Psalm 130:1-4: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”
The writer of Psalm 130 acknowledges the depth of his sin. He recognizes that his only hope is in the mercy the Lord. His desire is to pour out his lament, to cry out for mercy because he knows that there is forgiveness in God alone.
What do you do with the pain of your sin? Do you hide it, run from it, deny it, or confess it openly to the Lord? There is no forgiveness and healing without confession and repentance. By its very nature, sin leads to shame which then makes us want to hide. It has been that way since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. However, God has made a way for us to be cleansed, forgiven, and healed. What stays hidden holds us; it allows shame to grow and control us. However, what is brought into the light is healed.
With the Lord there is forgiveness. What good news! May we, like the psalmist, be people who cry out to the Lord in confession, who trust in his mercy and who get healed through the power of Jesus’ blood in forgiveness.
The season of Lent and this new season of quarantine are wonderful opportunities to open your heart to the Lord, to ask him to show you anything you have kept in the dark, and to allow him to shine light into those places so that you may be forgiven and healed.