Confession gets a “bad rap” in contemporary culture. It is considered a negative, morbid, and overly-introspective practice for puritanical prudes who delight in self-abasement and perpetual misery.
It is not surprising that popular culture rejects confession. It makes sense that outsiders to the Christian faith would view acknowledgement of personal sinfulness as an unhealthy obsession. What is surprising is that many within the church share the same opinion. The conspicuous lack of personal and public confession of sin in corporate worship is one indicator that the church is embarrassed about the possible negative associations that may arise if confession is regularly practiced. After all, we want to appear “upbeat,” “positive,” and “with it.” We don’t want to be dreary old fuddy-duddies whose scowled faces reveal the intensity of our negative navel-gazing.
Almost all evangelicals agree that confession of sin is important at the moment of an individual’s conversion to the Christian faith. Tragically, for many, this is the primary purpose of confession. After conversion, many assign relatively little value to confession. One may need to do it when really “big” sins have been committed, but otherwise, it is a depressingly negative practice. Overall, confession of sin is a bothersome experience. It certainly does not “feel good” – a real “downer.” It is better to (as the old song goes) “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.” Confession is simply too depressing to be a consistent aspect of Christian practice.
The author of Psalm 32 does not view confession in such dismal light. For him, confession is a positive practice that bears rich fruit in the life of the believer. To neglect confession is the “negative” and depressing way to live, leading to misery, inner turmoil, and unending sorrow. Put simply, failure to confess sins is to miss out entirely on the blessing of God!
A Blessed Sinner
Psalm 32 begins with an emphatic blessing upon a certain type of individual. Verses 1 and 2 actually form an extended beatitude – a double blessing: “How blessed is… How blessed is…” (1-2).
To exist in a state of blessing is the highest privilege of the believer. Although the word often sounds trite and superficial in contemporary context, it is a word that communicates a powerful picture. To be blessed by God is to live directly under God’s gracious and loving gaze. It is to know that God’s face shines upon you with divine approval and loving favor. Put simply, it is to rest under the smile of God. For this reason, the priests of Israel regularly pronounced this blessing upon the people of God:
“The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord life up his countenance on you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
The Book of Psalms begins with resounding blessing upon a particular type of person (Psalm 1). The blessing can be summarized this way: “Blessed is the one who meditates upon and obeys the law.” In other words, “blessed are the righteous.”
Psalm 32 is only the second psalm to begin with the word “blessed.” It probably is intended to cause us to reflect upon the initial blessing that opens the Book of Psalms. However, this blessing is completely different from the blessing found in Psalm 1. There the blessing was, “Blessed are the righteous who walk in obedience.” Here, the blessing is, “Blessed is the sinner who has disobeyed the law.”
The blessed one of Psalm 32 is one who has walked in the path of sin – real sin. The psalmist uses three common Hebrew words to describe sin from every angle: (1) transgression – rebelliously overstepping the boundaries of God’s law; (2) sin – missing the mark of God’s law and falling short of God’s will; and (3) iniquity – an inner twistedness that impels an individual to transgression and sin.
How can such a person be blessed – one who is rebellious, twisted, and so clearly outside of God’s will? Obviously, this kind of person is not “righteous” but “a sinner” – one who has willfully and intentionally disregarded God’s word. The answer: The sinner is blessed because he is forgiven. God no longer holds his sin against him. Instead, God’s face shines with divine approval upon the sinner. How did the sinner come to know such blessing? Through the means of confession! (2b; cf. 5b)
Without confession of sin – without exposing, owning, and declaring one’s sin to God – the sinner would not be able to experience the profound blessing of complete forgiveness. God will not “cover” what we refuse to uncover. We know blessedness only insofar as we are one “in whose spirit there is no deceit.” God wants us to be honest about our own sin – owning it, refusing to hide or excuse it away. We cannot out-sin grace (“where sin abounds, grace super-abounds,” Romans 5:20), but we can refuse to admit our own sin and come to God for pardon. We can effectively relinquish the experience of God’s blessing by failing to acknowledge our own sin.
This is the main point the psalmist hopes to communicate. Psalm 32 is a penitential psalm[1] (a psalm confessing sin) with a didactic (teaching) purpose. It stands out from other penitential psalms in that its purpose is not to confess sin per se, but to teach about the great value of confession in the life of the believer. The psalmist wants us to know true blessedness. But he wants us to know that this blessedness is not experienced without true confession. Confession to God always leads to free and full forgiveness because God’s blessing is given, not to people who are sinlessly perfect, but to people who acknowledge their sins – to those “in whose spirit there is no deceit.”
Without confession there can be no experience of forgiveness and subsequently, no enjoyment of blessedness. The good news is this: Sin is not an impediment to God’s blessing unless it remains unconfessed. However, if we refuse to confess our sins to God, then we can expect all kinds of misery (3-4). The psalmist teaches us that a profound awareness of one’s own sinfulness and a deep sense of God’s blessing are not at odds. Indeed, true blessing cannot be experienced apart from true confession. Continual confession – not sinless perfection – is one of the marks of God’s people. Confession is the godly way to deal with our ungodly ways!
An Honest Sinner
Since the blessing of God resides upon those “in whose spirit there is no deceit” we should be people who are willing to be brutally honest with ourselves and our God concerning our sin. We must refuse to hide our sin from ourselves or from God. Instead, we must willingly acknowledge, own, and confess our sin to God (5). Ultimately, the attempt to hide one’s sin from God is to go the way of Adam (Gen. 3:8). An unwillingness to face the power and possibility of inner corruption is to go the way of Cain (Gen. 4:7). Either way, we forfeit the way of blessedness.
We simply cannot have an honest, open, loving, and personal relationship with God unless we are willing to be honest and open with our whole being. In other words, we need to be people of integrity, who refuse to live a lie, and instead, are willing to face the truth about ourselves – no matter how ugly – in order to live before God in a beautiful state of blessedness. God wants us to be real and God blesses us when we are real.
The secret shame of unconfessed sin can overwhelm us. Refusing to acknowledge our sin only leads to greater misery (3-4). The psalmist relates how the secret shame of unconfessed sin tormented him without relief. His body wasted away. He groaned all day long. His life seemed to be draining away from him. The reason is simple: “When I kept silent about my sin…” His relief came when he gave up trying to hide his sin in all its fullness (note again the repetition of sin, iniquity, and transgressions in verse 5) and acknowledged it to God. And his relief was instant – coming in like a flood – resulting in a state of divine blessedness. He confessed and God forgave. Only confession relieves the misery that arises from the secret shame that torments our lives.
The flood of sin’s destruction can be overwhelming if we do not regularly confess our sin to God (or as some say, keep “short accounts” with God). Sin is its own punishment. Unconfessed sin is our own undoing. Before our own sin wreaks havoc with our soul, the psalmist encourages us to come to God (6). When we no longer hide our sin from God, God himself becomes our hiding place. God protects and preserves those who seek his forgiveness (7). We must not be stubborn about our sin. We must be willing to admit our faults in order that we can know God’s correction. God should not have to “force a confession” out of us. God wants to treat us as respected sons, not as mere beasts of burden (8-9).
Ultimately, only those who are honest with themselves and regularly confess their sin experience God’s blessing. Those who trust God enough to confess their shortcomings find that God’s lovingkindness is unfailing – it completely “surrounds” them (10b). The Message translates this “God-defiers are always in trouble; God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around.”
This experience of forgiveness results in great praise and joy to God (10-11). We have freedom to let go of our sin after confession: “I acknowledged… you did forgive!” (5) We can sing together of God’s great blessing to confessing sinners. We approach God together because we have all discovered that our own sin need not drive us away from God, but actually can be transformed into the very means by which we praise God.
Through confession we discover a paradox: It is right to go to God when we are wrong. Moreover, it is a godly thing to do – it is to be “upright in heart.” Amazingly, when we confess our sin to God, this act of confession becomes an act of worship. Sin, which intends to lead us away from God, actually becomes a means to growing closer to God. The evil one attempts to use our sin to drive a wedge between us and God. God, however, desires that we come to him as we are. Grace is greater than sin because God, through grace, can bring good out of the evil of sin.
This is the outrageousness of grace. God pardons the unrighteous. God justifies the ungodly. God blesses sinners. Sin is transformed through confession. Incredibly, confession transforms past evils into the means of a closer walk with God. We discover that we are more sinful than we realized, but also more loved!
Personal confession creates a worshipping community (11). There is nothing that hinders us from approaching God in worship – not even our sin. In spite of our sinfulness, we have great boldness in approaching God. Because of Christ, we know that God’s throne is a throne of grace that remains ever open to us. We can “boldly approach the throne of grace in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). We approach God as people who are “upright in heart” – not because we are sinless but because we are willing to confess our sin; because we are those “in whose spirit there is no deceit” (2b). Or as The Message puts it:“All you honest hearts, raise the roof!”
Positive Confessions
Clearly, confession is a “positive” practice. The sins we confess are hard to face. It is a “downer” to confront our own failures, shortcomings, and willful transgressions. And certainly, some people can go overboard in introspection, spending all their time naval-gazing instead of returning their gaze to God’s divine approval. But, overall, as the psalmist hopes to teach, confession is a positive practice – a divine means to blessing, wholeness, and greater intimacy with God. Those who are honest with God know a deep joy and abiding peace that cannot be known otherwise
Without confession we cannot live wholly before God. We lose our integrity when we hide from God. We lead a double-life and can’t be real with anyone. We lose our authenticity and hide behind religious masks. In the process, we create a judgmental, intolerant, and uncompassionate community.
Continual confession creates a forgiven and forgiving community. Those committed to continual confession grow deeply in their experience of God’s tender mercy and outrageous grace, and thus, demonstrate this same kind of mercy and grace to others – regardless of their sin. We who have been forgiven much become people who forgive others much as well. When we are regularly reminded of how God graciously embraces us as sinners, then we are more prone to open our arms to others in the same fashion. Our very existence as a church testifies of the blessedness of sinners. “The church is not the society of the successful but the fellowship of the forgiven” (Rich Mullins).
In order for true confession to exist on a personal level we must be a church committed to accepting, loving, and forgiving all people. “So long as people suspect they will be judged because of (for example) their dishonesty, their abortion, their secret addiction, or their sexual cravings, they will not risk bringing these things out of hiding... secret shame” (Boyd, Repenting of Religion, 181). They will not open up. Therefore, no real relationship with God or others will develop.
Secret shame destroys community. No true community can exist without confession. It is the loving acceptance of a forgiving and gracious community that weakens sin’s hold on individuals. Bringing our sins out into the open frees us from them. Continually hiding them keeps us bound to their destructive effects.
In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community... Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person... In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. Now the fellowship bears the sin of the brother. He is no longer alone with his evil for he has cast off his sin in confession and handed it over to God... Now he stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God in the Cross of Jesus Christ. (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 112)
Without the continual expression of confession – both personally and corporately – the church loses its sensitivity to its ability to hurt others through its claim to moral superiority. Even worse, the church becomes more judgmental and intolerant of those who commit “unacceptable” sins (homosexuality, abortion, cussing, etc) while remaining blind to so-called “acceptable” sins (pride, selfishness, greed, gossip, gluttony, slander, malice, lust, envy, jealousy, bitterness, impatience, lovelessness, etc.).
Religious idolaters need to believe that the sins they commit are not as bad as the ones they avoid. Though they of course must acknowledge that they are not perfect, they need to be convinced that at least they are not like those people – the targeted group of sinners they tend to avoid. (Boyd, Repenting of Religion, 88)
Only continual confession keeps us mindful that our greatest problem is our personal sin. When we make a big deal out of our own sin, then we do not have time to make a big deal out of the sins of others. The Apostle Paul, perhaps the greatest Christian that ever lived, was well aware of his own sinfulness. This awareness increased rather than diminished over the course of his life. We can trace this chronologically in his letters. He went from “I am the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9) to “I am the very least of all saints” (Eph. 3:8) to (near the very end of his life) “I am chief of all sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). It was not his loyal faithfulness to God or his personal morality that he continually offered to others as a proof of God’s grace in his life, but his deep-rooted sinfulness: “for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16).
Continual Confessions
In spite of our best intentions, sin remains a constant reality of life. We will continue to sin in word, thought, and deed all the days of our Christian journey. Paradoxically, the holier we become the more we will be sensitive to sin and thus, the more we will see ourselves as sinners. And the closer we walk with God the more we are aware of its pervasiveness.
We must choose to do something with our sin. It will not go away during our earthly pilgrimage. And we cannot endure the misery of hiding it. Therefore we must learn confession. Because we continually sin we need to continually confess our sin to God.
Through honest confession our sin – though evil in itself – becomes a means of leading us to a deeper relationship with God. Though this initially appears upside-down, it is necessary that we embrace confession as a means of intimacy. Put simply: If our sin does not drive us to God, it will drive us away from God. We must continually remember that though our sin is great, God’s grace is greater. We must refuse to hide from our sin, or even worse, attempt to hide our sin from God. We must believe this: “Blessed… blessed… are sinners!” We must learn to say, “Despite my sin, I am blessed by God.”
If we take our relationship with God seriously then confession should be a regular part of our prayer life. The importance of continual confession is highlighted by the most important prayer in the Bible – the only prayer authorized by our Lord to be prayed daily – the Lord’s prayer. In this prayer, we are taught to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This prayer highlights our true daily needs. According to Jesus, we need daily forgiveness just as much as we need daily bread and daily protection from temptation and evil. Without it we grow distant from God and become a greater target for temptation and evil.
Psalm 32 is part of the sacred canon of songs, hymns, and prayers that were a regular part of Israel’s worship. It is a godly psalm that teaches us a godly way to pray. It reveals to us that continual confession – not sinless perfection – is a mark of godliness and thus a means to great blessing and joy. Far from being a negative, morbid act – a “downer” – confession is a positive practice, bearing rich fruit. Confession is not simply a one-time act necessary at conversion. Continual confession is necessary in order to grow closer to God. It is the neglect – not the practice – of confession that leads to personal misery, inner turmoil, and judgmental religion.
Though contemporary culture – and even sometimes the contemporary church – minimizes the importance of confession of sin, we must never do so ourselves. We must never forget that sin’s greatest deception is to convince us that we are not really sinners. It is painful to own our sin. It is more painful to hide it!
[1] It is the second of seven such psalms (cf. 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143).
To listen to the audio message, right-click and "Save Target As"
© Richard J. Vincent, 2004
Leave a comment