“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 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.”

For a long time, I had a problem with the idea of confession. It conjured up images of confessing to a priest and the feeling of judgment that inevitably ensued. The word “confession” felt closely connected to other words that I prefer to not associate much with. Words like…condemnation, fear, judgment and the like. The more I’ve to realize though, this is a problem of perspective and not with confession itself.

Confession is actually an extremely liberating thing. That’s what David is saying here. He’s saying that he was completely drained and burdened until he confessed his sin to the Lord. What we have to realize is that we are all on borrowed time. It’s not our money, our time, our bodies, our relationships, our houses or our jobs. At the end of the day, it all belongs to God. Sin is simply the word that encompasses everything that falls short of God’s desire and will. When we sin…and we all do every single day…we are mismanaging and misusing God’s possessions.

Confession is simply acknowledging the disconnect between the real and the ideal. It keeps us in touch with reality. It also helps us stay focused on our ultimate mission in life, which is to grow in relationship with God and in our service/love towards other people. I love confessing to God. Like our bodies, our souls have a way of letting us know when they’re not doing well. They let us know through unwanted emotions and clear rifts between our minds and our hearts. Confession is our way of exhaling these unwanted and inevitable realities and then beseeching God to bring the healing that he wants to bring. When we refuse to confess, we allow the poison to continue to work in us. It’s like a sick person who refuses to acknowledge they’re sick and they just keep getting worse and worse. Why in the world would we do that to ourselves? David did it for a while and then expresses the deep relief of bringing his sin to God and experiencing the freedom that forgiveness brings. This freedom can be ours as well.