October 27 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 32

Devotional

We talk too much and we are also too silent. We can be silent while we are speaking and we can be speaking while we are silent. With our speech we can cover up so much that even while we are speaking we keep silence. There may be more matters that we hide from each other than just those about which we talk. But nothing makes us lonelier than keeping silence, especially when it pertains to our guilt. We go through life keeping silence. Everyone would rather remain silent about his own guilt. We do that with each other and, what is worse, we keep silent also before God.

We learned this from our father and mother, Adam and Eve. They also kept silent after they had eaten from the tree. Ever since that time we have walked around in this world with a closed mouth before God against whom we have sinned. The Lord waits for a sinner who will come before His throne accusing himself. But still we continue our way before heaven with a guilt we remain silent about.

The brothers of Joseph kept silence after they committed evil against their brother. Achan kept silence after he had hidden the stolen goods; Judas kept silence when he saw what he had done. Also David, the child after God’s own heart, kept silence after he fell in sin. Yes, also a child of God can continue with guilt that he keeps silent.

Why do people keep silence? Is it because of fear of God, or is it because we simply do not want to let go of sin? Or would it be our pride? Or would it simply be our blindness because of sin? Do not separate the one from the other. Our pride and our sin go hand in hand. These are all threads from the same net that are so closely intertwined, that no word can slip through the mazes of the net. We are fastened to our silent existence by a thousand knots.

If only this silence would weigh upon us. It is possible that we do not even know how unhappy we are or how miserable we are in our knots. We have so much to confess before God. We have an abundance of both public and hidden sins. But if sin is not really sin for us, then keeping silence does not bother us.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.