Psalm 32:1-5: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
If you are willing, I urge you to join me this week as we study the above verses in Psalm 32. Read them over and over to meditate upon them this week and see how much the Lord will reveal to you!
The reason I reference these verses is that I know of several situations when someone was diagnosed with a psychological label such as “borderline personality disorder” or “bipolar disorder” – or in the past “manic depressive disorder” – and was institutionalized for several weeks.
While I agree that each of those persons were being led by their emotions which were “out of control,” what happens quite often (and did in each of these cases) is that the person’s primary problem was that he/she was an unbeliever who was experiencing the real conviction and condemnation of guilt produced after making sinful choices (i.e. aborting a baby, having illicit sex, and illegal drug use). All of these types of sinful behavior produce guilt and subsequent “out of control” emotions which are designed by God to be “alarm systems” to bring each person to the understanding that sinful thinking and actions produce strong emotional responses.
Our emotions respond to our thinking and actions. When thinking or actions are in accordance with God’s commands, then emotions respond in like manner – Ps. 119:111-112: “Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”
When thinking or actions are sinful, then the emotions produced respond accordingly with anger, sadness, fearfulness, etc. When King David kept silent about his sin in Psalm 32 above, he had both emotional and physical symptoms (“his bones wasted away”). Unconfessed sin produces all kinds of problems. However, confessed sin produces healing and salvation according to Prov. 28:13: “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
-Mark (saddened that people exchange secular lies to treat symptoms rather than dealing with the heart issues of sin by turning to the life-giving truth of God’s Word)