We ask God to make the Scripture fresh, encouraging, and convicting to us as we sit under its ministry.
From Psalm 32
Gracious God and Father, instruct us in the way we should go. Counsel us with your loving eyes upon us. Give us understanding as we hear your Word, so that we are not like stupid mules or horses. Instead, grip our hearts and capture our desires with your instruction, so that we will come to you willingly, wisely, and without waiting. Even as you open and examine our lives by your Word, surround us with your unfailing love so that we are not discouraged, but are full of trust that you are a Good Father, even as you minister your grace and truth to us through your Son in the power of your Spirit. We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.
We reflect on the Psalm of the Day and use it to examine our hearts and minds, leading us to confession of our sin.
The Psalmist in Psalm 32 reflects on two feelings; two states of being; two conditions of the heart. What are they?
In verses 3-4, the heart is ashamed. It knows it is full of sin. But it can’t bear the thought of being open and honest with a holy God about that sin. So it hides. The problem is that when the heart tries to be secretive, the body does not respond well. Your whole self–your spirit, soul, heart, and body–begins to groan and ache with the burden of the heart’s dishonesty. Soon enough, you’re as exhausted as someone after exerting themselves in the hot sun of the summer.
The other thing the heart can do is to be open and honest. Verses 1-2 tell us what the experience of the human heart is when it quits hiding from God; when the heart experiences the forgiveness of God: “Blessed.” It’s a Bible word for happiness, joy, and for living under the smile of God’s kindness and generosity.
So the Psalmist is asking us: do we want to have our guilt and sin destroy us from the inside out? Or do we want to to experience the steadfast love of the Lord and the forgiveness of our sins?
Let’s confess our sins together.
Gracious God, when we attempt to hide our sin from you, we fool only ourselves. When we keep silent about our transgressions, we groan under the heaviness of your displeasure. When we lack sorrow for our sins, we lack rest by night and lack strength by day. And so we confess our sinful attitudes, words, and actions honestly before you. Our hearts are devoted to lesser loves, and not to you, our first love. And so we have also not loved our neighbors as ourselves, but have thought little of them, spoken unkindly to them, and acted without justice and mercy toward them. Hear our prayer, pardon our sins, and renew our hearts, that we might love you with whole hearts, and love our neighbors as ourselves. For Christ’s sake, Amen.
People of God, Psalm 32 says: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not cover up my iniquity. I said ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” “Blessed,” the psalmist says, “is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are forgiven, … whose sin the Lord does not count against them!” So gracious is God to us, that when we finally come clean, he cleanses us, renews us, and reinstates us in his service. Rejoice, for your sins are forgiven in Christ’s name!
Glory be to the Father
And to the Son
And to the Holy Ghost
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and ever shall be
World without end. Amen! Amen!
During our current series, our New Testament lessons are selected to complement the study of the Ten Commandments.
Luke 10:25-28
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”