Psalm 32 Acknowledging our Sins

Do your sins define who you are? Are they opportunities for you to learn and grow? Or do you hide your sins from yourself and others to maintain a facade? To sin is merely “to miss the mark” and we are all constantly doing that. How we process our missteps is just as important as the actual sin.


It is important to remember that we must acknowledge our sins before we can be healed of them. What does that mean? It does not mean that we wallow in them, feel guilty about them, give them power over us, or punish ourselves over them. It merely means that we must delve deep enough within our consciousness to know they are there. We cannot heal a trait that we do not recognize. As the psalmist says, we try to hide our iniquities from God. In reality, God is omniscient and so we have really only tried to hide our sins from ourselves.

There are times when we mistakenly believe that by withholding or suppressing emotions and thoughts that are not “Christian-like,” we can overcome those feelings (vv. 3–4). In fact, this creates a situation where part of your consciousness holds on more tightly to the unwanted thought. The thought then evolves into emotional blocks, physical problems or even mental illness. Suppressed thoughts sap your spiritual, emotional, mental and physical energies.

When we understand that God is all-knowing and that we are instruments of God’s creation, we realize that only God can heal us. But until we recognize the flaws in our consciousness and surrender them to God in prayer (v. 6), we cannot be healed. The problem is not God’s will but our own. God has given us dominion over our own lives, and never overrides our will.

Once we bring our demons out into the light, strangely they no longer have the same power over us. By excavating those things about ourselves that we find most sensitive, we realize that these things do not define us. We can turn them over to God and be done with them. We are all children of God with a heritage of peace of mind, joy, health and prosperity. No one and nothing can withhold this gift from us; but our unwillingness to step forward and claim it and leave the past behind is a stumbling block.

When we enter into a right relationship with God (make God the center of our life), we are forgiven. Forgiveness is in the hands of human beings, it is the decision to “give” up false beliefs and standards and “for” the Truth. God is waiting for us to step forward. Allowing our lives to be led by Spirit (vv. 8–9), we are protected by our faith in God.