Psalms 32:5

A righteous person accuses himself at the beginning of his speech.

Pray first to receive tears, so that through compunction you may be able to mollify the wildness that is in your soul, and, having confessed against yourself your transgression to the Lord, you may obtain forgiveness from him.

Just as I sinned and was punished, so I acknowledged it and was saved.… He wishes to bring out also the promptness of God's lovingkindness, saying, I shall confess, that is, I resolved to confess the fault to the Lord, and your pardon anticipated my …

Piety avails for avoiding all evils. Do you wish to be freed from evil? Hear David, who says: "I said: I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord, and you have forgiven the impiety of my sin." Praise God and be angry against …

Then when he says "My offense." First, he sets forth the confession. Second, he shows its efficacy, at "I said, I will confess." But because a person ought to confess two things, namely, good things omitted and evil things committed, as to the first he …

We must confess the fact of sin, and be particular in it ( Thus and thus have I done ), confess the fault of sin, aggravate it, and lay a load upon ourselves for it ( I have done very wickedly ), confess the justice of the punishment we have been under for it ( The Lord is just in all that is brought upon us ), and that we deserve much worse-- I am no more worthy to be called thy son.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee,....

I acknowledged my sin unto thee. After long lingering, the broken heart bethought itself of what it ought to have done at the first, and laid bare its bosom before the Lord. The lancet must be let into the gathering ulcer before relief can be afforded. The least thing we can do, if we would be pardoned, is to acknowledge our fault; if we are too proud for this we double deserve punishment. And mine iniquity have I not hid. We must confess the guilt as well as the fact of sin.

David now gives us his own experience: no instructor is so efficient as one who testifies to what he has personally known and felt. He writes well who like the spider spins his matter out of his own bowels.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee. After long lingering, the broken heart bethought itself of what it ought to have done at the first, and laid bare its bosom before the Lord. The lancet must be let into the gathering ulcer before relief can be afforded. The least thing we can do, if we would be pardoned, is to acknowledge our fault; if we are too proud for this we double deserve punishment. And mine iniquity have I not hid. We must confess the guilt as well as the fact of sin. It is useless to conceal it, for it is well known to God; it is beneficial to us to own it, for a full confession softens and humbles the heart. We must as far as possible unveil the secrets of the soul, dig up the hidden treasure of Achan, and by weight and measure bring out our sins. I said. This was his fixed resolution. I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. Not to my fellow men or to the high priest, but unto Jehovah; even in those days of symbol the faithful looked to God alone for deliverance from sin's intolerable load, much more now, when types and shadows have vanished at the appearance of the dawn. When the soul determines to lay low and plead guilty, absolution is near at hand; hence we read, And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Not only was the sin itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it; the virus of its guilt was put away, and that at once, so soon as the acknowledgment was made. God's pardons are deep and thorough: the knife of mercy cuts at the roots of the ill weed of sin. Selah. Another pause is needed, for the matter is not such as may be hurried over. "Pause, my soul, adore and wonder, Ask, O why such love to me? Grace has put me in the number Of the Saviour's family. Hallelujah! Thanks, eternal thanks, to thee."

Confession Of Sin Illustrated by the Cases of Dr. Pritchard and Constance Kent A Sermon (No. 641) Delivered on Sunday Morning, July 23rd, 1865, by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”—Psalm 32:5. DAVID’S grief for sin was long and terrible. Its effects were visible upon his outward frame; “his bones waxed old;” “his moisture was turned into the drought of summer.” No remedy could he find, until he made a full confession before the throne of the heavenly grace. He tells us, that for a time he kept silence, and then his heart became more and more filled with grief: like some mountain tarn whose outlet is blocked up, his soul was swollen with torrents of sorrow. He dreaded to confront his sin. He fashioned excuses; he endeavoured to divert his thoughts, by giving his mind to the cares of his kingdom or the pleasures of his court, but it was all to no purpose; the rankling arrow made the wound bleed anew, and made the gash more wide and deep every day. Like a festering sore his anguish gathered and increased, and as he would not use the lancet of confession, his spirits became more and more full of torment, and there was no rest in his bones because of sin. At last it came to this, that he must return unto his God in humble penitence, or he must die outright; so he hastened to the mercy-seat, and there unrolled the volume of his iniquities before the eye of the all-seeing One, acknowledging all the evil of his ways in language such as you read in the fifty-first and other penitential Psalms.

Confession Of Sin Illustrated by the Cases of Dr. Pritchard and Constance Kent A Sermon (No. 641) Delivered on Sunday Morning, July 23rd, 1865, by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”—Psalm 32:5. DAVID’S grief for sin was long and terrible. Its effects were visible upon his outward frame; “his bones waxed old;” “his moisture was turned into the drought of summer.”

I acknowledged my sin - When this confession was made thoroughly and sincerely, and I ceased to cover and extenuate my offense, then thou didst forgive the iniquity of my sin. I felt the hardness of heart: I felt the deep distress of soul; I felt power to confess and abhor my sin; I felt confidence in the mercy of the Lord; and I felt the forgiveness of the iniquity of my sin. Selah - This is all true; I know it; I felt it; I feel it.

I acknowledged my sin unto thee - That is, then I confessed my guilt. I had borne the dreadful pressure as long as I could. I had endeavored to conceal and suppress my conviction, but I found no relief. The anguish became deeper and deeper; my strength was failing; I was crushed under the intolerable burden, and when I could no longer bear it I went and made humble confession, and found relief. The verb used here is in the future tense, “I will acknowledge my sin;” but in order to a correct understanding of it, it should be regarded as referring to the state of mind at the time referred to in the psalm, and the resolution which the psalmist then formed. The words “I said” should be understood here. This he expresses in a subsequent part of the verse, referring doubtless to the same time. “I said,” or I formed a resolution to this effect. The idea is, that he could find no relief in any other way. He could not banish these serious and troublous thoughts from his mind; his days and nights were spent in anguish. He resolved to go to God and to confess his sin, and to see what relief could be found by such an acknowledgment of guilt. And mine iniquity have I not hid - That is, I did not attempt then to hide it. I made a frank, a full confession. I stated it all, without any attempt to conceal it; to apologise for it; to defend it. before, he had endeavored to conceal it, and it was crushing him to the earth. He now resolved to confess it all, and he found relief. I said - I formed the resolution. I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord - I will no longer attempt to hide them, or to suppress the convictions of guilt. I will seek the only proper relief by making confession of my sin, and by obtaining forgiveness. […]