June 16, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 38
OBSERVATIONS/APPLICATION
My guilt has become too much for me. It is a load too heavy to carry. (Psalm 38:4)
David is in a bad place: physically, mentally, emotionally and socially tormented.
He traces the cause to his immoral choices, his doing something that he knows is wrong.
A picture that comes to mind when I think of sin and guilt is a tractor pull, where a tractor pulls a trailer with a heavy weight that slowly moves from the back of the trailer to the front, making it harder and harder for the tractor to pull.
The longer you carry unresolved guilt, it gets heavier and heavier, and often the engine gives out, even blows up.
I recently read about a murderer on the run for 7 years who finally turned himself in, the burden and pressure of life on the run became too much to carry.
David shows us a better way – not denial or blameshifting, but honesty and repentance.
David admits his sin, and recognizes his own fault.
I think of Judas, who cannot face his shame and regret, and takes his own life (Matthew 27:1-5).
David does not go this way, instead he runs to the God he has betrayed and pleads for mercy.
I sense the Lord asking me which way I will go: will I try to pull this guilt until I explode, or will I turn to God for grace and mercy and help, and allow Him to remove the burden from me?
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I hear You saying to me that I need to be honest like this too. Help me to experience the weight of guilt enough to change before my engine blows!