Have you ever had to own up to someone when you’d done the wrong thing—to make things right with them? How did you feel in the lead up to that conversation?
I know for me all sorts of thoughts go through my head:
“How are they going to respond? They’re probably going to be really angry…  What if they never forgive me? Maybe it’s best if I just never tell them…”  All these thoughts gradually built up a nasty feeling of dread.  Sometimes we can feel the same feeling toward God. When we sin, when we really mess up it can be terrifying to think, “God will surely condemn me for this, how could he ever forgive me?”
But our Psalm for this week tells a different story. Even though we sin against God, even though not a single person on earth does good in the eyes of God, the Psalm writer, David, knew that God would send a saviour to His people, to save them from their sin and to bless them.  And God did send a Saviour!  He sent Jesus to save us from our sin and it’s consequences and to make us right with God!
Because of Jesus, we don’t need to live in dread and terror. We don’t need to fear God’s judgement. Instead, we know God shows us mercy. When we do the wrong thing, when we sin, we can confidently come before God to confess our sins, knowing that he will forgive us because Jesus has made us right with God!
God turns our terror and dread into peace and joy!
Praise the Lord!