Our Sin Stinks

“For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.” (Ps 38:4-5)

When David says his sins are over his head, what he meant is that they are too numerous for him to count; they were like grains of sand on a beach or stars in the sky. Elsewhere David would write, “For innumerable evils have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me” (Ps 40:12).

God’s wrath seemed too heavy for David and when you understand what God is capable of – He is capable of anything and everything – your sins will seem to be numerous, endless and overwhelming.

David even adds they seem to be “foul and festering,” which are the strongest Hebrew words for “bad smells.” In other words, our sins stink and the smell is getting worse.  

There are a lot of bad smells in this world (e.g., skunks, animal feces, body odor, vomit, etc.). Scientists have actually done studies to determine the world’s worst smell and have discovered the worst smell is a chemical called isonitriles. In fact, one scientist called is “the Godzilla of smells.” There is no way to describe the smell, but scientists explain that over 90% of people can smell this chemical compound and will immediately vomit as a result of it’s stench. In fact, there is even a patent for them to be used as nonlethal weapons!

There is something that smells far worse to God. As bad as this chemical compound smells, David is saying his sin has the worst of stenches.

It was Alexander Maclaren, the Scottish preacher from the 19^th century, who described sin as “linked together in a slimy tangle like a field of seaweed so that a man once caught in its oozy fingers is almost sure to drown.”

And this why we need the cross and empty tomb – to remove the stink of eternal death and bring on the aroma of eternal life.