Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
    or discipline me in your wrath.
Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;
    heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in deep anguish.
    How long, Lord, how long?
Turn, Lord, and deliver me;
    save me because of your unfailing love.
Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
    Who praises you from the grave?

• Psalm 6:1-5

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

• Psalm 51:1-6

The Lord looks down from heaven
    on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.

• Psalm 14:2-3

Hear my prayer, Lord;
    let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
    when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
    when I call, answer me quickly.
For my days vanish like smoke;
    my bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
    I forget to eat my food.
In my distress I groan aloud
    and am reduced to skin and bones.

• Psalm 102:1-5

“Yet in no way does the Psalter omit the prayer of repentance. The seven so-called repentance Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143), but not only they (also Psalms 14, 15, 25, 31, 39, 40, 41, and others) lead us into the total depth of recognition of sin before God. They lead us to the confession of guilt and direct our complete confidence to the forgiving grace of God, so Luther has quite correctly called them the ‘Pauline Psalms.’ Usually a special occasion leads to such a prayer. It is serious guilt (Psalms 32 and 51) or an unexpected suffering that drives to repentance (Psalm 38 and 102).  In every case all hope is fixed on free forgiveness, as it has been offered to us and promised by God in his word about Jesus Christ for all times.”

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible

Dietrich Bonhoeffer notices that some of the Psalms might relate to guilt.  He rightly attributes the psalmist’s attitude that God has forgiven sins or at least that God is a forgiving God.

When I first came to Pittsburgh, PA, I befriended one of the engineers who worked in a parallel department, both of us in “Engineering Services”, supporting the other departments, but we were also profit makers.  We helped the other departments with specialized skills, but we sold our skills directly to the customer.

One day, this friend explained the hiring practices of the company, and looking around at the other engineers, his idea seemed to be an astute observation at the time.  He said that the company was an odd mixture of “good ol’ country boys” and Catholics.  You did not have to motivate the country boys.  You showed them the task and they jumped in without seeing whether the water was shallow or not.  Back home, they jumped in at harvest time and any time some relative needed a new barn, tractor to fix, or other such emergencies.  And their mindset went toward engineering problems.  As for the Catholics, they were motivated by guilt.  All they had ever heard in church their entire lives was guilt.  This was in the late 90s and maybe that has changed for both demographics.

But our company was strong using poorly paid personnel due to playing on “weaknesses” of those demographics.

But in the past thirty years since then, I have heard a lot of sermons about the arrogance we have to have for a Christian who feels guilty.  God has forgiven our sin.  Why should we hang onto the guilt?  Why do we place ourselves above God by holding onto the guilt of sins that He has already forgiven.  Sure, we should confess our sins, but we need not belabor in the confession.  If we backtrack, God has already dealt with those we backtracked to catch.  But when we confess our sins, we must repent, turn away from our sins and turn toward God.

But, in these psalms, we can see the earthly consequences for some sins, those circumstances that come from the natural progression of some sins.  Adultery could lead to a sexually transmitted disease.  Living riotously could lead to bankruptcy.  Drinking too much might lead to liver failure.  Or some sins that are also against the law might lead to imprisonment.

Other problems might lead to enemies closing in on all sides.

And in those types of situations, we can read through Bonhoeffer’s suggested psalms and find one that resonates.  We might not call it guilt as much as we might call it righting the ship.  Whatever damage we did in our relationship with Jesus – during that period where we took our eyes off our Savior – we can go through a moment of cleansing, more for our benefit since Jesus has already forgiven us.

I recently read someone’s post or in one of my reference library books that we have an amazing God who loves us while we were yet sinners, and His love does not waver when we screw up.  Indeed, He is there to brush us off after He helps us back up.

Lord, guide us as we pray.  We should pray our confessions to You.  But Lord, once we leave our confessions at Your feet, we must leave them there.  You have promised that our burden is light, yet we pick up that load and make our way that much harder when You have already cancelled the debt for the load we pick up.  Forgive us for not forgiving ourselves.  We rob ourselves of living victoriously.  There is no need to hang onto guilt.  In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.