Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west,
                       so far has he removed our wrongdoing from us

    I believe I was in the fourth grade when I learned about the North and South poles. I remember learning that if I were to start walking north eventually I would arrive at the North Pole, but if I continued and took one more step in the same direction, I would immediately begin going south. I was intrigued that, without an about face, my direction could change. 

    In today’s passage, and the Psalm from which it is taken, we read of the great unfathomable goodness of God. It is a little ironic because just this morning I did something I really shouldn’t do: I looked at Facebook before spending time with God. While there I saw a ‘dis-cussion’ regarding God and some person had Him all sized up. And it was not Good! He had become judge, jury, and executioner and God was the defendant. According to this sage, God was guilty of all sorts of terrible things. Obviously unforgivable things. But then I turned to this Psalm and got a different picture. 

    Here is a picture of a God that clearly knows that we have not always done what was right. In fact, He knows that we have fallen far short of that. But according to this Psalm, He is not out to get us, looking down for an opportune time to punish and harm. He is looking to forgive us and heal us! That doesn’t sound anything at all like the view of God I read about earlier on Facebook! 

    In reality, God knows (and we do too, if we’re being honest with ourselves) that we have broken His laws, even if only in our heart. He is a holy God. We are an unholy people. He would be justified to eliminate us as a failed experiment and begin again. But instead He chooses to forgive us when we come to Him! More than that, He chooses to forget what we’ve done. 

    I don’t know about you, but sometimes there have been times when someone offended me. They just did me wrong. I forgave them (with God’s help). But then walking along through life, though I left that behind me, I come upon it again. I thought I was heading north, but suddenly it was as though I turned south! I had forgiven, but I can’t always forget, though I try. 

    But God forgives my wrongdoing from me and He separates me from it as far as the east is from the west. Not, thank God, as far as the north is from the south! With Him, it’s forgiven and forgotten! 

    He isn’t an angry, vengeful God just waiting for me to mess up. He is a kind, loving heavenly Father waiting for an opportunity to forgive!

    

Blessings,     

rb