“When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.” (Psalms 32:3-4)

King David’s grief was a terrible burden of guilt to bear. He regretted his sin with a vehement agony that held on to his conscience night and day. This Psalm is a stark reminder of the results of turning our backs on our Heavenly Father.

A true son never wants a broken line of communication with his Father. It grieves him; and until it’s made right, life won’t be the same. Sin ruins relationships. But a forgiving God, and a broken heart like David’s, will repair a broken fellowship.

Notice the Conviction in verses 3 and 4. David’s conscience was whipping him. He knew God’s Law; and he knew he had broken God’s Commands. In David’s heart, he had a sensitive spirit to the heart of the Lord.

This is a hard experience, but for those of us who have walked this way, we must look back and rejoice. If it weren’t for the convictions of God, we would have never turned. It was our Godly sorrow that worked repentance in our life, and brought us back into fellowship with God. Oh, how we should love God’s Law. It should be our meditation all the day long.

Next we can see in verses 3 and 4, Contrition; “…a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalms 51:17). King David wasn’t around his buddies magnifying his sin and making a big joke out of his failure before God. King David was sorry. He was hurting because of his disobedience. Too many times we take too lightly our sin. We think because the Blood has been shed, it’s alright.

But it’s not alright. Every time we sin, we break fellowship with our Lord; and our hearts, over time, can become de-sensitized to the gentle conviction of the Presence of the Lord. If our conscience condemns us under the illumination of the Word, we must immediately obey God and get it right.

Finally in verse 5, King David makes a Confession. He says, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee.” Many times instead of confessing our wrong, we’ll hide behind our cloke of self-righteousness, believing it will justify our past.

Not so with King David. He acknowledged his sin through confession; and if we’ll do the same, 1 John 1:9 says, “…he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We can face our past under the Light of God’s Love and Mercy; or we can spend our lives running from our own faults and failures.

God’s forgiveness is healing; and blessed is that man.

Then to top it all off, after we confess our sin, God not only forgives us and cleanses us, but He gets us back on track. God says in Psalms 32:8, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go…”

What an awesome God we serve! After we step out of the light of God’s Fellowship, if we’ll just acknowledge our sin with a broken and contrite heart, He’ll restore us. Our sin is more than we can bear; but in Christ our sins have been atoned for, and if we’ll anchor our hope in Him, we’ll experience life and that life more abundantly.