I'm Sorry!

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you all right?" How often we may have said something like that if we bumped into someone, or made them spill their coffee. However we soon move on and forget all about the incident. That word 'sorry' didn't trouble us much. Psalm 38 is all about being sorry and David who wrote the psalm took it very seriously indeed. The psalm is really a conversation between David and God in which David opens his heart to God. He tells God all about the things he had done wrong and the fact that he was genuinely sorry for all the times he had done things God calls sin and iniquity. David felt guilty before God because he knew God was pure and holy and hated anything that was wrong and sinful. God takes sin very seriously indeed.

But David was not the only sinner. You are one and I am one too. Indeed the Bible tells us that we have all sinned and we "fall short of the glory (standards) of God" (Romans 3:23). We need to be truly sorry for our sin because even the littlest of sins is hateful to God and should make us ashamed.

So what are we to do? Well, David gives us an answer in the last verse of the psalm when he calls God his salvation. Yes, we sin against God and only God can forgive us. He does this when we go to him, confess our sin and ask him to forgive us — not because we deserve to be forgiven but because he is a God of mercy and grace.

Prayer

Dear Lord, in your mercy pardon my sin, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.