Out of all the books of the Bible, it is possible that the book of Psalms could be one of my favorites. I love the raw honesty and depth of emotion conveyed by the various authors. To me, the book of Psalms is one of the most real books that shows the trouble that we all go through in this world. One of the risks we run in Christianity is adopting a false belief that when we choose to place our faith in Jesus, that life will be all rainbows and unicorns after that. This is not a belief based on biblical truth, it is 100% false, in fact. When I read through the Psalms, I see it in direct opposition to the false teaching and belief that Christians are guaranteed an easy ride, it's simply not true.
Out of the book of Psalms, perhaps one of my favorites is Psalm 51. This Psalm is supposedly composed by David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and was confronted by Nathan the prophet about his sin. David has always been one of my favorite people in the Bible, because he's always seemed very real to me. For the Bible to describe him as a man after God's own heart, while seeing some of the terrible sins he committed and experienced the consequences of, has always given me hope as a believer. It shows me the very real nature of sin and spiritual warfare in our world. Even the best Christians who truly love God with all their heart, are just as at risk of committing sin as anyone else. The thing about David that I love the most is that he was always quick to repent and to seek after God for forgiveness. He did not make excuses, he admitted what he did and moved forward.
There is another danger that any of us can fall into believing if we're not careful, and that is legalism. Most other religions of the world are legalistic in some way or another, and Christians are certainly not free from the possibility of viewing God in the same way. At its core, legalism is simply the belief that we get to God by doing good deeds. It's the belief that if we follow the rules, or if we do more good than bad in this life, it will all work out in the end. The Bible has much to say about this, and so did Jesus when he was here. The truth is, it's not about the sacrifice (or good deed) itself that pleases God, it's the heart behind the sacrifice, which if properly aligned with God is a desire to be right with him and to be in his presence. Psalm 51 addresses this idea and it hits home pretty hard for me:
"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise," -Psalms 51:16-17 NIV.
Whenever we commit sin, our conscience speaks to us and brings in guilt and shame to point us back to God (assuming we haven't seared our conscience yet by repeatedly ignoring it and living in sin anyhow). As Adam and Eve experienced the desire to cover up their shame by hiding from God, we are no different in our modern day. We may not use fig leaves anymore, but there's a world of other things we can use to hide the guilt and shame. For me, I struggled with various substances for years to cope with those negative emotions. I wish I would have known the significance of this verse years ago. What if we begin to look at those negative feelings as a way to offer sacrifice to God? If those negative emotions were designed to help us course correct and get us back to God, then by running from them we are in fact rebelling against his design, and ultimately from him. God uses those negative emotions to push us back to him so that he can teach us things about himself, and ourselves, so that we can continue to become more and more like Christ. This is what the process of sanctification looks like. We cannot participate in that process of growth if we continue to run away from God.
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