Psalms 51:1-2

¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

How can there be a single person standing face-to-face with God who does not say this very thing.  Confronted with a powerful and perfect God, where the perfect is the overpowering, how can anyone not immediately be weighed down by their incredible sins.

"O God, do not give to me what I deserve for my sins, keep your wrath and judgment from me, and may the resistance to my destruction be because of Your love that will not fail.  My very existence depends completely upon Your love.  Lord, please forgive me my sins, wipe them from the book of my life so they will no longer be read by You.  My God, only You can cleanse this sin from me."

It is important to notice that the pain for David is the reality that God sees his sin as a part of David.  He was not overcome with panic over what others thought of him, but of what his God thought of him.  He knew he had failed the One who defended him, the One who delivered him, the One who blessed him and the One who proved His love for him time and time again.  I find it remarkable how we can so easily confuse ourselves into a life of non-reality and live with obvious sin in our life.  Then, once there are consequences we panic over what others think of us.  This is an obvious sign of our lack of faith and relationship with God.  When we are more worried over how others perceive us than how our God sees us we have made others our God.  We are worshiping an idol. 

When I first read David's writings here, I think that he wants his sin forgiven and wiped away so he is clean again.  But after reading many of David's writings, I believe David's first thought upon "waking up" is that He doesn't want God to see his sins before He sees him any longer.  He is sick to the point of death that his God had to have his sins before Him and he doesn't want those sins present before his Lord.  Why do we not think in this way?  Why do we not teach in this way?  Our thoughts and teachings are for us to get clean so we can be accepted before God.  Sure, that is very important, but if we have the proper relationship with God, we would put our thoughts towards Him first and not desire for Him to have to witness and endure our sin before us.  Keep short accounts of sin so our Lord sees us, not our sin.  If our sin put Jesus on the cross then I can only imagine the Lord's rage upon sin.  We should want the Lord to see us, sinless through our repentance and the cleansing of His Son's sacrifice, not our sins.  The Lord can protect and bless us; He will not protect and bless sin.