Psalm 38:9

Psalm 38:9

He knows our longings

It’s a salutary moment when we realise that God knows all of our desires and longings. It’s easy to try to impress Him with our spiritual desires; the desire to do right, the desire to overcome temptation, the desire to share His Word, the desire to see His kingdom grow, the desire to be loving and kind to our friends and family. The list goes on and there’s good reason to be proud of those spiritual longings that are God-given and perfectly legitimate. However, the Lord is not fooled, He knows that not all of our desires are healthy. We are descendants of our mother, Eve, who looked at forbidden fruit and noticed that, “It was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.”Here in this Psalm, in a state of deep regret and repentance, David is only too well aware of his failings and his sinful desires; his lust for forbidden fruit. That suggests that he may be languishing in sorrow over his dealings with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah the Hittite! As the weight of his sin weighs heavily upon him, the broken king groans in shame and defeat. He feels completely cut off from His God and the horror of his actions and their consequences are too terrible to bear. This king knew that he could not trifle with the Lord, His sin was overwhelming and he did not expect to recover. Do we share his shame? Do we have any inkling about how much God hates sin? If we do, we will also know how much He loves sinners!

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