Cover-up

Photo by; chanpipat

I’m not talking about crime.

I'm not talking about modesty.

I’m talking about sin.

This is what happens:

• The wife says the marriage problem is all her husband’s fault.
• The young man says his sinful habit is because his friends make him do it.
• The liar says she didn’t lie.
• The young man says he can’t help stealing.
• The people in jail say they really didn’t do anything wrong.
• The man says his porn habit is something he can’t control.
• The young woman completely loses it, and she blames it on her family.
• The husband says he isn’t responsible—for not being responsible.*

Everyone has a perfectly good reason he sins. It’s someone else’s fault or he has no control over his actions.

Seriously?

Who’s he trying to kid?

Why all the denial? Why blame it on someone else? Why say she didn’t do what she did do?

This is sad and so very typical. No one likes thinking of himself in a bad light, so he makes up excuses why he isn’t responsible. Many times he blames his circumstances, his peers, his family, and says “it just happened.”

The problem is, when an adult sins, he doesn’t want to admit guilt. He wants to ignore his sin. He wants to cover it up. Often, the cover-up means lying (if only to himself), blaming, and denial.

________________________________

I am always impressed by David in the Old Testament. God said he was a man after mine own heart (Acts 13:22). I believe the reason God describes him that way is because David understood what to do when he sinned. David wasn’t under any illusions. He didn’t blame others for his own sin, and he had the right perspective about sin and his relationship with God.

• For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great (Psalm 25:11). David doesn’t make little of his sin, and he asks for forgiveness.
• (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.) Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest (Psalm 51:1-4). Notice how David doesn’t whitewash his sin. He calls it what it is—sin against God—even though it was against Bathsheba and Uriah. He doesn’t say, “Bathsheba tempted me.” He says he did evil. He takes full responsibility for his actions.
• Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). Here, David is asking God to search his heart and mind for any sin that might be there. What transparency before a Holy God! David also indicates he desires to live in the right way.

Something else that impresses me about David’s attitude toward his own sin is his trust in God for righteous judgment. O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah. . . . The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins (Psalm 7:3-5, 8-9).

You don’t see David—except for one short period of time—hiding, denying, or blaming. He took full responsibility for his actions.

David is a great example of how to handle sin, how to trust the Lord, and how to find peace with God.

Because of this, he could say,

I will bless the LORD at all times:

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

(Psalm 34:1)

*Not one of these scenarios represents anyone with whom I’m in contact.