Sermons 2026

Psalm 32:1-7 

“Confession and Forgiveness” 

Outline 

1. Agony of sin, bones wasting away within trying to bottle things up  

2. Confess and recieve Absolution, Forgives us all of our sins, because of JC, sends men into Pastoral office, not to sit in judgmentjudgment, but to give sweet balm of forgiveness of sins, strengthen and encourage flock.  

    

    

   Sermon 

    

   Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

    

   My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Introit, Psalm thirty-two verses one through seven. 

    

   Beloved Lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. 

    

   I am sure that you can guess what I have here. Right! I have a quilt! I know that you, as well as many other people, enjoy cuddling under a quilt, especially when the weather is cold like has been. One of my favorite things to do with a quilt, or blanket, is to... *cover self* Can you see me? No? Why not? Because I am covered. I am hidden under the quilt. That is what David says about our sins, that we can כְּס֣וּי kesuy, we can uncover our sins as well as cover them up. What happens when we cover them up? What happens when we uncover them? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you. 

    

   1. Agony of sin, bones wasting away within trying to bottle things up  

    

   There is an old adage that states, Confess is good for the Soul. In our text for today, David speaks beautifully about why confession is good. He proclaims the joy of those who are blessed. The blessed ones are those who follow in God’s commands. They rejoice in His Laws and do not put up with scoffers and those who do evil. To quote the First Psalm, they are like a tree planted by the streams of water. How are they blessed? Because their transgression is forgiven, their sin is covered, and the Lord does not count their iniquity against them. 

    

   Transgress signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is prohibited. Sin signifies the missing of a mark, not doing what was commanded; but is often taken to express sinfulness, or sin in the future, producing transgression in the life. Iniquity signifies what is turned out of its proper course or situation; any thing morally distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to equity or justice. Guile signifies fraud, deceit, etc. To remove these evils, three acts are mentioned: forgiving, covering, and not imputing. 

    

   David speaks of the pain of those who attempt to cover up their sins. They are under the Lord’s wrath. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Ps 32:3–4.” The psalmist here famously declares the agony that he was in for that season of his life when he refused to own up to and acknowledge the sins he had committed, his dishonesty tortured him. He did not feel well spiritually but also apparently this had physical manifestations as well. His inability to come clean before God became a kind of torture for him. It tore him up on the inside. It cost him sleep. Relief only finally arrived when he spilled his guts, as it were, and confessed to God the truth of who he was and what he had done. 

    

   It felt as though his very bones were wasting away though his inner turmoil and prick of conscience. For point of reference, the femur is the bone in the body that can withstand the most force. “The capacity of the femur is impressive, with a healthy adult bone able to withstand roughly 30 times the body weight in compressive force. For an average adult male, this translates to supporting approximately 6,000 pounds before fracturing.”1 That much force to just break a femur, how much agony for it to melt away! 

    

   Because we are sinners, that is our natural inclination. We sin. We break the Law of God not only in our thoughts, but in our very deeds as well. Just as David’s thoughts about Bathsheba led him to adultry, drunkeness, lying, and murder. So, our actions are just as horrible. We lie both to ourselves and to those around us. We put our trust in weak and feeble men, thinking that somehow things will be different than they were before. We doubt the power and provision of God, wondering if He really cares about us why do bad things still happen to us? We would rather take action into our own hands instead of waiting for His good time and action. We use His holy and blessed name for our own wants and desires, to call down curses when we fail to get our way. We get drunk on wine or beer to numb the pain of confronting our fears and our addictions. We lust after beauty, power, and authority, as well as many more sins. I could be here until the cows come home and that still would not be enough time to list every horrible thing that we do. Our natural inclination is to cover up our sins, under something more permanent than a quilt, so that no one can see them. We do not want to admit that we are wrong, much less hearing that we are not perfect, that we do deeds which to speak of should make everyone blush and turn away from us in pure disgust and shame. 

    

   Our bones in our silence waste away. We receive no reprieve whether we groan night or day, seeking peace and relief. Our conscience pricks us because we know that we should do better, we should be better! We should live in the light of Christ rather than loving the darkness that so deeply clings to us. Satan constantly flings our sins before our eyes, saying, “See, You are so unworthy of love, see how bad you truly are!” Our sins, as well as the sins of everyone in the world, clings like a stinking, festering, open wound that we can do nothing to heal. 

    

   2. Healing via Confession and Absolution 

    

   “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.” 

    

   In the midst of wasting away in silence, David teaches how we can heal the festering wound of our sins. Not by covering them up, but by uncovering them, and laying them bare. David invites all who read this psalm to follow him in confessing their sins to the Lord and receiving the peace and comfort that forgiveness brings. No burden is more painful than an awareness of guilt and the impending judgment of a holy God. No joy is greater than confidence of forgiveness and peace with God. When we have sinned, let us come boldly to the throne of grace so that we may find forgiveness and peace in our time of need.

    

    Confessing is hard. It means confronting our sinful nature in all of its ugliness, confessing our own weaknesses, our shame, bringing to light those thoughts, words, and deeds that we wish to leave buried in the dark. Yet, in confession and repentance, we find the healing that we most desperately need for our souls. When we come to confession, whether corporately and publicly in worship, or privately to me as your Pastor, we are coming to a Father who loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer upon a cross for you and rise again from the dead. We come to an almighty God who uses His power on your behalf to save you. 

    

   We come, not to wrathful and angry judge but One Whom, when you confess, has already promised to forgive because He has removed your sin from you, to use the words of Psalm 103, as far as the East is from the West by placed them upon Jesus Christ to bear all of His wrath in your place and mine. His wrath He has imputed, He has charged it to Christ and says, you are forgiven of all of your sins. One way that we can picture this, is imagine that you have a credit card. Upon that card you have wracked up one million dollars’ worth of debt. Someone has to pay it. If it is charged to you, could you ever pay it off? No, it would take you many years. Yet, suppose someone came and told you that it was already charged to their account. You do not own a single cent. That is what God has done. Jesus has taken our sins. They have been credited to His account, and covered by His blood, and you get His perfection, His righteousness, and His life everlasting. 

    

   It is the job of the men within the Office of the Holy Ministry, not to sit in judgement over you, like a stern taskmaster berating you because you did something wrong. Rather the opposite. It is their job to be the Absolution men, to declare the forgiveness that Christ has given to you. They take that wound that festers so deep, pours on oil and balm, and bandages it up. There is a joy in coming to confession, not because it is easy, but to hear that yes, that sin that so deeply pains you, that sin that you wrestle with night and day, every waking hour, that sin that so deeply festers and rots within you, is indeed truly forgiven by God. That is the difference between those blessed and those unblessed. The unblessed reject the mercy and love of God and leave their wounds to fester and rot under God’s just wrath. The blessed rejoice in the loving chastisement of God as their Father. They hear His call to repent and turn to Him that their wounds may be healed forever. 

    

   The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen