3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
As we continue our Summer Psalm meditation: Oh how sweet it is to be forgiven! And to have my sin-sick soul made well again!
I don’t know about the rest of y’all but shame can sneak up and jump out at me like an annoying bully. I can be having a lovely conversation with a loved one and WHAM! Something they say makes me remember something I did and the regret and embarrassment and disgust of who I used to be floods into my mind and accuses me all over again.
Or–same person, same conversation, and I say something. Something insensitive, thoughtless, unkind, or self-promoting. And WHAM. Same thing. Except this time the shame is in real time. It’s not based on a past regret. It’s based on my current sinfulness. This chronic condition I have that no matter how long I walk with the Lord or mature in my faith, a lingering symptom pops up reminds me once again how desperately I need a Savior.
Bless the Lord who forgives all our iniquities. And who heals all our diseases–even the sickness of soul that comes from this persistent awareness that we are selfish, sinful people to the core.
The faith it takes to really believe we’ve been completely forgiven is the same faith that heals our hearts. Touches the parts that are anxious, lonely, ashamed, or bitter and makes them whole again.
When shame or guilt or despair try to overwhelm me, I often think of a verse of an old hymn. Maybe you know it and maybe it can help you too:
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see him there,
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God the just is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me,
To look on him and pardon me.
–Before the Throne of God Above by Charitie Lees Smith
So let’s bless the Lord:
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases!