My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. – Psalm 38:4

Today's Scripture Reading (July 6, 2022): Psalm 38

I love what Canadian author D. D. Barant, in his novel "Dying Bites," has to say about guilt. Barant writes, "I've got a bad case of the 3:00 a.m. guilts - you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn't do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing." Unfortunately, I know all about 3:00 a.m. guilts; I also suffer from them. And once they get hold of you, sleep is lost cause. I can't tell you how often I have been lying in my bed, and my mind begins to go down an avenue of guilt. And I immediately try to stop that line of thought because I know that if I go there, I will never get to sleep. But guilt can do more to us than just disturb our sleep. It has the power to make us very sick. It can upset every corner of our being.

David was sick. But it wasn't any ordinary illness. David understands that what is making him sick is his guilt. David was never one to hide his sins from God. It is part of the function that his poetry seems to fulfill. His poetry often seemed to serve the purpose of a diary in which David recorded some of his most private thoughts and sins.

We aren't sure on this occasion if the guilt that the Poet King felt was from the old guilts of his past or something fresh that had recently happened. The 3:00 a.m. guilts don't usually discriminate between old and new sins. My battle with the 3:00 a.m. guilts is about both the old and the new sins that plague me.

David hopes that, through this act of confession and repentance, he will feel the mercy of God and that his confession will move God to compassion, and he will be forgiven.

It is the hope that all of us who suffer from the 3:00 a.m. guilts hold. The Apostle John writes,

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us (1 John 1:8-10).

The truth is that the 3:00 a.m. guilts are often nothing more than Satan's tool to destroy us. At three in the morning, he reminds us of all the ways we have failed, destroying our sleep and health. The truth of which we need to be reminded is that if we have confessed our sins, we have been forgiven. The deed is done, and the 3:00 guilts should no longer hold sway over our nights.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 39