This sermon was preached at WPC Belconnen’s Sunday evening service on May 16, 2021. Ross read the passage, Psalm 32, and Darren gave the Bible talk.
Guilt and shame can haunt when we ruminate over things we have done that we now regret. These feelings can keep us awake at night – they can eat away at us like cancer. We can descend into endless rumination when we have done what we know is wrong or we have failed to do what we know is right. Even the smallest, most innocuous bad things we have done can come back to haunt us throughout the years of our lives. King David knew all about this problem. David was the king over Israel in its golden age – about 1000 years before Christ. God described David as ‘a man after my own heart’. David wrote beautiful psalms and songs of praise to God. But David was no angel. He used his royal authority to compel another man’s wife to cheat with David while her husband was away fighting a war for David. And to cover up this sin, to avoid her husband finding out what he had done, David had this man killed in battle. Only when he confessed these terrible sins – after he was confronted with his sin by the prophet Nathan – did David find peace and blessing. David later wrote this Psalm, as he reflected on the terrible things he had done and on God’s even greater grace to him.