Sacrament of Confession in light of Psalm32

[suupah]

  	 				Psalm  32

Happy the sinner whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven.
Happy those to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit. As long as I kept silent, my bones wasted away; I groaned all the day.For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer heat. Selah Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin.

If you go about confessing your sin in exactly this way are your sins forgiven and your guilt washed away without going to sacramental confession?

thanks

 

[Righteousone]

If you go about confessing your sin in exactly this way are your sins forgiven and your guilt washed away without going to sacramental confession?

thanks

What about the Scripture that reads what Jesus said to the Apostles “WHAT SINS YOU FORGIVE HAVE FORGIVEN THEM, WHAT SINS YOU RETAIN ARE RETAINED”. This is confession. Jesus is appointing the Apostles to hear confession of the people, therefore just the way it is today.

 

[suupah]

What about the Scripture that reads what Jesus said to the Apostles “WHAT SINS YOU FORGIVE HAVE FORGIVEN THEM, WHAT SINS YOU RETAIN ARE RETAINED”. This is confession. Jesus is appointing the Apostles to hear confession of the people, therefore just the way it is today.

I agree with that scripture and think that Confession to a priest, who is a emissary of Christ, leads to absolution of your sins.

That was not the original question though.

 

[Reuben_J]

The psalm was pre-NT era. Looked in the light of what Jesus said about the apostles being given the authority to forgive and to retain, forgiveness of sins threfore require the sacrament of confession.

Not that confession is an end by itself, bad confession does not automatically absolve you, but to demonstrate how serious sin is. If one is truly sincere in repentance what is there to stop him/her from publicly confessinfg it to a third person? In this case, the Lord’s minister, the priest.

Even in the OT, public confession of sin was practiced. David put on sack clothes and fast; the people of Nineveh too.

 

[suupah]

The psalm was pre-NT era. Looked in the light of what Jesus said about the apostles being given the authority to forgive and to retain, forgiveness of sins threfore require the sacrament of confession.

Not that confession is an end by itself, bad confession does not automatically absolve you, but to demonstrate how serious sin is. If one is truly sincere in repentance what is there to stop him/her from publicly confessinfg it to a third person? In this case, the Lord’s minister, the priest.

Even in the OT, public confession of sin was practiced. David put on sack clothes and fast; the people of Nineveh too.

So your answer is…NO. if you repent and do exactly what it says in psalm 32. you are not forgiven until you go to confession. is that right?

 

[FaithofAbraham]

You shouldn’t go out preaching to people about their sins but hiding your sins as if you are perfect, as Jesus told Pharisees about their hypocrisy. So you need to be publicly up front as much as you can that you are a sinner too. That’s the spirit of it.

You can’t really go to private confession either and then go out and act sinless, you still have to be public in a general way that you are a sinner. You don’t have to give the gory details you do in confession, just in a general way.

Like, I’m up front that I like to lust and drink, so those are points of work for me. So people need to be honest about it like that.

 

[Reuben_J]

You shouldn’t go out preaching to people about their sins but hiding your sins as if you are perfect, as Jesus told Pharisees about their hypocrisy. So you need to be publicly up front as much as you can that you are a sinner too. That’s the spirit of it.

You can’t really go to private confession either and then go out and act sinless, you still have to be public in a general way that you are a sinner. You don’t have to give the gory details you do in confession, just in a general way.

Like, I’m up front that I like to lust and drink, so those are points of work for me. So people need to be honest about it like that.

FOA, do you know what the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation is?

 

[Reuben_J]

So your answer is…NO. if you repent and do exactly what it says in psalm 32. you are not forgiven until you go to confession. is that right?

Yep. I would not use the term ‘forgiven’ though. Absolved is more appropriate.

 

[suupah]

Yep. I would not use the term ‘forgiven’ though. Absolved is more appropriate.

So psalm 32 is nullified?

 

[NaturalEnquirer]

So your answer is…NO. if you repent and do exactly what it says in psalm 32. you are not forgiven until you go to confession. is that right?

It is certainly possible to be forgiven outside of the Sacrament. Perfect contrition is necessary, and that ain’t easy. The Sacrament is a tool to help the “few” of us who are, shall we say, imperfect.

 

[ProdigalSun]

No Psalm 32 is not nullified! In confession you are fulfilling psalm 32. Read this psalm more carefully while putting it into the context of the apostles directive to forgive or retain.

Peace!

 

[CalmDownWisWins]

If you go about confessing your sin in exactly this way are your sins forgiven and your guilt washed away without going to sacramental confession?

thanks

Yes, but ONLY if you don’t know that a way of reconciliation with God, and His Body, which is even BETTER for you, is available!

 

[b_justb]

Psalm 32
Happy the sinner whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven.
Happy those to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit. As long as I kept silent, my bones wasted away; I groaned all the day.For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength withered as in dry summer heat. Selah Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my faults to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin.

The Psalmist here in no way intends for the customs and the detailed Jewish Liturgies in the Covenant between God and the People of Israel to be eliminated by penning these lines.

Though each Jew confess his sins to God and seek forgiveness as the Psalmist here sings about; this is no way eliminated Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:24-29; Num. 29:7-11).

Notice the details that these Scriptures provide in making atonement for the sins of the Celebrant and then the people. King David in no way was attempting to negate these Laws. To attempt to read into the Scriptures that he was, is poor contextual exegesis (IMO of course, and I’m not suggesting that’s what you are doing. OK? OK).

As Christians we have to take all of what Scripture says and always see it through the lens of the Cross of Christ, I think it’s very safe to say that these stanzas show how one’s heart needs to be towards our great God and Savior and we should always seek to be open with Him about how we are as sinners. We must also remember that as Catholic Christians we are part of a unified body of believers and when we sin we sin against ourselves, against God, and also against that unified body of believers, The Church. We are in communion with God and also The Church. We need to recall for ourselves that we have sinned, we need to seek forgiveness from God, and we need to make things right between ourselves and the Body of Christ we have sinned against. That sin separates ourselves with all three. We are not who we are destined to be in Christ when we sin; we are not in communion with God when we sin; and we Alienate ourselves from the Church when we sin. We make all those right by the Sacrament of Penance.

Atonement means what it says: At One-ment. To make one, or whole, that which is not but is supposed to be.

Have the heart of David, and go to confession both.

 

[Reuben_J]

The Psalmist here in no way intends for the customs and the detailed Jewish Liturgies in the Covenant between God and the People of Israel to be eliminated by penning these lines.

Though each Jew confess his sins to God and seek forgiveness as the Psalmist here sings about; this is no way eliminated Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:24-29; Num. 29:7-11).

Notice the details that these Scriptures provide in making atonement for the sins of the Celebrant and then the people. King David in no way was attempting to negate these Laws. To attempt to read into the Scriptures that he was, is poor contextual exegesis (IMO of course, and I’m not suggesting that’s what you are doing. OK? OK).

As Christians we have to take all of what Scripture says and always see it through the lens of the Cross of Christ, I think it’s very safe to say that these stanzas show how one’s heart needs to be towards our great God and Savior and we should always seek to be open with Him about how we are as sinners. We must also remember that as Catholic Christians we are part of a unified body of believers and when we sin we sin against ourselves, against God, and also against that unified body of believers, The Church. We are in communion with God and also The Church. We need to recall for ourselves that we have sinned, we need to seek forgiveness from God, and we need to make things right between ourselves and the Body of Christ we have sinned against. That sin separates ourselves with all three. We are not who we are destined to be in Christ when we sin; we are not in communion with God when we sin; and we Alienate ourselves from the Church when we sin. We make all those right by the Sacrament of Penance.

Atonement means what it says: At One-ment. To make one, or whole, that which is not but is supposed to be.

Have the heart of David, and go to confession both.

Good explanation. I was about to say something like that myself.

Very often we shorten the Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation) as confession. Confession is just but one part of the Sacrament process. It entails more than that; what with the various necessary steps that one must take. I suppose the ultimate objective is to make right between us and God, between us and the person we have sinned against, and between us and the entire body of Christ. Actually the third part did not come to my mind then, but nevertheless that’s a necessary one. Thanks.

Thus in order to perform complete process of the Sacrament, one must go through processes like remorse, confession, penance and restitution.

 

[Elzee]

You need to take the whole bible in context. Venial sins can be confessed in this way and forgiven. Mortal sins, however, can only be forgiven through a priest (normatively). That is clearly stated by John in one of his letters when he talks about a “sin unto death” and about how these are sins we “ought not pray about”. I don’t have my bible in front of me or I’d quote you the verse - sorry. I’m sure someone else here has it on the tip of their tongue!

 

[suupah]

You need to take the whole bible in context. Venial sins can be confessed in this way and forgiven. Mortal sins, however, can only be forgiven through a priest (normatively). That is clearly stated by John in one of his letters when he talks about a “sin unto death” and about how these are sins we “ought not pray about”. I don’t have my bible in front of me or I’d quote you the verse - sorry. I’m sure someone else here has it on the tip of their tongue!

You are referring to

1john5:16
If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray.All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.

This text does differentiate between mortal and venial sin. But it doesn’t mention sacramental confession anywhere in there.