The Effects of Guilt

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. . . . My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
–Psalm 32:3–4

In Psalm 32:1, David wrote, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven!” He knew firsthand the debilitating effects of guilt and the relief that comes from repentance.

Let me give you the Reader’s Digest version of his story. In 2 Samuel 11, King David was at the zenith of his career. One evening as he was walking around on the roof, he saw a woman bathing. Even though the woman, Bathsheba, was married, David had her brought to him, and she became pregnant. David could have confessed his sin; instead, he tried to cover it up. He arranged for Bathsheba’s husband, who was away fighting, to come home for a rendezvous with his wife so she could say the baby was his. When that didn’t work out, David had the man killed on the front lines. Then David married Bathsheba, and they lived happily ever after.

Is that how the story ended? No. The last verse of 2 Samuel 11 says, “But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.” For months, David lived with the guilt of his sin. Look at how he described the effects of guilt: “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3–4).

Medical science confirms that guilt takes a toll on us physically and emotionally, just as David described. The effects of unresolved guilt can range from sluggishness to depression to a complete breakdown of the immune system. There are spiritual consequences to unresolved guilt as well. If we’re God’s children, He doesn’t move away from us, but we move away from Him. We don’t want to open the Bible. We don’t want to be in church. We’re separated from God and His blessings. And eventually, we experience His discipline.

That’s exactly what happened to David. One day, the prophet Nathan came to the palace and confronted David about his sin. The jig was up, and David had a choice: He could deny his sin, or he could receive God’s forgiveness. David confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). He chose to move from guilt to repentance.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Moving from Guilt to Repentance,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2021.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.