It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Monday, January 4, 2016

The Lord is merciful and gracious, a Reflection on Psalm 103:8-13

Are we comforted or irritated by the assertion in Psalm 103 that God does not deal with us according to our sins, does not repay us for our iniquities?

God loves us. God loves us even when we don't deserve being loved. We tend to think of who we call the Old Testament God as harshly punishing wrongdoers, but as the commentary provided by The New Interpreters' Bible points out "The psalmist knows better."

God is merciful to us, granting us grace. God is slow to anger but doesn't hold on to that anger. We don't get what we deserve; that is, God doesn't repay us according to our sins.

God's love is too big to be measured by any terms that we humans can come up with. God's steadfast love is greater than the distance from heaven to earth.

And God can make us worthy of that love. "As far as the east is from the west, so far the Lord removes our transgressions from us."

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