Seeking the Lord in our hard times

 

We're still camped out here at Psalm 25, and we are picking up where we left off last week . . . we said then that in our hard times, whether caused by circumstances or sin, we need to seek the Lord. We need to ask for wisdom.

The absolutely foundational truth for seeking the Lord is that we must confess our sins and ask for His pardon. It's step one. Numero uno. Can't get anywhere until we do this.

As we saw last week, David is being very transparent in this psalm. He is letting us look into his heart - and he is painfully aware of his shortcomings. Not just his sins in the current mud-pie that he finds himself in, but even going back and looking at the sins of his youth. 

Some people have a real problem with this. A big problem. A pride and self-righteousness problem. 

We shouldn't just shrug off our sins by saying something like, "Oh, what do you expect? Come on, I was just (insert age) years old!"

We also can't compare ourselves to our enemies and pat ourselves on the back: "I may have some faults, but look at those peeps! They are downright evil."

David doesn't belittle his sins, either, or try to downplay them . . . "Sure, I was wrong to sleep with Bathsheba, but that's water under the dam. I'm just a hot-blooded guy that saw a beautiful lady."

David doesn't blame God, either; that's something that some people use to try to feel better about past sins. "I made some mistakes, give me a break. I'm human. God made me this way."

Well. 

No, no, and no. David feels the pain of his guilt and it drives him to confess again his sin to God, and to plead for His pardon. Let's look at our psalm:

For the sake of your name, Lord,
    forgive my iniquity, though it is great. (v. 11, NIV)

You might be thinking, shouldn't David be concentrating on himself, and how badly he has failed? Instead he is asking for forgiveness for the sake of the Lord's name . . . David is wholly sincere when he says his iniquity is great. Not "great" like we think. His iniquity is large. It's way bigger than it should be, and he's guilty about it. The phrase "the sake of your name" refers to all of the attributes of God. His characteristics. "What makes Him tick." It hearkens back to all that He has revealed to us, about Himself.

One of the earliest instances that we have in the scripture of God revealing Himself happened after the children of Israel really messed up one time. Yeah, I know, they did that a lot. But then, I do, too, so I'm not gonna poke fingers at them. (Grin) When Moses went up on the mountain and was busy receiving the tablets and commandments, the kids at home got bored. Apparently it didn't occur to Aaron to try anything else to keep them occupied - instead, he asked all of them for their gold bracelets and necklaces and bling of all kinds, and like he told Moses, he put it in the fire and out came the golden calf. I'm not kidding; you can check it out in Exodus 32:24.

Now, I bet you know the rest of the story . . . . Moses was livid, and smashed the precious tablets. Then he ground up the calf and (ugh) made the revelers drink water with that powder in it. He approached God on their behalf and pleaded for their lives, and for God to be with them. To make a long story short, Moses went back up the mountain called Sinai and God met with him. God had explained to Moses that if he saw God in all His glory, he would die. He arranged for Moses to see His back as He went by on the mountain. 

And as He did, He spoke words that reveal so much about our Father God:

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; (Exodus 34:5-7a)

The Lord.

How many times in just one day do we use those words? Are we paying attention? How many times do we stop and think of just what is "in" His name?

He's compassionate and gracious:

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. (James 5:11, NASB)

He's slow to anger:

And tear your heart and not merely your garments.”
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in mercy
And relenting of catastrophe. (Joel 2:13)

Abounding in love and faithfulness:

Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments; (Deuteronomy 7:9)

Forgiving:

 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7)

He will punish the guilty:

For whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
Just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12)

David knew that he deserved the punishment part. He was sorrowful over his sins and reminding God of the lovingkindness that He Himself had noted as a part of His character. That part of His character that David had seen at work, over and over again in his life. God is holy; He is the exact antithesis of sin. But He can be both the "just" and the "justifier" because of Jesus' work on the cross. Jesus satisfied the justice portion of the equation when He bore our sins on the cross. So then, God is not only the One Who points out our sins, but He is also the One Who provides grace and forgives those sins. Truly that is something to ponder and then to rejoice over!

Even as we follow David's primer on seeking the Lord in the hard times -- examining our hearts and confessing our sins -- we are blessed to rely on His grace through the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.