Explore the Bible: The Confession

• The Explore the Bible lesson for Aug. 6 focuses on Psalm 51:1-17.

In the earliest reaches of childhood memory is an episode that has stayed with me all these years. It often has recalled to me the true spirit of this Psalm.

Another boy on the block had a bicycle. One day, he and I decided we would play paperboy. When the real paperboy tossed the paper in our yard, I picked it up, got on the back of the bicycle while my friend pumped us up and down the street. I practiced throwing the paper onto the sidewalks of neighbors. Then, once thrown, I’d get off the bike, retrieve the paper and off we’d go again to repeat the whole process.

Except for one last time. As we passed in front of one neighbor’s house I threw the paper. It landed squarely in the middle of the man’s sidewalk, but before we could turn around to go retrieve it, the man came out of his house, picked up the paper and took it inside his house.

I was devastated. What we meant to be a game turned into what felt to me like a crime. I’d taken my dad’s paper and thrown it away. Now, it was gone for good.

As soon as I got back to my house, I ran inside, crying, and told my father what I’d done. I’ll never forget his response.

Dad reached down, picked me up and held me close. He also assured me that he loved me, and not even throwing away his paper could change that.

Accept responsibility

The story behind this psalm is that of David committing adultery with Bathsheba. Nathan, the prophet, had confronted David about his sin, and that’s when David’s life began again, through the painful but essential act of confession, repentance and pleading for God’s mercy as his only hope.

David’s spirit stands in sharp contrast to that of Adam in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve became aware of their guilt in eating of the forbidden fruit, the first thing they did was hide, or try to hide, from God.

When God confronted them, Eve blamed her failure on the serpent, the tempter. “The serpent tricked me, and I ate,” Eve said to God (Genesis 3:13). In doing so, she attempted to escape personal responsibility for her moral failure.

In doing so, she only followed the example of Adam. He said to God, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12).  In so doing, Adam blamed his failure on both God and Eve. “The woman whom you gave.” Adam was willing to blame anyone, including God, rather than accept personal responsibility.

However, once Nathan confronted David, David’s response was to accept full responsibility for his sin. “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:3-4).

David modeled for all of us the only way back to harmonious life with God. Whatever the consequences of our sin may be, we don’t begin to heal until we stand in the mirror and accept full responsibility on the shoulders of the one staring back at us.

Friends who are recovering alcoholics report there almost always must come a time when a person hits rock bottom, when they run out of excuses and confess their personal responsibility for their moral failings. Until that moment, the addict can only slog his or her way through every day under the burden of their guilt with no hope in sight.

Trust the mercy of God

David not only accepted personal responsibility for his sin, but also threw himself on the mercy of God. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy” (Psalm 51:1-2). 

The most remarkable thing about grace is that, even when we’ve done our worst, we can trust God to be true to God’s character by acting out of mercy and love. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). Only the mercy of God can transform our worst into nothing more than the canvass against which God paints a perfect picture of mercy.

Something in my father’s character had already proven to me that I could trust him enough to admit that I’d taken something of his and thrown it away and he would love me anyway. Without that trust, I could have never gone to my father and fully confessed.

Sometimes, all these years later, the memory of throwing my dad’s paper away resurfaces. When I’m afraid of what God might do to retaliate against me for my sin, I try to remember what my father’s arms holding me close so that I will then remember that all my heavenly Father desires is that childlike trust and confession, too.

Glen Schmucker is a hospice chaplain in Fort Worth.