Reading: The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22

The pleasures of sin cannot long content a child of God. God may permit His people to indulge the lusts of the flesh and fall into grievous sin, but He will not allow them to remain content and happy in such a case; rather, they are made to prove that “the way of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15).

The conscience of the righteous soon reasserts itself and makes its disconcerting voice heard. He may be yet far from true repentance, but he will soon experience deep remorse. Months may pass before he again enjoys communion with God, but self-disgust will quickly fill the soul. Proverbs 20:17: “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”

Even a palace can afford no relief to one who is filled with bitter remorse. David, in the comfort of the palace, was filled with remorse for a long time before he found repentance. Psalm 32:3–4 gives the same picture: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” Alexander Maclaren once pointed out,

David learned what we all learn, that every transgression is a blunder. That we never get the satisfaction which we expect from any sin, or if we do, we get something with it which spoils it all. A nauseas drug is added to the exciting, intoxicating drink which temptation offers, and though its flavor is at first disguised by the pleasanter taste of sin, its bitterness is persistent though slow, and clings to the palate long after that has faded away utterly.

Nobody buys a little passing pleasure in evil at so dear a price, or keeps it so short a time, as a good man.A. W. Pink