to speak maliciously about them, to return evil for evil. This only aids in your further ruin. It is a snare to draw you into further sin. But God knows your heart. All of your longing is before him. It is not up to us to clear our own names and justify ourselves, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if someone thinks poorly of you. We do not live in man’s universe, but God’s universe. What matters is what he thinks of us and how we relate to him. Make peace with God and entrust yourself to him. He will answer for you in the end. Do not fear what man can do to you, or what can thinks of you, but trust in what God will do for you.

David’s silence and trust in the Lord are applicable to us in another way, though. For greater than any earthly enemy is our adversary the devil. He will throw your sin in your face and gloat over your ruin, and he will throw it in your face more often than man. He will lay your sin before you as a snare, telling you that you deserve hell. He seeks your hurt. He wants your ruin. He meditates treachery all day long. When it comes to beating us down with our sin, he has an advantage over us: he is right! Because of our sin, we do deserve ruin and despair. Because of our sin, we deserve hell. But we do not have to answer the devil and his accusations. Rather, whenever he speaks ruin against us, we should turn a deaf ear, because the Lord has answered for us, and that answer is Jesus Christ, the righteous one!

On our own, we have no answer to the accusations of satan. We are undoubtedly sinners. But when we hold to Christ by faith, he is our advocate with the Father. When satan tempts us to despair, we look and hold to Christ who purchased us with his blood. If you are in Christ, then you are his. He bore the wrath of God that rightfully sat over you when he went to the Cross. He will answer for you. You do not need to justify yourself. You cannot justify yourself. If you are Christ’s, then he has justified you and will answer the enemy for you.

And that brings us to our second question, why was David so confident that the Lord would answer for him? Verse 16 reveals why. “For I said, ‘Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!’” So, David is confident that God will answer for him, because he made a request to God that his enemies would not conquer him. David trusts that God will not let the wicked gloat over the righteous. The wicked will not have the last laugh! The wicked will not win the day!

Why is David convinced of this? For the same reason Aaron pointed out last Sunday that he was confident God would hear his prayer. The Lord had made a covenant with David to be his God. Because David is in this covenant with the Lord, he expects God to act on his behalf out of love. As Aaron put it, God is under no natural obligation to David. But he made himself willingly obligated by covenanting with David.

It is because of this special relationship which God made with David that makes David confident that God will deliver him. In our confession to God, we can trust that we will be delivered because of our relation to Christ by faith. It is not a deliverance based on our merits, or our righteousness. That’s why we can actually be sure of it! It is a deliverance based on Christ’s faithfulness Christ’s work.

Lastly, as David is looking to the Lord for vindication, he continues his confession, and shows us that…

3. In confession, we must hold together the deliverance of God and the realities of this present age (17-22).

After David pours out his suffering to God, acknowledging his sin, and looking to God for his vindication, he confesses his sin, this time expressing his sorrow.

He is sorrowful and weak due to his transgressions. In verse 17, he says he is ready to fall. In other words, he doesn’t know how much more he can take. In contrast, verse 19 tells us that David’s foes are vigorous and strong. They repay him evil for the good he does, and accuse him because he follows after the good. The contrast between David and his enemies is clear. Although David has sinned, he is still defined by a pursuit of goodness. For even though he has sinned, he has returned to God in repentance and confession, whereas David’s enemies are set on a course of evil. They may not always achieve their evil plans, but that is their course.

Although David has confessed his sin, he still feels overpowered and threatened by his enemies—and they pursue him not because of his sin, but for no apparent reason at all, as he says at the end of verse 19, they “hate me wrongfully.”

I think that this shows us what to generally expect in this age when we confess. When we confess our sins, temptations and problems are not immediately removed. Confession doesn’t suddenly remove temptation or dampen the hatred of the world toward you as a Christ follower. In fact, as Aaron pointed out last week, following Christ will bring us more troubles with the world because they are opposed to God. Repentance does something far greater than bringing us peace with the world—repentance brings peace with God.

Notice something key here in David’s request. When he was describing his suffering under God’s discipline, he says that he was feeble and crushed, he says that he was bowed down, prostrate, mourning, and that he groaned. The only solace he could find was that his longing was seen by God—that his sighing was not hidden from God. But now, in this Psalm of confession, he makes requests for God’s aid, as we see in the last two verses, based on the fact that the Lord is his God, that the Lord is his Savior.

We, too, when we confess our sin, should not expect for all hurdles and temptations to be removed. We still live in the last age where the enemies of God exist. We live in an age where temptation will exist. When we confess our sin, though, we can expect God to deliver us from our unrighteousness and to be our help in temptation.

Do you struggle with homosexuality? Come, turn from your sin and call out to the Lord to fight temptation. Are you falling to the temptation of pornography? Are you struggling to stay pure sexually? Come, confess your sins. Jesus Christ is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Are you impatient with your children? Neglecting your spouse?

Come and confess your sins. Though you are weak, and the powers against you seem so strong, the Lord is your help! The Lord is your salvation!.

Conclusion:

Come as you are. We do not need to, nor should we, conceal our sin from God. He is a physician for the sick. He comes for the needy. He accepts the one who makes no excuse, but simply says “I confess my iniquity. I am sorry for my sin.”

Yet, he tears of confession are not merely tears of sorrow but also tears of joy. For when we confess our sin to God and turn from it to him in repentance, we find forgiveness of sin! In the Cross, the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ, that he might be a ransom for many. So that the sin of whoever believes in his name would no longer be a testament of personal shame and failure, but rather a testament to God’s glory! For if you do not conceal your sin, if you do not attempt to hide it (fruitlessly by the way, because God knows all things), then what you are saying in effect is that “I have done these awful things, but the blood of Christ is greater. The love of God far surpasses the evil of my heart, and if you are honest with yourself and take a look at your heart, you can only be amazed at the greatness of God’s love for you and the greatness of Christ’s work for you on the cross.

If you are like David crying out right now “My iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me,” then turn now to God and confess. Cry out to him in repentance. He will deliver you. Listen to the Words of Jesus from Matthew, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and by burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30)

We should have no fear to be true faced before God. He desires our salvation. He loves us. He gave his son for us. He knows all things. Do not carry the heavy burden of sin, confess and know the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

And now we have a glorious opportunity to confess and show our faith in Christ. For as we take the bread and the cup, we are reminded with physical signs of the work of Christ for us. “For our sake (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” If your faith is in Christ Jesus this morning, then know that in Christ you are righteous. As we confess our sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

O Lord, Rebuke Me Not in Your Anger