Life-Draining Muteness

Ed Mason

“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered.  Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”” (Psalm 32:1-5)

David doesn’t name his particular sins for us in Psalm 32, but, in verses 3 and 4, he names the devastating effects of his unconfessed sin—he was wasting away, dried up, cut off. How often, like David, have we been silent, or mute, before God, our fellow human beings, and even ourselves, regarding our own sins, individual and collective?  How easy it is for us to lapse into that life-draining muteness before God, others, and ourselves regarding our sins, especially under the cover of our “noisy” world, full of never-ending tasks, anxious concerns, ever-streaming news and entertainment, and ever-present screens, all diverting and shifting our attention away from God.

During this time of Lent, like David, may we intentionally place ourselves apart from the clamoring noise in our lives, to spend quiet time before God for us to name, confess, and turn away from, our sins, both individual and collective. In so confessing, we can be confident that, like David, we will experience the liberating happiness of the forgiveness of our loving God, who, through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, yearns to forgive us our sins and to empower us to live in union with God and God’s people. 

Prayer: Loving God, work in us that we may turn away from the noise in our lives that so often diverts and distracts us from you, so we may draw closer to you.  Help us not be muted before you as to our sins.  Draw us, through the Holy Spirit, to name, confess, and turn away from, our sins, confident that you, Loving Father, forgive us our sins through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and empower us to live lives of love for you and others.  In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.