Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquity. Psalm 51:9
A memory dredged up from my childhood years...
It’s Christmas morning. In our home our parents don’t hang up stockings; they spread our presents out on the living-room table. My brother and I - he’s two years older than me - get up early and revel in exploring it all. Our parents stand watching us, smiling and enjoying our excitement.
On this particular Christmas Day we have at last explored everything in sight. And I turn to my parents and say, “Is that all?”
To be fair to me, I’m only a small boy, and what I mean is: “Have we found everything, so that now we can get on and enjoy playing with it?” Completely innocent. But of course it doesn’t come across that way - not to my parents, anyway. It sounds as if I’m disappointed and ungrateful - almost like a reproach: “Is that all? Huh, I don’t think much of this”.
I see their faces fall, I see their smiles disappear.
What a stupid, cruel thing I have said! I know that we’re not a well-off family, and I’m vaguely aware that they must have struggled and made real sacrifices to get together as much as they did. And that question - just three tiny words - has caused them deep pain.
Oh, I know that later on, when they were alone, they will have comforted one another: “Don’t be upset. He didn’t mean it the way it sounded...!” But I don’t think they will have ever forgotten that moment, any more than I have.
I never said sorry. And now my parents have been dead for many years. If only...!
I’m sure we all know what it’s like to regret something we have said or done. If only we could bite back that careless word! If only we could undo that stupid act! And, of course, as well as the inadvertent, unwitting “sins” like mine on that occasion, there are also far worse things: the deliberate and inexcusable wrong deeds.
Well, there’s no point in living with vain regrets. What can’t be done, like “unspeaking” a word that has been spoken - well, it can’t be done, and that’s all there is to it.
But this is where the words of the psalmist can help us: “Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.”
I love that very practical, down-to-earth expression blot out. It means that what was previously there - embarrassing, shameful - just isn’t there any more. Not that it’s covered over, like a mistake scribbled out in a note-book; no, it is actually washed away once for all. What we can never do, God can - and does. God has taken care of it.
The psalmist, of course, was unable to see this wonderful truth in the way we do today. It’s impossible, surely, for anyone who lives after rather than before the death of Jesus to interpret this verse apart from him. The passage that springs straight to my mind is Revelation 7:14, where the great crowd of people praising God before his throne have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. And it reminds us of baptism, which speaks so simply of cleansing and new life; which speaks of the past dealt with once for all.
Only God can forgive sins - and the good news is that it’s something he loves to do for all who are truly sorry - just have another look at, for example, Luke 15:1-7. And once they are forgiven, that means they are gone for ever.
But... that doesn’t mean, of course, that we should rest idly if there are situations where we can make some kind of amends for our wrong-doing, whether intended or unintended. Is there somebody in your life or mine who is entitled to an apology, even some material recompense? Let’s face facts, if we don’t do it now, the chances are that we never will.
If there is good to be done, the right time to do it is now. If there are true words to be spoken, the time to speak them is now. (Suppose I had immediately jumped in and reassured my parents...!)
How did God put right those cruel words that Christmas morning so long ago? How could he possibly “unsay” what I had said? I don’t know. But what I do know is that because of Jesus’ shed blood I need no longer live with that sense of burning regret - and I can simply commend my parents to his compassion.
May God help us all to live with a certainty of sins forgiven and the peace of a clean conscience! Amen.
Thank you, Lord God, that there is rejoicing in heaven over a single sinner who repents. Help me to live day by day with an assurance that I am forgiven - but also with a new determination to “go and sin no more”. Amen.
A memory dredged up from my childhood years...
It’s Christmas morning. In our home our parents don’t hang up stockings; they spread our presents out on the living-room table. My brother and I - he’s two years older than me - get up early and revel in exploring it all. Our parents stand watching us, smiling and enjoying our excitement.
On this particular Christmas Day we have at last explored everything in sight. And I turn to my parents and say, “Is that all?”
To be fair to me, I’m only a small boy, and what I mean is: “Have we found everything, so that now we can get on and enjoy playing with it?” Completely innocent. But of course it doesn’t come across that way - not to my parents, anyway. It sounds as if I’m disappointed and ungrateful - almost like a reproach: “Is that all? Huh, I don’t think much of this”.
I see their faces fall, I see their smiles disappear.
What a stupid, cruel thing I have said! I know that we’re not a well-off family, and I’m vaguely aware that they must have struggled and made real sacrifices to get together as much as they did. And that question - just three tiny words - has caused them deep pain.
Oh, I know that later on, when they were alone, they will have comforted one another: “Don’t be upset. He didn’t mean it the way it sounded...!” But I don’t think they will have ever forgotten that moment, any more than I have.
I never said sorry. And now my parents have been dead for many years. If only...!
I’m sure we all know what it’s like to regret something we have said or done. If only we could bite back that careless word! If only we could undo that stupid act! And, of course, as well as the inadvertent, unwitting “sins” like mine on that occasion, there are also far worse things: the deliberate and inexcusable wrong deeds.
Well, there’s no point in living with vain regrets. What can’t be done, like “unspeaking” a word that has been spoken - well, it can’t be done, and that’s all there is to it.
But this is where the words of the psalmist can help us: “Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.”
I love that very practical, down-to-earth expression blot out. It means that what was previously there - embarrassing, shameful - just isn’t there any more. Not that it’s covered over, like a mistake scribbled out in a note-book; no, it is actually washed away once for all. What we can never do, God can - and does. God has taken care of it.
The psalmist, of course, was unable to see this wonderful truth in the way we do today. It’s impossible, surely, for anyone who lives after rather than before the death of Jesus to interpret this verse apart from him. The passage that springs straight to my mind is Revelation 7:14, where the great crowd of people praising God before his throne have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. And it reminds us of baptism, which speaks so simply of cleansing and new life; which speaks of the past dealt with once for all.
Only God can forgive sins - and the good news is that it’s something he loves to do for all who are truly sorry - just have another look at, for example, Luke 15:1-7. And once they are forgiven, that means they are gone for ever.
But... that doesn’t mean, of course, that we should rest idly if there are situations where we can make some kind of amends for our wrong-doing, whether intended or unintended. Is there somebody in your life or mine who is entitled to an apology, even some material recompense? Let’s face facts, if we don’t do it now, the chances are that we never will.
If there is good to be done, the right time to do it is now. If there are true words to be spoken, the time to speak them is now. (Suppose I had immediately jumped in and reassured my parents...!)
How did God put right those cruel words that Christmas morning so long ago? How could he possibly “unsay” what I had said? I don’t know. But what I do know is that because of Jesus’ shed blood I need no longer live with that sense of burning regret - and I can simply commend my parents to his compassion.
May God help us all to live with a certainty of sins forgiven and the peace of a clean conscience! Amen.
Thank you, Lord God, that there is rejoicing in heaven over a single sinner who repents. Help me to live day by day with an assurance that I am forgiven - but also with a new determination to “go and sin no more”. Amen.
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