O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me… My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning.
Psalm 38:1-6
There are several things that come to mind when I think of regrets and things I would do differently in my life. I wish I hadn’t said that very spiteful comment, or had been ‘in the moment’ when someone needed my attention. Or bigger things, like stealing money or adultery. Carrying the burden of the poor choices that I made and the angst of the things I have done is very painful. These choices I made are sins against God. Has your sin ever brought you that angst? Are you overwhelmed by your guilt?
In this Psalm, David cries out to the Lord. David has sinned against God and seeks God in his grief. Psalm 38 doesn’t tell us how David sinned, but David expresses great sorrow to God over his choices and his sin. When reading his words we can feel the heaviness of his heart.
We should all take a lesson from David. When he finds himself at such a low point as to “go about mourning” he doesn’t phone a friend or get a prescription from a doctor. He doesn’t talk about it endlessly or carry the guilt around with him for years. No, he goes directly to God. He pours all of it on God’s altar and asks for His divine help. Look at how this psalm ends.
Psalm 38:21-22 “O Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, O my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.”
When you struggle with guilt and angst and sorrow, especially when caused by your sins, do you go to God? Confess your sins to God and let Him take your sins and the angst that overwhelms you. Christ died on the cross for our sins. What a great relief that God offers a solution to all of our sins if we confess them to Him.
