CH Spurgeon wrote,
David's
grief for sin was bitter. Its effects were visible on his outward
frame: His bones wasted away; his strength dried up like the drought of
summer. He was unable to find a remedy until he made a full confession
before the throne of heavenly grace. He tells us that for a time he kept
silent, and his heart was filled with grief and his lips with groaning:
Like a mountain stream that is blocked, his soul was swollen with
torrents of sorrow. He created excuses, he tried to divert his thoughts,
but it was all to no purpose; like a festering sore his anguish
gathered, and, unwilling to use the scalpel of confession, his spirit
was tormented and knew no peace.
At
last it came to this, that he must return to God in humble penitence or
die outright; so he hurried to the mercy-seat and there unrolled the
volume of his iniquities before the all-seeing God, acknowledging all
the evil of his ways in the terms of the Fifty-first and other
penitential Psalms. Having confessed, a task so simple and yet so hard
for the proud, he immediately received the token of divine forgiveness;
the bones that had been wasted were made to rejoice, and he emerged from
his prayers to sing the joyful songs of the one whose transgression is
forgiven.
Do
you see the value of this grace-led confession of sin? It is to be
prized above everything, for in every case where there is a genuine,
gracious confession, mercy is freely given—not because the repentance
and confession deserve mercy, but for Christ's sake.
May God be praised, there is always healing for the broken heart; the
fountain is ever flowing to cleanse us from our sins. Truly, O Lord, You
are a God "ready to forgive."1 Therefore will we humbly acknowledge our iniquities.
