We have been walking down through Psalm 91 for the last few weeks.  We have found that it is not only a hymnbook for singing but also a prayer book for worship.  The first prayer we looked at was in verses 1-3 which we entitled, ‘A Prayer for Remembrance’. 

Let us look this week at verse 11, ‘A Prayer for Remission’, which says, “For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”

Let us walk down through this prayer with great caution, for we stand upon inspired holiness.  For a man to display the confession of his sins and failures publicly would have to be inspired by God.  We are by nature a people who like to hide our sin from others and confess in secret.  Let us remember sins done in public are often demanded by God to be confessed in public.

Let us see in our text first of all, ‘The Approach of the Sinner’.  Our LORD determined in the ages past to do for sinners that which would bring Him the most glory.  When we come with a request that will bring Him great pleasure and much glory then He is drawn to that request.

We also see in the text, ‘The Adoration of the Saviour’.  In this prayer David cries, “O LORD”.  The ‘O’ speaks of desperation.  The word ‘LORD’ is Jehovah, the self sufficient one and the one who keeps the promise of His covenant.  David is approaching the promise keeping God with great adoration of praise.

In this prayer we see, ‘The Advocate for the Sin’.  He asks for his sins to be the advocate of pardon.  The root word for ‘pardon’ means to forgive.  In the Bible our LORD’S forgiveness is always connected with His forgetting.  Most of us will forgive if asked, but to turn our forgetter off is another story.  Hebrews 10:17 says, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”  Micah 7:19 says, “…and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”  Thank you LORD.  My sins not in part but the whole were nailed to the cross and I bear them no more.

There is in this prayer ‘The Association with Sin’.  David calls it “…mine iniquity;” How many folks today want to blame the way they are on someone else?  The favorite blame is to say it is my parent’s fault that I am the way I am.  This is popular with the self-esteem and psychology crowd.  Oh, if someone would stand and say, ‘it’s not my brother or my sister but it’s me O LORD, standing in the need of prayer’. 

We see in this prayer that David mentions ‘The Amount of Sin’.  He makes this statement “…for it is great.”  The word ‘great’ speaks not only of the amount but the hideous nature of my sin.  Why would David mention the greatness of is sin?  Where there is great sin there must be great mercy.  Where there is great sin grace will much more abound.

LORD, thank you for the great privilege of allowing us to confess our sins and find forgiveness at your altar of mercy.