I want to write about something that all of us need and that all of us need to not only receive but all of us need to give. This is something that the Bible talks about that is a quality of a God. What we are talking about is a quality that we need to have in our life. That quality is forgiveness. Let’s consider Psalm 103
“Praise the Lord, o my soul, all my inmost being praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, Oh my soul and forget not all his benefits”
Next, the Psalmist is going to list out a number of benefits as he’s thinking about how grateful he is for God. And he starts out with forgiveness.
“Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. He satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s”
Now you might wonder what is it mean to have your youth renewed like an eagle. This is referring to the molting process. When an eagle goes through it he goes from being sort of a majestic beautiful bird to significantly ugly. When you see a bird molting you might say, “Oh, what is wrong with that bird?” Then as the process continues you see the eagle looking unbelievably majestic and beautiful again. So he’s using an analogy there to try to bring about those thoughts.
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor he will harbor his anger forever, he does not treat us as our sins deserve. Or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord’s love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children’s children – with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”
This passage says that as far as the east is from the west so far is he removed our sins from us. So, the Lord is like a compassionate father, a parent looking on their child with love and tenderness. Perhaps the parent gets annoyed that their child did something wrong. Every parent can understand that. As much as you love your children there are times that they can annoy you significantly with things that they do. You walk into a room that you just cleaned. You look around and you say to yourself, “Oh my word, what happened?” And there’s little junior is sitting right in the middle of the room. You say to yourself, “You little rat, how could you undo everything that I just did?”
On the other hand, the Scripture says that God is compassionate and that he cares. He wants to forgive us of our sins. God may look on you he may think to himself, “I wish they get their act together. I wish they didn’t do so many things that I would need to forgive them for. But I want to forgive them and I want to take away their sin.” Let’s celebrate God’s forgiveness.
