Finished
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103:10 NASB
Has not dealt – The first thing to notice is that the subject/verb is not in the primary position in the text. What comes first is “not” (lo). This is crucial. There are two words for “no” or “not” in Hebrew. One is ‘al, the “not” of conditions. For example, “If you do not do XYZ, then this will result.” That “not” depends on something we do. But lo is the absolute “not.” “You will not bear false witness. You will not steal.” Unconditional. Never the case. Which one does David use to express God’s forbearance. Lo. God has never dealt with us according to our sins. What a relief!
The next word in the Hebrew text is not God as subject either. The next word is hataenu, “our sins.” What matters most is our sins! Those are the things that keep us from enjoying the company of the Father. If we can’t deal with these, then nothing else really matters. So the Hebrew text reads, “Not according to our sins He deals with us.” We may think that God judges us harshly now. We might squirm under His discipline and resist His chastisement, but He hasn’t given up on us yet. He hasn’t called us to account. He is still gracious, still waiting, still tolerant. Today is not Judgment Day!
We can only imagine what it would be like if YHVH actually dealt with us according to our sins. The Amalekites are an example. Sodom and Gomorrah come to mind. The Flood follows. Judgment Day. Ah, no one likes to think about it. We just push it off as though the mercy of the Lord will last forever. We all know that it won’t, but contemplating our situation on that Day is more than most of us can handle. David, a man who certainly knew the graciousness of YHVH and His chastisement, reminds himself and his readers that this is not that Day. How wonderful! How amazing! Not only has YHVH not initiated the judgment days we are acquainted with in human history, He has also (and most importantly) not brought us to judgment yet. He has not recompensed us according to what we deserve. He has not withdrawn from us because we first withdrew from Him. He is still anxious to welcome us back. David must have been thrilled to know that the God who created all there is and yet spent time with a shepherd is still the God of the king. In spite of all the deliberate rebellion, God still waits on David, still exhorts him to repent, still sends messengers of conviction, still is anxious to embrace him as in the former days.
Is that not true of us? Because God delays will we spurn His tolerance? Will we rebuff His courtship, disdain His affection? Delay is a two-edged sword. It can cause us to rejoice that a day of renewal has arrived once more, or it can cause us to act as if this day still doesn’t matter.
Topical Index: has not dealt, lo, hata, sin, judgment, Psalm 103:10
Powerful, powerful in pertinent exposition of this wonderful passage of Scripture. Oh that it would remind us to daily and humbly search our hearts for holiness before GOD.
In false religions, I have observed attempts to deal with guilt in various ways. Some of them try to ascribe natural disasters, illness, misfortune of all types, as divine anger retaliating against our rebellion or neglect, with appeasement being the proper response from us. Sin gets dealt with in the here and now. failing that, some of them attempt to get rid of guilt and account for sin by getting rid of the sinner, but in various creative ways. Some of them, such as the ascetics and gnostics, attempted to ascribe all sin to the material realm – to the body – and then proceed to castigate the body accordingly. Further to the East, people seemed to think that they should just leave that body behind altogether, and, with the reincarnation crowd, they figured it was probably safest to leave everything! With the pagans, you can find various flavors of deferment to the afterlife, with hell and purgatory being the proper places to deal with guilt, but I have noticed that most of them seem to think that guilt is an eternal fixed reality there – you never get off the divine hook.
The thought that God does not deal with us after our sins in this life stands almost alone in the Judeo-Christian world. I have noticed that parents tend to parent in a couple of different styles. The one is motivated by negative behavior in the child; they don’t tend to notice the child UNLESS the child is acting up, and then the noticing is a negative reaction, after the fact. The other style is to focus on obtaining correct behavior and reaching potential, with rules and rewards being the enforcing action taken; mostly proactive. One style rewards the past; the other runs on faith in the future. Guess which one has better results? I have noticed false religion assumes God must be some laissez faire parent, only motivated negatively after the fact. Interesting.
Heaven went to every extreme to get guilt off the table as a factor, that is obvious. Guilt must not be what heaven wanted as a focus. It seems to me that heaven is much more interested in positive results, and thus is much more oriented towards the rules-and- rewards plan with blessings being the coin of the realm, whether they are positive ones, that make life easier, or the negative ones – curses, that are designed to vilify, or lesson, the positive ones – that make life harder; neither of which are tied directly to our relative guilt. I am not cursed because I am bad, per se; I am cursed because I have chosen a path away from God, and He wants me to turn around. All guilt is about death. All of it. If I were to reap the consequences of no matter what choice against love, any and all of them would kill me. Instantly. I cannot survive without love! Forget ‘paying’ for that guilt!
No, He has obviously not been dealing with us after our sins, but when the day comes that He is going to agree with what we have already chosen, that agreement is going to be either the result of choosing life, which will be life, or choosing death, which is going to be death. Even the lake of fire is not about suffering divine wrath as much as it is about reaping what we have sown, or about calling in our bet. Moses pleaded with Israel, as his very last act, to choose wisely. All death is a consequence of a choice. Heaven is all about getting in between us and that choice. If we are wise, we would agree.