The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. ~ Psalm 103:8-13
I was reading a Facebook post thread recently - dangerous, I know.
The post was from one of the religious organizations that I follow and somehow the conversation in the comments turned into one on sin and repentance.
There was a lot of folks calling out the sins of certain groups of people. Telling them they needed to repent or God wouldn't forgive them.
There wasn't a lot of mercy talk. Not much grace or love talk.
We Christians sometimes think that the God of the Hebrew scriptures was always angry and wrathful.
The Psalmist sets us straight.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
Would that we also could be slow to anger.
Would that we also could resist accusations. (even in Facebook comments).
Would that we could be grateful that God isn't just being merciful to others' sins.
But merciful to ours as well.
Thank you for your mercy, Lord. Help me to be as merciful to my neighbor. Amen
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