Based on Psalms 1, 30, and 130.
O LORD God,
If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? For we have sinned against you times without number.
We have walked in the counsel of the ungodly, trusting in the world’s wisdom, and in created things, rather than in You, the Creator, and in your truth.
We have stood with sinners, seeking fellowship with the world, and deliberately rejecting fellowship with you.
We have scorned and mocked others, oftentimes those who are the weakest among us. Lord, what we have done to the least of these, we have done to you. Forgive us Lord.
We have not taken delight in your instruction, but instead have seen it as a burden. Our minds and our hearts have wandered far from you. Lord, Forgive us.
Lord, it is your hands that have made us, and it is you who have planted us by streams of living water. Forgive us for being content with mere smatterings of rain, instead of drinking deeply of the river of your word. May we not be like the fig tree which, when you looked to it for fruit, found none.
Lord, as we confess our guilt to you, help us to feel it deeply, help us to have true godly self-despair. You have said in your word that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Lord, help us to understand that without Christ, we can do nothing.
Yet,
Help us to remember that our hope is in you, and in the Lamb that takes away sin. You have said in your word that a righteous man may fall seven times and stand again, and Lord, we have fallen seventy times seven. We cry out with Peter, as he saw the waves, “Lord, save me!”
So Lord, help us to stand up.
For, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.
Lord, You brought me up from Sheol;
You spared me from among those
going down to the Pit.
Sing to Yahweh, you His faithful ones,
and praise His holy name.
For His anger lasts only a moment,
but His favor, a lifetime.
Weeping may spend the night,
but there is joy in the morning.
It is in Christ’s holy name I pray,
Amen.