When God Is Glad

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. Devotional is indented.


Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Psalm 51:8

In the pain
of my confession
it's hard to recollect
the fleeting pleasures
of my sin.

If there wasn’t pleasure in sin, we wouldn’t do it. But isn’t it so true that once the sin is done, the pleasure looks different? The gleam is gone, the price was too high, we have what could be called buyer’s remorse.

My shame
hides Your face.
My anguish
drowns out Your voice.
The lingering visions
of what I've done
haunt
my soul
assault
my heart
dominate
my thoughts.

If we care about God, the pain of a broken relationship hurts the most. Hurts me… but what about Him?

I want to undo
what
I've done.
I want
to turn back time
so that
my thoughts would be
pure
and my hands would be
clean.
But
lust was born
and
the deed was done.
I can't undo
what dark pleasure has wrought.

It’s too late now. No turning back. The debt has been incurred. The bill collector is knocking at the door.

So I come to You
just as I am.
I bow before You
shamed and unclean.
The searching light
of Your righteousness
puts fear in my heart
and
reveals more stains than
I ever thought I had.
I bow before You
because I've nowhere else
to go.
I confess to You
because I've no other
hope.
There's no place
to run
There's no place
to hide.
I can't escape
what I have done.
I can't erase
my stains.

We’ve been through this before. We tried to fix it ourselves but we came up short. All the resources we have don’t come close to what is needed.

So in my grief
I ask for one thing.
I long
to hear You sing.
I long
to see You rejoice.
For when my ears are graced
with Your song
and when I am blessed
by Your gladness
and when the angels
celebrate
then I can be sure
that I've been given
the greatest
of gifts
the miracle
of miracles
the thing that only love
could purchase
the blessing that only love
could offer;
forgiveness.

The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing. ( Zephaniah 3:17 niv)

"I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." ( Luke 15:7 niv)

This is so good! God doesn’t grudgingly forgive but rejoices in the opportunity to forgive. Rejoicing and singing and heaven joining in.

A question from the meditation:

Do you still celebrate the amazing miracle of daily forgiveness? Is there evidence in the way you live your life that you have lost your sense of wonder at what God has given you?

It is a miracle; a miracle because it happens every day and keeps happening. When I am slow to seek forgiveness, that shows forgetfulness at the wonder of God’s grace. The same with people; God can extend His grace through them when I am willing to ask forgiveness after admitting wrong.

Philip


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