“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. 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. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.” – Psalm 32:1-7 (ESV)

So many times in my relationship with Christ, I find myself parched, famished, dehydrated spiritually to the point where I experience utter misery in my soul and a total lack of trust in, focus on, and giving honor to God in my life. I keep silent in my heart and my mouth is closed about my sin, not going and confessing the wrong I’ve done to Him and others, not giving Him praise for who He is and what He’s done. At these times I echo the words above, in particular, “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer”.

I become sapped, I feel no point to life, everything around me means nothing. I then come to realize over and over again through His understanding that the problem is not with God but me. He is lovely, pure, holy, set apart from all creation. I am a wretch, a sinner. I possess a total focus on me, what I want, pure arrogance and pride, trying to fulfill desires in my heart in my own way that only God can fill in His own way.

When I focus on myself there is a void that I cannot fill, a bottomless pit, and it is at these times when by God’s grace, His Holy Spirit giving me eyes to see, ears to hear, and through His strength alone that I throw myself at the foot of the cross, where Jesus shed His precious blood to cover my sins and wrong-doing. There is no hope of salvation, ultimate satisfaction, ultimate fulfillment, outside of Christ.

In the NIV translation, the Psalmist says in verse 5, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” As believer’s, once we go to the Father and confess our sins to Him, no matter what they are, He removes the guilt that was ours through the blood of Christ, the atonement for our sins, and He renews and gives us life again, in order to see that the point of all things in all creation are for the praise of His wonderful name.

Based on the infinitely valuable blood of Christ, we then turn and see that it is by grace through faith in Christ alone that our entire wretched, sinful lives are covered by His free, unmerited mercy and love, and cannot help but burst into exaltation that He would even consider any of us for eternal salvation, let alone to change our hearts and renew our minds now, experiencing His love and grace while still a sinner! It is He and His Spirit alone that satisfies the deepest desires of our hearts and He is the only one who can do it because He is the very one who created us. Again, there is no salvation or ultimate satisfaction outside of Jesus. He is our all in all. He is our hiding place, a refuge from all that is wrong with this world and wrong with ourselves.