I spent some time reading more Psalms today. One was featured in Charles R. Swindoll’s Insight for Living devotional for the day…Psalm 103. Boy, this couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time for me.
In his writing, he encouraged his reader to allow this psalm to be the beginning of forgiveness in the reader’s heart. I can’t say what it did for any other reader, but for me, it made a huge difference. God lavishes us with His love, with His forgiveness, with His healing. Why would I think I have the right to withhold these things from anyone personally? I know how He’s forgiven me of my sins, and I am so grateful. He’s not only forgiven me, but He’s forgotten my sins against Him. After I confess them and repent of them, He remembers them no more. I’m thankful for that as well. I don’t live under condemnation any longer. Thank you, God!
As I work through this forgiveness thing, I’m reminded today that not only am I to forgive, I am to forget. That’s the next thing I’m praying for…for Jesus to help me forget. I’m feeling freer already.
A helpful tip in reading this psalm…insert the words me and my in place of you and your. It’ll become much more personal to you. It certainly did me. I pray you are touched by reading Psalm 103!
Psalm 103
A song of David.
1 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal
with all that is in me—body, emotions, mind, and will—every part of who I am—
praise His holy name.
2 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal;
sing a song from a grateful heart;
sing and never forget all the good He has done.
3 Despite all your many offenses, He forgives and releases you.
More than any doctor, He heals your diseases.
4 He reaches deep into the pit to deliver you from death.
He crowns you with unfailing love and compassion like a king.
5 When your soul is famished and withering,
He fills you with good and beautiful things, satisfying you as long as you live.
He makes you strong like an eagle, restoring your youth.
6 When people are crushed, wronged, enslaved, raped, murdered,
the Eternal is just;
He makes the wrongs right.
7 He showed Moses His ways;
He allowed His people Israel to see His wonders and acts of power.
8 The Eternal is compassionate and merciful.
When we cross all the lines, He is patient with us.
When we struggle against Him, He lovingly stays with us—changing, convicting, prodding;
9 He will not constantly criticize,
nor will He hold a grudge forever.
10 Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.
In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.
11 Measure how high heaven is above the earth;
God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.
12 You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.
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