“There’s been a cover-up! They knew, and they tried to hide it!
If there is anything that people generally detest it is a “cover up,” a planned effort to hide a dishonest, immoral, or illegal act. Government cover-ups are usually the object of much public speculation, indignation, disdain, and demands for action. “How could they do that?!? They can’t get away with that?!? Throw the bums out!”
Cover-ups have a long history. They started in Eden and continue to this day. They can be committed by shady governments all the time, or by good governments some of the time, but they are mostly committed by all of us! Like guilty and sneaky bureaucrats we can rationalize and minimize our transgressions, cover them up, and deny them, in an attempt to hide them from others, from ourselves, and even from God!
In Psalm 32 David speaks of a time when he “covered-up,” a time when he “kept silent” about his sin (v. 3). We don’t know the precise occasion for his cover-up. But we do know this. He was miserable during the cover-up! He began to fall apart. There is nothing that robs us of joy and peace, nothing that cripples our lives, like unconfessed and “covered” sin. David says that the Lord’s ‘hand was heavy” upon him (v. 4). It is a mercy when the Lord makes us miserable when we live in unconfessed sin. We can’t “hide” or “cover up” our sins from Him, before whom all things are open and laid bare (Heb. 4:13).
David opens this psalm speaking of blessedness, the blessing of forgiveness, the blessed of “sin . . . covered” by LORD Himself, the blessedness of not having my iniquity counted against me (v. 1).
David describes how the blessed “breakthrough” came about for him in verse 5. He had a change of heart, a giving up of pride. He confessed what he really could not hide from the LORD. “I acknowledged (made known) my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide (cover up). I said, ‘I will confess (speak openly) my transgressions to the LORD’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” Once the human cover-up was given up, the divine relief was immediate. The wisdom writer declares the same thing in Proverbs 28:13, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”
Blessed is the one who does not cover-up his iniquity, but acknowledges his sin to God, and confesses his transgressions. Blessed is the one “in whose spirit there is no deceit,” the one in whom there is no guile or pretense or cover-up or self-deception.
This blessedness comes by faith in the Son given for sinners. When God “covers” our sin, He removes it from His sight, His reckoning forever. He is able to do that because He has dealt with that sin through the substitution and sacrifice of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes up and carries away our sin. He took our guilt and endured our judgment, satisfying fully God’s righteous wrath against our sins, for us, in our place! He is the One whose blood has covered our sins from the sight of God. As with the Passover, when God sees the blood of His Son, He passes over us. Sin has been answered for. The blood declares a price has been paid, a ransom made. God will no longer look for sin where He sees the blood applied. The end of His Son’s life is the end of His seeking. Jesus is the One through whom God’s wrath against our sin is appeased and satisfied. He is the One who was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He is accounted, reckoned as sin, charged with our debt. Here is the essence of pardon and of peace, and hence, of double blessedness.
Forsake the foolish cover-up! Uncover your sins before the Father and He will abundantly pardon through the Son!
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).
Blessings in the name of the Lamb.
