I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah (Psalm 32:5).
The Bible is the best dictionary we have to define Bible terms. Do you want to define love? Read 1 Corinthians 13. Do you want to define grace? Read Ephesians 2. Do you want to define faith? Read Hebrews 11.
How about confession of sin? There are many great texts that will help to illustrate confession of sin, but for today I want to focus in on Psalm 32:5. Psalms 32 and 51 were both written in a very dark time of King David’s life. David’s heart is made plain in what he said in these Psalms regarding confession.
David stole another man’s wife, had her husband killed, and desperately tried to cover up the sin and the pregnancy. The Lord God rebuked David and punished him severely. Through all of this we see the heart of David for serving God. Yes, he behaved very wickedly, but his spirit yearned to be back in a right relationship with His God. He was completely sick, not because he got caught, nor because he was going to lose any prestige, possessions or power, but because he had sinned against the Almighty Creator.
The English word “confession” means to “speak the same thing.” When I confess Jesus as Lord and Christ, I am saying the same thing about Him that God has already spoken. When I confess my sins, I am speaking the same thing about my sins that God has already declared about them. God is not being informed about our sins, nor is He being instructed on how to think about our sins, but we are coming to His throne and owning up to what He already knows.
I acknowledged my sin to You.
“I”
David made this personal. David said “my sin,” “my iniquity,” and “my transgressions.” He did not try to confess someone else’s sins to God. It’s me, God…I did it. No one else.
“Acknowledge”
David owned up to what he did. He did not “hide” it anymore. No excuses, blame-shifting, minimizations or justifications were made. He previously had tried to cover up his sin and as Psalm 32 makes clear, his sins were eating him up from the inside out.
“My sin…my iniquity…my transgressions”
Three terms (sin, iniquity and transgressions) combine to give a composite picture of what David did to God. The word sin can also be translated offence, iniquity brings with it the concept of perversion and moral evil, and “transgression” includes the concept of revolt or rebellion. David sinned, meaning he broke God’s law. David committed iniquity, meaning that he was perverse and morally evil in his behavior against God. David in his “transgression” rebelled and revolted against a Holy and Just God.
“To You”
Not to a priest. Not to my brethren (that comes later). Not to those we hurt (that comes later). In Psalm 51:4, David wrote, “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” David, through his confession, drew back the curtains in his heart on what never was hidden from God.
When you and I confess our sins to God today, let us use this confession of David in Psalm 32.