# 25. 2018 Dev. Ps. 38:4. Repentance! Read all of Ps. 38. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Psalm 38:4 “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.”
The next four Psalms share the theme of David committing a sin, the consequences, and his confession to God. These four Psalms are the last stanzas of Book One, it is a Book of instruction.
Sin is always against God’s will for us and sometimes it involves sin against other people. All of Scripture is a guide to God’s will for us but a more specific passage is Ex.20, the Ten Commandments. Obeying the Ten Commandment can’t save us, neither do they condemn us when we accept life by the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
The Law has two sections: # 1-4 our relationship to God and # 6-10 our relationship to each other. Today we use the Law in three ways: one, the Law teaches us God’s righteousness and shows us where we may have fallen short. It shows us what sin is. Two, the Law restrains sin in society. Three, the Law teaches us how to live as followers of Jesus, obedience builds our faith and we experience God’s grace.
Like David, our conscience brings on guilt that must be resolved, guilt drags us into dark places as we see with David. Praise be to God that confession and repentance brings back the light. I find public confession as it was practiced in the past not helpful and given our broken selves, detrimental. Confess to God and if a person is involved, to that person. If there is a problem in the church, go to Matt. 18:15-19.
As long as we live in this broken world sin will be a reality in our lives, but as followers of Jesus we are forgiven. I John 2 comforts us: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Confession and repentance heals! Praise be to God!
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