Hi, Friend!

We didn’t make it through verse 14 yesterday, did we?

That’s ok. We’ll get there today. Let’s start today as we did yesterday, by rereading the full psalm, and, when you reach verses 11 through 14, take note of the comparisons that are being made through the words “as” and “so” and of who benefits from each the comparisons.

The Forgiving God
Of David.

1 My soul, bless the Lord,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 My soul, bless the Lord,
and do not forget all his benefits.

3He forgives all your iniquity;
he heals all your diseases.
4 He redeems your life from the Pit;
he crowns you with faithful love and compassion.
5 He satisfies you with good things;
your youth is renewed like the eagle.

6 The Lord executes acts of righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He revealed his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.
9 He will not always accuse us
or be angry forever.
10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve
or repaid us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his faithful love
toward those who fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
14 For he knows what we are made of,
remembering that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass—
he blooms like a flower of the field;
16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes,
and its place is no longer known.
17 But from eternity to eternity
the Lord’s faithful love is toward those who fear him,
and his righteousness toward the grandchildren
18 of those who keep his covenant,
who remember to observe his precepts.
19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Bless the Lord,
all his angels of great strength,
who do his word,
obedient to his command.
21 Bless the Lord, all his armies,
his servants who do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works
in all the places where he rules.
My soul, bless the Lord!

If you’ve been with me in Psalm 103 since last week, you’ll recall that we opened our discussion of the psalm by gaining a common understanding of the word blessing as a praise or a way of honoring someone; sometimes blessing involves kneeling down before someone. We discussed how David, the psalmist here, was addressing this psalm to his own soul, a kind of soul pep talk perhaps. Through our examination of verses 3 through 10, we studied several aspects of God’s holy character and examples of His loving kindness that David shares for why his soul, and our souls, should bless the Lord. I’d like to revisit the idea of blessing God as we continue looking at verses 11 through 14.

Consider reading verse 1 and verse 12 together. Like this:

My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name BECAUSE as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Now, I’ve already shared that visual spatial reasoning is not my strong suit. Having lived most of my life in Appalachia, I can more accurately tell you how long it will take you to get somewhere than I can tell you how far it is between one place and another.

But, one thing even I understand about distance, is that the more you go west, the further west you can still go, and the same goes for going east; you can go east for days and still have more east ahead of you.

And isn’t is so cool that God designed Earth in this way!?

I mean, think about that in terms of verse 12 – God has removed our transgressions, our sin, our missteps in following His way, as far from us as the east is from the west. Given that you can never actually reach “the west” or “the east” because you can just keep walking/swimming and finding more to the west or more to the east of you, this means that our sin, has been completely and totally removed, never to return.

Praise God, who the Son sets free is free indeed! (John 8:36)

Even though he wrote this psalm centuries before the birth of Christ, David understood that God’s forgiveness was permanent and perfect. After all, David made some transgressions in his walk with the Lord. Remember that whole having an affair with Bathsheba and then setting her husband up to be killed in battle because David got her pregnant thing?

There’s a psalm related to that actually; it’s Psalm 51, a psalm of repentance.

I’m sure we’ll study it in time, but for now, I’d like to use it as a reference point because – and this is so beautiful about our God – after David repented, God never brought it up again.

Nope. You don’t see anywhere in the Bible where God comes back years later through a prophet or otherwise to say, “Hey David, you know that whole adultery, murder thing? Yeah, I’d like to hash that out again.” It simply doesn’t happen.

Why not?

Because David asked for forgiveness and God gave it. Then, he removed David’s sin from him as far as the east is from the west.

And friend, He does the same for you and for me, for whosoever believes on Jesus Christ as their Savior will be forgiven of their sin; they will be washed as white as snow (Ephesians 1:7-8; Psalm 51:7).

Why does He forgive us so completely?

Because of His great compassion for those who fear Him (Remember yesterday’s post: God desires our loving awe, not our fear.)!

Because He made us, He knows what we are made of, and He knows how temporary our earthly lives are compared to our eternal lives (we are but dust)!

Our God knows we cannot bear the weight of our sin and He knows we cannot save ourselves because of our sin.

My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name BECAUSE as far as the east is from the west, through Jesus Christ, He has he removed my transgressions completely from me!

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References for the study of the word “bless” in Psalm 103:

Blue Letter Bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h1288/kjv/wlc/0-5/#lexResults

Holman KJV Study Bible. 2012. Holman Bible Publishers. Nashville, TN.