The Character of Confident Confession
Author: Laurie Norris
April 17, 2025
Have you ever had a stubborn stain that refused to come out? No amount of triple-acting Shout, no amount of soaking or scrubbing, not even the best dry cleaning could remove its residual presence. It was too set, the color too strong and spread too far. Its mark was permanent, entrenched. Have you ever felt that way about your sin—the weight, the stain, the blemish, the scarlet letter “F” for failure emblazoned on your forehead, known to God and the mockery of your own heart, even when hidden from others? Sin eats away at our soul from the inside, like a slow corrosion. How do we remove the stubborn stains of our sullied souls, perhaps even the stains we try so hard to hide?
David knew the answer. Exposed by the prophet Nathan for his adultery with Bathsheba and the premeditated murder of her husband Uriah to cover it up, David was confronted with the devastating reality of his sin. There was no atonement to be made—no bleach to wash his guilt-stained garments. Psalm 51 records David’s humble yet confident plea in response to his sin. This penitential psalm of lament has become part of the traditional Ash Wednesday liturgy, signaling the start of Lent—a season given to fasting, examination, confession, and repentance, in preparation for the Passion of our Lord.
The journey of Psalm 51 reveals that our confession about the Lord’s character determines the character of our confession. There are three things we see here about the character of confession:
First, a genuine brokenness over sin rooted
in relationship to God (vv. 3-4). This is the language of contrition, like a vessel shattered in pieces: “against
you alone” have I sinned. No blame, no rationalization—David fully owns his sin (“
my transgressions,
my iniquity,
my sin,” vv. 1-3). Sincere sorrow concerning the personal nature of our sin against God prompts our repentance.
But David does not wallow in the pool of his guilt. Instead, he recognizes God’s love—moving him from sorrow over sin to confidence of cleansing. This is the
second thing we see about the nature of confession: confidence in God’s faithful mercy to forgive and to cleanse (vv. 1-2, 7-11). From the start of his lament in v. 1, David casts himself fully on the Lord’s mercy. This is where he starts. Greater than David’s own sin is his recognition of the Lord’s steadfast love and faithfulness. He has no claim on God’s favor (“
be gracious” . . . “have mercy”), but he audaciously appeals to God’s covenant
hesed and the greatness of God’s compassion. Confident in God’s trusted character, he even requests the absolute removal of his guilt (
“blot out” . . . “wash me thoroughly”). A series of future tense verbs expresses David’s confident expectation. In response to his humble repentance, the Lord
will offer forgiveness. The Lord
will purify his blood-stained clothes and cleanse him from within—a work of new creation in his heart (v. 10). He
will show undeserved mercy. As sure as David is of his own guilt, he is surer still of the Lord’s character to forgive. He knows that God will cleanse him, not condemn him.
The
third thing we see is an expectation of divine healing and restoration (vv. 12-17). From beginning to end, David laments his sin in the light of God’s lovingkindness. God’s faithful character weighs heavier than the burden of David’s sin. Confession and cleansing yield a hopeful expectation of God’s eventual restoration and renewal, and the psalmist’s lips are loosed to praise. Such renewed worship reflects a grateful heart gripped by the enormity of our debt and magnitude of God’s grace.
Lament psalms typically reflect a five-fold progression: opening address, the cause of lament, declaration of one’s confidence in God, petition, and a closing vow to praise. But in Psalm 51, confidence in God’s character is interwoven from beginning to end. God’s merciful lovingkindness is the consistent downbeat of every stanza in David’s plea. His confession is confidently rooted in the character of his God. David
knows his God.
What you confess about the Lord’s character determines the character of your confession. In this season of Lent, we examine our hearts and confess our desperate need. We confess the gravity of our personal offense against a holy God. His character reveals our character more clearly. We feel the weight of our sin and look at it directly, without excuse. In the face of our sin, we boldly and hopefully declare our confidence in the Lord’s faithful character to forgive and to cleanse. David threw himself solely upon the Lord’s mercy in the absence of an acceptable sacrifice for his sins. So we also throw ourselves singularly upon the merciful character of God—a character now fully revealed in the grace of Jesus Christ to atone for all our sins. His blood blots out our sin. In preparation for this Passion season, we appeal to the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, offered up for our sins—the supreme demonstration of God’s unmerited mercy and lovingkindness toward us. If David, on the other side of the cross, could trust so boldly in the Lord’s steadfast love and mercy to forgive his sins—to cleanse him fully, white as snow, to restore him to useful service and faithful testimony—how much more, those of us who stand in the shadow of the cross of Christ? Let God be greater than your greatest sin or guilt.
So, the author of Hebrews declares in light of Jesus’ perfected work as our High Priest: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” He
will receive you . . . because of Christ. Child of God, do you run
toward the throne of grace in the face of your sin? Or do you run
from it because of your shame? You will find cleansing from sin in no other place but in the presence of our Lord. For He clothes us anew in the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
How often we try to clean ourselves up—like children playing in the mud, covered from head to toe, and then running back outside to get clean. We think we’re too dirty for the shower! Only the Lord can clean us; we cannot clean ourselves. We require spiritual water and soap. We must get in the shower of divine mercy and trust His cleansing work. Stop scrubbing at the spots He has declared clean. Surrender your past shame. This is no Shakespearean tragedy, where we obsessively wring our bloodstained hands, like Macbeth, plagued by unrelenting guilt that even the vastest ocean waters could not wash clean. No, this is the gospel. When you don’t feel clean, believe what God says about your spiritual condition and walk in that reality.
This Lenten season, let us together face our sins and, by faith, confidently cast ourselves before the throne of grace—trusting in the Lord’s healing power to restore what is broken, to use us anew as pure and holy vessels of his grace and glory. Like the psalmist, take a much-needed spiritual shower, and take it daily. Our sorrow over sin begins and ends in our recognition of God’s steadfast love. It begins with the recognition of sin as
against our God (v. 4) and ultimately wades into the cleansing pool of God’s mercy, where sorrow gives way to hope. Let us enter into repentance this Lenten season with both sorrow for sin and hopeful expectation of purification in confidence of the Lord’s unfailing mercy.
Remember that stain that just wouldn’t come out? Jesus has
never met a stain too tough for the penetrating power of His mercy, no matter how many years it has set. Let His lovingkindness lift away your sin and shame. What you confess about the Lord’s character will determine the character of your confession.
“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1)
Laurie Norris is Dean of Faculty, Undergraduate School, and Professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
Photo by Hugo Fergusson on Unsplash.
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