Psalm 32
Evening Prayer
October 7, A+D 2009
Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Our sins are horrible. Often done in secret, even the recesses of our mind, we fear discovery. If it becomes known what we have done, what we have thought, who we truly are, we will be exposed as frauds, hypocrites. So we hide who we are and what we have done. We hide it from others, and even ourselves. We lie.
And we fool many, maybe all. But God is not fooled. He cannot be fooled. He sees. He hears. He knows. Who we are, what we have done, cannot be covered from the penetrating gaze of His all-seeing eye.
What shall we do? There is only one thing to do: Confess. Come clean. Cover up our sins no more. “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
An amazing thing happens when we stop covering our own sins, and confess them: What we have uncovered, He covers. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” He who sees all things chooses not to see what He has covered. He who knows all things forgets. He who marks every sin in His book blots them out.
Our works cannot justify us. Our efforts at covering up our sins always fail. But God justifies the ungodly. He covers up the things we deserve to have exposed for our shame, ridicule, and expulsion. He does not do this on a whim. It does not come easily. What is covered on us was exposed in Jesus. They literally stripped Him of His garments, just as He was stripped of all honor. Put to death like a murderer. Beaten as a rebel. All for you. So you could be covered, clothed with righteousness in Baptism. When you come to this church for the last time, we will cover up your dead body with the funeral pall, confessing that the God who covered your sins in Christ will raise up your body on the last day to live forever in His kingdom.
So blessed are you, “against whom the LORD counts no iniquity.” That is the reason why you should “Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” +INJ+
