Covenant Faithfulness
The hope undergirding our forgiveness
“For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” (Psalm 25:11)
As we are fond of saying here at Dominion Press, the fundamental problem in our culture today is not first the commies and progressives; nor is it the marxists, the socialists, the tolerance brigade, the Liberals, or even our conniving, deceitful, and dishonourable Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
The problem with our culture today is sin, plain and simple. And all these other evils, as repulsive and malignant as they are, are merely symptoms of this deeper issue.
What is paramount therefore is that each of us learns how to deal with sin—our own sins first, and then the sin in our families, churches, workplaces, and communities, moving outward and upward as God gives grace, means, and opportunity to do so. As Jesus said, if we are faithful over a little, He will set us over much (Matt. 25:21). We need to take care of the log in our own eye before we can see clearly to take the speck out of our brother’s (7:1–5).
This being the case, allow me to direct your attention to three sweet truths regarding sin and repentance from Psalm 25. May they be a practical help to you as you seek to put to death sin in your own life by the Spirit’s power (Rom. 8:13).
Observe 1. That David seeks “pardon” from the LORD.
The immediate and natural effect of sin upon the conscience is to drive us away from God. Such was the effect upon Adam and Eve, who “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God” when they heard Him walking in the garden (Gen. 3:8). Isaiah also cried out “Woe is me! For I am lost” when he saw the Lord in His glory seated upon the throne (Isa. 6:5), and the disciples too “fell on their faces and were terrified” when they heard the voice of God speaking from the cloud (Matt. 17:6).
Numerous other examples abound, but these three serve to establish the point. Even the smallest awareness of our guilt, when considered against the majesty and holiness of Almighty God, is enough to completely undo us. As Bunyan said, “Man crumbles to dust at the presence of God.”1
But not so in this text. Notably, we find here another way to deal with our guilt—indeed, the only way to deal with our guilt—and that is to go directly, humbly, and simply to God to ask for His pardon: “For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt.”
The petition is so bold as to be almost presumptuous. Yet it is the way God has taught us to pray. It is, incredibly, the proper and even welcome movement of a heart animated by a living faith. We should thus avoid ever suppressing this instinct out of a phony sense of self-abasement or “humility.” If God has invited us to confess our sins to Him for pardon, then we simply ought to take Him at His word. Faith does not censure what God has approved.
Observe 2. That it is the greatness of David’s guilt that moves him to seek pardon.
The reason David petitions the Lord for pardon here is not because his guilt is small but precisely because it is “great,” that is, because it is abundant, heavy, overwhelming, and threatening. David, in other words, feels the magnitude of his guilt. He feels it weighing upon his heart like a stone, drying up his strength as by the heat of summer (32:4). Yet he does not allow his guilt to move him away from the Lord. Rather, the “greatness” of his guilt drives him to the Lord: “Pardon my guilt, for it is great.”
We ought to learn therefore that no sin should ever keep us from going to God in repentance. In fact, the greater our sin, the greater our urgency ought to be to confess it and seek forgiveness. As Matthew Henry aptly put it, “It is the glory of a great God to forgive great sins.”2 If our burden is heavy, that is all the more reason to run to the Lord and ask that it be relieved.
Observe 3. That the reason God will pardon our guilt is for His name’s sake.
David does not say, “For my name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt.” Nor even, “Because of your great love for me, O LORD, pardon my guilt.” No, David grounds his appeal for pardon in something far more solid and enduring, something He knows God will not deny, namely, His own covenant faithfulness: “For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.”
David knows that God has bound Himself by covenant to His people. He knows that Yahweh, who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6), has promised to forgive “iniquity and transgression and sin” (v. 7). Thus, God’s own name, His own honour and reputation, is bound up with forgiving the sins of His people. Should He deny them, He would be denying Himself, something the apostle Paul tells us is impossible for God to do (2 Tim. 2:13). Hence David appeals to Him on this basis.
Notice, then, that our forgiveness is set firmly upon two solid and immovable pillars: the nature of God and the covenant faithfulness of God. On the one hand, God is disposed by nature to be merciful and gracious to us: He is a wonderfully unique God who “does not retain his anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love” (Micah 7:18).
On the other hand, however, because God is inclined by nature toward mercy, He has also willingly bound Himself by covenant to forgive the sins of His people. He has promised, in other words, to be a sin-forgiving God, and thus the forgiveness of our sins is not so much a matter of willingness or unwillingness but of faithfulness or unfaithfulness.
God’s commitment to His own covenant promises—and, by extension, to the reputation and glory of His name throughout the ages—ensures that He will be merciful to His repentant saints. As Calvin put it so insightfully, “the infinite glory of thy name will not suffer thee to cast me off.”3
So David believes, and so he prays. And so should we.
John Bunyan, The Fear of God, 4.
Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Vol. 3, 264.
John Calvin, John Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible, Kindle Reader, 2257.
A powerful word, thank you brother.