From Self-deception to Relief

I once asked my sister, Luci, to name the emotion she considered the most powerful and enjoyable of all. She surprised me with her answer: relief. After thinking for a moment, I had to agree. Relief is everyone’s favorite feeling! David’s song about forgiveness begins with a celebration of relief, which he found in God’s forgiveness of his transgression.

Living under the Cloud of Guilt

Your conscience may be invisible but it is certainly not inactive! Who hasn’t been kept awake by its pleadings? With incredible regularity, an unforgiven conscience can rob us of an appetite, steal our sleep, and drive us to distraction. Do you remember Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”? The main character has committed murder.

An Attitude of Gratitude

King David knew the sting of unjust treatment as keenly as anyone in history. To keep mistreatment from undermining his relationship with God, he put some resolutions into a song. Having committed to remaining open before the Lord and to remembering His love, David committed to letting God be the judge of others’ sin. Resolved: I will refuse the temptation to get even.

Open before the Lord

As David endured unfair treatment despite his doing what was right, He cried out to God in the verses of Psalm 26. As we read his anguished lyrics, we will uncover some resolutions David made which kept him (and will keep us) from slipping into bitterness and resentment during times of mistreatment. Resolved: I will be open before the Lord (26:2).

Mistreated, Misjudged, and Maligned

If I were asked to give a popular title to Psalm 26, it would be: “How to Do Right When You’ve Been Done Wrong.” We have all been “done wrong,” haven’t we? Maybe that describes your circumstance right now: an intolerable working situation; a husband, wife, parent, or child who takes unfair advantage of you even when you have treated him or her kindly; a friend who has turned against you due to a misunderstanding of something you did with only the purest of motives. Such feelings grind away at our peace so severely we wonder if we can continue.

Overcoming Unfair Treatment

The LORD is righteous within her; He will do no injustice. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame. (Zephaniah 3:5) Dear Lord, we want You to find a yielded and quiet spirit within us. To make that happen, we need You to come in like a flood. Occupy us like water filling empty spaces.

Forgive Our Trespasses

“Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; nor have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets.” (Daniel 9:8–10)

For Controlling Our Words

See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. (James 3:5-6) Our Father, our tongues are far too often wicked and out of control! We have breached confidences that were meant to be held in trust.

Finding Justice in Injustice

And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment—wickedness was there, in the place of justice—wickedness was there. I thought in my heart,
“God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked; for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.” (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 NIV)

Resentment

Leo Held was a paragon of respectability. He was a middle-aged, hard-working lab technician who had worked at the same Pennsylvania paper mill for nineteen years. Having been a Boy Scout leader, an affectionate father, a member of the local fire brigade, and a regular church-goer, he was admired as a model in his community. Until . . .

Category Archives: Forgiveness