Happy Am I

Psalm 32:5

I acknowledged my sin to You,

and my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,"

and you forgave...

Sin. Iniquity. Transgression.

It would seem the Psalmist is repeating himself in synonymic fashion, but understanding comes from the realization that the Holy Spirit inspired the repetition for a reason. There is a actually a lesson to be learned from the use of the three different similar words.

Sin is missing the mark, and the Bible says we all do it. We fail to measure up to God's excellence and high standards in many ways, and sometimes every day. We do what we shouldn't; we don't do what we should. There are multitudinous ways for us to fall short of glory, and when we try to explain why, our explanations fall shorter still. We blame it on the tempations of the world; we blame it on the devil; seldom do we blame it on some flaw in our own character or nature, but the Bibles clearly tells us that the temptation to sin comes from within.

Iniquity is the twistedness of one's character that makes one susceptible to temptation and prone to sin, and truthfully, we're just born that way. Because of the disobedience of our first foremother and father, every male and female member conceived naturally in the human race is inherently perverted, bent out of shape from the image and likeness in which we were originally created. That twistedness is the root of our shortcomings. Sin is the result of iniquity, which in itself is a result of the fall. But lest someone point to these inherited character flaws and say, "I can't help it, that's just the way I am," God gave us the intellect and ability to choose our own behavior.

Transgression is rebellion, the choice to sin because of the iniquity ingrained in our humanity instead of following the instructions of God and the dictates of our conscience. When we choose to do what is wrong, we ignore what God has said, and we suppress any inner feelings of dobut, guilt, or shame concerning our considerations, opting instead to do what the desires of our iniquitous flesh compel us to do.

Yes, we all sin.

And yes, we are all born with a nature to sin.

But neither of those means we must choose to sin. In fact, the nature of God being pursued by those who know Him necessitates that we choose NOT to sin. It's up to us.

And when we sin, thankfully, we have an advocate with the Father who pleads our case and renders us guiltless and unpunishable by our confession and His atonement, so like the Psalmist we can also rejoice with the words, "Happy am I when my transgression is forgiven, my sin covered up, and my iniquity not counted against me."

Oh, how happy am I!