Every Letter, Every Pen Stroke (Matthew 5:18)

The old saying tells us that "confession is good for the soul."  In Psalm 32, David gives that saying a hearty Amen.  In verses 3-4, David talks about the agony he felt when he tried to cover his sins.  He felt like a person sick with a wasting illness or like a person wandering without water in the desert.  Guilt is a horrible thing, but in confession David found relief.

Of course the important point here is that David's confession was to the Lord.  The Bible does instruct us to confess our sins to one another.  But our primary responsibility in confession is to confess to God.  David outlines the benefits of such confession: confessions helps us to be delivered from the consequences of our sins (verses 6-7) and confession opens us up to the Lord's guidance and teaching so that our sins are not repeated (verses 8-10). 

Confession to God is often different than the confession we give to one another.  When we confess to others, we are typically revealing sins that might have gone undetected.  We are revealing wrongs that might never have been known.  God of course knows all of our sins.  When we confess to God, we are really stating that we agree with His definition of our behavior.  We are admitting that our acts are rebellious, breaking the commands of God. 

Confession to the Lord is the key to joy ("blessedness" as David calls it here).  Through confession we are released from guilt and we experience all of the blessing that God has to offer in Jesus.