PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Psalm 38
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“My guilt has become too much for me. It is a load too heavy to carry.” (Psalm 38:4)
David is in a bad place: physically, mentally, emotionally and socially tormented.
He traces the cause to his immoral choices, his doing something that he knows is wrong.
And now he feels the weight of his sin and guilt, and he’s about to blow!
Its like a ‘tractor pull’, where a tractor pulls a trailer with a weight on it.
The weight starts at the back, slowly moves to the front, making it harder to pull.
The longer we carry unconfessed sin and unresolved guilt, the heavier it becomes.
As in a tractor pull, the tractor eventually gets stuck, and sometimes the engine blows.
I recall reading about a murderer on the run for 7 years who finally turned himself in.
The burden and pressure of life on the run became too much to carry.
I think of Judas who couldn’t face his shame and regret and ended his life (Matthew 27:1-5).
David shows us a better way, not denial or blameshifting but honesty and repentance.
David faces his guilt and runs to the God he has betrayed and pleads for mercy.
I sense the Lord asking me what I will do: will I try to pull this burden until I explode?
Or will I turn to the Lord for mercy and help, and allow him to remove it from me?
PRAYER
Lord, I hear you saying to me that I need to be honest like this too. Help me to experience the weight of guilt enough to change before my engine blows!
I take many things to the cross and yet after I am sharing my sinful ways with God, I do not leave them at the cross. They become weights in my life robbing me of the joy of the Lord. Help me always Lord to seek and do what is good. Help me daily to seek Your face. Never be far from me but be my constant aid for I need You every hour in my living for You.
1 I need Thee ev’ry hour,
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford.
Refrain:
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee;
Ev’ry hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.
2 I need Thee ev’ry hour,
Stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their pow’r
When Thou art nigh. [Refrain]
3 I need Thee ev’ry hour,
In joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide,
Or life is vain. [Refrain]
4 I need Thee ev’ry hour,
Teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises
In me fulfill. [Refrain]
Humbled by regret – by sins of the past – it cripples me. Like the Psalmist: “For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.” But when I confess and am upfront with Jesus – I am washed and my burden is lifted – I was falling but now I am able to walk and move on – to grow in reliance on the HS to guide me. But sin must be confessed and exposed for what it is. A contrite spirit is what is needed – humbled by setbacks – I turn again and confess. And Jesus forgives me and I am privileged to continue being his disciple!