Repentance is turning from our sin to God. It's a simple, decisive act, and you can sense incredible relief in the psalmist's words. Augustine, in his Confessions tells of his conversion as he read Paul's words in Romans 13:13-14: 'All at once, as I came to the end of the sentence, my heart was filled with a sunshine of confidence, before which all my dark doubts fled away.' Psalm 32 was his favourite psalm, and he had it put on the wall over his bed.

No language has so many words for sin as the Hebrew, so sensitive was this people's relationship to their God. There are three words here, which mean 'wilful disobedience', 'missing the mark' and 'wrong-doing'. But there are also three words for forgiveness here: a burden is lifted away, God has cancelled a debt, the Divine Judge has put the sin out of His sight.

Forgiveness, in the Bible, is an event, not just an idea. In the forgiving transaction, something tangible happens. Our sins are 'blotted out', cast into the sea, though they are scarlet they become white as snow, removed as far as the east is from the west (an infinite distance, unlike northness and southness which are finite). When God forgives, something very real - eternally real - happens.

Lord, I accept your pledge that because you are faithful and just you will forgive my sins, and cleanse me from all righteousness. Amen.