AP

Psalm 40:9-12  I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly;  I do not seal my lips, LORD, as you know.  I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help.  I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly.  Do not withhold your mercy from me LORD; may your love and your faithfulness always protect me.  For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.  They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.

Here we see King David exposing his heart, not only before his God and Maker, but before all the peole over whom he has been appointed king and spiritual leader.

It would have been much more comfortable for him if he did not allow himself to be vulnerable before the very people who looked up to him for leadership if they were not aware of his weaknesses and failings; after all, he was their great hero, his role-model, and perhaps it would be more helpful for them in their own struggle with sin, more inspiring for them, if all was well between him and his holy God.

Sadly, many spiritual leaders among God’s people justify themselves sin taking this second option – and when they do, much more damage is done to the spiritual lives of their loyal followers.  No, David not only knew that he fell far too short on the ‘holiness’ chart; that he was one one whose “sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.  They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me”, but he also saw it more helpful instead to ‘proclaim in the great assembly’ of the people that he was a penitent sinner! And he did this because that gave him the opportunity to testify and demonstrate that there is a God who can, and does, save.

So David doesn’t try to ‘hide in his heart’ the pretence that he is righteous, but instead makes it very clear that his righteousness has its source in God’s character alone and is imputed to him by God alone through his ‘faithfulness’ (amunah), his ‘saving help’ (‘shua’, from which ‘Jesus’ comes), his ‘love’ (chesed), his ‘truth’ (emet), his ‘compassion’ (rachamim), and his ‘protection’ (natsar).  Yes, if David had have lived 1,000 later, he would have fully agreed with the apostle John: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10).  What is the point of trying to make out we are faultless when we know there is a cure for sin available to all who turn to Christ in repentance-and-faith?  Is it only a problem of pride?

– Bruce Christian