David Unburdened

Now in vss 5-7 David shares the relief, the unburdening, that came when he confessed his sin. Once again, he uses those three words, transgressions, iniquity and sin to express the fullness of his guilt and the heaviness of what lay on his soul.

He says, I will confess unto the Lord and then he switches to second person, speaking directly now to the Lord, "And you forgave the iniquity of my sin."

In Psalms 51:8-10, David prayed, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Vs.12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation!”

Sin had robbed him of that joy he shared with the Lord. Instead of joy he was left with a burden, a burden that had cost him his joy, his health and worst of all, the closeness of his relationship with God. But in confession he found forgiveness and restoration.

David praises God in vs.6, because this forgiveness is for all of God’s people. Psalms 32:6 “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.”

And after forgiveness, David experienced the restoration of his walk with God. “Psalms 32:7, “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance”

Isn’t that a wonderful way, a beautiful way, to express forgiveness? “You will surround me completely with songs of deliverance!” Deliverance means victory, victory over the sin that had tried to enslave him and to separate him from His loving Lord. But God would not let him go. His love was too great, and He did what was needed to restore His child to Himself and give that child the victory of forgiveness instead of the burden of guilt and shame.

Take Your Burden To the Lord

Listen to what the Bible tells us, listen to what David experienced. The sin is real, the burden is real, therefore confession must be real and then the lifting of that burden will be real. Its sin, don’t deny it, ignore it, whitewash it or sugar coat it. Its sin and you committed it. That sin has separated you in some way, small or great, from God and in place of the joy of your salvation you now carry the burden of guilt and shame. You know in your heart its wrong, but you won’t confront it. Even though the Holy Spirit convicts you, you won’t confess it. Even though God was never unaware of your transgression you act as though you are ignorant of it and refuse to act.

God won’t let you stay in that condition. He loves you too much.

Hebrews 12:5-6 My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

You don’t have to stay under that burden, take it to the Lord, confess your sin and leave that burden for the blood of Christ to cover once more.

 1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (the payment) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Pilgrim’s burden falls.

In the story of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, Pilgrim is still carrying his burden though he has passed through the beautiful gate and put his faith for salvation in Christ. But in the story he has not yet learned to leave the burden of sin with Christ. In the story is this wonderful illustration of  when that happens.

“Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.

He ran thus till be came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

He took his burden to the Lord and if fell from his shoulders into the empty tomb. That is what happens at salvation, but it is also what happens whenever we confess our sin and repent. That burden we have been carrying falls from our shoulders and the power of Jesus over sin and death swallows it up.