Palm Sunday: Psalm, Psalm 31:9-16                                

Psalm 31:9-16

The responsive Psalm for Palm Sunday this year opens to us a couple options. I have chosen the second for our consideration today. Psalm 31 is one of my favorites in normal reading, but in the context of opening Holy Week it takes on even greater weight. Jesus would certainly have prayed this psalm as all the others. But with Psalm 31 He is praying through His people, for He has no sin for which to lament.

David has written that he needs the Lord’s mercy crying, “I am in trouble” (v. 9). Then David launches into many pains that come to the one who sees his iniquity in the clear light of God’s demands. His eye wastes away. Soul and body both have real responses to light exposing sin. His life is spent, his strength fails, and even his bones waste away.

Inward pain, physical weakness and even relationships are affected, (v. 11) by his sin. So my question for all of us is: do we let our sin “get this close”? You see, to recognize the effects of sin to this degree means that you actually have to take sin seriously and love God supremely. There must be pondering, wrestling, and eventually confession. And God is always ready to shed mercy. God be praised.

But as we walk through Holy Week, let us not forget that our sin brought us here, points us forward to the days just before us, and will make the celebration of Christ’s triumph over death all the sweeter. Palm Sunday is just a few days ahead. The Savior, the salve for all our pains, is near.