No Confounding, Please

O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.

Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel. Psalm 69:5,6

No confounding, please. We can tell right away that this prayer is not from Jesus, for there was no sin found in Him and no foolishness either. So, which man or woman of the Bible was brave enough to put his or her sin and foolishness out there for all to read throughout the ages? David, King of Israel of course. I wonder how that made the people of Israel feel? I'm guessing they didn't run around touting their foolish and sinful king to the Gentiles around them.

We have an ideal and we seek it in our leaders, ministers, and even spouses. We are at times shocked, shocked I say, that our elected, crowned, or appointed leaders are not the ideal of human behavior that we expected. Divorces have come about when the perfect spouse found and married in the youth of life is later found to be only and merely human. A mere human with sins and foolishness found on board, how ghastly! Even our ministers were called to an ideal of behavior by none other than Paul, the former chief persecutor of the new church of Christ; the same man who wrote that all of us had fallen short of God's glorious standard. When a famous minister falls from that ideal, we are again shocked and disappointed. Perhaps they too have prayed as David did.

If I believe the Bible, God's word, then I cannot claim this ideal of human perfection, and thus along with King David must ask that no one be confounded or ashamed because of me. We all must pray this prayer as we learn selflessness and love toward our neighbors. Especially we pray for those who do not yet believe in Jesus the Christ, and who may not yet realize that a Christian in this world is praying just like David did, "Let them not be confounded because of me, Lord, for You know my foolishness and my sins are not hidden from You."

Christian does not mean perfect; it means forgiven. Rejoice in our Lord's grace!

Bucky