For troubles surround me: too many to count!
My sins pile up so high I can’t see my way out.
They outnumber the hairs on my head.
I have lost all courage.
(Psalm 40:12) Holy Bible, New Living Translation.
Those who know me know that I am follically challenged, and it is good when I find a passage about things outnumbering the hairs on my head. It gives me a chance to make light of it. I have never had a problem about being bald, so it doesn’t worry me when people make jokes about it. It is obviously something I cannot deny, so why should I? If people have a go at me, I can always point them to this passage and ask where they stand.
But that is the problem, isn’t it? Not having any hair doesn’t mean I don’t have any sin. Far from it! Even if it did, I am not totally hairless in the head region. I shave quite a bit of it off each day. My baldness is cosmetic.
But I do the same with my sin. I cosmetically hide it. But it’s still there – it’s just not easily seen. The bald truth is that God sees it. How would I feel if everyone could? How would I feel if everyone started to have a go at me about my sins?
As the Psalmist says, I have lost all courage – just thinking about it.