Tuesday, March 3, 2020

The Hiding Place

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!  Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!  When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.  Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.  My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.                     Interlude  

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt.  I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”  And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.           Interlude  

Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.  For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble.  You surround me with songs of victory.       Interlude                                                                       Psalm 32:1-7[1]

The whole focus of the Lenten Season is confession and absolution.  The hinge pin on the door of forgiveness is a matter of willingness to confess our sins; without that, there is no hiding place for our sins. 
King David understood this fully.  As ruler over the most powerful nation on earth one would imagine David’s life was filled with parties, songs, and splendor; on the contrary, the king’s life was overrun with guilt and despair.  His vigor and appetite for life were evaporating like water in the summer heat.         
It is said that one of President Ronald Reagan’s favorite cartoons was the picture of a cowboy searching through a considerable pile of horse manure.  The caption has the cowboy thinking, there must be a pony in here somewhere.  To be sure, that places positive thinking on a whole new level of optimism.  But it is also a microcosm of a culture that seeks happiness anywhere, and in anything, but the source of all happiness and joy.  Life, as King David discovered, becomes a manure pile without hope of a pony when lived apart from a right relationship with God. 
The movie The Hiding Place chronicled the heroic effort of Corrie ten Boom and her family hiding Jews in the wall of their home in Germany during WWII.  This was a conscience-driven attempt to save their powerless, endangered neighbors. 
King David sought a hiding place for his sins by attempting to forget himself.  He covered his sins with lies and conspiracy.  In the end it was a manure pile of an existence.  His true hiding place was found in confession, laying out his sinful, dark ways before God in prayer.  When he finally confessed his sins, David found forgiveness.
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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[1] For more posts on Psalm 32 see Better Than Guilt  and Oh, What Joy and Waiting in Pain and Old Brooms

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