confession

Righteous In All His Ways.

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We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. – Daniel 9:6-7 ESV

Daniel 9:4-19

Along with the prophecies of Jeremiah, Daniel would have surely been familiar with the psalms of David. In more than one of his psalms David wrote of the righteousness of God. “The LORD is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness” (Psalm 145:17 NLT). “God’s way is perfect. All the LORD’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection” (Psalm 18:30 NLT). He would have also known the words of Moses regarding the righteousness of God. “He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!” (Deuteronomy 32:4 NLT). As a young Jew growing up in Judah, Daniel would have been well-schooled in the righteousness of God. And as an old man living in exile in Babylon, he was still holding on to what he knew and believed about God. As he continued his prayer of confession and contrition on behalf of the people of Judah, he openly and humbly admitted their full responsibility for their predicament and God’s right and responsibility to have dealt with them as He had. God had warned, but they had not listened. God had given His call to repentance to every king, prince, father and child in Judah, so that no one could have claimed ignorance. Their sin against Him had been knowingly and willful. As a result, Daniel confesses that their humiliation was well-deserved and should have been fully expected. Not only for those living in exile in Babylon, but for every Jew wherever they might be living.

How easy it is to snub our nose at God and then shake our finger in His face when things don’t turn out quite the way we expected. How many times had the people of Israel refused to listen to God and then attempted to blame Him for the consequences of their own rebellion? It would have seemed logical and only natural to question why God had abandoned them as a nation and allowed them to be defeated at the hands of their enemies. But the truth was that they had abandoned God. They had forsaken Him and refused to live according to His commands. And God had repeatedly warned them what would happen if they continued their pattern of ignoring His calls to repentance. So Daniel knew that God was in the right. He had kept His word and done exactly what He had said He would do. Because He is righteous. But God is far more than just a letter-of-the-law god. His righteousness has a purpose behind it. As David had said, “The LORD is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.” Even in His punishment, He expresses love. “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Solomon 3:11-12 ESV). “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you” (Deuteronomy 8:5 ESV).

Daniel had had 70 years to consider why the people of Judah were living in the land of Babylon as exiles. He had had ample time to think about their circumstances and reach the conclusion that their situation was a result of their own sin and God’s righteous, yet loving discipline. Which is why he concluded that God had “driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed.” They were wrong. God was right. They had been unfaithful, but God had remained faithful. In fact, God had not only told Jeremiah what would happen if the people of Judah refused to repent, He had told him what He would do even after they stubbornly forced His hand. “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:10-11 ESV). God would be righteous and loving, just and gracious, holy and merciful. He is always righteous and forever loving. He is always firm in His discipline and yet forever faithful in showing kindness. Daniel knew he had no right to point his finger at God. He had no cause to blame God for the less-than-ideal circumstances of the people of Judah. They had gotten what they deserved. But God was about to give them what they didn’t deserve – His grace and kindness expressed in His miraculous restoration of them to the land He had given them. They deserved exile. They didn’t deserve restoration. God had righteously punished them, but was also going to lovingly forgive them. What a picture of the grace and mercy He poured out through Jesus Christ on the cross. The very death we deserved He asked His own Son to bear, so that we might receive pardon and enjoy restoration to a right relationship with God. And all we must do to enjoy this amazing grace is acknowledge our sin and admit our complete inability to save ourselves. We must believe that His Son is the only payment righteous enough and valuable enough to settle the debt we owed. Our death sentence was well-deserved. His grace and love, as revealed through the gift of His Son, was not. He is righteous in all His ways. He is loving beyond belief.

Corporate Confession.

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O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. – Daniel 9:4-5 ESV

Daniel 9:4-19

Daniel was living in exile with his fellow Jews in the former Neo-Babylonian empire. He was one of the thousands of Jews who had been sent into captivity when Nebuchadnezzar and his army had conquered and destroyed Judah. At the point David prays this prayer, he has been in captivity for almost 70 years. As the book that bears his name tells us, Daniel had been a faithful servant of God even from his earliest days as an exile when he was forced into servitude in the king’s palace. Now, as an old man, he was reading the scroll containing the writings of the prophet, Jeremiah, and ran across God’s promise concerning His chosen people. “I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years” (Daniel 9:2 ESV). In essence, Daniel had been having his “quiet time” and while reading the book of Jeremiah, he discovered the following words from God: “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:10-14 ESV). What a rush it must been when Daniel read these words and realized that the 70 year time period had arrived. God was going to visit Israel. He was going to fulfill His promise to bring them back to Judah. He was going to restore their fortunes, return them to the land, and renew His relationship with them.

And what was Daniel’s response? Did he jump for joy? Did he run outside to tell all his friends the good news? No, Daniel prayed. “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession” (Daniel 9:2-4 ESV). Faced with the unbelievable good news of God’s pending deliverance, Daniel prayed a prayer filled with confession, repentance and an appeal for God to show mercy. He knew they didn’t deserve what God was about to do. And God had clearly indicated what they were to do. They were to call on Him and pray to Him. They were to seek him with all their heart. And if they did, He would hear and restore their fortunes. So Daniel did just that. He prayed. He called. He cried out to God and he confessed on behalf of the people of Judah. He directed his prayer to “the great and awesome God.” He appealed to the covenant-keeping, consistently-loving God of Judah. He acknowledged the greatness and goodness of God, fully recognizing and admitting that their predicament had been their own fault. “…we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules” (Daniel 9:5 ESV). Daniel wasn’t taking any chances. While his math convinced him that the 70 years was just about up, he was going to make sure that he did his part and call out and confess just as God had commanded. He may not have been able to coerce or convince the rest of the exiles to do the same, but he was going to everything in his power to see that God’s command was kept.

Daniel prayed. He humbled himself before God, “seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” This was a serious, sold-out, no-holds-barred kind of prayer session. And it was anything but selfish. His was a corporately focused prayer, lifting up the entire nation of Judah and offered as an intercessory petition to God on their behalf. David could have simply focused on himself, regaling God with the stories of his of faithful service over the years. He could have reminded God of his unwillingness to worship the false gods of Babylon. He could have tried to impress God with his incredible faith illustrated by his encounter in the lions’ den. But instead, Daniel included himself in the sins of the people. He knew that God was interested in a corporate confession because He was offering a corporate restoration. Daniel was painfully aware that the people of God had not been faithful during their time in exile. Many of them had ended up acclimating quite well to their new environment, growing comfortable and complacent. They had compromised their faith and rejected their God for the gods of their captors. Having felt abandoned by God, they had chosen to put their hope and trust elsewhere. But Daniel knew that their only hope rested with the only true God. He alone could restore them. He alone could turn their fortunes around, taking them from captivity to freedom, from their well-deserved exile to their unmerited restoration to the land and His favor.

Daniel was comfortable in his circumstances. He could have been content to live out his days in Babylon, worshiping God and working at his government job. But he wanted what God wanted. He desired to see God’s power revealed in the affairs of his people. So he prayed. And he prayed diligently, fervently, passionately, persistently and expectantly.

Renewed From Within.

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Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. – Psalm 51:10-11 ESV

Psalm 51

Dependence upon God. It’s a good thing. It’s a necessary thing. Most of us don’t like being dependent, but God created us to have a healthy dependence on Him. He created us, but He also sustains us. “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10 ESV). Not only do we need God for life, but we need Him in order to experience abundance of life. Since the moment sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, mankind has suffered from a broken relationship with God. Our hearts were damaged as a result of the fall, resulting in an internal disease that manifests itself in our outward behavior. The prophet Jeremiah gives us the sobering diagnosis: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT). Years later, Jesus would confirm Jeremiah’s diagnosis. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23 ESV). Mankind suffers from a deadly heart disease. The external sins we commit, as listed by Jesus, are simply the symptoms of a much greater problem going on inside. And David was well aware that his real issue was worse than even his sin with Bathsheba. He desperately desired a healed heart. He knew he would never stop himself from sinning unless God did something drastic. What he needed was soul surgery, a radical realignment of his very nature, something only God could do. While David was fully capable of confessing his sins, only God could cleanse and renew him. Only God could take care of the source of the problem, David’s sin-saturated heart. While David could admit that he had done wrong, he had no capacity within himself to stop it from happening again. He needed a clean heart and a renewed spirit. His natural inclination was to drift away from God. His heart was prone to give in to his sin nature, feeding his passions and desires, even when they were contrary to the will of God. Paul described this dilemma well. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17 ESV). It’s interesting to note that David begs God, “take not your Holy Spirit from me.” He knew that God’s indwelling presence was essential for him to be able to experience true heart change. Without the Spirit’s help, David would be left to give in to the inclinations of his flesh, which, according to Paul, would result in a less-than-ideal outcome. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19-21 ESV). David had just experienced the truth of Paul’s claim. Now he needed cleansing and renewal. He needed God to do what only He could do.

Admission of guilt does not eliminate responsibility or remove condemnation. It simply paves the way for God to perform the miracle of extending His grace, mercy, forgiveness and love. When we come to Him with a heart broken by our sin and shamed by our disobedience toward Him, He offers us cleansing and renewal. In the words of the apostle John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 ESV). We confess, God cleanses. We repent, God renews.

While our sin deserves God’s rejection and righteous retribution, He offers us restoration and renewal. David’s greatest fear was a loss of fellowship with God. He knew just how dependent he was upon God. He was nothing without God. That is why he prayed, “Cast me not away from your presence.” Alienation from God was a scary thing to David. Earlier in his life, long before he had become a powerful king, David had spent years living in exile, with a bounty on his head. He had known what it was like to feel alone and seemingly abandoned by God. In one of his earlier Psalms he had written, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest” (Psalm 22:1-2 ESV). He had cried out to God, “Be not far from me” and “do not be far off!” During those bleak times of his life, when he had been surrounded by external enemies and threats on his life, he had learned to depend upon and turn to God for help. And now that his life was threatened by an eternal enemy: his own heart, he turned to God again. He knew that unless God helped him, he was helpless and hopeless. But David knew the words of the Lord, spoken as the people of Israel stood on the edge of the Promised Land facing the enemies who lived there. “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV). God would not abandon him or leave him to fight his internal battles alone. Our battle with sin is not ours to fight. If we try to defeat sin alone, we will fail. But if we recognize our need for God’s help and dependence upon His Spirit’s strength, we can experience victory. We can know what it means to be cleansed and renewed, from the inside out.

Cleansed by God.

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Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. – Psalm 51:7-9 ESV

Psalm 51

David came to God humbly confessing his sin. He took full responsibility for what he had done and acknowledged that his sin had been against God. But David was not done. He came to God because he desperately needed something from God. Yes, he desired God’s forgiveness, but he greatly needed and wanted God to cleanse him from his sin, guilt, shame and brokenness. David’s sin had taken its toll on him. He was burdened by what he had done. He knew he had displeased God and as long as his sin remained unconfessed and hidden, he was miserable. In another one of his psalms, David gives a description of just what his mindset would have been. “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat” (Psalm 32:3-4 NLT). The purpose for David’s confession was far more than a guilt-free conscience. He knew that confession alone would not remove his sin. He needed God’s cleansing. The apostle John gave us an important reminder on the power of confession in the life of a believer. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10 ESV). Refusal to believe that we are even capable of sin may make us feel better, but it doesn’t fool God. To deny the sin for which God convicts us is to call Him a liar. But if we will own up to our sin and humbly confess it to God, He will not only forgive us but cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God doesn’t just remove the guilt, He takes away the cause of the guilt.

David asked God to purge him with hyssop. This was a reference to the practice of the priest sprinkling animal blood on the altar with a hyssop branch. The animal was killed as a substitute for the sinner and its blood was sprinkled on the altar as a sacrifice or payment for the sins of the individual. The writer of Hebrews, speaking of the Old Testament sacrificial system, said, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22 ESV). While David would have surely taken advantage of the opportunity to offer sacrifice for his sins, he was asking God Himself to make him clean. He wanted God to do for him what no human being could do: remove the stain of his sin completely. He asked God to restore his joy and gladness. He begged God to blot out all his iniquities. David’s broken relationship with God, caused by his own sin, was as painful and debilitating as an actual broken bone. He needed the healing of the Great Physician. Sin brings sorrow, guilt and shame. It leaves us alienated from God. And while we are responsible to come to Him in confession, we are completely dependent on Him for forgiveness and cleansing.

David was appealing to the mercy and love of God. He knew God well. He understood God’s holiness, but he also depended on God’s unfailing love and mercy. In another one of his psalms, David revealed his personal view of God’s relationship with him. “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:10-14 ESV). That was what David was counting on. He knew that God understood his faults, failings and weaknesses. He understood and was counting on the fact that God was compassionate and kind. David was relying on God’s unfailing love. He knew that if God removed the guilt of his sin, it would be complete and permanent, as far as the east if from the west. The apostle John would have us remember that “Jesus came to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5 ESV) and “the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). Jesus died in order to pay the debt owed for our sins. He came to remove the penalty of death that hung over our heads due to our sin natures inherited from Adam, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). But John reminds us that “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 ESV). God has provided a means by which we can receive forgiveness and cleansing from ALL our sin – past, present and future. We will still sin, because we still have our sin natures. But the debt has been paid. The blood has been shed. All we must do is confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The result is the removal of guilt and shame, restoration of fellowship with God, healing from our pain and sorrow, and renewed joy and gladness. There is an old Scottish proverb that says, “confession in good for the soul.” David would agree. But it is not the act of confession that brings the benefit. It is the cleansing power of the blood of Christ that provides the gracious and complete forgiveness of God.

Sinners by Nature.

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Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. – Psalm 51:5-6 ESV

Psalm 51

David was well aware of the seriousness of what he had done and he knew that he had sinned against God. Whatever punishment God might bring his way was well-deserved and completely justified, which is why all David could do is appeal to God’s mercy. And even if David had never committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged for the death of her husband, he would have still been just as guilty before God. Why? Because his sin and guilt were inherited by him and inherent in him. He had been born a sinner. From God’s perspective, every man and woman ever born came into this world having inherited the sin nature of Adam. Paul writes, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12 ESV). Even David’s own son would confess, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV). And Paul would conclude that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). Adam’s “one trespass led to condemnation for all men” (Romans 5:18 ESV)

So David knew that his guilt before God was not simply tied to his affair with Bathsheba. He wasn’t a sinner because he had sinned. He had sinned because he was a sinner. That is a hard concept for most of us to accept, because we want to believe that we are somehow good at heart. We want to think that we are born with a clean moral slate, free from sin and capable of doing good. But the Scriptures paint a much more bleak picture. Adam’s rebellious heart was passed down to each and every one of his descendants. And it doesn’t take long to see that even young children have an innate capacity to reveal their sin natures at very early ages. Lying, deception, selfishness, and manipulation all come naturally to children. They don’t have to be taught. Which is why David knew that he stood before God as guilty, because he had been that way from the very moment of conception. David was in no way minimizing what he had done or blaming his actions on Adam. He was simply admitting that his actions stemmed from his sinful heart – his sin nature. And Paul warns us about our sin nature. “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21 NLT).

David’s dilemma was that he had been born with a sin nature and was prone to sin, yet God expected more. “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart” (Psalm 51:6 ESV). God wanted David to be honest about his sin. He wanted David to confess his guilt and allow God to do some serious rehabilitation on him at the heart level. Simply confessing his sin would not have been enough. Making sacrifices for his sin, without having a broken and contrite heart would have accomplished nothing. Later on in this same prayer David will say, “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God” (Psalm 51:17 NLT). God mends broken hearts. He takes our brokenness and guilt and lovingly restores our wholeness and gives us the joy of His forgiveness. David knew that God delighted in truth in the inner being. God has high standards. But God also lovingly teaches those who come to him in brokenness and humility. God wants nothing more from us that our humble dependence upon Him. We are incapable of nothing but sin. “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT). But the amazing thing is that God offers us a way to be made right with Him. He has provided a means by which we can be forgiven, not just of the sins we commit, but of our very sin natures. “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17 NLT). Just as David had to come to God with his brokenness and humility, aware of his sinfulness and completely dependent upon God’s mercy, so do we. God’s free gift of salvation made possible through Jesus Christ is available to all who will believe that they are sinners in need of a Savior. Paul makes the process quite clear for us. “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood” (Romans 3:23-25 NLT). Guilty sinners can become forgiven saints. Enemies of God can become His children. The condemned can become the redeemed. But it all begins with the acknowledgement of our sin and our desperate need for a Savior.

Have mercy!

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Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! – Psalm 51:1-2

Psalm 51

David found himself in a very difficult spot. As the king of Israel, he was held to a higher standard by God. Yet David had not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, but when he discovered that his illicit affair had resulted in her pregnancy, he had her husband, Uriah, killed in order that he might marry her. And it had taken the bold confrontation of the prophet, Nathan, to convict David of his sin and bring him to a point of repentance. This psalm or song, is in the form of a prayer. It reflects David’s heart as he considers the gravity of what he has done and comes before God in repentance and in need of forgiveness.

David begins his prayer with a cry for mercy. He knew that he could never make up for what he had done. Even a radical change in behavior would not wipe out what he had done. He stood before God as guilty and worthy of divine punishment for his sin. David had violated any of a number of God’s commandments. He had coveted another man’s wife and then followed through on his desires. He had stolen another man’s wife. He had committed adultery. His initial attempt to cover up what he had done was a lie. And then he had arranged for the murder of Uriah to pave the way for his “legal” marriage to Bathsheba. So when David came before God, he did so completely dependent upon the mercy of God. He was guilty and unworthy to stand in the presence of a holy, righteous God. So he appealed to God’s mercy and love. He knew that he did not deserve God’s forgiveness and that there was nothing he could do to earn it. He stood before God as condemned and worthy of divine discipline for his actions. David appealed to God’s mercy. He was asking God to not give him what he deserved, but to give him what he did not deserve: Grace. David knew the character of God. He knew that without God’s mercy and grace, he was in trouble. He also knew that it all began with confession and repentance. He had to own up to what he had done. His guilt was undeniable. His punishment was unavoidable, unless God chose to extend mercy and show grace. God knew the full extent of David’s sin. He also knew the dark depths of David’s heart which had led to his sin. So there was no sense in David trying to cover up, deny, or hide what he had done.

David’s cry for mercy was an admission of his guilt and an expression of his understanding of God’s right and responsibility to punish him. He didn’t attempt to rationalize his sin away. He didn’t try to minimize or dismiss it. He didn’t justify or pass blame. He was guilty and he knew it. He was worthy of punishment and he confessed it, placing himself on God’s mercy. He asked God to blot out his transgressions. The New Living Translation puts it this way: “blot out the stain of my sins.” David was fully aware that there was nothing he could do to remedy his problem. He could not fix what he had done. In essence, he was covered with the blood of Uriah, the man he had had murdered. The stains were obvious, point to his guilt and reminding him of his well-deserved condemnation. So he asks God to remove the stains. This was a cry for forgiveness. He needed God to do for him what he could not do for himself. In another one of his psalms, David wrote: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 1-3:8-12 NLT). David knew from experience that God was merciful, loving, gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving. And when God forgave sin, it was as if He blotted it out of our lives forever. That is why David prayed, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” He didn’t just want forgiveness, he wanted complete absolution. David wanted to be free from blame or guilt, to be released from the consequences, obligations, and penalties of his sin. And only God could make that possible.

We must never forget that our sin is serious. God does not take it lightly. He is holy and just, and obligated by His very character to deal with sin righteously. He cannot overlook it or ignore it. He cannot turn a blind eye or act as if it never happened. David would learn that his sin had consequences. The child that Bathsheba had as a result of her affair with David would die. David’s sin would not go unpunished, but God would also extend to David His unfailing love and mercy. He would restore David to a right relationship with Himself. He would allow David to remain as His chosen king. And He would continue to bless him. But it all began with David’s willing confession of his guilt and his humble submission to God’s mercy and love. David’s brokenness would lead to blessing. His repentance would result in restoration.

Respond Justly.

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If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind), that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers. – 1 Kings 8:37-40 ESV

1 Kings 8:22-53

At this point in his prayer, Solomon gives an expansive list of potential judgments of God brought on by the sins of the people. He lists famine, pestilence, blight, mildew, insect infestations, plague, sickness and enemy invasion. Solomon knew full well the litany of curses that God had promised to bring if the people of Israel proved to be unfaithful to Him. He had given them a complete list of possible judgments in the book of Deuteronomy. “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you” (Deuteronomy 28:15 ESV). God’s list included:

Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Cursed shall be the And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.

The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.

And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.

The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them.

And the list goes on. But Solomon knew his God. He knew that if the people sinned and came under the judgment of God, they could turn to God for help. First they would have to know “the affliction of their heart” (1 Kings 8:38). When any Israelite became afflicted enough by the trouble he was experiencing and recognized that the cause of it was his own sin, it should result in him “stretching out his hands toward this house.” In other words, the discipline of God would cause Him to stretch out his hands to God for forgiveness. The imagery here is that of admission of guilt, confession of sin, and a cry for forgiveness. If they would only acknowledge their sin, turn from it, and return to the one who had chosen them as His own, He would forgive them.

Solomon asks God to hear. When these prayers of confession and repentance come to God’s attention, Solomon simply asks God to listen and then to respond justly. He trusted God to do the right thing because he knew that God was a just and righteous God. God alone knows the hearts of men. He knows the difference between true and false repentance. He can tell when someone is crying out simply to escape the pain of punishment, and when someone is legitimately remorseful and truly repentant. God had promised that “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV). It is one thing to know the pain of your heart. It is another thing to humble yourself before the throne of God in repentance, taking ownership for your sin and willingly turning from it back to God. Solomon was counting on the fact that God had promised to hear, forgive and heal. He also knew that God’s punishment for sin, if responded to correctly, would produce a godly fear in the lives of those who returned to God in humble repentance. Paul described it this way: “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT). God’s punishment always has a purpose. He disciplines those whom He loves. He brings just judgment on those who belong to Him, in order that they might return to Him in sorrow and repentance. But like Solomon, we must understand that God knows our hearts. He can tell when our sorrow is sincere and when it is simply worldly sorrow, lacking in repentance. We have to be willing to turn from our sin and return to God. If our only motive is to escape judgment, we miss the point. If we don’t want God more than we want the pleasures of sin, we are not truly repentant. Godly sorrow results in salvation. Worldly sorrow results in death. God’s desire for us is a restored relationship with Him. He longs to bless us. But He also longs that we would desire Him more than we do His blessings.

Discipline Lovingly.

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When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and grant rain upon your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance. – 1 Kings 8:35-36 ESV

1 Kings 8:22-53

This is the third of seven scenarios that Solomon used in his prayer as a means of illustrating the potential unfaithfulness of the people of Israel and to plead for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Solomon was no stranger to the promises of God concerning the land of Canaan. He knew that their very existence as a people and their presence in the land was the work of God. He had chosen them as His own and then provided them with a land in which to live. But their privileged position as His people and their possession of the land came with conditions. God had clearly warned them that, as His chosen people, they would be required to live in obedience to His commands. If they obeyed, they would experience His blessings. If they chose to disobey, their would be ramifications in the form of curses.  “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.  Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you” (Deuteronomy 11:13-17 ESV).

It is with this warning in mind that Solomon prays. He knew full well that there was always a distinct possibility that they would prove to be unfaithful. As a people, their history was replete with stories of unfaithfulness and idolatry. Remaining true to God had proven to be difficult for them. During their 400 years of captivity in Egypt they had forgotten Yahweh and worshiped the gods of their captors. Even after God’s miraculous deliverance from their slavery in Egypt, it had not taken long before they were worshiping the golden calf in the wilderness. When they had arrived in the land of promise, God gave them victories over their enemies, but the people just couldn’t seem to keep their hearts and hands off the false gods of the very nations they had conquered. So the scenario Solomon used in his prayer was far from unlikely or impossible. He knew in his heart that their unfaithfulness was a distinct and potentially dangerous possibility. If Solomon knew anything about God, it was that He kept His word. So He appeals to God’s promise to forgive. But he knows that God’s forgiveness would be conditioned on their repentance and confession. They would have to acknowledge God’s name and turn from their sin. This would have to be more than just a casual, “I’m sorry.” To acknowledge God’s name was to confess that His unique character as the one true God. It was to openly admit that He alone was holy, righteous, almighty and worthy of their worship. And to turn from their sin was to reject all false gods and renounce their improper dependence upon them. Solomon knew that God’s forgiveness would required their genuine repentance. He also knew that God’s punishment of them would always be positive in nature, designed to turn them from their unfaithfulness and return them to a right relationship with Himself. God disciplines His people for their own good, so that they might give Him glory. “For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:12 NLT). “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference” (Revelations 3:19 NLT).

The unfaithfulness of God’s people was inevitable, but God made provision for it. In Solomon’s day, it came in the form of the sacrificial system. It required repentance and confession. The shedding of blood was necessary. Sin required punishment. But God provided a means by which sin could be atoned for or covered over. It was through the death of an innocent animal whose life was sacrificed as a substitute or stand-in for the guilty party. But those sacrifices were never intended to be permanent or complete in their effectiveness. They simply foreshadowed a greater sacrifice to come. God would eventually provide His own Son as the perfect, sinless sacrifice for the sins of man. His Son, Jesus Christ, would give His life as payment for the sins of all men – past, present and future. He would die in their place, taking on their punishment and paying their debt so that they might have forgiveness from sin and escape the penalty of death – eternal separation from God. But this gift must be received. The payment made by God through His Son must be accepted. Men must acknowledge their sin and turn to God for the forgiveness made possible through the death of Jesus Christ. Many years after Solomon prayed this prayer, Peter would preach a message to the Jews gathered in Solomon’s Portico, an area just outside the temple. “But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus” (Acts 3:18-20 ESV). Repent. Return. And receive forgiveness from the hand of a loving God.

Judge Rightly.

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If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears his oath before your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and act and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness. – 1 Kings 8:31-32 ESV

1 Kings 8:22-53

Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple was based on a long-term perspective and was God-focused in nature. He was doing far more than simply commemorating the completion of a construction project. He was asking God to continue to find favor with the people of Israel and hear their prayers and forgive any future sins they would inevitably commit. In essence, Solomon was praying that God would continue to extend mercy to His people. Solomon used seven scenarios to illustrate potential situations that might arise in the lives of the people of Israel. This particular one had to do with personal sins. He knew that there were going to be plenty of cases where the people of Israel broke God’s covenant by committing sins against one another. Many of God’s laws regulated the relationships between individuals. Six of the original ten commandments had to do with unacceptable behavior between fellow Israelites. They were not to lie, murder, bear false witness, covet, steal or commit adultery. They were to honor their parents. But God knew that they were incapable of keeping His laws, so He provided the sacrificial system as a means for receiving atonement and forgiveness. Like the tabernacle in the wilderness, the temple was intended to be the sole place where Israelites could come to confess and repent of their sins and seek forgiveness from God. So Solomon asked that God would hear their confessions and judge rightly. As a king, Solomon would have known how difficult it was to make right judgments based on the words of men. He was considered incredibly wise, but even Solomon did not have the ability to look into men’s hearts or order to determine the truth of their words. One of the roles of the king was to judge his people and settle disputes. Solomon would have done this on a regular basis. He would have had to listen to testimonies and hear arguments, then make a determination based on the facts as he knew them to be. There must have been times when he questioned his own decisions, wondering if he had made the right determination.

So Solomon asked that God would hear the cases of His people and judge rightly between the just and the unjust. Solomon was asking God to be the righteous judge, condemning where necessary and vindicating when appropriate. He knew God to be just and fair in all His dealings. He also knew that God could not be tricked, deceived, or manipulated. He could look into the hearts of men and see the truth. He could judge rightly because He was omniscient, with intimate knowledge of the hearts and minds of men. So Solomon simply asked God to listen to the confessions of the people and judge as only He could – justly and righteously at all times. What a comfort to know that God never condemns unjustly. He never makes the wrong decision. God has never punished the righteous person wrongly. Yes, we see all kinds of people get away with all kinds of evil. We see unjust people do unjust things and never suffer any consequences. But we tend to view things from a limited perspective. We don’t have a long-term outlook on life or the ability to see what God is going to do in the future. God can and will vindicate all wrongdoing. He will bring all sinners to account. We may not see it in our lifetime or be allowed to witness His justice in action, but we can rest assured that God will judge rightly and righteously one day. The psalmist described God as, “a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Psalm 7:11 ESV). He makes righteous judgments – all the time. We may not see them when they take place. We may not agree with His timing. But we can trust that what God decides is always right and just. He will condemn the wicked and vindicate the righteous – if not now, He will do so in the future.

We must learn to trust God and allow Him to rule and judge as He sees fit. He knows what is best. He operates on a different time schedule than we do. He sees things we cannot see. He knows the hearts and minds of men. He always metes out appropriate justice and judgment, in His time. We can always trust Him to deal with us as we deserve, even when we don’t know the motivations of our own hearts. God sees the sin we are oblivious and blind to. He can tell the difference between wrong actions motivated by right desires and right actions done for the wrong reasons. And He always deals with us righteously and justly. We can count on that.

Listen and Forgive.

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Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, “My name shall be there,” that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. – 1 Kings 8:28-30 ESV

1 Kings 8:22-53

While Solomon was well aware of the fact that the great temple he had just finished constructing was insufficient to contain God, he was counting on God’s promise that His name would be there. God had told David, Solomon’s father, “Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever” (1 Chronicles 22:9-10 ESV). The temple was to be built as a sort of monument to the character and nature of God. It’s beauty, richness, elaborate architectural detail and design were all intended to reflect the nature of God. It’s sole purpose was for making sacrifice and receiving forgiveness. It was a tribute to the holiness, mercy, love and forgiveness of God.

So Solomon appealed to God to hear his prayer. He knew that, without God’s presence, the building he had just had constructed would be nothing. It would be powerless to assist the Israelites in their times of need. After all, it was just a building. It was nothing more than a symbol of God’s power, mercy, and love. It could not save them. If God did not show up and hear the prayers and accept the sacrifices they offered up, they were doomed. Which is why Solomon asked “that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house.” The temple was to be the place where they came to meet with God. It was where they would make their annual sacrifice of atonement to God in the hopes of receiving forgiveness for their sins. So it was essential that God see them and constantly be aware of their circumstances, as well as hear them when they cried out to Him.

Solomon knew full well that God was not going to take up residence in the temple. His dwelling place was in heaven. But he believed that God had chosen the people of Israel as His special possession. He had set them apart as His own and had determined to reveal His power and presence to them and through them. They were nothing without God. In fact, the only thing that set them apart as a people was their relationship with God. “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8 ESV). God had chosen them, not the other way around. Their very existence as a nation was due to God’s mercy and love. But Solomon knew that while God had been consistently faithful to them over the years, they had proven to be incredibly and repeatedly unfaithful in return. Which is why the sacrificial system was so essential. It was also why the temple was so important. Solomon was asking God to hear and forgive. He knew that the forgiveness of God was critical to their ongoing existence as a people. They were going to sin. It was inevitable. As a result, they would be required to bring their sacrifices and offer their prayers of confession and repentance. But if God did not hear them, they would be doomed. They would fall under His wrath and judgment. So Solomon appealed to God based on His character. He prayed based on God’s promises. His request was for future forgiveness. While they were obviously enjoying God’s blessings at that moment, all of that could change in a heartbeat if the people disobeyed God by breaking His laws. And Solomon knew that was inevitable and unavoidable. It would prove to be true in his own life. So he begged God to listen to their prayers of confession and contrition and honor their pleas of repentance with His forgiveness.

Solomon did not take the forgiveness of God for granted. He did not treat it lightly. But we do. We have grown so accustomed to the idea that all our sins are forgiven in Christ, that we no longer feel the need to own up to them or confess them. The apostle John reminds us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 ESV). Our forgiveness is a done deal. Jesus Christ has provided forgiveness for all our sins – past, present, and future – through His death on the cross. But that does not mean that we can sin at will and without any sense of remorse or expression of repentance. Our sin is still an affront to a holy God. We have His forgiveness available to us, but we must acknowledge our sin and confess it to God. Solomon valued the forgiveness of God. He built an entire structure just for the purpose of securing that forgiveness. God has given us His Son. We don’t have to build or sacrifice anything. All we need to do is confess. And God will forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amazing, but also amazingly easy to take for granted.