Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Rushing to Forgiveness


Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

The Lord performs righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are oppressed.
He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will he keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more,
And its place acknowledges it no longer.
But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
 on those who fear Him,
And his righteousness to children's children,
To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts to do them.

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,
And His sovereignty rules over all.
Bless the Lord, you His angels,
Mighty in strength, who perform His word
Obeying the voice of His word!
Bless the Lord, all you His hosts,
You who serve Him, doing His will.
Bless the Lord, all you works of His,
In all places of His dominion;
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
                  -Psalm 103 

'slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness,' or as another translation has it, 'abounding in mercy.' 

This morning I was reading in the book of Daniel where Daniel is praying for the congregation of Israel,

'And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame...'"

Daniel continues praying and while he was still speaking, Gabriel appeared.

Here is something that struck me about these two chapters in Daniel (9-10)

Gabriel told Daniel, 'At the BEGINNING of your supplications, the command was issued [to come to you]...'

And in chapter 10, Daniel has a vision and a man [the preincarnate Christ] tells him, 'Do not be afraid, Daniel, for FROM THE FIRST DAY that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard...'

'At the beginning...' and 'From the first day...'    

How eager is God to forgive!

'God is slow to anger and ABOUNDING IN MERCY.'

Unlike us, He is just. He does not overlook, tolerate, or trivialize sin.

But also unlike us, He doesn't withhold forgiveness when there has been repentance. He doesn't recount our sins to make us feel sufficiently guilty. 

Instead,

When we repent, He rushes to forgive us.



Photobucket

17 comments:

  1. Great post Judy :)
    Have a lovely Day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautifully said, Judy. Such a great reminder for me!

    Randi @ regalrhino.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderfully written, and so true.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful God we have!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. His lovingkindness NEVER ends....

    Great post, Judy....

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a wonderful post. Thank you, just what I needed to hear today.

    ReplyDelete
  7. In one of my very favorite movies, "Babette's Feast," there is the line "Mercy imposes no conditions." Yes, we need to offer regret, atone if we can. But no conditions are imposed upon us - as you say, no "I told you so"s, no bringing it up again, no expecting anyone to beg ... true mercy and grace.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wonderful Psalm!
    The sisters and I just finished a study in Daniel too. I love that part about Gabriel, such a blessing to be reminded that while we are praying God is sending his answer!! I hadn't realized what a prayer warrior Daniel was, such strong prayers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love that Psalm. Great post today. I just got your soap in the mail and will spend the rest of the afternoon sniffing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. We must be brave and speak up for the Lord in this day when Satan abounds so openly. Psalms are beautiful and say so much.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Amen. Love that Psalm and appreciate your thoughts. God's forgiveness is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am so glad God forgives better then me sometimes! I try. And how is your pooch? Love, sandie

    ReplyDelete
  13. Just goes to prove that God knows what we are going to ask for and his listening ear is always ready.

    ReplyDelete

Hi! And thanks for stopping in at Cranberry Morning. I love reading your comments and visiting your blogs. I am unable to respond to No-Reply bloggers, so please make sure to enable your email address on your blog. Also, many Google+ blogs don't allow me to comment because I'm not a member of Google+. So, I'm not deliberately avoiding you, but Google+ is not commenter friendly.