Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Psalms 51:1-3
The concept of forgiveness is infused throughout the Bible, and particularly in the Psalms, where David and the other psalmists cry out for forgiveness and teach us important lessons in the process. Psalm 32 addresses this. It begins by noting how blessed someone is who has been forgiven—and how miserable the psalmist was when he “kept silent” (v. 3) and didn’t acknowledge his sin. But then, as he notes in the key verse, “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (v.5) In essence, the psalmist (King David) confessed his wrongdoing to the Lord, and suddenly his burden was lifted. By owning his sin—genuinely acknowledging and repenting—he received forgiveness. God restored his joy and again became his refuge, his “hiding place” (v. 7).
The psalm teaches us when we confess our sin to the Lord and don’t try to pretend it didn’t happen or run from Him, and when we turn our lives back toward God’s path, then God gives us a tremendous gift in return: the freedom of forgiveness. “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7
God created us to be in full relationship with Him. But time and time again, we build walls between us and our Heavenly Father. We disobey the rules God gave us, conveniently forgetting that when we sin, we’re not only hurting ourselves or someone else—we’re hurting God. A sin against another is a sin against God. Asking for forgiveness for our sins and in turn, forgiving others who sin against or hurt us brings us back into relationship with Him. I've been in both situations and I am sure you have, too. How much grace and forgiveness does God give us when we ask? ALL OF IT!!! How much grace and forgiveness should we give to others? ALL OF IT!!!
And when someone else wrongs us, we need to remember that gift we receive from God and strive to forgive them in the same way. No sacrifice or good work on our part can possibly compensate for sin. But there is hope, for the Bible tells us God loves us from a well so deep its bounds are infinite. And when we sin, and we not only acknowledge that sin but genuinely repent and seek to do right, God forgives us. He washes us clean, and we get to start again. In return, God tells us, we are to do the same with others when they wrong us: forgive them in honor of the great gift our Father bestows upon us.