Imagine that your soul is like a deep pond. Imagine then that whenever you harbour bitterness, lust, pride, selfish ambition, and other sins in your heart that it is like throwing putrid objects into a pond. They sink down into the depths of the pond, and though, at the surface, everything seems fine, the waters of your soul become bitter. You try to ignore this bitterness but whatever you do to try to cover over the bitterness, it remains. Let’s say that this bitterness of soul drives you to God. But whenever you draw near to God the ‘water’ of your heart is stirred, and, when this happens, all the putrid objects begin to float to the surface. Your immediate reaction is to recoil back away from God. Often this reaction is subconscious so that you don’t even realise you are doing it. The prospect of facing what is in your own heart is overwhelming and so you avoid thinking about it all together. You think you are open to God, but in fact, every time God draws near you recoil. Many Christians live like this. David lived like this for at least nine months before he was confronted by Nathan (2 Samuel 12). It is the ‘deceit’ that he speaks of in Psalm 32. This self-deceit is the reason David did not recognise himself in Nathan’s story. The Holy Spirit wants to do in you what Nathan did for David. If you let those things that contaminate your soul float to the surface, and if you confess them to God, then he will cleanse your soul from guilt.
Use the words of Psalm 51 as your own prayer today.
Read Psalm 32 and Psalm 51
