For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. Psalm 32:3-5 (ESV)
I shall start by introducing a term that many of you are probably familiar with: ‘the snowball effect’. It is a figurative term for a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds on itself, becoming larger with each passing moment. The term comes from the practice of making a small snowball at the top of a large hill and rolling it down the snow-covered hillside. The original small snowball grows with tremendous rapidity. The more surface area it covers, the more mass it obtains, and vice versa. That is to say, it gets very big, very fast. Such is the phenomenon of the snowball effect.
I decided that it would be an excellent idea to put this snowball theory into practice. The setting at the back of our home was perfect for the execution of the plan, and immediately team Gregg began to set it into action. A small ball was selected and then set in motion down the gently sloping hill. The mass of snow lumbered down the hill and began to grow larger. In the course of its travel, however, it picked up dirt, twigs, pine needles and unwanted elements, becoming increasingly hard and icy. Very soon the snowball veered out of control and crashed.
Sin can be like a snowball – starting small enough with a simple thought, but when we act on the thought the ball starts rolling. Soon it gains mass and momentum. The snowball effect of sin, its consequences and its ongoing effects are mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible, a prime example being that of King David. One night, David was walking around on his roof and saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba taking a bath. Her beauty tempted David, and instead of turning away from that temptation, he inquired about her. He had Bathsheba brought to his palace, and we know the story. She sent word back to David that she was pregnant, so David tried to think of a way to hide his sin. First, he sent word to Joab to send Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, back from the war. David was hoping that Uriah would go home and sleep with his wife so her pregnancy could be attributed to him, but Uriah refused to go home while his friends were still fighting a battle. Since Uriah would not cooperate with David’s plan, David told Joab to put Uriah at the front line of the war so that he would be killed in battle. He was trying to justify and further hide his actions, to cloak them in the guise of “stuff happens during times of war”. But every sin that goes uncorrected gives birth to a greater life of sin; everything snowballed and spiralled out of control. Thankfully, today’s verse in Psalm 32 tells us that David acknowledged his sin.
David sought and received God’s forgiveness. The Hebrew word for ‘forgiven’ literally means lifted off’. The weight of sin had taken its toll on David’s life but we read the key words “acknowledge”, “not cover” and “confess”. His confession was like opening the floodgates of a dam and he pens Psalm 32 telling us:
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven. Psalm 32:1 (ESV)
Let’s beware of the snowball effect of sin and remember those key words today: “acknowledge”, “not cover” and “confess”.