February 26, 2023

 

Psalm 32-

3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.

 

Many years ago, cleaning up after an event, I accidentally caused my aunt's guitar to fall over, and a guitar string broke.  I was horrified, but decided to say nothing, due to my embarrassment. For several years, I continued to say nothing, but my interaction with her was always coloured with the knowledge that this had happened.  Finally, I confessed, and my Aunt said "Oh that?   Strings break all the time".  I could NOT believe the time I wasted, worrying about what she would say.   The relief was immeasurable, the guilt was gone.

 

The irony of the Psalm 32 strikes me when, in the beginning, the psalmist is hiding his sin from God.  ‘When I kept silent, my bones wasted away….’

 

A family favourite, Psalm 139 states 'Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?'  The psalmist knows that there is no hiding from God, not our thoughts, not our heart, not our sin.  The only one we are fooling, when we fail to name our sins, is ourselves.  The forgiveness is there, when we confess.  And yet verse 7 states that God is our hiding place, our protector from trouble, surrounding us with deliverance.

 

When we traveled to Allan's hometown this past Family Day weekend, the setting sun was stunning.  We were in the 'Golden Hour' where the colours seemed to glow,  Just before we arrived in Leader, there was a turn off to the heritage site of St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic church built in 1915.  There was the church, a little white glowing beacon, at the end of a snow swept road, rising above a harsh environment where Germans from Russia settled in the early years of the province.  Battling drought rather than rising waters, armies of destructive grasshoppers more than invading armies, unrelenting wind, unforgiving sun, the strength sapping heat of the summer and miles and miles of no shelter, unless you built it.

 

This sanctuary, this hiding place contains the names of the faithful (including Allan's Besplug ancestors), the cemetery contains the names of the faithfully departed.  This was their hiding place, the confessionals at the back was their place to meet God, the place of acknowledgement, the forgiveness of sin.

 

May this Lent remind us that when we are hiding FROM God, we should be hiding IN Him.  When we run from God, instead of running to Him, we are missing His blessing, missing His presence, missing His peace.

 

- Sylvia Besplug

 

Glow - Eric Whitacre