Psalm 32:5
You cannot buy anything from God. The gold and silver you might try to use is already His. And surely the price of salvation is too high for man to buy the smallest part of it. Yet David in Psalm 32 wrote that, when he kept silent, God's hand was heavy upon him. He did not confess his sins, and he enjoyed no forgiveness. But then he writes, "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Psalm 32:5). But be sure of it that David did not buy forgiveness by confessing his sins.
What is meant here is that God does not give the enjoyment of the truth of forgiveness to those who do not desire it. And the desire is made known in the confession. Confessing our sins means not only that we seek forgiveness but also that we hate that sin and want to be separated from it. Covering our sins means that we do not have interest in Christ's blood covering them. Covering them means that we do not hate them but only want to escape their punishment. Confessing our sins means that we hate them and want to be pleasing in God's sight.
Such a desire is God's gift to us and not that whereby we buy forgiveness. God gives us a guileless spirit, and then we confess our sins.
There is much we can learn from our versification that sings (PRC Psalter):
While I kept guilty silence
My strength was spent with grief,
Thy hand was heavy on me,
My soul found no relief;
But when I owned my trespass,
My sin hid not from Thee,
When I confessed transgression,
Then Thou forgavest me.
Do that then before you close your eyes in sleep tonight. Confess your sins every hour of the day, when you stumble and fall into sin. You cannot know any blessing of God when you keep silent. Confess your sin to the one you sinned against, but always confess it to God. That is the way that He brings to His people the joy of their forgiveness.
Read: Proverbs 28:1-14
Psalter versification: #83:2
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter #405
Why not sing along??
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Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
2 Chronicles 19 ; 2 Chronicles 20:1-37
Romans 10:14-21 ; Romans 11:1-12
Psalm 21:1-13
Proverbs 20:4-6
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Quote for Reflection:
But if the principal teachers conduct themselves more coldly than they ought, it is principally the fault of the princes who, involved in their secular concerns, neglect the prosperity and purity of the church; or each one, contented with his own security, is indifferent to the welfare of others. Thus it comes to pass, that the members being divided, the body of the church lies disabled. – John Calvin to Cranmer
Additional Info
- Date: 27-July
Heys, John A.
Rev. John A. Heys was born on March 16, 1910 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was ordained and installed into the ministry at Hope, Walker, MI in 1941. He later served at Hull, Iowa beginning in 1955. In 1959 he accepted the call to serve the South Holland, IL Protestant Reformed Church. He received and accepted the call to Holland, Michigan Protestant Reformed Church in 1967. He retired from the active ministry in 1980. He entered into glory on February 16, 1998.