Hide Thy face from my sins

Hide Thy face from my sins, — Ver. 9a.

ATT ERE we have a new expression for that which” David desired the grace of God to do for him. He expects that God will hide His face from his sin, and not see it any more. This also was one aim of the prayer: 6 Have mercy upon me, 0 God.’ This blessing is in entire agreement with what the word of God teaches us. So long as our sins are not forgiven, they are represented as standing before the face of God in order to accuse us. He hears the accusation which they bring in against ns. He looks upon them in all their heinousness as a transgression of His law, and they awake His wrath and displeasure. So it is said (Ps. xc. 8): 6 Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance’ and again (Jer. ii. 22): i For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord God.’ In the bitter experience of his anxious soul this thought had become with David a terrible truth. He feels not only what he had confessed (ver. 3): ‘My sin is ever before me,’ but what was more terrible, that his sin was ever before God, He saw his sins himself, and he was terrified; but he also says (ver. 4) that God saw them. Every sin that he had committed was there before the face of God. God grant that every one of my readers may feel this. Then perhaps he may learn to understand the glory of David’s prayer. He will then feel that every sin as soon as it is committed, goes to swell the list of his accusers before the face of God; that whenever a sin is once committed, it is no longer in the power of man; he can no more recall it or annul it; no repentance or tears, no promise of new obedience, can cover it or take it away. Only an act of God, a wonderful act of God’s free grace, can give the soul the blessed certainty; my sin is no more before God’s face.

And what is this act of God? In the verse we have as our text, David names it: Hide Thy face from my sin.5 To hide the face from anything, means not to see it; and this prayer of David is just according to what is elsewhere said; as, for example (Num. xxiii. 21): 6 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.’ So also Hezekiah prays (Isa. xxxviii. 17): ‘But Thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption: for Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.’ So also speaks the prophet Micah (vii. 19): ‘He will turn again, and will have compassion for us? He will

HATE MERCY TPO^T ME.

tread our iniquities under foot, and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.’ And in like manner speaks the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah: 6 In those days, saith the Lord, shall the unrighteousness of Israel be sought for, but it shall not be found; for I shall forgive it to all those whom I shall cause to remain.’ These words of Scripture give us to understand what the forgiveness of God is. He casts our sins behind His back: He casts them into the depths of the sea, so that they can no more be found: He turns away His face from them, and sees them no more.

Oh this is blessedness: to know that our sins are forgiven. Christ has brought them to naught. Our sins can no more stand up against us. The face of God averted from our sins is turned toward us in favor. God no longer sees our sin in wrath, but He looks upon us in mercy. This is nothing different from what in the New Testament is called Justification. When the sinner receives acquittal from his sins, then he is indeed a justified soul in the eyes of God. His former sins are no more to be found. God has hid His face from them; and when the holy Judge no longer beholds them, then may the acquitted soul rejoice in the assurance of His favor and love.

At this point, however, some one may ask: How can it be that the omniscient and faithful God, who knows my sins, nevertheless shuts His eyes to them, and takes no further cognizance of them? He is always the perfectly righteous One; and that

He should look upon sin and connive at it, is once and for all impossible. But when God averts His eyes from your sins, hides His face from your sins, casts your sins behind His back, He does this because through Jesus satisfaction for them has been found. When he receives from the Great Surety the assurance that you belong to Him, that you have part in the annulling of guilt by His blood, then God has no longer to deal with your sins; they have been put away. And then it is just His righteousness which demands that He should no more remember your sins, but hide His face from your sins. So long as your sins are before Him, God must behold them; but when they are imputed to Jesus, with the satisfaction of the Lord Jesus as your Surety imputed to you, God may not look upon them any more. They have been accounted for and put away.

Thus also we learn in what spirit you are to make this prayer of David your own: 6 Hide Thy face from my sins.’ Look upon the Lord Jesus as He has borne your sins on the cross, and annulled the guilt of them. Look upon the Lord Jesus with the complete atonement which He has wrought out as offered to you by God. Look upon Him as really given for yon by God in order that you may receive Him with confidence and come to God in Him. Yes: look upon Him through whom myriads have received the sentence of acquittal as also waiting for you. Look upon Him until your faith becomes living, and you can say: Jesus is also for me: God hides His face from

HAVE MERCY UPOX ME.

my sins: ‘Thou hast cast all ray sins behind Thy back.’

Reader, this is a matter of great concern — of amazing interest. Your sins are all before the face of God. They cry out for vengeance. Day and night their cry ascends to God: % This sinner has provoked Thee: He is worthy of the curse: O holy God, hide not Thy face from his sins.’ And the law of God supports their entreaty: ‘O holy God, they have transgressed Thy law: hide not Thy face from their sins.’ And woe to the sinner who must experience that. For this reason, reader, let your prayer go up on the other hand to God: ‘Hide Thy face from my sin.’ Plead the promise of God and the blood of Jesus. Ask Jesus to become your intercessor. You shall experience that God hears this prayer; that the blood of Jesus has great power; and that He is in a position to cover your sins and to take them away from before God.